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Bad Elements: Chinese rebels from LA to Beijing

Bad Elements: Chinese rebels from LA to Beijing

by IanBuruma (Author)

  • Used

    Hardcover 2002

    $3.25
Synopsis

Between 1996 and 2001 Ian Buruma travelled through the Chinese-speaking world and the US to meet China's dissidents and rebels, in order to see how they view contemporary China. The central question is to see how long China's Communist Party rule can feasibly last in the 21st century. Individual freedom diminishes the closer one gets to Beijing, but Buruma has succeeded brilliantly in bringing china alive as a society of individuals with their own (often suppressed) personal stories. The Chinese world is changing so fast that it's difficult to reach definitive conclusions as to its future, but what is certain is that China's future will play a vital role in the balance of world power.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
 Pages: 382
 Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Published: 09 May 2002
ISBN 10: 0297643134
ISBN 13: 9780297643135
Book Overview: An important, relevant look at contemporary China through its people Publication to coincide with the Phoenix paperback of REBEL CHINA Guaranteed blanket review coverage

Media Reviews
Ian will be out and about throughout this year on the literary festival scene including Edinburgh - this weekend! - and Dartington. His talk with John Lanchester at the Voicebox at the Royal Festival Hall on Wed 10 July was a hugesuccess.. On publication he gave a talk at Trinity College in Dublin - more details to follow. Confirmed interviews include Nightwaves on BBC Radio 3 on May 13. Ian is travelling a lot at the moment and so we are setting a press date for reviews - of which there will be many - of 16 May. The latest news isthat we've sold serial to the Guardian, a 3, 200 word extract on Tiananmen, which ran on 11 May and an interview appeared in the Irish Times on 8 June. Review are expected in every national newspaper, and high praise is starting to come in: In Bad Elements, Ian Buruma dissects the Chinese dissident community at home and abroad with sympathy yet sobriety. Literary Review China ison the move, Ian Buruma is a leading writer on Asia, and his is an importantbook. In his hands a civilisation too often seen as an enigma and an abstraction comes to life... Buruma has written a pungent book about the lack of democracy in Asia. George Walden, Sunday Telegraph The tales of courage, sacrifice and integrity in Buruma's book are inspiring. Sunday Times This wise and imaginative work - at once so sympathetic and so critically alert - could scarcely have been attempted by anyone but Buruma. It is the fruit of dedicated travel and research, and above all of a mind too stringent to be misled - even by its own hopes. Colin Thuberon, Spectator Bad Elements is a judicious, sparklingly readable book... Ian Buruma has a well-nigh unrivalled inside knowledge of Asia. Terry Eagleton, Irish Times '...what is most fascinating is Buruma's attempt to go beyond describing China as an abstraction and his success in bringing it alive as a society of individuals, with peculiar personal histories. 'Chris Patten, Times '...an...intelligent read...Much of the originality of Buruma's book lies in his engagement with Chinese dissidence, not just in what used to be called 'mainland China', but in the many other Chinas that exist today - in the city-states of Hong Kong and Singapore, and in Taiwan and California.'New Statesman After five years of research, taking him among the exiled Chinese communities of Singapore, Taiwan and the US, Buruma has turned in a hybrid melange of scholarly analysis, reportage and, at times, travelogue. The Scotman Combining reportage and historical analysis, Bad Elements is a meditation on these very questions, on the past, present, andfuture of Chinese democracy, by a distinguished and highly reflective comment
Author Bio
Ian Buruma was born in the Netherlands. He studied Chinese literature in Leyden, and Japanese cinema in Tokyo. He is a regular contributor to the NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS. He lives in London.