Discovering China in Washington's used bookstores

Used bookstores in Washington are a treasure trove for books on China as I have discovered over the past few years. One book caught my attention as I dropped by the Second Story Books on P Street near Dupont Circle recently: Assignment China by Julian Schuman, published in 1956.

Schuman, a veteran journalist, first visited China in 1947 to work for The China Press, ABC and then China Weekly Review, along with well-known journalist Bill Powell. Both were persecuted during the McCarthy era after returning to the United States.

Much later Schuman joined China Daily and was on the founding team of the newspaper before it was officially launched on June 1, 1981. As a young reporter working briefly at China Daily's Beijing headquarters in the late 1980s, I never got a chance to talk to Schuman, but saw him working, should I say diligently, on the sports desk.