In 1997, Little, Brown and Company was prepared to publish the diary, under the title The City of Light in the United States. The house had just published the book in the UK when word spread that China scholar Jonathan Spence, the Sterling Professor of History at Yale, had written a book review for The New York Times that questioned the book's authenticity.
In 1997, Little, Brown and Company was prepared to publish a diary titled "The City of Light in the United States."  This publication followed the release of the book in the UK, but controversy arose when Chinese scholar Jonathan Spence, professor of history at Yale, published a review in The New York Times questioning the book's authenticity.