The China Question

Ho-fung Hung's The China Question traces Western representations of China across eight centuries, showing how fantasies of superiority and fears of threat have alternately shaped policy and public opinion.

Drawing on intellectual history and political economy, Hung argues that simplistic idealization is not the remedy for racist or contemptuous portrayals; both stem from reductionist thinking.

He examines how changing geopolitical and domestic interests in Western countries and China's own self-presentation have co-produced Orientalist knowledge.

The book emphasizes the importance of deorientalized, nuanced scholarship rooted in open debate to counter polarizing myths.

Hung also situates contemporary discussions—about lending, governance, and COVID responses—within long-term patterns of fantasy and fear.