The United States and China are today at a crossroads. Will these great countries be enemies, or will they be engaged with each other? Mary Brown Bullock explores this question through the highs and lows of her yearly China travel for nearly five decades.

Using vivid diary and letter records, her memoir describes being a missionary kid in Asia, studying China from afar, leading the first exchanges of students, being a college president, and establishing an American university in China. Bullock, an optimist and long-term participant, concludes with today's uncertainty as Duke University, Ford Foundation, China Medical Board, United Board and National Committee on US-China Relations, and others face a new era of relations with China.