Foreword by the Incoming Editor

This issue heralds another changing of the editorial guard at The China Quarterly.Inhis six years at the helm, Rick Edmonds has done a sterling job of keeping up the scholarly standards of The China Quarterly and has seen the journal through increasingly interesting times: the institutional retrenchments that have hit academic publishing across the board, the switch from Oxford University Press to Cambridge University Press in 2001, and an increasing diversity and volume of submissions. Rick deserves a great deal of credit for all that he has given and done for the journal over the past six years, and I would like to open my statement with an enormous “thank you” to Rick. As incoming editor, I have particular reason to be grateful to both Rick and his editorial predecessors for the continuity and high standards that they have been so successful in establishing and maintaining over a very long run. In strictly practical terms, it doesn’t get much better than this for incoming editors. Despite the increasingly competitive environment for academic publishing, The China Quarterly benefits from very positive forms of institutional continuity. The China Quarterly is widely recog- nized as the premier journal on contemporary greater China, and this has been the case for over four decades. In London, The China Quarterly has had a well-established institutional home in the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, which has been involved with the publication of the journal since 1968. It has a supportive and collegially minded Executive Board. Professor Robert Ash has been compiling the “Quarterly Chronicle and Documentation” for the past 20 years. It has extraordinarily dedicated and competent in-house editorial support in Joanne Phillips and Rowan Pease; and The China Quarterly’s working relationship with our publishers at Cambridge University Press is extremely good. In keeping with its international profile, The China Quarterly has a large and committed editorial board, with members around the globe whose own work is at the cutting edge of China studies. It is my intention to build upon those historic strengths while remain- ing attuned to changing times and trends in scholarship. The core of The China Quarterly will continue to be high quality, original research on contemporary China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, but in line with previous editorial policy, the journal will continue to be receptive to submissions that encompass the 1911–1949 period, particularly if they have applicability to more contemporary realities. The China Quarterly will continue to supplement articles with research reports and occasional review essays and translations, and will plan for one special issue per year. Upcoming special issues already planned include an issue on Religion in China Today (to be published in 2003) and another on China’s Opening Up the West Policy (for 2004). This said, even a journal as well established – venerable even – as The China Quarterly needs to move with the times. There are fundamental changes underway that have a profound long-term impact on an area studies journal such as The China Quarterly. First, is generational  The China Quarterly, 2002 836 The China Quarterly

change: a younger generation of scholars has work that is increasingly discipline driven. Secondly, is the geographical dispersal of scholarship on China; in addition to the long-established centres and programmes of North America, Western Europe, and Australia, an ever-increasing output of excellent scholarship is being generated in Greater China and other countries in North-East and South-East Asia. It is my intention to adapt to these changes as constructively as possible while still maintaining the solid scholarly standards and historic mission of The China Quarterly. I look forward to making the most out of adapting to these changes in three ways. First, The China Quarterly will directly encourage the submission of discipline-driven research on China that is reshaped to be accessible and relevant to area-based generalists. Secondly, I hope to further enhance the internationalism of the journal by continuing to include top quality research, book reviews and articles from scholars who are based outside North America and Western Europe. Thirdly, I would like to widen the current base of submissions to include work on contemporary arts, music, culture, literature and gender studies that is still relevant and accessible to the more traditionally social science oriented of The China Quarterly’s multiple audiences. This is a golden age for scholarship on Greater China. The times are indeed interesting and, as China becomes more open, Taiwan continues to evolve politically, and scholarship on China becomes more diverse and sophisticated, The China Quarterly will both reflect and be part of these positive changes.

JULIA STRAUSS