The reviews of papers for refereed journals are rarely a source of exhilaration, only occasionally a pleasure and frequently dispiriting. Using peer reviews of research containing Chinese concepts, this paper explores different ways of thinking about knowledge, its evaluation and transfer. Bourdieu's concepts of fields of power, position taking, positioning and honour provide a framework whereby peer reviews are positioned as integral to scholarly argumentation. They are used to test efforts to connect Chinese ideas into the global dynamics of research-based knowledge, and to teach early career researchers about how to engage in academic disputation. (Contains 2 tables.)