Kerry Brown is a Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College London. He has worked on China for more than three decades, beginning his career as a British diplomat in Beijing before becoming one of the world’s foremost and prolific sinologists.

Kerry Brown is a Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College London. He has worked on China for more than three decades, beginning his career as a British diplomat in Beijing before becoming one of the world’s foremost and prolific sinologists.

Kerry first travelled to China in 1994. Since then, the Middle Kingdom has transformed from ‘backwater’ to ‘emergent superpower’, eliciting fanfare, global scrutiny and a tidal wave of think-pieces attempting to analyse this mighty yet opaque power. 'China in Five Cities' offers a light alternative to the bluster, drawing on wit, allusion and anecdotes of adventure to render the People’s Republic ‘knowable’ to Western readers, and in so doing, humanise its monumental ascent.