Barnett, Robert J. 1953–

PERSONAL:

Born 1953. Education: University of Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, B.A., 1975, M.A., 1977, Ph.D., 2003.

ADDRESSES:

Office— Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University, 420 W. 118th St., 9th Fl., New York, NY 10027. E-mail— rjb58@columbia.edu.

CAREER:

Writer. Tibet Information Network, London, England, director/editor, 1987-98; British Broadcasting Corporation, World Service, London, expert commentator/consultant, 1989-98;South China Morning Post, Hong Kong and London, reporter, 1992-97; Columbia University, New York, NY, adjunct research scholar, 1999-2000, adjunct research scholar in modern Tibetan studies, 2000-01, Modern Tibetan Studies Program Coordinator, 2000—, lecturer in Tibetan studies and international and public affairs, 2002—, associate research scholar, adjunct professor, and director of Modern Tibetan Studies program, 2006—; University of Tibet, Lhasa, adjunct lecturer, fall, 2001. Consultancies including French National Centre for Defense Forecasting, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Radio Free Asia, and Voice of America.

WRITINGS:

(Coauthor)Political Prisoners in Tibet, Asiawatch/Tibetan Information Network (New York, NY), 1992.

(Editor and conriutor)Resistance and Reform in Tibet, University of Indiana (Indianapolis, IN), 1994.

(Coauthor)Cutting Off the Serpent's Head: Tightening Control in Tibet, 1994-95, Tibetan Information Network/Human Rights Watch (London, England), 1996.

(Coauthor)Leaders in Tibet: A Directory, Tibetan Information Network (London, England), 1997.

(Editor)A Poisoned Arrow: The Secret Petition of the 10th Panchen Lama, Tibetan Information Network (London, England), 1998.

The Tibetans: A Struggle to Survive, photographs by Steve Lehman, Umbrage/Twin Palms, 1998.

The Illegible City: Stories Told by the Streets of Lhasa, CDA (Milan, Italy), 1999.

(English editor, with Lhakpa Tseten)White Crane: A Concise Commentary Clarifying "The Wishing Tree" of Tibetan Grammar, Tibet Nationalities Publishing House, 2002.

Lhasa: Streets with Memories, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals, including the Far Eastern Economic Review, Independent, Guardian, Tablet, Hong Kong Standard, and the South China Morning Post.

SIDELIGHTS:

British author Robert J. Barnett was educated at Corpus Christi College of the University of Cambridge in England, where he earned his undergraduate degree in English and went on to earn a doctorate degree in Oriental studies. After graduation, he continued to pursue his interest in Asia by writing for the Tibetan Information Network, and as a reporter with the South China Morning Post, as well as through his freelance work for both British newspapers and the Hong Kong Standard. His interest in Tibet eventually became the focus of his work. He took a position as a lecturer and a research scholar in Modern Tibetan Studies at Columbia University, and he has written several books about the region and its politics. In an interview for the Columbia University Press Web site, Barnett spoke about his interest in Tibet, and why he believes that this remote country deserves more attention on the political landscape: "Tibet is important whether outsiders think about it or not. It is the center of a huge civilizational arc stretching from Burma to the edges of Siberia, including some seventy-five million people, and it produced one of the major literary traditions in the world. It's also strategically important. It's literally the high ground of Asia, the buffer between the world's two most populous countries."

Barnett has written a variety of books about the country of Tibet. In his Lhasa: Streets with Memories, Barnett examines foreign attitudes towards Tibet. Both Westerners and the communist Chinese government, who conquered Tibet in 1950, have displayed harmful and condescending attitudes toward the country. Barnett describes "Orientalism" as an attitude toward the East that includes a sense of domination and superiority, commenting that "many foreigners still view Lhasa as something we're discovering, saving, or liberating." The book is the result of Barnett's extended visits to the Tibetan capital city of Lhasa year after year, during which he attempted to blend in and learn from the people who make that city their home, share what he sees and discovers, both from the foreigner's point of view and—as much as is possible—from the eyes of the natives. All the while, Barnett must also be aware of the repressive censorship of the Chinese communist government; the modern development he sees and laments in contemporary Tibet is the result of the Chinese government's policies in the region.

Pamela Crossland, in a review of the work for Booklist, opined that "this is a book that will transfix readers intrigued with Tibet." Pico Iyer, reviewing for Time International, commented that Barnett's effort "offers a restrained yet devastating portrait of a city wrecked by modernity." Iyer went on to state that "the very best parts of Barnett's work come in the italicized sections that break up the academic discourse and recall, in whisper-quick fragments, the scenes he has experienced on the streets of Lhasa, then and now." He concluded that Barnett "shows us with overpowering restraint a city that, increasingly, has no memory at all. Memory—like history and culture and religion—is just one more redundancy pushed aside to make room for more skyscrapers." Martin Mills, in a review for the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, dubbed the book "an essay on the unexpected and the unknowable: on the principle that a city like Lhasa, in either its present or past forms, cannot be easily categorized or predicted."

Barnett told CA: "My writings include the first studies of cinema and television in Tibet, as well as articles on contemporary Tibetan history, modern Tibetan media, women in Tibetan politics, and western political representations of Tibet."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Asian Affairs, October, 1995, Bill Peters, review of Resistance and Reform in Tibet, p. 328; March, 2007, Wendy Palace, review of Lhasa: Streets with Memories, p. 100.

Booklist, January 1, 2006, Pamela Crossland, review of Lhasa, p. 50.

China Quarterly, September, 1996, Orville Schell, review of Resistance and Reform in Tibet, p. 1005; September, 2006, Yangdon Dhondup, review of Lhasa, p. 795.

Far Eastern Economic Review, April, 2006, Ilaria Maria Sala, review of Lhasa, p. 75.

Historian, fall, 1996, Judith Wyman, review of Resistance and Reform in Tibet.

International Affairs, July, 1995, John Bray, review of Resistance and Reform in Tibet, p. 678.

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, June, 2007, Martin Mills, review of Lhasa, p. 488.

London Review of Books, September 7, 2006, Isabel Hilton, review of Lhasa, p. 25.

Publishers Weekly, November 7, 2005, review of Lhasa, p. 61.

Time International, May 15, 2006, Pico Iyer, "Game Over," p. 48.

Times Higher Education Supplement, September 22, 1995, Alex McKay, review of Resistance and Reform in Tibet, p. 29.

ONLINE

Columbia University Press Web site,http://www.columbia.edu/ (October 31, 2007), author interview and profile.

Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften Web site,http://www.oeaw.ac.at/ (October 31, 2007), Robert Barnett credentials.

Red Pepper Web site,http://www.redpepper.org/ (October 31, 2007), author profile.

Weatherhead East Asian Institute Web site,http://www.columbia.edu/cu/weai/ (October 31, 2007), faculty profile.