"In The Dean of Shandong , Daniel Bell takes us where few Westerners have gone--into the faculty lounge, teaching rooms, and party meetings of a Chinese university in the era of Xi Jinping. Think Lucky Jim meets Brave New World : Bell's account of life as a senior Western academic in a Chinese university is by turns humane, disturbing, hilarious--and always eye-opening."-- Rana Mitter, author of Forgotten Ally: China's World War II, 1937-1945 "Daniel Bell is wry, informed, open-minded, and enlightening in his look at Chinese bureaucracy from his years on the inside. Everyone interested in China will find new insights in this terse, funny book."-- James Fallows, author of China Airborne "A leading interpreter of the Confucian tradition, Daniel Bell takes us into the citadel of contemporary Chinese higher education. Honest and wise, entertaining and witty, he tells the story of an illustrious scholarly life that began in French Canada and Oxford and led to the deanship at Shandong University, one of the most prestigious in China. The personal narrative sparkles, but Bell also analyzes with great clarity and insight the many challenges as well as promises facing China and Chinese intellectuals in the unfolding twenty-first century."-- Anna Sun, author of Confucianism as a World Religion: Contested Histories and Contemporary Realities "If you think a book about a 'minor educational bureaucrat' in provincial China must be dull, think again.

This is a sparkling, compulsively readable book about how an Oxford-educated Canadian political scientist became the leading theorist of political Confucianism in China. Bell's story is charming and filled with self-deprecating humor, but it is also remarkably courageous, given the current climate. It will leave you with a sense that you understand the Chinese and the Chinese system much better than you did before."-- James Hankins, author of Virtue Politics: Soulcraft and Statecraft in Renaissance Italy "Bell offers a fascinating glimpse into the workings of a Chinese university as both an insider (a dean) and an outsider (a Canadian). Along the way he treats, with a light hand, the cultural and philosophical underpinnings of contemporary China. This is a book anyone interested in that country will enjoy."-- Shadi Bartsch, author of Plato Goes to China: The Greek Classics and Chinese Nationalism "Daniel Bell has rightly earned a reputation as the dean--both literally and figuratively--of Confucian studies. But even more important is his cosmopolitan and communitarian spirit, a compelling worldview that makes him a true bridge between East and West.

The wisdom of this book--as with all of Bell's writing--is both novel and universal."-- Parag Khanna, author of The Future is Asian.