The Transpacific Experiment: How China and California Collaborate and Compete for Our Future is a 2019 non-fiction book by Matt Sheehan. It examines the commercial relationship between China and the U.S. state of California.
Sheehan originated from Palo Alto, California, [1] and was educated in California. He lived in China for five years. At the time of publication Sheehan was working for a California think tank. [2]
Randall Stross, a professor at San Jose State University, stated in the Wall Street Journal that "The author narrowly focuses only on China and the state of California" and that it is mostly made up of vignettes featuring different unconnected persons. [2]
A portion of the book discusses how major internet corporations emerged in China despite the existence of the Great Leap Forward. [2] Other sections include one about the Hengdian (横店镇) settlement in Dongyang, Zhejiang, a center for the Chinese film industry, as well as initiatives of the mayor of a California city trying to get a factory from a Chinese company, [1] and one on Chinese American Donald Trump supporters. [2]
According to Stross, while Sheehan refers to certain sources, the book lacks citations. [2]
Sam Davies of The World of Chinese wrote that the author "suggests the dynamics of engagement between California and China are shifting as Chinese become richer and more confident. Both sides have become more pragmatic and, more recently, guarded." [1] Davies stated that Sheehan "takes pains to provide both sides of the story." [1]
Overall Stross believed that while it was urgent for a work that examines the relationship between China and the United States, the book "does not uncover enough good stories, nor spend enough time with its subjects, to realize that promise." [2] Stross, citing the portion of the book discussing Hengdian, wrote that "Some anecdotes in the book are entertaining in themselves." [2]
Davies stated that the book's main "oversight" is the "lack of any prescriptions, or even general principles on how to encourage more of the positive engagement he describes". [1] Davies added that the author's has a major strength in "identifying the big problems" and sometimes also in "digging into the finer details" and that "The book is strongest when Sheehan spends more time with individual characters and their stories." [1]
Kirkus Reviews stated that the book is "Timely reading in an era of looming trade wars and the decline of American economic supremacy. " [3]
Willow Bay is an American television journalist, editor, author, and former model. In 2017, she became dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism having earlier served as director of USC Annenberg School of Journalism. She was previously a senior editor for the Huffington Post and a special correspondent for Bloomberg Television.
The USC Center on Public Diplomacy (CPD) was established in 2003 as a partnership between the USC Annenberg School for Communication and the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences' School of International Relations at the University of Southern California. It is a research, analysis and professional education organization dedicated to furthering the study and practice of global public engagement and cultural relations.
The USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism comprises a School of Communication and a School of Journalism at the University of Southern California (USC). Starting July 2017, the school’s Dean is Willow Bay, succeeding Ernest J. Wilson III. The graduate program in Communications is consistently ranked first according to the QS World University Rankings.
The Annenberg School for Communication is the communication school at the University of Pennsylvania. The school was established in 1958 by Wharton School alum Walter Annenberg as the Annenberg School of Communications. The name was changed to its current title in 1990.
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The academics of the University of Southern California center on The College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, the Graduate School, and its 17 professional schools.
Douglas Thomas is an American scholar, researcher, and journalist. He is Associate Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California where he studies technology, communication, and culture. He is author or editor of numerous books including Reading Nietzsche Rhetorically, Cybercrime: Security and Surveillance in the Information Age, Hacker Culture, and Technological Visions: The Hopes and Fears that Shape New Technologies. He has published numerous articles in academic journals and is the founding editor of Games and Culture: A Journal of Interactive Media.
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