Use React with Other Libraries

You don't have to go full React. The component lifecycle events, especially componentDidMount and componentDidUpdate, are good places to put your other libraries' logic.

var App = React.createClass({
  getInitialState: function() {
    return {myModel: new myBackboneModel({items: [1, 2, 3]})};
  },

  componentDidMount: function() {
    $(this.refs.placeholder).append($('<span />'));
  },

  componentWillUnmount: function() {
    // Clean up work here.
  },

  shouldComponentUpdate: function() {
    // Let's just never update this component again.
    return false;
  },

  render: function() {
    return <div ref="placeholder"/>;
  }
});

ReactDOM.render(<App />, mountNode);

You can attach your own event listeners and even event streams this way.