“Hevia has written a very important book on a critical moment in the history of the Sino-British encounter. . . . [This] is an exciting and important contribution to Chinese and cross-cultural study.” — Kai-Wing Chow, American Historical Review
“James Hevia’s fine book shows what revisionism, executed properly, can achieve. . . . Hevia approaches [his] topic from refreshingly innovative angles and, in so doing, provides fodder for thought in several important areas, including the British and Chinese styles of Imperial formation and the traditional Chinese rulership and statecraft.” — John Lee , Canadian Journal of History
“Persuasively argued and beautifully written, Cherishing Men from Afar adds a new level of subtlety to the discussion of imperial China’s foreign relations. . . . Hevia sheds new light on the complex dynamics within and between the Manchu and English courts.” — Nancy Park, The Historian
"Cherishing Men From Afar, extremely impressive in its marshalling of basic Qing material, accomplishes something quite remarkable: the product of a postmodern critical sensibility, it will also satisfy the most traditional of scholars on sinological grounds." — William T. Rowe, Johns Hopkins University
"James Hevia persuasively suggests a whole new way of viewing not just the Macartney embassy but the entire subject of Sino-Western interaction from the eighteenth century to the present. Cherishing Men from Afar deserves to be read by the widest spectrum of historians." — Paul A. Cohen, John King Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, Harvard University