China & Taiwan books of 2009

During 2009 I’ve had the pleasure of reading quite a few interesting China and Taiwan related books that I believe are worth mentioning. I kept planning to review them all separately, but somehow I never quite got around to it.

If you’re curious about China and Taiwan as much as I am, you might one to check some of those out.

Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang

Without doubt, one of the most fascinating reads I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading about China. While you might occasionally get an historian’s perspective on the Chinese Communist Party  (CCP) or perhaps the doctor-of’s or the ex-lover’s perspectives, I believe there hasn’t been anything quite that explosive from a high ranking official within the party. Zhao Ziyang being one of the prominent figures in the CPP during the 1989 events and the way he was taken away from power following those event makes this an even more sensitive and naturally interesting reads. Shedding light on the inner workings of the party and the way decisions were being taken, Zhao Ziyang tells his story of his uprise to the China premier seat, his views on China’s economic reforms and his involvement with the student protests. A must.

Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the China He Lost

The book opening, suggesting that everything could have ended when Chiang Kai-Shek was kidnapped, perhaps serves the highlight of this book. It’s a long long, at times tiring, description of every possible detail of Chiang’s life in China with the occasional more lively descriptions of his personality and personal life. Historically sarcastic with a flavor of self-aware humor and hinted criticism, it attempts to go beyond other accounts I’ve read of that time – not so much in the depth as in building the narrative and atmosphere. Was an interesting contrast to the extremely negative and even hateful “Mao – the Unknown Story” I’ve read two years ago and attended a conference about.

One Couple Two Cultures

Mixed couples… let’s just say I have a personal interest in this topic. Though I’ve had this book for quite a while, being in Asia – surrounded by friends experiencing cross-cultural relationships, this is one of my most borrowed books. It’s insightful, goes beyond stereotypes, talks about both the difficulties and the golden aspects of the cross-cultural in the delicate subtleties of a relationship, and I’d be lying if I’d say I couldn’t relate to most – if not all – of the personal stories revealed through the interviews in this book.

Poorly Made in China: An Insider’s Account of the Tactics Behind China’s Production Game

From what I’ve heard, I think this book has become an extremely popular account of the complexities of business in manufacturing China. I wrote about this book before, and there’s no doubt that this personal account of the negatives in China is a good read. What’s interesting, and worth mentioning, is that I lent this book to some of the mainland Chinese friends I have, some of who are very patriotic-nationalistic, and was surprised to get back feedback saying that they believe this is a fair account of the current situation of uprising China. If they said that, then Paul Midler has really done a good job with this one and I applaud him for his success.

(Note – kindly sent to me for an impartial review by the author)

Business Republic of China: Tales from the Front Line of China’s New Revolution

Though Paul Midler’s seems a much more successful best-seller, my personal recommendation goes more towards this one. This book’s terrific. It’s personal, funny, self-aware, and most importantly – it combines both an admiration, fascination and frustration with the cross-cultural differences between the author and China & Taiwan in a way I could strongly relate to. His accounts of his personal journey in China since 1989 through the Chinese business world and the detour to Taiwan is convincing. It’s not too condescending, even though exaggerating the stereotypes (e.g. insisting on using Laowais=Barbarians throughout the book etc.), and I’d say it’s generally more well-balanced than most business books/stories I usually read about China.

(Note – kindly sent to me for an impartial review by Blacksmith Books publishing house)

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Women are worthless, men control the world, your bound feet are the only thing that will determine whether your future will be good or not as men fantasize about playing with your crushed feet at bed time. Although this book tells a tale of a China not too far back, we should all feel relieved that most of us live in a world  where such gender inequalities are generally a thing of the past. Lisa See describes the horrors, while also trying to portray humanity and beauty, but it’s hard to see through all that, and as a reader I’m left to believe the author was either trying to shock the reader again and again, or that old China was true a place of horror. There won’t be much of Jane Austin’s European hopeful romantic sarcasm of western inequalities in there, this book moves blankly from one tragedy to another and the few happy moments seem only as a preview for more horrible things to come. Mind baffling.

Typhoon

While this is “just” a thriller, it’s my kind of thriller, if only for the fact that it takes place in Hong Kong with a very vivid story developed around expat life and the Chinese-British colonialism spy-games. There isn’t much depth there, but it does have some interesting insights that still reflect on foreigners in Hong Kong and the complex relationships with mainland China and mainland England. If you just want to have some fun, and enjoy a bit of Hong Kong while you’re at it, read this. Despite the stereotypes and somewhat far-fetches story-line, I enjoyed it.