South of the Clouds : Exploring the Hidden Realms of China

Rating:
Summary: China -- the rich pageant of life there, expertly observed
Review: Faison has written a beautiful, affecting book enriched by subtle, revealing detail and informed by a profound knowledge of Chinese civilization. He charts the breathless rise of China over the last 20 years from Maoist hell-hole to one of history's most dynamic, and ever-shifting societies. In doing so -- and this is the greatest strength of the book -- Faison avoids the ponderous sort of thumb-sucking you get in so many books about China and its rise over the last 20 years. It's a book as lucid and as infused with meaning and understanding as Malraux's "Man's Fate".

Rating:
Summary: This is a Gem of a book
Review: Most books about contemporary China end up being dwarfed by the size and complexity of this fascinating country. Faison's book is a classic case where less is infinitely more. By telling the story of his 15 years in China as a student and journalist, Faison takes us on a clear-eyed tour of modern China. He obviously loves the place but that has not clouded his judgment. On the contrary, it makes his observations even more telling, and entertaining. This book is funny, sad, inspiring and extremely honest.
The chapter about the 1989 Tiananmen protests is the best capsule history of that event that I have read. Faison was on the street when the first protests began. He knew all the student leaders. He then went back and unraveled the power struggle inside China's secretive leadership. The result is a fast-paced and insightful portrait of those heady days before -- and mournful days after -- the government sent in the tanks.
This book is a must read for anyone hoping to understand where China has been and where it is going.

Rating:
Summary: Revelations about modern China
Review: Perhaps no journalist has written about China with the same mix of passion, fascination, adventure, amusement, frustration and disappointment as Seth Faison. From the day he arrived as a student in the early 1980s, to the end of his distinguished tour as the Shanghai correspondent for the New York Times more than 15 years later, Faison not only observed China's transformation, but reveled in it. He explored its cultural heritage, battled Communist bureaucrats, bargained with stock brokers, marched with democracy protesters, exposed movie pirates, escaped government minders in Tibet, and fell in and out of love. A book of this scope and ambition would founder in lesser hands. But Faison is a gifted tour guide. He uses his own privileged access and expert training to pry open Chinese society, and show it changed him.




Rating:
Summary: China's Hidden Worlds
Review: Seth Faison, a long-time foreign correspondent in China, most recently for The New York Times, has written the sort of book about China that we have been waiting for years to read. With an impatience for the superficial, an eye for the occluded detail, a deep empathy for the people he encounters, Faison gently, almost deceptively, unveils the layers of assumptions and generalizations that pervade much writing about China. The Chinese he meets, stumbles upon and searches for, from his first years a student in the early '80s, to the Chinese army colonel who undergoes a sex change operation, are vivid, real people, not cardboard the caricatures that too often sprout up in China books. South of the Clouds carries you from the explosive development, cultural and economic, of Shanghai to the massacre on Tiananmen Square in June 1989, from video pirates in Guangdong, to Tibetan Buddhist monks enduring, and withstanding Chinese communist repression. This is a book you read settled into a comfortable chair, with a fine glass of burgundy and quiet jazz on the radio. It will transport you.