ABSTRACT
A journey to the West In 1996, a middle-aged researcher at a Chinese state-run environmental institute was given the opportunity to travel to the United States to learn about NGOs. As part of the trip, Jin Jiaman visited over two dozen American NGOs. In her interview, she smiled as she recalled her excitement:
Big ones and small ones – there was even one with just one person! That one just provided information online. I felt like it was so refreshing because NGOs, they could have their independence. Because in China then, you know how we were educated. . . . If you were sent to the countryside, you went to the countryside. And then they sent you to the factory. You had to do whatever they asked you to do.
