????我的第一次中國(guó)之行是在2007年春天。當(dāng)時(shí),，我正在報(bào)道邁克爾?戴爾的一次訪(fǎng)華行程,。他定期都會(huì)前往他全球電腦帝國(guó)的這個(gè)遙遠(yuǎn)地區(qū)。我下榻上海四季酒店（Shanghai Four Seasons）,，當(dāng)晚在頂層的酒吧里喝了杯酒,，一邊俯看周?chē)鸁艄饨k麗多彩的摩天大樓，一邊傾聽(tīng)一支中國(guó)搖滾翻唱樂(lè)隊(duì)的演奏,。第二天早晨，我和戴爾上了輛豪華轎車(chē),，前往戴爾公司（Dell）中國(guó)總部參加公司全體會(huì)議,。本來(lái)需要半小時(shí)的行程只花了10分鐘，這得感謝警車(chē)的鳴笛護(hù)送和不怕跨過(guò)道路中線(xiàn)的司機(jī),。

????那段行駛路程最令我吃驚,，因?yàn)檫@個(gè)人民共和國(guó)的車(chē)流竟然為了一位財(cái)富500強(qiáng)CEO而讓道。好吧,，這是我的第一次中國(guó)之行,，我哪知道還有這種事？

????當(dāng)然,，在21世紀(jì)頭十年,，我早就該知道才對(duì)。但30位先驅(qū)們不可能早就知道?，F(xiàn)在,，他們的筆觸生動(dòng)、富于揭示性的散文已經(jīng)結(jié)集成冊(cè),，匯編成《我的第一次中國(guó)之行：學(xué)者,、外交官和記者回憶他們與中國(guó)的首次相遇》（My First Trip to China: Scholars, Diplomats, and Journalists Reflect on their First Encounters with China）,。這本書(shū)的編輯是劉建民（音譯），書(shū)中記述的最早中國(guó)之行發(fā)生在1942年抗日戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)時(shí)期,，最晚是1986年,，但所有行程都發(fā)生在中國(guó)成為全球經(jīng)濟(jì)大國(guó)之前。

????這本書(shū)的撰稿人包括：洛伊斯?惠勒?斯諾,，她是《紅星照耀中國(guó)》（Red Star Over China）的作者埃德加?斯諾的遺孀,，1970年首次到訪(fǎng)中國(guó),；西德尼?里頓伯格（1945年），這位美國(guó)人曾加入中國(guó)共產(chǎn)黨,，在中國(guó)呆了35年,，其中16年都是在監(jiān)獄中度過(guò)；哈佛大學(xué)（Harvard）學(xué)者埃茲拉?沃格爾（1973年）,。此外還有幾位商界人士,，例如香港“中國(guó)會(huì)”（China Club）創(chuàng)始人鄧永鏘（1979年）和《財(cái)富》（中文版）董事長(zhǎng)高德思（1975年）。

????有些話(huà)題頻繁出現(xiàn),，比如：對(duì)工業(yè)化之前中國(guó)自然美景的贊美,；對(duì)中國(guó)人民的喜愛(ài),；對(duì)中國(guó)社會(huì)和經(jīng)濟(jì)迅猛發(fā)展的敬畏,。但把這些引人入勝的故事串起來(lái)的，不是他們?cè)诘诌_(dá)中國(guó)時(shí)發(fā)現(xiàn)了什么,，而是他們帶來(lái)了什么,。不管怎么說(shuō)，這些故事都是關(guān)于中國(guó)的純真,、中國(guó)的失落以及后來(lái)之事,。

????經(jīng)驗(yàn)豐富的中國(guó)通奧維爾?斯切爾在引言中寫(xiě)到，“當(dāng)時(shí),，我們星球上最后一塊未經(jīng)探索的區(qū)域正在消失,，沒(méi)有為我們留下慣常所見(jiàn)的那種混雜著新奇與冒險(xiǎn)的產(chǎn)物”。此時(shí),，冷戰(zhàn)“意外地成為了新的禁地替代形式”,，其中最吸引人的莫過(guò)于毛澤東時(shí)代的中國(guó)。

????My first trip to China was in the spring of 2007. I was covering Michael Dell on one of his periodic expeditions to the far reaches of his global computer empire. I stayed at the Shanghai Four Seasons, where I had a drink that night in the top-floor bar overlooking colorfully lit skyscrapers and listening to a Chinese rock-and-roll cover band. The next morning I got into a limousine with Dell, and we rode across town to a company-wide rally at Dell's (DELL) China headquarters. What should have been a half-hour trip took 10 minutes, thanks to a honking police escort and a driver unafraid to cross the centerline.

????It was that limo ride that surprised me the most, the way the traffic parted in the People's Republic for the benefit of a Fortune 500 CEO. Well, it was my first trip, how was I supposed to know?

????By the first decade of the 21st century, of course, I should have known. Not so the 30 pioneers whose vivid and revealing essays appear in My First Trip to China: Scholars, Diplomats, and Journalists Reflect on their First Encounters with China, edited by Kin-ming Liu. The earliest visit recounted here took place in 1942, during the Japanese occupation; the latest, in 1986. All took place in the years before China's sprint to the top of the global economy.

????Contributors include Lois Wheeler Snow, widow of Edgar Snow, author of Red Star Over China, whose first visit was in 1970; Sidney Rittenberg (1945), an American who joined the Chinese Communist Party and spent 16 of his 35 years in China in prison; Harvard scholar Ezra Vogel (1973); and a smattering of business types, including David Tang (1979), owner of Hong Kong's China Club, and Fortune's own Tom Gorman (1975), publisher of Fortune China.

????Certain themes abound: appreciation of China's pre-industrial natural beauty; affection for its people; and awe at the distance travelled on the country's path to social and economic development. But what binds these compelling stories is not what the visitors found when they arrived; it's what they brought with them. In one way or another, they're all stories about innocence, its loss, and what comes after.

????"Just as the last geographically unexplored pockets of our planet were vanishing and leaving us without our accustomed fix of exotica and romance," veteran China hand Orville Schell writes in his introduction, the Cold War served up "a surprising new surrogate form of the forbidden," no part of it more alluring than Mao's China.