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B6 COVER STORY
Sunday 25 November 2012 Shanghai Daily

On a mission to explain ‘real’ China

[Image: Photo of Robert Lawrence Kuhn]

[Image: Book cover 'How China's Leaders Think']
[Image: Book cover 'The Man Who Changed China']

Lu Feiran

China expert and American public intellectual, Robert Lawrence Kuhn is best known in China for two books about Chinese leaders and their views, including a biography of former President Jiang Zemin in 2005 and one about other leaders and their thinking in 2009.

Kuhn, also an investment banker, business consultant, brain scientist and philosopher, has been granted unprecedented access to Chinese leaders, though he does not speak Chinese.

His biography “The Man Who Changed China: The Life and Legacy of Jiang Zemin” published in both Chinese and English, was a best-seller in China where readers are not accustomed to humanized biographies of leaders.
It was probably the first biography written by a foreigner about a living Chinese leader that was published in China.

Kuhn has also produced documentaries on China, written extensively for Chinese media and is often quoted by western media. He is a contributor and consultant to CCTV, some Chinese newspapers and the Xinhua News Agency.

Kuhn sees his mission as telling the world about the real China.
He was in Shanghai late last month for an International Channel Shanghai (ICS) program he co-produced and wrote about China’s challenges, in conjunction with the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. He held a press conference and also spoke with Shanghai Daily.

Chinese media sometimes accuse some Westerners and Western media of China bashing, saying they misunderstand or are even malevolent.
But 68-year-old Kuhn, a New York, is believed to have a more neutral view for China. He received a bachelor’s degree in human biology from Johns Hopkins University, a master’s of science in management from the MIT Sloan School of Management, and a PhD in anatomy and brain research from UCLA.

His books were published by the Shanghai Translation Publishing House and Shanghai Century Publishing Group.
Kuhn said he “never tried to please the Chinese government, though Western media thought I did.”
“I like feedback, including negative feedback, because I know that people are engaged,” he told Shanghai Daily.
“I don’t try to make anybody happy, but I just want to tell the truth. I can be wrong, and maybe my truth is not balanced.”

Kuhn’s experience with China started in 1989, when he was invited by former State Councilor Song Jian, director of the State Science and Technology Commission.
The two became friends and Kuhn began traveling between the US and China, getting to know government officials and ordinary people.
Kuhn said he felt frustrated because his experience in China differed from the description in much of the Western media. “Then they only focused on the negative side and ignored the rest,” he said.
That disparity inspired him to write Jiang’s biography, he said. Jiang himself said that Kuhn didn’t “beautify” him and got his wedding date wrong.

Kuhn spent four years writing “The Man Who Changed China.” Though he had only met Jiang three times and did not interview him for the book, he talked to many people close to Jiang, including relatives, friends and colleagues, gathering stories and perceptions. He became close to many of them.
“I thought I had been rather familiar with China before I started working on the book,” said Kuhn. “But after I started collecting the information, I found that my knowledge was very limited.”

Humanized leader
Kuhn said he was determined to depict a real, animated Jiang, different from the seemingly impassive figure appearing on state occasions, on Chinese TV and in newspapers.
“For a very long time, Chinese leaders were either described as God or the Devil, but never in-between,” he said. “So I expected to display a Chinese leader who is a human being.”

Soon after publication, it became a best-seller in China. After Kuhn held a book-signing in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, more than 300 books were sold in an hour. In Shanghai, more than a million copies were sold in 2005, the highest in the social science category.
Chinese readers called the book refreshing because it told daily life stories and described Jiang’s youth.
One Internet user called “Burn the scarecrow” said before reading the biography, he thought Jiang was “a quiet man standing high above the masses.”
“But after reading the book, my first feeling was that he was once young like us and he is also an ordinary man.”
The English version, however, received some criticism, primarily that Kuhn was “fawning” over Jiang and the government. Kuhn denied that.
“In fact, the book had a disclaimer, saying all

Above: “How China’s Leaders Think”
Right: “The Man Who Changed China: The Life and Legacy of Jiang Zemin”

[Pull Quote]
I don’t try to make anybody happy, but I just want to tell the truth. I can be wrong, and maybe my truth is not balanced.

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