T. H. Barrett has been publishing on China since 1972, and is now Professor Emeritus of East Asian History, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Though he has mainly worked on the history of religion in East Asia, he has also long taken an interest in the development of the study of China in Britain, and has published on this topic also. Professor Barrett has been closely involved in organisations concerned with the furtherance of Chinese Studies, taking on, in the past, the chairmanship of the Universities’ China Committee in London and chairing the Asian Studies panels in two national Research Exercises. He has written for the London Review of Books, The Independent, and other publications, and contributed frequently to the radio programme ‘In Our Time’ and to other media.