Chinese encounters with the British were more than merely those between two great powers. There was the larger canvas of the Empire and Commonwealth where the two peoples traded and interacted. In China, officials and merchants had to place the British beside other enterprising foreign peoples who were equally intent on influencing developments there. There were also Chinese who encountered the British in personal ways, and individual British who ventured into a 'vast unknown' with its deep history. Wang Gungwu's book, based on lectures linking China and the Chinese with imperial Britain, examines the possibilities in, as well as the limits of, their encounters. It takes the story beyond the cliches of opium, fighting, and the diplomatic skills needed to fend off rivals and enemies, and probes some areas of more intimate encounters, not least the beginnings of a wider English-speaking future.

王赓武，现任新加坡国立大学东亚研究所主席、李光耀公共政策学院主席，获颁大英帝国司令勋章（CBE），当选澳大利亚人文科学院院士、美国艺术与科学院外籍名誉院士、台北“中央研究院”院士、中国社会科学院名誉院士，荣膺国际学术奖、福冈亚洲文化奖。历任马来亚大学教授、历史系主任、文学院院长（1957—1968），澳大利亚国立大学教授、远东历史系主任、太平洋研究院院长（1968—1986），香港大学校长（1986—1995），新加坡国立大学东亚研究所所长（1997—2007）。

研究方向为中国历史、海外华人、民族主义、移民研究等，涉及历史学、文化学、政治学、社会学等领域。