Taiwan’s reading crisis, Indian novel, and Asian Grand Tour

I was initially surprised when I first saw the headline of this article (which this post’s title is a copy of), but after some thought, not anymore. Basically, Taiwanese don’t read much, much less so than people in countries like France, Russia, Japan, and mainland China. This worries the government so much that the ministry of culture has come up with a plan to help local publishers. The Atlantic Monthly article describes the decline in reading and, and mentions this is contrasted by Taiwan’s many bookstores, highlighted by the very well-known Eslite, an elegant local version of Borders (US) or Chapters (Canada). The main conclusions are that Taiwanese mainly buy Western bestsellers or self-help books, reading isn’t very popular, and that the local literary scene is not in good shape.
I do have local friends and acquaintances who read, and Western books are indeed popular. I can’t confirm the article’s assertion that nobody reads (the title is definitely a very hyperbolic one). Many people do read newspapers, magazines, and manga (Japanese comics). However, I’d say I don’t find it surprising that locals don’t read much books on average, since I feel that many young people, or even middle-aged people, don’t seem curious about or want to know more about the world. Since most available books are written by non-Taiwanese and about the world, I’d think this doesn’t make books very appealing. Couple that with the fact that the local media is not very professional and focuses more on gossip and scandal than news and information, and that there’re many forms of entertainment and leisure to distract Taiwanese, and it’s not hard to see that reading, especially serious literature and nonfiction, may be seriously declining. As the writer says, many people in libraries here are either studying or browsing magazines or newspapers, or making out (I can’t say I’ve seen this), while Eslite is popular but it’s mostly a hangout spot (to be honest, I do see many people reading whenever I’m there).

Conde Nast Traveler features “The Grand Tour of Asia,” that covers 12 countries in 45 days by one of its editors. It’s luxury travel, done mainly by taking planes (my favored form of transport, I should say) and going on tours accompanied by archaeologists so the budget is probably well out of the range for most of us (including myself), but the itinerary is quite cool. China is there, of course, as are India, Japan, and Thailand, but smaller countries like Vietnam, Nepal, and even Bhutan are covered too.

Speaking about reading, I recently read a really funny Indian book about love called “2 States.” The book’s name might sound more apt for a geopolitical nonfiction, but the book is definitely a romantic comedy in word form. What makes the book really interesting is that its main theme is about North-South regional stereotypes within India. The two young lovers are from Punjab, in the North, and Chennai, Tamil Nadu, in the South. They love each other but the hard part is accepting each other’s cultures and getting their families to agree to their marriage. While it might sound trivial and comical, the stereotypes are serious stuff that are akin to racial or national prejudices, which isn’t hard to imagine given India’s vast diversity and history. I’d heard of this before, but I’d never known that it was so serious. For instance, the stereotypes invoked include seductive Southern girls preying on Northern men, Southern people not being good bosses, Northerners/Punjabis being so materialistic that everything in life including marriage is based on money, and the dark skin of Southerners (it is pointed out that it is good the woman, though from the South, is lightskinned). The book is really funny and gives a good insight into Indian cultures and the diversity and rivalry (and prejudice) interspersed in them.

The author, Cheetan Bhagat, very likely wrote this book based on his marriage, since he and his wife are from the North and South respectively, just like the couple in the book. Plus, the amount of jokes and ridicule that are flung on both cultures in the book, probably the only way he could get away with that is if he was from one of the two cultures and has links to both of them. The Bollywood hit Three Idiots (the highest-grossing Bollywood movie) was based on Bhagat’s earlier novel Five Point Someone.

Reading wrapup

I finally read Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela’s autobigraphy. This is a monster of a book with 857 pages, but is well worth the time and effort. It starts from his childhood, continues through his student days to his freedom fighter/ “terrorist” days to his long incarceration, and ends just after he became the leader of South Africa as prime minister after winning the first post-apartheid election in 1994. It’s unfortunate it doesn’t include his time as prime minister, because that would have been quite interesting as well. There’s a lot of events and information to take in, but one remarkable thing that stands out is that there’s absolutely no bitterness or vitriol from him towards the white Afrikaans and especially his time in jail. It’s clear why he is loved and respected so much, because it is clear he has a lot of resilience and integrity which exceeds what most people are capable of. Again, Mandela spent 27 years in jail, from late 1962 to 1990. Among the more interesting parts are his family history where he explains his noble lineage (Thembu nobility, subset of Xhosa people), his militant activities in which he oversaw attacks and training as leader of the ANC’s militant arm, and his negotiations with the ruling Afrikaans. Mandela’s stance was always to be civil and open to the Afrikaans, whilst at the same time, remaining defiant on issues such as the right to conduct physical resistance, such as bombing civil targets (which might also be seen as terrorism). Some people might criticize Mandela as selling out the whites, but I see it as being practical and realistic.

There are a few key issues which he doesn’t spend much time, such as the criminal acts involving associates of his then-wife Winnie, who he eventually divorced after he was freed, and the ANC-Inkatha black-on-black violence in which thousands lost their lives. Winnie Mandela is a famous and notorious figure, not just as the ex-wife of Nelson Mandela but because she was linked with killings and extortion in the townships, allegedly committed by her “bodyguards” and associates. Mandela defends her by saying he believes she wasn’t aware or involved in these murders, but further evidence and news have hinted at the opposite. The bulk of the book is set in Robben Island, a bleak prison islet off of Cape Town that was virtually impossible to escape from. Over time, Mandela learned to moderate his thoughts while standing up for his fellow black prisoners  and balancing this with gradually winning the trust of the Afrikaner regime and prison guards.

My most recent book review was on Scattered Sand- The Story of China’s Rural Migrants. China’s rural migrants make up a significant bulk of its labor force which powers its economy and cities. That’s because the majority of factory workers and urban menial laborers come from rural towns and villages, often moving to different provinces and even halfway across the country to find work. There’s a lot of hardships and obstacles these people face, including poverty at home, and exploitative employers and discrimination from authorities at where they wind up. The book is full of facts and details, and you will definitely learn a lot about China, much different than the usual China being a superpower. I need to make one major suggestion for reading this book though- view China through the lens of a developing country, one whose GDP per capita is still less than US$5,500 and 10 years ago, was less than US$1,500. China should be urged to do more for its poor and rural folk, especially on issues like rising social inequality and corruption, but it should also be compared to developing giants like India and Brazil, in which case, China seems to be more better off in many aspects. Also, many of the people who the author interviewed used to work hard jobs like mining or factory assembly-line work, but were then able to leave and do other work that were higher paying or better than their previous work, illustrating that life is not as bleak for some migrant workers. Finally, I think if you asked most people, they would prefer to be working tough jobs rather than doing nothing. I’m not saying that things are great in China, but that using a different perspective, the socioeconomic state of affairs for rural people and migrant workers is not that hopeless either.

I’ve been to 9 of China’s regions. Tom Carter has been to all 33 of them and his book is packed with photos of each of these regions (23 provinces, 4 autonomous regions, 4 municipalities, 4 special administrative regions).

In December, I bought China- Portrait of a People, an amazing photo book about China that showcases people and scenes from all of China’s 33 provinces, autonomous regions (eg. Guanxi, Xinjiang), municipalities (such as Shanghai, Beijing), and special administrative regions (Hong Kong, Macau). The geographic scope is matched by the amount of photos (over 800) and size of the book (over 600 pages). The book is a visual delight, but it’s about more than just pretty pictures. There are many shots of regular people and sights that highlight the grittiness, industry, and the charms of China. There’s one shocking photo of a maimed guy in Guangzhou, which after I got past the initial surprise, became one of my favorite photos. Each chapter features a nice description or personal story that helps you get a feel for the place, whether it be bustling Hong Kong, stylish Shanghai, wild Yunnan, or little-known Ningxia Hui.

I’m currently reading Planet of Slums, a nonfiction book about slums worldwide. This book was quite well-known a few years back and I’d meant to read it before, but just couldn’t get around to it. It presents a bleak scenario, full of blunt commentary and gloomy facts about the prevalence and problems with slums all over the world. Basically all major slums in big cities in developing countries get mentioned, including Mumbai (India), Manila (Philippines), Caracas (Venezuela), Nairobi (Kenya), Johannesburg (South Africa) and even Shanghai. The book received a lot of acclaim, but I find it to be basically a never-ending list of facts about cities all over the world crammed together that seems rather superficial. The book is informative enough and a lot of the information is mindboggling. The main point is simple enough. As cities become larger in the developing world, slums grow, and poverty, disease, and state neglect worsen. For instance, slums in Mumbai number in the millions, being entire cities in themselves!

  Squatter settlement in a Cape Flats township, near Cape Town, South Africa.

Beautiful the Beautiful Forevers- book review

In Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Katherine Boo  tells the story of people in Annawadi, a slum right next to the airport in Mumbai, India’s financial, business, and entertainment capital. Over 3 and a half years, Boo follows the lives of the people like Abdul, a teenager who specializes in sorting out garbage for recycling or manufacturing; Asha, an ambitious wannabe slumlord who works her way up the community political structure using questionable means, and Manju, Asha’s daughter who is trying to be Annawadi’s first female university graduate. All these people live in very dirty surroundings,  surrounded by sewage and rats and garbage. Characters die from sickness or from murder. Yet the most striking death is caused by a farcical dispute. Abdul’s neighbor Fatima, a one-legged strumpet, sets herself on fire after an argument with Abdul’s mother over a dispute, intending to get her neighbors in fire. Unfortunately things go too far and she ends up dying from her injuries. The resultant court case sees Abdul, his father, and sister jailed and tried over an agonising process that stretches on, while exposing the venality of the Indian justice system. Several times, Abdul’s mother is approached by police who demand bribes to remove the charges, even though as a murder case, this is not possible. Asha meanwhile is also in the mix, asking for money from Abdul’s family to get them off the hook.

This is not a cheerful book though. It would be a cliche to say that misery and poverty are common in the lives of these slum dwellers; but worse would be the rampant corruption that infects every aspect of the slumdwellers’ interaction with authorities, from dealing with the police to hospitals to their children’s education. The police will even demand a bribe from innocent people in order to not charge them. Certain slumdwellers aren’t completely innocent, as people like Asha game the system to get funds for phantom NGOs and schools, where students only gather for picturetaking. In addition to the hardship of slum life, we get snippets of caste, religion, and regional differences, all of which is strikingly common in India. Yet other than a few taunts and suspicions, these differences don’t significant roles. At the end, Abdul still strives not to give in to evil or despair while Asha continues her machinations. Boo gives a blunt commentary on the lives of the slumdwellers, saying the poor don’t stand together against anything; rather they blame, even try to destroy each other. Despite this, Behind the Beautiful Forevers is an amazing book. It vividly shows the Annawadians as more than people just to be pitied or detested.

Recent reads

I’ve been reading a bunch of books lately again including several good ones about India. I’m currently reading Behind the Beautiful Forevers – Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity, about a slum in Mumbai (Bombay).

However, I can’t go without reading about China so I recently finished Silent Tears: A Journey of Hope in a Chinese Orphanage. It’s written by an American who volunteered for several years in a Chinese city orphanage, where she helped look after many kids. Not surprisingly, it’s full of sadness and frustration, but there’s also a constant sense of hope and resilience. It’s always tough to look after underprivileged kids, and it’s even tougher when many of them are handicapped or have developmental problems. Coupled with limited administrative support and procedures, it’s even harder. Still, the author is able to get kids needed surgery, give them gifts, and even take one home on weekends. The author doesn’t shy away from criticizing local colleagues for things like not letting kids play with toys or being affectionate, but does develop some respect and understanding. Some of the kids are adopted, either by Chinese parents or Americans. Indeed there’s a small number of Western families who adopt Chinese kids, especially girls. While this sounds good, it does demonstrate a problem in society- that of parents giving up female kids due mostly to a combination of poverty and the desire for a male child (the one-child policy prevents many couples from having more than one child). This is a book about the children and the orphanage so there’s not much about China. The author doesn’t name her city due to not wanting to identify the orphanage. There is one striking scene where the author attends her husband’s company Chinese New Year’s dinner and ends up feeling very uncomfortable at the raucousness and being the focus of some attention that she walks out, forcing her husband to follow.

The India books I’ve finished include India Becoming- A Portrait of Life in Modern India and A Place Within- Rediscovering India. I reviewed India Becoming for ARB (see the link at the side) and I’ll mention it later. The latter one is the more interesting and indepth book, written by M.G. Vassanji. Vassanji is a well-known Canadian-Kenyan author whose grandparents are from Gujarat, India. Vassanji is clearly entranced by his ancestral homeland and has visited it several times. This book is an introspective account of his travels and a homage to India. Much of A Place Within is about Gujarat, the province which the great Gandhi is from, as are the author’s grandparents, and Delhi, the capital. Vassanji maintains a strong emotional and cultural connection to India, remarking several times how familiar settings seem compared with his childhood in Kenya’s Nairobi, where many Gujaratis emigrated to in the past. He visits many places, including famous cities like Ahmedabad and Baroda, but also lesser-known ones -Jamnagar, Kathiawar, Somnanth and so on. Gujarat is notorious for being the site of a bloody campaign against Muslims in 2002 sparked by the killing of Hindus on a train by Muslims. Vassanji touches on this, but is very pained by this event. The chapters on Delhi are filled with the city’s vast history. Actually the book is filled with history, especially in describing the vivid military struggles between Muslims from the Northwest,  Marathas, and Rajputs, and the later British rule. Vassanji also travels to Kerala in the southwest, Bengal in the east, and Himalaya hill towns such as Shimla and Dharamsala. Yet even at over 400 pages, Vassanji can’t cover all of India, illustrating the vastness of India, similar to China. A Place Within is a very good read, both as a book about India and about a writer reconnecting with his roots. Vassanji’s novel The In-between World of Vikram Lall, set in his native Kenya, and which I read many years ago in Canada, was also a really good read.

Mongols, the Middle Ages and white Africans – book reviews

We were spared the wrath of the typhoons last week here in the north of Taiwan, but this week might see Typhoon Tembin swing back up, after having ravaged parts of the south late last week. Meanwhile the Atlantic has this interesting piece last week on the Diaoyutais- in response to a survey on a hypothetical situation, the majority of Chinese netizens voted for other citizenships that are not mainland China for their children. But it’s not so surprising; these people are just being practical and wanting Hong Kong or Japanese citizenship isn’t a sign of being unpatriotic, just a sign of awareness that mainland China isn’t the best place to raise your kid if other options were available.

Been doing a lot of reading recently and decided to clear up the backlog on reviews. One of my favorite fiction genres is the historical novel, specifically those that combine historical settings with military campaigns and famous people. I read two good ones recently – Khan- Empire of Silver by Conn Iggulden, and Requiem- Fall of the Templars by Robyn Young.

The first one, Empire of Silver, is the fourth book in a series on Genghis Khan and his heirs. It takes place when Ogadai, the third son of Genghis, ascends to the throne, while finished building his lavish capital of Karakorum whilst also fending off a threat from one of his brothers and deciding on his heir. It’s a tumultuous time for the Mongol empire because Ogadai is in bad health but has sent a major army West to Europe, which might have serious implications. Of course, if you know your history, you’ll know the outcome, but it’s interesting to see just how precarious the situation was for Europe was in light of the Mongol advance, especially when the Mongols easily swept through Russia and conquered Moscow. Meanwhile half of China is in Mongol hands as the Chin (Jin) emperor retreats with the last of his soldiers into the lands of the Southern Song, which up to now has been spared Mongol terror. There’s some decent minor mentions of the great Yangtze Delta cities of Hangzhou (the capital of the Southern Song from 1123 to 1276), Suzhou, and Nanjing (then called Jiankang). One of the best subplots concerns the four royal cousins, all sons of the sons of Genghis, all serving together in the campaign against Europe, and proving their worth as leaders. Unlike their fathers, they are not rivals yet but this won’t shield them from dynasty politics in the future. There is another book after Empire of Silver which will definitely continue the drama and development of these young Khans as well as the fate of the Mongol empire.

Requiem is the final novel of a trilogy about the Knight Templars, the Crusades, and the war between Christiandom and Islam. However Requiem takes place completely in Europe, as the Christian forces were routed and forced to flee their last strongholds in the Middle East by the mighty Saladin in the last book Crusade. Will Campbell, a Scottish Templar (a fictional character and the main protagonist of the series) knight returns to France in a time of war with the English. Campbell learns of a dark secret that makes him leave the Templars and return to his native land, then becomes involved with the French in a misguided attempt to take revenge on his enemy, Edward I, the King of England (some might remember him as the aging king “Longshanks” in the movie Braveheart). In fact, William Wallace appears in the book, leading the Scots to their famous victory in Stirling before losing at Falkirk and eventually being captured by the English and literally being cut open and ripped apart. There’s also the murder of a Pope and the rigging of a Papal election and the start of a new Scottish uprising after the death of Wallace (the author is writing a new trilogy focusing on this). The most famous, and tragic, event in the novel is the destruction of the Templar order. The French King Philippe, desperate for revenue to continue his war against the English, and his top minions charged the Templars with heresy, arresting, torturing and executing thousands of Templar knights while confiscating their property and wealth. This novel differs from the previous two, in the location, but also in the character development. Will Campbell comes off as uncertain, desperate and reckless, and doesn’t uphold his leadership of the Anima Templi, a secret organization within the Templar order which is dedicated to peace with the Muslims. This is a fictional subplot and is only a minimal presence in Requiem, in contrast to the previous two novels.

I also read Cocktail Hour under the Tree of Forgetfulness, a memoir by white Zambian author Alexandra Fuller. Another one of those memoirs by white Southern Africans (like The Last Resort which I finished a month ago), this one is actually about the author’s parents, especially her mother. I didn’t quite enjoy the quirky and somewhat irreverent tone of the book at first, which makes the parents seem whimsical, especially noticeable given their background as white Africans, not that this means they have easy lives. But the book starts getting a little somber and tragic later on as the author’s parents experience a few things no parents should ever have to experience. It’s a poignant story that takes place in Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and unfortunately, it’s a good tale of how sometimes, we can’t quite overcome problems in our lives, but have to bear them as best we can.

The Last Resort book review

Been catching up on my reading recently and I managed to finish a good book that I’d been meaning to read for a long time – The Last Resort. Douglas Rogers is a Zimbabwean-born, US-based writer whose parents stayed put in Zimbabwe all during the madness of the past decade, when Robert Mugabe decided it’d be a good idea to let his vehement anti-Western rhetoric become reality and bring about the ruin of a formerly prosperous, peaceful and admirable nation. A lot of readers might remember seeing in the news in the early 2000s the stories of white Zimbabwean farmers being attacked and having their farms forcibly seized by liberation war “veterans”. The cause was ostensibly because it was unfair for the whites, a small but privileged minority, to own so much rich farmland. In any event, the “veterans” who took most of the white-owned farms proved to be mostly inept, inefficient, or useless, and the food production dropped drastically, helping bring in hyperinflation (and those crazy billion and trillion dollar denominations) and a breakdown in the local economy.

Coming back to the book, what makes the Rogers’ experience really crazy is that they ran a backpackers/hostel and cottage resort which eventually became a refuge for other white farmers, a hideout for opposition figures, brothel and local waterhole, brimming with illicit diamond dealers, prostitutes, crooked politicians and refugees. From 2002 to 2010, the writer made frequent trips to his parents’ home, whilst chronicling their story and meeting up with all kinds of folks from heroic opposition figures to shady diamond dealers to government apparatchiks, of which the fascinating output is this book.

The Last Resort is touching, funny, and memorable. Rogers is a great storyteller of the many events and characters in the book. The book covers a bleak and terrible time, when poverty, unemployment and violence were rife, but it’s anything but depressing. The then-opposition MDC saw supporters killed and members harassed, not to mention its leader, the current Prime Minister, having his head literally busted up. Rogers’ parents are MDC sympathizers and they do their part to help by hiding opposition members in their resort cottages. For their troubles, they face a constant threat of eviction and near the end of the book, a visit by 20 young toughs intent on violence. By staying put and risking their lives to keep their home and help others, Rogers’ parents are also reaffirming their Africanness, a touchy subject for whites who were born and raised in African countries, but face resentment and distrust by black Africans. As it is, Rogers’ parents have been in Africa for generations, with his father’s ancestors having arrived in South Africa 350 years ago. Zimbabwe’s turbulent past is frequently described, especially the fight for liberation in the 70s by black rebels against the white government, after which Mugabe emerged as a hero and became the nation’s leader. I don’t know much about this war and it’s sobering to learn how serious and intensive it was.  I was especially shocked to learn of a raid where Zimbabwean forces killed over 1200 rebels in Mozambique, which the author recalled being happy about as a child, and which an old soldier and former rebel living in one of his parents’ cottages survived.

Share this:

The whole of last week was a holiday for Chinese New Year’s, and somehow it just flew by, even though the holiday was a bit quieter for me than previous ones. I was able to do a little reading and hiking so it wasn’t a complete waste.

I was able to finish In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives. Thanks to my company’s generous book subsidy program, my department bought several books in December, most of which I recommended, and In the Plex was the first one I borrowed. It’s about Google, and it gives a good rundown about how Google was formed, the personalities of the two creators, and how the company became the ubiquitous search and tech giant it is now. You get a good idea of many aspects about Google, from how tough it is to get hired to how nice it is to work there (free snacks, gourmet staff restaurants, easygoing work environments etc) and how much effort the company put into its operations- it builds and operates its own data centers, ensuring the Google search engine is always up and blazing fast. Google is also the world’s largest computer manufacturer because it builds it own servers, in essence it makes more computers than actual computer giants HP, Lenovo or Acer.  The most fascinating parts were about the company in China (a lot of people probably know how that ended) and about how Google created its products from Gmail to Android to Streetview. The Youtube purchase and integration is also covered. Of course, the core of the company is its AdWords and AdSense ads services which bring in the bulk of the company’s revenues. These services are covered in good detail, though it’s a bit dry. Not everything was a success for Google, as its struggle with social services attests. The end provides a decent overview of Google’s failures with Orkut, Wave and Buzz, and the competition of Facebook, and ends with the development of Google +1 and cofounder Larry Page’s replacement of Eric Schmidt as CEO.

One big lesson that I realize from Google’s success is that sometimes “sexy” isn’t what sells, despite conventional wisdom. Google has a long list of killer products- Gmail, Android, Googlemaps, Gchat, GoogleEarth etc. Yet the bulk of its revenues (well, just 94%) come from its ads services – AdWords which puts up ads alongside Google’s search results and AdSense, which runs those little ads that appear in square boxes at the sides of many websites. It’s not flashy or hightech services that bring in the bucks for Google, it’s the small, banal, even annoying stuff like its ads that rake in the billions and allow Google to make those flashy products. Another example is Google’s search engine website, which is relatively sparse and has no ads. There’s a lot of empty space and no clutter, unlike say, Yahoo, which incidentally I like a lot. Of course, Google search works well and is fast and efficient, so whether you have style or not, the substance is important.

Foreign babes and angry traveler in China-book reviews

Right after Big in Beijing, I finished another book about an American also doing something out of the ordinary in Beijing. This time, instead of singing and forming a band, the author starred as a foreign temptress who seduces a Chinese guy in a popular Chinese-produced TV show. Foreign Babes in Beijing is Rachel DeWoskin’s account of life as an actress which catapulted her into Chinese stardom. The show, which the book’s name is taken directly from, was about two foreign girls who fall in love with Chinese brothers and do their best to settle into Chinese life while taming their weird and wacky foreign ways. The cover of the book suggests a rather steamy sex-filled tell-all, but Foreign Babes in Beijing is actually filled with reasonable commentary on Chinese-American culture clashes and life in Beijing back in the nineties. Besides acting, the writer also worked at a PR firm part-time as well as hung out with Chinese artists and musicians. It’s eerie when Rachel describes the behavior of her Chinese colleagues at the firm, I could swear Taiwan is the same. From making quick and broad assumptions on first impressions to whispering right behind a person’s back, nothing seemed alien to me. It’s another example, I suppose, that at the core of things, Taiwanese are just like their mainland cousins.

Moving on now, is a book that is also quite controversial but in a different way. Far from being a Foreign Babe in Beijing, Troy Parfitt was like a Foreign Bear. Roaming around China from Harbin to Llasa, growling, grumbling and berating at mainlanders left and right, Parfitt’s Why China Will Never Rule the World is a 400-plus page account of his (mis)adventures in China on two trips that lasted a month in total. It’s a fun read, filled with some very interesting historical facts and decent prose. Parfitt travels across China, hitting up the main cities as well as Hong Kong and Macau. He also does Tibet, Sichuan, Guanxi, and Hunan (to visit Mao’s hometown). Finally, after he couldn’t take any more of the mainland, he goes back to Taiwan, where he had been living and teaching for 10 years, and does a trip around the island.

Parfitt, you see, wanted to see for himself the marvel that is China that is always being billed in the West as the next superpower. Now, the book is chock full of interesting encounters and sharp observations on places and Chinese behaviors and attitudes. But, and yes this is a big “but”, what prevents the book from being a stellar one is Parfitt’s reaction to China. Anybody who’s been to China can readily tell that it’s still a developing nation with a lot of poor people, and that the behavior of some people aren’t exactly very civilized. Parfitt notices this all right, and combined with some negative experiences, he basically vents right from the beginning of his trip, even before he actually enters mainland China as Macau is the first Chinese city to feel his rage and scorn. Though his critiques are sometimes entertaining and apt, he veers into almost blatant insults and ridicule on many occasions. Parfitt also mixes his critique with commentary on the state of Chinese culture, society and the future of China, which he perceives as being full of problems, falsities and uselessness. Again, while some of it has some truth, he overreaches and his critiques become broader and broader. Any negative experience sets him off, leading him to expound on the fallacies of Chinese civilization. This is supposed to be a travel book, but it’s kind of hard to really enjoy if the writer is heavily biased, especially virtually right from the start of the trip. Incidentally he praises Nanjing, which I also harbor a similar feeling for.

Yet, the biggest flaw is the book’s main purpose- to prove that China will not rule the world. Leaving aside the fact that it’s a misleading and foolish question, as no nation, not even the US at it prime, ruled the world, it’s how Parfitt tried to test this question that leaves a lot to be desired. It’s a good travel book, but Parfitt intends it to be a revelation on whether China is as great and magnificent as it’s made to be. As I wrote above, he’s get fed up of China, and of course, he believes China is in no way or form, a superpower that will rule the world. That’s not too bad, because many people, including myself also feel the same way. The only problem is, who are the people saying this? None other than Western academics, writers, politicians, businessmen, and consultants, none of whom are interviewed, quoted, or referenced by Parfitt in the book. It’s one thing to go to China to check out the country, which is a good idea, but it’s another to confront random Chinese and test a Western-created hypothesis on them, instead of the very Western professionals mentioned above. Simply put, Parfitt should have tried to interview these Western professionals, like he did with the Chinese Confucius Institute director, and put his question of why and how will China rule the world.

The last part of the book is about Taiwan and not surprisingly Parfitt is much more complimentary about Taiwan, its people, and aspects of society. Given that he lived here for 10 years and that he couldn’t stand China, this isn’t surprising. But what is surprising, and what I do give him some credit for, is that Parfitt is also critical about Taiwan, such as about behavior and attitudes that are also based on its Chinese roots. The education system, the architecture, and the tragically inept handling of a serial murderer on the loose in 1997, come in for harsh criticisms. Too often, there are people who seem to view Taiwan and mainland China as opposite sides of the Chinese cultural spectrum, simplifying Taiwan as possessing the good and genuine Chinese culture and the mainland bad or non-Chinese traits. Parfitt seems to be able to go beyond this superficial divide, not that I agree with some of his critical judgements, and see that Taiwan is not immune, or itself displays negative aspects.

I got this book from Parfitt himself after I requested it, and he was kind enough to send it.

Share this:

My Chinasmack article continued to generate more comments this week, bringing the total to over 60, though I probably contributed about one-third of that. It’s been interesting reading most of the comments and having some exchanges with people over mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. I’ve been accused of making too much of an issue over something, but I’ve also been accused of not understanding the whole picture, mostly from very pro-Taiwan folks, and of course, some positive and informative comments. It hasn’t always been smooth but this is what happens when you put yourself, or your writing, out there on a public forum.

The Nation, an old favorite of mine which I haven’t read in a long time, has this “book review” on books about Deng Xiaoping’s rule and Henry Kissenger’s views on China. The reason I put quotes on book review is because the article is so good you won’t even realize it’s a book review. There’s a good description of the type of person Deng was – tough, battle-hardened and pragmatic, yet loyal to the party to the end- and a good summary of China over the past few years. I do like this phrase “[China's] economic power and its status as America’s main creditor have made it more aggressive in dealing with Washington as well, shocking some American diplomats not accustomed to having a bona fide peer,” but being realistic I know China’s got a way to go before it can seriously be a genuine peer to the US. The article’s writer sounds grim in his summary of China’s progress in the near future that doesn’t sound too off the mark. Given how the past year has been for China, you’d think the country is close to falling apart. Yet that didn’t seem very apparent when I was there recently.

Anyways, moving on from China, the NY Times has a really pessimistic article about Japan and the shoddy way how its young people are treated. It’s full of doom and gloom about the “lost generation,” young people being marginalized well into their 20s and 30s, and a declining once-powerful nation that’s got the “worst generational inequality in the world”. It’s also got a 30-something guy who was a promising engineer who ended up “fleeing” to Taiwan to make a new life and escape a cycle of never-ending temp jobs.

China reads

Almost as if on cue for my upcoming trip, I read 3 books about China recently.

Wolf Totem won the inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize in 2007 for the best Asian novel that hadn’t been published in English. Well, it went on to be published in English after the win, and it turned out to be a surprisingly fluid and sentimental novel. Set in the Inner Mongolian* grasslands in the seventies, it’s about a young Chinese who becomes obsessed with wolves who act as both gods and demons on the plains. They’re revered by the native Mongols who pay homage to them and regard them as deities, hence the book’s title, whilst at the same time they ravage the horse and sheep herds of these same Mongols. This constant battling plays a big role in the Mongols’ lives, who spend a lot of time protecting their herds from these predators and hunting them. This state of affairs is essential to the land as the wolves’ predation limits the amount of herd animals, as well as wild gazelles and marmots, preventing their grazing from killing off the grass and causing desertification. In addition, the wolves are cunning and loyal, hunting in packs and using tactics that exploit land, weather and animal behavior. Beijinger Chen Zhen, the main character, becomes so filled with reverence for the wolves that he decides to raid a wolf den and capture a cub and raise it. He succeeds but not ultimately. What makes the book so good is how informative it is about the grassland’s ecology without being pedantic. The author based this book and the main character on his own experience in the grasslands where he spent 11 years and it shows in the grasp of detail about the environment, the culture and ecology of that place. There is a bit of excessive piousness regarding the nomadic grassland Mongol way of life, which Chen constantly contrasts with the more passive and environmentally-harmful way of the Chinese peasant lifestyle. This is why the fearsome Mongol horsemen were able to defeat vastly numerically superior foes including China’s Song Dynasty back then in the time of Genghis Khan and his immediate descendants, Chen reasons as he realizes how the Mongols got their superior war knowledge from fighting the wolves all the time. Yet for all that, the agriculturalists usually win out over the nomads, as China was able to absorb much of Mongolia, hence Inner Mongolia. Towards the end, not to spoil it, but it is not a good ending for the nomads and their way of life as Chinese settlers are brought in to raise livestock on the rich grasslands and modernity gradually creeps in. It is haunting to see how prescient the wise Mongol elder who Chen regards as a father is about the dangers of overgrazing and desertification. In real life, China is suffering an alarming amount of desertification including in that same area, among which one of the effects is Beijing being blanketed by dust storms from time to time. Wolf Totem is definitely more than about Mongols and wolves.

Initially I didn’t like how Jung Chang’s Mao-The Unknown Story (cowritten with Jon Halliday) was going. I’d heard about this book when it came out in 2005 and I knew it was very critical about Mao, but it seemed like every sentence and paragraph was filled with derision and criticism about Mao, some of it contradictory. He wasn’t smart, he didn’t stand for anything, he lied, he was a coward, he was a tyrant etc. But it’s also filled with some explosive statements and it’s filled with a ton of interesting and provocative information. Some famous events such as the Long March and the Xian Incident (when Chiang Kai-shek was kidnapped by a Xian warlord supposedly to force Chiang to agree to talks with the Communists in order to deal with Japanese invaders) are revealed by Chang to be not what they seemed. And for other famous events like the Cultural Revolution, the Great Leap Forward and the Korean War, Chang reveals Mao to be exactly the kind of crazed tyrant for whom the lives of Chinese citizens meant nothing and who bullied and took revenge on peers regularly. It’s not like I wasn’t aware of these events and of Mao’s immense faults, but this book made me learn a lot more. Chou Enlai, the suave foreign minister and the number two, was a toady who was intimidated and controlled by Mao, Liu Shaoqi, the president until he was purged and imprisoned, was a man of some not so insignificant conscience who stood up to Mao and paid for it, and Deng Xiaoping was a tough and pragmatic survivor who was crushed by Mao but still endured.  I’m still mystified though as to how millions of Chinese were able to get out of poverty during Mao’s time given the tremendous upheavals and food shortages that occurred, and I still can’t help think there’s more to Mao than this, or at least his rule. * Update: This book was heavily criticized by experts including for probable dubious sources, simplification of Mao’s rule and definite bias. Despite this, nobody disputes the main point- that Mao was ruthless and callous and many people died and suffered under him.

It seems like everybody is going to China these days and writing about it. Days like Floating Water is about a retired American who volunteers with her also retired husband to go to a small town near Ningbo and teach English in a technical institute. It doesn’t sound like much, but it was a pleasant read, and the couple taught in China back in 1999, eight years before the book was published. The McKees do rather well, living and teaching in a small town where the only other foreigners were a handful of fellow English teachers and where buying stuff requires an hours-long bus trip. This is 1999, when China’s economic boom was still in the early stages but the fast pace of China’s modernization drive is apparent enough. During the McKees’ stay, they get a new home and at the end, their school is transformed into a brand-new university. I’m not exactly a big fan of the notion that breakneck transformation is always positive though. The two Americans, more specifically the writer, become really attached to their students, inviting them to come after classes (which many do) and starting up new projects. Doubtless, they face lots of challenges from home plumbing inanities to braving the famous China lining up experience to obstinate bureaucracy. It’s a decent book written with a lot of tenderness and heart.

* Inner Mongolia is one of China’s autonomous regions and is just across the border from the nation of Mongolia which is sometimes referred to as Outer Mongolia.