I first heard about Peter Hessler several years ago, when his first book River Town, the story of his experience living in a town along the Yangzi River, became widely known. At that time I had little interest in reading the book, having already lived in China for several years and having just earned a PhD in Chinese history from Columbia. At that point a book about a young American “discovering” China for the first time was not high on my list of China readings. Been there, done that was the thought in my mind. Perhaps others among us “China heads” felt the same way.
Read MoreSome Late Night Thoughts on Reading Paul Theroux’s _My Secret History_
What is a “midlife crisis”? Is it a wake-up call when one looks back on one’s life and wonders what could have been done better, or what different routes one might have taken had one married X instead of Y, chosen to live in country J instead of C, or earned a graduate diploma in E instead of H? Is it a kind of bewilderment and disbelief at where one has ended up, like the line from that song by the Talking Heads, a band popular in my teenage years: “You may ask yourself, well, how did I get here?”
Read More(mis)Representing Beijing: A Review of _Beijing Time_ by Dutton et al
In an effort to cash in on the Olympics, a flurry of books has been published recently on the topic of Beijing. These include several histories of the city, such as Geremie Barme's _The Forbidden City_ and Lillian Li et al, Beijing: From Imperial Capital to Olympic City as well as books by Stephen Haw and Jasper Becker, all of which have come out in the past year or so. It seems that everyone is rushing to the publisher to get their Beijing book out before the Olympics hit in an effort to boost sales. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does have the potential pitfall of creating a bunch of hastily written thinkpieces.
Read MoreRepublican Beijing: The City and Its Histories
This review was just published on MCLC. I am using Dong Yue's book for my course. It is the best single publication on Republican era Beijing, which compared with Shanghai has received precious little attention.
Read MoreFrederic Wakeman, _Policing Shanghai_/ A Review
Here's my next installment: a review I wrote back in grad school (with slight revisions for this site) on what I consider to be one of the best studies of pre-Liberation Shanghai done by any scholar. Fred Wakeman sadly passed away not long ago. An homage, long overdue, to this outstanding historian and person is in the works.
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