I get a lot of press releases, PR invitations, and general urgings to do reviews on books and TV shows with China themes. Fair enough, and I’m flattered to an extent that anyone out there (even a PR firm) thinks that my opinion of a book written by a bona fide China expert is worth anything.

All that being said, and for the benefit of all those PR folks out there, please remember that I do not live/work in Manhattan and do not have access to everything that you do. Asking for my thoughts on a TV show airing on, for example, NBC, is probably not a good idea since I cannot access NBC over here in China. If you want to send me a DVD, that’s fine, but asking me to review an entire show based on a two-minute video clip is not cool. One example - that Ted Koppel China series on Discover? I still haven’t gotten access to it.

As for books about China, some of them are never sold over here in the first place (political reasons), so that makes it difficult. Additionally, since every expat, journalist and consultant in China has written a book, there are a lot floating around out there. I’m not going to buy all of them, so if my opinion is really important, send me a copy!