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Video Night in Kathmandu and Other Reports from the Not-So-Far East
Mohawk hair-cuts in Bali, yuppies in Hong Kong and Rambo rip-offs in the movie houses of Bombay are just a few of the jarring images that Iyer brings back from the Far East.
400 pages, Paperback
First published March 12, 1988
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2844 people want to read
About the author
Pico Iyer
124 books1,104 followersPico Iyer is a British-born essayist and novelist of Indian descent. As an acclaimed travel writer, he began his career documenting a neglected aspect of travel -- the sometimes surreal disconnect between local tradition and imported global pop culture. Since then, he has written ten books, exploring also the cultural consequences of isolation, whether writing about the exiled spiritual leaders of Tibet or the embargoed society of Cuba.
Iyer’s latest focus is on yet another overlooked aspect of travel: how can it help us regain our sense of stillness and focus in a world where our devices and digital networks increasing distract us? As he says: "Almost everybody I know has this sense of overdosing on information and getting dizzy living at post-human speeds. Nearly everybody I know does something to try to remove herself to clear her head and to have enough time and space to think. ... All of us instinctively feel that something inside us is crying out for more spaciousness and stillness to offset the exhilarations of this movement and the fun and diversion of the modern world."
Iyer’s latest focus is on yet another overlooked aspect of travel: how can it help us regain our sense of stillness and focus in a world where our devices and digital networks increasing distract us? As he says: "Almost everybody I know has this sense of overdosing on information and getting dizzy living at post-human speeds. Nearly everybody I know does something to try to remove herself to clear her head and to have enough time and space to think. ... All of us instinctively feel that something inside us is crying out for more spaciousness and stillness to offset the exhilarations of this movement and the fun and diversion of the modern world."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 135 reviews
January 17, 2022
Acclaimed travel writer, Pico Iyer, wrote about his travels in Asia during the mid-1980s. His essays explore the disconnect between the local traditional ways of life and imported American culture. His destinations included Nepal, Bali, China, Hong Kong, Tibet. Thailand, Japan, the Philippines, and India. Conversations with Asians led to a deeper understanding on both sides, or to some humourous misunderstandings with hilarious results. He wrote a witty book with compassion and fairness. Iyer exhibited an openness to understand the various cultures and the thoughts of the inhabitants from all walks of life.
He discusses how Western culture, fashion, American fast food outlets and upscale hotel chains, pop music and films were beginning to exist alongside Asian customs and traditional ways of life. In 2000, the author added an afterward chapter because much had changed politically and economically, and the internet was accelerating the changes.
I actually bought a paperback version in a bookstore in Kathamandu in the latter part of the 1990s, and even at that time, it was becoming outdated. Unfortunately, I was unable to finish this informative and entertaining book. It was among several hundred books lost when my house was flooded. I was delighted to recently find a Kindle version on Amazon. Now the book resides in the 'cloud', safe from floods.
Reading the book in 2022, the world is very different than the one he described. Further escalation of the co-existing of Western and Eastern ideas and norms are expected, but what will the world be like when travel is once again resumed? Will the economies of some countries collapse, and will they become more reluctant to host overseas tourists? I would love to see an update of this book in the not-too-distant future. This would have been a 5-star book but some of it is no longer relevant but still fun and interesting to read.
He discusses how Western culture, fashion, American fast food outlets and upscale hotel chains, pop music and films were beginning to exist alongside Asian customs and traditional ways of life. In 2000, the author added an afterward chapter because much had changed politically and economically, and the internet was accelerating the changes.
I actually bought a paperback version in a bookstore in Kathamandu in the latter part of the 1990s, and even at that time, it was becoming outdated. Unfortunately, I was unable to finish this informative and entertaining book. It was among several hundred books lost when my house was flooded. I was delighted to recently find a Kindle version on Amazon. Now the book resides in the 'cloud', safe from floods.
Reading the book in 2022, the world is very different than the one he described. Further escalation of the co-existing of Western and Eastern ideas and norms are expected, but what will the world be like when travel is once again resumed? Will the economies of some countries collapse, and will they become more reluctant to host overseas tourists? I would love to see an update of this book in the not-too-distant future. This would have been a 5-star book but some of it is no longer relevant but still fun and interesting to read.
May 15, 2020
I think this is Pico Iyer's first book.It is not as polished as the later ones.It is a journey through several Asian countries in the 1980s.It didn't quite meet my expectations,after having already read The Lady and the Monk.
The destinations include : Bali,Tibet,Nepal,China,Japan,Thailand,Hong Kong and India.Some of the chapters get a bit lop-sided.In India,he writes mostly about Bollywood and in Japan,mostly about baseball,without touching upon much else.
He embarks on his trip to Mao's China without a working knowledge of the language and without a guide.In those days,that was quite an undertaking.
In several of his stop overs,he does appear a bit dismayed that instead of discovering the exotic,he is confronted by the invasion of American pop culture everywhere.Not his best book,but still worth reading.
The destinations include : Bali,Tibet,Nepal,China,Japan,Thailand,Hong Kong and India.Some of the chapters get a bit lop-sided.In India,he writes mostly about Bollywood and in Japan,mostly about baseball,without touching upon much else.
He embarks on his trip to Mao's China without a working knowledge of the language and without a guide.In those days,that was quite an undertaking.
In several of his stop overs,he does appear a bit dismayed that instead of discovering the exotic,he is confronted by the invasion of American pop culture everywhere.Not his best book,but still worth reading.
April 8, 2013
Iyer in his introduction tells us this is “less like a conventional travel diary than a series of essays” of a “casual traveler’s casual observations” of the Asia he saw “over the course of two years... [spending] a total of seven months crisscrossing the continent.” Each chapter covers his thoughts about one country: Bail (Indonesia), Tibet, Nepal, China, Philippines, Burma, Hong Kong, India, Thailand, Japan. Most of the essays have an overarching theme through which he looked at the country. Bali as paradise lost, Nepal as Hippie Magic Bus Tour, India’s Bollywood, Thailand its skin trade, Japan and its passion for baseball. He admitted he had never formally studied Asian affairs and didn't know any of the languages of the countries he visited, but he is well-traveled and well-informed. At the time of his travels he was a writer on world affairs for Time magazine and had written for the Times Literary Supplement, Partisan Review and the Village Voice.
The book struck me as rather dated at times, or at least amusingly of its time, the essays mostly being about travels around 1985. A generation has passed since Iyer traveled through these countries. Iyer at first seemed obsessed with this idea of cultural imperialism, hitting that theme continually and calling tourists “lay colonialists” despite showing that those aspects of Western pop culture and ideas are things that Asians adopt--and adapt--for themselves. Just as Westerners often do the same (only to be labeled “cultural vultures” by Iyer.) He seemed oblivious to the ironies of a British-born man of Indian extraction, Oxford and Harvard educated, who called America home ranting about how cultural exchange “corrupts” the “purity” of Asian cultures--while himself as a visitor doing his part to carry the contagion. His very name is a combination of the Buddha’s name and that of an Italian philosopher. He called Japan his “ideal” and he currently lives there with his Japanese wife. So he’s a man who himself mixes cultures, yet seemed often to decry that, or at least be deeply ambivalent. He also sometimes struck me as naive and condescending. I recently read Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love and though I had my issues and poked some fun at it in my review, I thought Gilbert had a more balanced view of Bali, which Iyer presented as this paradise without crime and a culture of harmony. Gilbert rather than a few weeks spent months there, and she didn’t spend time as a tourist in the usual expat haunts, but actually interacted with ordinary Balinese. The people weren’t museum artifacts to her that need to be preserved under glass.
Yet despite my criticism I don’t regret my time spent reading Iyer. He caught Asia at an interesting time. For instance traveling through China right post-Mao, experiencing the maddening house-of-mirrors communist bureaucracy and the vibrancy of the emerging market economy, Hong Kong while still a Crown colony and the Philippines as “People Power” was ushering the Marcos regime out. He’s erudite, often lyrical, witty and at times funny, and, on occasion heart-breaking. His essay on the Philippines and its crushing poverty comes to mind: sad and surreal. His multinational perspective does make him often insightful about the cross-cultural currents he witnessed. And over the course of his book, and in his epilogue and 2000 afterword, he did seem more nuanced and less judgmental about the exchanges between East and West.
The book struck me as rather dated at times, or at least amusingly of its time, the essays mostly being about travels around 1985. A generation has passed since Iyer traveled through these countries. Iyer at first seemed obsessed with this idea of cultural imperialism, hitting that theme continually and calling tourists “lay colonialists” despite showing that those aspects of Western pop culture and ideas are things that Asians adopt--and adapt--for themselves. Just as Westerners often do the same (only to be labeled “cultural vultures” by Iyer.) He seemed oblivious to the ironies of a British-born man of Indian extraction, Oxford and Harvard educated, who called America home ranting about how cultural exchange “corrupts” the “purity” of Asian cultures--while himself as a visitor doing his part to carry the contagion. His very name is a combination of the Buddha’s name and that of an Italian philosopher. He called Japan his “ideal” and he currently lives there with his Japanese wife. So he’s a man who himself mixes cultures, yet seemed often to decry that, or at least be deeply ambivalent. He also sometimes struck me as naive and condescending. I recently read Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love and though I had my issues and poked some fun at it in my review, I thought Gilbert had a more balanced view of Bali, which Iyer presented as this paradise without crime and a culture of harmony. Gilbert rather than a few weeks spent months there, and she didn’t spend time as a tourist in the usual expat haunts, but actually interacted with ordinary Balinese. The people weren’t museum artifacts to her that need to be preserved under glass.
Yet despite my criticism I don’t regret my time spent reading Iyer. He caught Asia at an interesting time. For instance traveling through China right post-Mao, experiencing the maddening house-of-mirrors communist bureaucracy and the vibrancy of the emerging market economy, Hong Kong while still a Crown colony and the Philippines as “People Power” was ushering the Marcos regime out. He’s erudite, often lyrical, witty and at times funny, and, on occasion heart-breaking. His essay on the Philippines and its crushing poverty comes to mind: sad and surreal. His multinational perspective does make him often insightful about the cross-cultural currents he witnessed. And over the course of his book, and in his epilogue and 2000 afterword, he did seem more nuanced and less judgmental about the exchanges between East and West.
November 22, 2009
The book is about his 6-month visit to the different countries in the Far East in 1985. Each country has its own chapter in the book but the sequence is not chronological. I think it was arranged according to how Iyer would like to impact or influence the mind of the reader and I think he was able to do that effectively. The first chapter is about the paradise island of Bali focusing on the effect of the tourism to the previously gentle and virgin island. The character of Wayan, the child-father who was deserted by his wife put the human perspective in what has happened to this Australian haven. From Bali, the other chapters are Tibet, Nepal, China, The Philippines, Burma, Hong Kong, India, Thailand and Japan. I was able to relate to this book because since 1999 up to couple of years back I traveled extensively to most of these Asian countries. I was late by more than a decade since the Iyer wrote his book but I still saw most of what he wrote about - the expats in Hong Kong, the night life in Patpong, the tourist bus in China, the slums in Mumbai and the salary men of Tokyo. About those countries which I was not able to visit like Tibet, Nepal and Burma, I learned a lot from reading those chapters. For one the book is aptly titled. The book is comparable to the video houses in Kathmandu showing different movies or programs that are mainly about US stuff - Rambo, American football, etc. In other words, the book is about how the West (the US in particular) has influenced these countries from their economy, politics, sports, morality, etc. However, Iyer seemed to be very fond of giving two sides for every theory he raised in the book. For example, having said the above, he followed it up with the question: who is really influencing who? Is it really the West influencing the East or vice versa? In his Afterword, he offered his answer: both. In fact, except for The Philippines, the East is imbibing everything West offers but in the end each country emerges still intact albeit changed. This means that Thailand listens to American Top 40 music but in the end it is still Thailand and not America. Obviously, my favorite is the chapter about Iyer's experience in the Philippines. 1985 was my first working year after college. The songs that were ruling out the airways like Bruce Springsteen's Born in the US (the title of the chapter) and USA For Africa's We Are The World were truly the hits of that year. I was also one of those who watched Isla (starring Maria Isabel Lopez) in Mrs. Marcos' Film Center. Iyer mentioned that the government showed porn in a film center with the screening price 5 times higher than the regular movie. True. He also mentioned about Baguio where I finished by first university degree. He said that "for all its silvered, foggy charm, though, Baguio did not seem to have the imperiousness of a British hill station, or its weighted dignity" and went on concluding about the Philippines being the model of American democracy in Asia but without any sign of "Lincoln, Thoreau or Sojouner Truth, just Dick Clark, Ronald McDonald and Madonna" Once again, true. Iyer wrote the truth, however painful. He also wrote beautifully - his narrative is peppered with words whose meanings either I have long forgotten or don't know. His vocabulary is definitely deeper than Nicholas Sparks. No wonder, Pico Iyer is a TIME writer. There are also many memorable quotes that I faithfully highlighted (which is not a regular habit for me) while reading. Let me share this one from pp 21: Everyone is familiar with the slogan of Kipling's "Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet." But few recall that the lines that conclude the refrain, just a few syllables later, exclaim, "But there is neither East nor West, border, nor breed, nor birth, / When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth!" Nicely put, Mr. Iyer!
November 20, 2009
Disappointing. Pico rails about how badly the West has polluted the rest of the world, lamenting the ruined purity of far-flung places. Michael Jackson cd's for sale in Indonesian villages? I'm shocked, shocked! For anyone who has been around the world a bit, this book is just too obvious, and for anyone who hasn't, it's a cynical and jaded expose of...nothing too interesting. What a clever fellow! He finds what he expects to find; this book is about as interesting as a restaurant review of Chili's or TGI Fridays. Not fun. And the writing is repetitive. He only had 50 pages of real ideas.
May 20, 2016
The book is a travelogue of East Asia set in late 1980s. Of the dozen or so pieces, the one on Japan was superb, so were the introduction and conclusion. But the rest made me wish I hadnt picked up this book. And now I see that d 3 most popular reviews on goodreads app are 2 or 3 stars.
The author's aim is to analyse cultural impact of d West on d East and he does so with a lot of self-indulgence, whining and cliches. The usual Indian Bollywood piece that u may now have memorised, the almost ceaseless complaints of the author in each piece - "Bhai aapne dekha kya wo to bata ! Aur kuchh to achcha hoga ?" The lack of conversations or direct speech further increase the disconnect between the reader and the author and the author and the place.
The author's aim is to analyse cultural impact of d West on d East and he does so with a lot of self-indulgence, whining and cliches. The usual Indian Bollywood piece that u may now have memorised, the almost ceaseless complaints of the author in each piece - "Bhai aapne dekha kya wo to bata ! Aur kuchh to achcha hoga ?" The lack of conversations or direct speech further increase the disconnect between the reader and the author and the author and the place.
March 11, 2015
For such an acclaimed writer, this was just ok. First of all i wonder if he actually hung out with any Nepalis - they do not call their hats "fezzes" they are Dhaka topis. Details are so distracting, it is worth getting them right.
March 14, 2016
Once in a while I like to read a good travel book, preferably about Asia. Sometimes I also catch myself finishing these books with some sort of dissatisfaction. It's difficult for me to put a finger on it - is it because usually these travel accounts are written by the Westerners? Is it because of them illustrating a time in the past, almost a history, and not the flavor of "right now"? Or is it because the personality of the author barges in way too much at times?
While, a few years ago, I was rather mesmerized by the ever present personality of Paul Theroux in his "The Great Railway Bazaar" and rather admired the relative freshness of Tiziano Terzani's outlook in his "The Fortune-Teller Told Me" (both about Asia), I must admit that I am rather lukewarm about Pico Iyer's accounts. It could be partially because of the spin that the author wanted to give the book, namely, tracing down the westernization of Southeast Asia. There probably wouldn't be anything wrong with that if "Video Night" was written in the 00's. But it was largely written in mid-80's. By now most of these countries must have surely changed their absorbing or rejecting treatment of Western elements and it felt a lot like reading a book on fairly close history but nevertheless rather useless history. It is particularly visible in the chapter on China in which there is no talk of factories or air-pollution as in the middle of the 80's the PRC had just barely started to open itself to the outside world. Interesting, but only from a certain historic point of view.
Another problem was the style in which the book is written. Fairly wordy and erudite, it was the sometimes evocative, sometimes a bit annoying "style of plenty". Iyer's description sparkle with wit, puns, literary references. Sometimes it is a pleasure, occasionally a pain - especially when the reader feels like they are being sold more of the author's wit rather than a bit of Asia.
Having said that, there were still some chapters that I thoroughly enjoyed. My favorite one was probably on the isolated Burma, author's mostly nostalgic, a little bit confused, description of it. The musings on India's bollywood movies were also educational and sometimes funny. The entire India chapter rang the most honest and straightforward to me. On the other hand, both Hong Kong and Thailand parts were somewhat horrible. It seems to me that Iyer was way too focused on only one, single thing - corporate life of the expats in the former and prostitution in the latter. Consequently the reader hardly gets any depiction of a Hong Kong female or of a Thai male.
I would still recommend "Video Night in Kathmandu" to anyone readily interested in Southeast Asia. The readers, however, must bear in mind the possible outdatedness of certain passages or perhaps even entire chapters.
While, a few years ago, I was rather mesmerized by the ever present personality of Paul Theroux in his "The Great Railway Bazaar" and rather admired the relative freshness of Tiziano Terzani's outlook in his "The Fortune-Teller Told Me" (both about Asia), I must admit that I am rather lukewarm about Pico Iyer's accounts. It could be partially because of the spin that the author wanted to give the book, namely, tracing down the westernization of Southeast Asia. There probably wouldn't be anything wrong with that if "Video Night" was written in the 00's. But it was largely written in mid-80's. By now most of these countries must have surely changed their absorbing or rejecting treatment of Western elements and it felt a lot like reading a book on fairly close history but nevertheless rather useless history. It is particularly visible in the chapter on China in which there is no talk of factories or air-pollution as in the middle of the 80's the PRC had just barely started to open itself to the outside world. Interesting, but only from a certain historic point of view.
Another problem was the style in which the book is written. Fairly wordy and erudite, it was the sometimes evocative, sometimes a bit annoying "style of plenty". Iyer's description sparkle with wit, puns, literary references. Sometimes it is a pleasure, occasionally a pain - especially when the reader feels like they are being sold more of the author's wit rather than a bit of Asia.
Having said that, there were still some chapters that I thoroughly enjoyed. My favorite one was probably on the isolated Burma, author's mostly nostalgic, a little bit confused, description of it. The musings on India's bollywood movies were also educational and sometimes funny. The entire India chapter rang the most honest and straightforward to me. On the other hand, both Hong Kong and Thailand parts were somewhat horrible. It seems to me that Iyer was way too focused on only one, single thing - corporate life of the expats in the former and prostitution in the latter. Consequently the reader hardly gets any depiction of a Hong Kong female or of a Thai male.
I would still recommend "Video Night in Kathmandu" to anyone readily interested in Southeast Asia. The readers, however, must bear in mind the possible outdatedness of certain passages or perhaps even entire chapters.
May 14, 2025
Second Review 2025
I didn't find it condescending this time around . Found it real, heartfelt and in parts naive. ( I would never fall for those letters asking for money with a sob story ).
First Review 2016
Well written, witty and fascinating account of travelling in Asia in the 80s. It is very interesting to read in 2016 about how these countries were 30 years ago.
Pico states outright that his is a single sided account purely from the little he sees as a tourist.The book has an overarching theme of how the West influences the East,Pico sticks to it and makes no bones of it either. It is a good thing that he gives the clarification at the start itself. If he had not, this book would have come across as extremely condescending. It still does in few places.
I didn't find it condescending this time around . Found it real, heartfelt and in parts naive. ( I would never fall for those letters asking for money with a sob story ).
First Review 2016
Well written, witty and fascinating account of travelling in Asia in the 80s. It is very interesting to read in 2016 about how these countries were 30 years ago.
Pico states outright that his is a single sided account purely from the little he sees as a tourist.The book has an overarching theme of how the West influences the East,Pico sticks to it and makes no bones of it either. It is a good thing that he gives the clarification at the start itself. If he had not, this book would have come across as extremely condescending. It still does in few places.
July 21, 2012
This book was patronizing bordering on the repulsive. This is a perfect example of how being aware of colonialism does not magically prevent you from participating in it. Pico Iyer tries so hard to be arch and snide towards careless, self-absorbed Western tourists only to end up acting just like them, every time, everywhere he goes. He never bothers to encounter anybody except tourists and taxi drivers. His "analysis" ends up reinforcing pre-existing stereotypes everywhere he goes. His fascination with young Asian girls is creepy in the extreme. (Yo, those girls in Bali are ten!) He gets to Nepal and encounters a whole community of washed-out hippies who are literally there because the Grateful Dead told them to go, treating Nepal like a glorious hookah lounge, roused out of their drug induced sloth only long enough to haggle over a $5/night room with somebody who makes $200 a year, and he thinks it's glorious! What the hell is wrong with this guy? He's a beautiful writer, but what a jerk.
July 25, 2011
Set in the mid 80's, Pico's travel writing worked on two levels for me - one, in terms of his destinations, and the other, in terms of time. Right from the first page, with his interpretation of the Rambo phenomenon in Asia, his sharp wit makes this book a great read.
He uses individual characters in different places (India, China, Tibet, Nepal, Burma, Thailand, HongKong, Japan, Philippines) to describe the place's character. In some cases, the stereotypes are reinforced, but in a lot of others, he manages to fit in and yet observe objectively.
He discusses the influence of the West on the East and tries to show each of the places he has visited have reacted to it - some by shunning it, some by completely absorbing it, and some by adapting it and making it their own.
I felt that throughout the book he stayed true to his observations, though the perspective was tinged with a favouritism for the east.
He uses individual characters in different places (India, China, Tibet, Nepal, Burma, Thailand, HongKong, Japan, Philippines) to describe the place's character. In some cases, the stereotypes are reinforced, but in a lot of others, he manages to fit in and yet observe objectively.
He discusses the influence of the West on the East and tries to show each of the places he has visited have reacted to it - some by shunning it, some by completely absorbing it, and some by adapting it and making it their own.
I felt that throughout the book he stayed true to his observations, though the perspective was tinged with a favouritism for the east.
October 17, 2020
I read parts of this book every once in a while, not so much because I love it, but because every single time it gives me something new to think about. Iyer's chronicling of the east in the 80s will remain a classic for this very reason: It is literature as time-travel. He is remarkably prescient about so much that's to come, and yet little of the writing is dated, if at all.
There is so much to unpack and think about here, in just how the world has changed from then to now, where I write from the pandemic-closed world we find ourselves in. I have a few essays left in it still, and I will get to them when I get to travel again. But even if I do not, I'll still reach for it, even if just to remember what it was like, you know, once upon a time.
There is so much to unpack and think about here, in just how the world has changed from then to now, where I write from the pandemic-closed world we find ourselves in. I have a few essays left in it still, and I will get to them when I get to travel again. But even if I do not, I'll still reach for it, even if just to remember what it was like, you know, once upon a time.
February 5, 2013
This was written in 1988, and I was afraid it would be outdated & uninteresting. But I certainly remember how the 80s played out here in the states and it was fascinating to read what was going on halfway around the globe... Ah, the 80s...no matter where you were, who could forget?
August 16, 2021
Essays on travel in Asia in the 1980s. His first book? Some entertaining stuff, dimly remembered now.
March 28, 2023
Tales of the author’s travels in Asia in the mid 1980s (and hence dated). Where ever you go, there you are—which for the author is bars, prostitutes, and squalid poverty drenched in American media, products, and fantasies. His conclusion that Asia is taking over America is naive and more than a little preposterous.
June 29, 2015
Pico Iyer is a talented writer and a thoughtful cultural analyst. The book is now dated, having been written in the mid-eighties, but that isn't one of my motivations for its rating. I found the glimpses of things that have definitively changed to be interesting, and often they made me wish I had some sort of comparative current nonfiction text about the region, to compare, but this is really a problem of my lack of comprehensive reading, not the book's.
My three-star rating comes from two developmental problems that I couldn't get over in the text, which are often related. The first is that the text suffers from too many ideas. When I picked up the book and saw that it was called Video Night in Kathmandu, then read the first chapter about Rambo, I thought that the book would be a comparative exploration of culture through the lens of imported Western media. And it was... and it wasn't. The chapter on India was an especially bad offender. Heavy on analysis, light on examples, it felt difficult to discern if I was reading a travelogue trying to be a film studies tome or something else. Iyer went a lot of places and saw a lot of fascinating things, but he didn't always put those things down in a way that was cohesive.
This brings me to my second developmental objection: I never quite became convinced that the order of the chapters, and the order the cities were introduced within each chapter, made sense. Sometimes we would jump abruptly in space and time from Tokyo to its anagram friend Kyoto without any warning. At the beginning of the book, I would get a glimpse at Burma that once references Bangkok, confirming that Iyer had already been there, yet the book wouldn't actually discuss Bangkok until nearly the end. I'm okay with a lack of chronological cohesion if there is a larger reason, but in this case I was unable to find it.
I am glad I read this book, but I wouldn't read it again, nor another book by Iyer. Bring me one of his travel pieces for a magazine, though, and I'd happily eat it right up.
My three-star rating comes from two developmental problems that I couldn't get over in the text, which are often related. The first is that the text suffers from too many ideas. When I picked up the book and saw that it was called Video Night in Kathmandu, then read the first chapter about Rambo, I thought that the book would be a comparative exploration of culture through the lens of imported Western media. And it was... and it wasn't. The chapter on India was an especially bad offender. Heavy on analysis, light on examples, it felt difficult to discern if I was reading a travelogue trying to be a film studies tome or something else. Iyer went a lot of places and saw a lot of fascinating things, but he didn't always put those things down in a way that was cohesive.
This brings me to my second developmental objection: I never quite became convinced that the order of the chapters, and the order the cities were introduced within each chapter, made sense. Sometimes we would jump abruptly in space and time from Tokyo to its anagram friend Kyoto without any warning. At the beginning of the book, I would get a glimpse at Burma that once references Bangkok, confirming that Iyer had already been there, yet the book wouldn't actually discuss Bangkok until nearly the end. I'm okay with a lack of chronological cohesion if there is a larger reason, but in this case I was unable to find it.
I am glad I read this book, but I wouldn't read it again, nor another book by Iyer. Bring me one of his travel pieces for a magazine, though, and I'd happily eat it right up.
February 15, 2015
Were the 1980s another world? I didn't realise on starting this book that it was written in the 1980s. Surely, I thought, when I realised, Asia would have changed so much in 30 years that this book would perhaps seem a little out of date? Well, no. Not really. The pop song and pricing references may be dated, but many of the things the book talks about in looking at Asia from the eyes of an outsider are still valid.
Pico Iyer did not attempt to make a sociological or economic study of the Asian countries he visited; instead he tried to capture the personality of a place through the persons that he meets on his travels, both locals and foreigners. The chapter on Hong Kong captures the closing days of British ownership, describing an expat lifestyle which may not be less common under Chinese rule. Has the level of poverty and desperation captured in the chapters on Thailand and the Philippines decreased? China and Japan - both still absorb ideas from the West but somehow make them Chinese or Japanese in the process. So even though this book is some years old now, and considering that in between times we have seen the collapse of communism, and the opening up of countries which were closed to tourist during the time this book was written, many of the issues described in the countries are still relevant.
The book is a good read. It gives you an armchair trip through 10 countries (Tibet, Bali, Nepal, Burma and India in addition to the ones named above) and a little trip through time as well. In several place Iyer tries to put the things he sees and experiences into the context of the person on the other side. These insights may give you some perspective next time you're in another country and you're being hassled to buy something, take this taxi, shop here... a reality check that what is annoying to you is survival for many, and where you spend your precious tourist dollars could make the difference between a family having something to eat that night... or not.
Pico Iyer did not attempt to make a sociological or economic study of the Asian countries he visited; instead he tried to capture the personality of a place through the persons that he meets on his travels, both locals and foreigners. The chapter on Hong Kong captures the closing days of British ownership, describing an expat lifestyle which may not be less common under Chinese rule. Has the level of poverty and desperation captured in the chapters on Thailand and the Philippines decreased? China and Japan - both still absorb ideas from the West but somehow make them Chinese or Japanese in the process. So even though this book is some years old now, and considering that in between times we have seen the collapse of communism, and the opening up of countries which were closed to tourist during the time this book was written, many of the issues described in the countries are still relevant.
The book is a good read. It gives you an armchair trip through 10 countries (Tibet, Bali, Nepal, Burma and India in addition to the ones named above) and a little trip through time as well. In several place Iyer tries to put the things he sees and experiences into the context of the person on the other side. These insights may give you some perspective next time you're in another country and you're being hassled to buy something, take this taxi, shop here... a reality check that what is annoying to you is survival for many, and where you spend your precious tourist dollars could make the difference between a family having something to eat that night... or not.
July 23, 2013
better to be fascinating wrong than boringly nigh-correct, one supposes, and in this regard, Pico Iyer's most famous work 'Video Night in Katmandu' deserves its sort of backpacker fame, it's name dropping in Bali and Lhasa. several years before its time (first published 1988, the Soviet Union still existent), Iyer's relentless accounts of dynamic and hustler Asia, decadent and work-averse West predicts a state of affairs that comes to pass thirty years later... but the average Chinaman, of course, is still a Guangzhou hustler of middle-school education and the average Westerner still a junior-college office worker with four weeks' vacation a year.
to some degree I'm gifting the 5 here for '3'ing the The Lady and the Monk and Falling off the Map, but if Video Night doesn't absolutely hold firm in the 5-space, certainly it argues for it in more ways than one. Iyer's perfumed and noctural Bali, for example, might carry it it through if for nothing else and if he shied away in Falling from an authentic engagement with the $3/day crowd of Nam and Ulaan Baator, here in Video Night Iyer is two-feet in. he makes no apologies for ceaseless nights in the Soi Cowboy of Bangkok, he isn't afraid to inquire where exactly the pesos are flowing in shanty-town Manila.
if you're going to read only one Pico Iyer, this is the one to do it. and if Iyer never again lives up to his 1988 work, well that is cruelty reality, too, the unforgiving face of fate which says all of us, even the Oxonians, only have one book inside of us. tant pis
to some degree I'm gifting the 5 here for '3'ing the The Lady and the Monk and Falling off the Map, but if Video Night doesn't absolutely hold firm in the 5-space, certainly it argues for it in more ways than one. Iyer's perfumed and noctural Bali, for example, might carry it it through if for nothing else and if he shied away in Falling from an authentic engagement with the $3/day crowd of Nam and Ulaan Baator, here in Video Night Iyer is two-feet in. he makes no apologies for ceaseless nights in the Soi Cowboy of Bangkok, he isn't afraid to inquire where exactly the pesos are flowing in shanty-town Manila.
if you're going to read only one Pico Iyer, this is the one to do it. and if Iyer never again lives up to his 1988 work, well that is cruelty reality, too, the unforgiving face of fate which says all of us, even the Oxonians, only have one book inside of us. tant pis
June 29, 2014
Iyer travels to various Asian countries over a multi-year period in the 80s. His thesis is how American pop-culture is being exported and adopted throughout Asia. Rambo, Madonna and Bruce Springsteen are mentioned throughout the book.
Iyer covers a number of countries and regions including Bali, India, the Philippines, Japan, Nepal, Thailand, and Hong Kong.
Western tourism in Bali.
Movie stars in India.
Karaoke and escorts in the Phillipines.
Baseball in Japan.
Prostitution in Thailand.
Iyer depicts Asian culture being overrun by Western commercialism. The narrative is funny, sad, and disturbing. Perhaps Iyer set out to vilify the negative influences of capitalism from the outset. He mostly interacts and gravitates towards the less fortunate from these countries. He is also often found in the seemlier parts of town. Most of the people he meets are shown struggling to find meaning and make a living in the new global economy.
If Iyer's goal is to point out the negative impacts of Capitalism and American influence, he achieves this well. This is a well crafted book. "Video Night" forces you to consider the problems that globalization and materialism create. The book is darker than perhaps a more balanced viewpoint would call for, but that seems to be by design.
Captivating, well-researched, and thought provoking. Those interested in Asian cultures, concerned with the soullessness of materialism, or the struggle of the less fortunate will find "Video Nights" an interesting read.
Iyer covers a number of countries and regions including Bali, India, the Philippines, Japan, Nepal, Thailand, and Hong Kong.
Western tourism in Bali.
Movie stars in India.
Karaoke and escorts in the Phillipines.
Baseball in Japan.
Prostitution in Thailand.
Iyer depicts Asian culture being overrun by Western commercialism. The narrative is funny, sad, and disturbing. Perhaps Iyer set out to vilify the negative influences of capitalism from the outset. He mostly interacts and gravitates towards the less fortunate from these countries. He is also often found in the seemlier parts of town. Most of the people he meets are shown struggling to find meaning and make a living in the new global economy.
If Iyer's goal is to point out the negative impacts of Capitalism and American influence, he achieves this well. This is a well crafted book. "Video Night" forces you to consider the problems that globalization and materialism create. The book is darker than perhaps a more balanced viewpoint would call for, but that seems to be by design.
Captivating, well-researched, and thought provoking. Those interested in Asian cultures, concerned with the soullessness of materialism, or the struggle of the less fortunate will find "Video Nights" an interesting read.
May 7, 2020
The book is gives readers an intriguing look at the Western world’s impact on Eastern culture, and how the tourism industry has affected the lives Asian citizens so heavily bombarded by propaganda, politics, and US standards. It’s as if we’ve polluted the West, in some ways. The actual author seems to be a bit stuck up; I recall he called short Asian women dwarfs or something of the like. He is quite different in the final chapter of the book, stating that he had experienced so much beauty in his travels, and sharing how long the relationships he made with locals lasted and that the East has just as significant an impact on the US as we have on the East. But he doesn’t seem to carry the enthusiasm throughout the other portions of the book, and always seems dull. I understand that he wants to be ‘real’ about tourism, and expose the realities of it, but you’ve got to also share the positives with the negatives. From his accounts, I’ve seen the poverty and the riches, which I quite like. His chapter on India is almost solely about India’s movie industry, although it’s interesting. What else did I gather? Well, the Japanese are perfectionists, Hong Kong is the New York of Asia, Bali is pretty much all tourists, Burma is one of the few places left to its natural beauty, its hard to find a true getaway paradise, and Filipinos are some of the most overworked and underpaid in the world. And as someone who has hired a Filipino, I can certainly confirm the last point.
November 2, 2012
Spotkałam sie z bardzo różnymi recenzjami Video Night in Kathmandu. Na pewno nie jest to jedna z tych książek, przy której otwierałam oczy ze zdumienia, która kształtuje światopogląd. Podsuwmowując miła lektura, ale nie czuję, żebym dużo straciła, gdybym jej nie przeczytała.
Nie sądze, że problem jest fakt, że książka powstała i opisuje Azję lat 80. Raczej dość pobieżne potraktowanie każdego kraju okazało się w moim przypadku nie wystarczające. Poszczególne rodziały/ kraje zostały skonstuowane wokól jednego głównego tematu, ale mimo wszystko jest to historia widziana oczami turysty/ człowieka z zewnątrz. Taki był pewnie zamysł tej ksiązki, ale dla mnie to troche za mało.
Znalazłam tam kilka ciekawych wątków, przede wszystkim o tym jak coraz większa liczba ludzi podróżujących do tych krajów wpływa na ich rozwój i kształotwanie kultury. Jak większość jadących do Azji chciałoby zobaczyć Azję sprzed co najmniej 100 lat, odmawiając tym krajom prawa do zmian i jednocześnie krytykując przygotowane specialnie dla turystów elementy, które mają temu wyobrażeniu dorównać. I bardzoc ciekawy fragament o rywalizacji pomiędzy 'backpackers' o to kto zrobił coś bardziej szalonego, czyli mieszkanie w jak najbardziej skrajnych warunkach, podróżowanie najgorszym środkiem transportu itp. Akurat to nie zmieniło się od lat 80.
Nie sądze, że problem jest fakt, że książka powstała i opisuje Azję lat 80. Raczej dość pobieżne potraktowanie każdego kraju okazało się w moim przypadku nie wystarczające. Poszczególne rodziały/ kraje zostały skonstuowane wokól jednego głównego tematu, ale mimo wszystko jest to historia widziana oczami turysty/ człowieka z zewnątrz. Taki był pewnie zamysł tej ksiązki, ale dla mnie to troche za mało.
Znalazłam tam kilka ciekawych wątków, przede wszystkim o tym jak coraz większa liczba ludzi podróżujących do tych krajów wpływa na ich rozwój i kształotwanie kultury. Jak większość jadących do Azji chciałoby zobaczyć Azję sprzed co najmniej 100 lat, odmawiając tym krajom prawa do zmian i jednocześnie krytykując przygotowane specialnie dla turystów elementy, które mają temu wyobrażeniu dorównać. I bardzoc ciekawy fragament o rywalizacji pomiędzy 'backpackers' o to kto zrobił coś bardziej szalonego, czyli mieszkanie w jak najbardziej skrajnych warunkach, podróżowanie najgorszym środkiem transportu itp. Akurat to nie zmieniło się od lat 80.
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August 26, 2009I first heard of Pico Iyer by reading his liner notes in THE ESSENTIAL LEONARD COHEN compilation. Then I heard him interviewed about his interactions with the Dalai Lama on the NPR program Fresh Air. Clearly, he is a devout seeker with an admirable curiousity.
This book describes the exoticism that goes both directions in the cultural "East" and "West". It opens with Iyer's observations of how different Asian countries were impressed by the movie RAMBO and the numerous ways Westerner tourists are fed all sorts of cultural derangements. Although, his generalizations might be dubious his descriptions of personal interaction within each of the East Asian countries (Bali, China, Hong Kong, Myanmar, India, the Phillipines, and Japan) are fair and touching journalism. I was completely fascinated and impressed by Iyer's ability to highlight the dynamism of culture which produces some sad power dynamics- via colonialism- but also some exciting and strange cultural expressions.
This book describes the exoticism that goes both directions in the cultural "East" and "West". It opens with Iyer's observations of how different Asian countries were impressed by the movie RAMBO and the numerous ways Westerner tourists are fed all sorts of cultural derangements. Although, his generalizations might be dubious his descriptions of personal interaction within each of the East Asian countries (Bali, China, Hong Kong, Myanmar, India, the Phillipines, and Japan) are fair and touching journalism. I was completely fascinated and impressed by Iyer's ability to highlight the dynamism of culture which produces some sad power dynamics- via colonialism- but also some exciting and strange cultural expressions.
June 30, 2009
I read this book in preparing for a trip to Asia - also, my boyfriend happened to own it. It was interesting, but to me, it was more that it captured the 1980s in Asia, rather than delivered any ground-breaking insight into the culture. In may cases, it was almost as if Iyer saw what he wanted to see - a single-minded Chinese populace, an introspective and peaceful Burma, an efficiency-oriented Japan etc. He does point out some contrarian aspects of each culture, but the bulk of the writing seems to confirm stereotypes. However, I have yet to visit Asia (September!), so he may have been speaking the truth. I'll let you know. The writing itself was entertaining enough to keep me engaged though - clever, colorful, even sometimes a bit too much so. Overall, a quick amusing journey into a past Asia I'll never experience - supposedly, MUCH has changed.
November 22, 2011
This was a fun book, very fast reading, even though quite dated (the 80s), about how East meets West through popculture. There was a part about Japan too, and judging by it I'd say the author has a good insight into the cultures he's writing about, for someone who doesn't speak the languages of the countries he's visited. Sure, he is a little bit too awed by the (putative) mysteriousness and perfectionism of Japan, so probably his highly poetic descriptions of other places - like Burma or Tibet - should be taken with a pinch of salt, but these are his stories, and they are well-written and emotionally engaging too.
I liked the parts about Burma, Tibet, and the Philippines the best. Oh, and now I'm sorry I didn't get "The Lady and the Monk" for 500 yen when I could, but oh well such is life, maybe next time.
I liked the parts about Burma, Tibet, and the Philippines the best. Oh, and now I'm sorry I didn't get "The Lady and the Monk" for 500 yen when I could, but oh well such is life, maybe next time.
July 23, 2013
I'm not typically a fan of travel books, but I found this one really enjoyable. Pico Iyer was more nuanced in his observations and they never felt too colonial or too preachy. He expressed as many sad and disappointed feelings as he did exciting ones, and it seemed like he had an energy about him that was neither too hippy-dippy-backpacker nor too stoic.
I think a lot of these kinds of books at the end come to the same conclusion, maybe because it's so true, that is despite all the strange surface differences between us, we all share very similar human beliefs and desires - in a good way. And even though, as expected Iyer came to that same conclusion, as I have in my own journeys across Asia, it was interesting to see the views when walking through his footsteps.
I'd liken this book to a hot-toddy. It's something you can curl up into, but it has a bite every now and then.
I think a lot of these kinds of books at the end come to the same conclusion, maybe because it's so true, that is despite all the strange surface differences between us, we all share very similar human beliefs and desires - in a good way. And even though, as expected Iyer came to that same conclusion, as I have in my own journeys across Asia, it was interesting to see the views when walking through his footsteps.
I'd liken this book to a hot-toddy. It's something you can curl up into, but it has a bite every now and then.
April 21, 2017
Video Night in Kathmandu and Other Reports from the Not-So-Far East by Pico Iyer (Vintage Departures 1988) (950.4283). This is an intriguing off-the-wall travel journal from the author's exploratory journey to the Far East. There are entries on Japan, China, Burma, Hong Kong, and Thailand, among others. Unlike the rest of the book, the entry on Thailand is concerned almost exclusively with sex tourism; the author's trip to the place was exceedingly sordid and creepy, which is unlike the reports I have heard from my own friends and acquaintances. Perhaps things have changed in Thailand in the thirty-odd years since this volume was published. I purchased my paperback copy in good condition from McKay's for $1.50 on 3/1/17. My rating: 7/10, finished 4/4/17. PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
April 26, 2011
A book of "I traveled to ____ and saw how East Meets West" stories. I mean, nothing wrong with that. Some of them were naturally interesting, particularly Burma, which he describes as this land lost in time. Also, he wrote this in 1988, but a lot of it feels like it was last year, particularly when he's discussing the up-and-coming Eastern business world.
A lot of it reinforced stereotypes: Thailand has sex tourism, the Philippines is super US-influenced, Bali has ... lots of tourists, and India has so much of everything. Which could mean these are true. I just didn't get the sense that I was learning anything I wouldn't learn if I went to any of the countries he visited for a couple weeks.
Still, he's not a bad writer. Held my attention.
A lot of it reinforced stereotypes: Thailand has sex tourism, the Philippines is super US-influenced, Bali has ... lots of tourists, and India has so much of everything. Which could mean these are true. I just didn't get the sense that I was learning anything I wouldn't learn if I went to any of the countries he visited for a couple weeks.
Still, he's not a bad writer. Held my attention.
December 20, 2011
A somewhat dated travelogue of Asia, that examines the effects of Westernization on the East. The author's time in Asia happened in the mid 80s, with the latest visit being 1987. Obviously, Asia has changed immeasurably since then, and his descriptions of a Beijing full of bicycles, the Philippines under the Marcos regime, or Bollywood movies where the women are all plump, give the book a quaint "snapshot" feel. That said, much of Iyer's observations about some of the deeper cultural phenomena still ring true. Especially when describing the poverty and hope of Thailand, the Philippines, India, or Indonesia, Iyer's experiences aren't particularly different from what one faces today.
Well written and an entertaining read for anyone interested in travel and culture in Asia.
Well written and an entertaining read for anyone interested in travel and culture in Asia.
July 17, 2012
This book recounts Pico's Asian travels in the late 1980s. It reminded me of my own adventures, and the well written narratives brought back much of the fascination I felt originally. The exception was his description of India, where I found him to be off mark. Especially enjoyed Japan, Tibet, and Nepal. He found too much prostitution in Thailand when he should have found beauty. Suggests reading modern Asia writers Leithauser and Morley. Excellent read. I reread half of this book in Dec. 97 and still enjoyed it. This time I liked his China narrative more. Still find it to be very relative reminder of a more mature traveler than I was.
September 23, 2015
Not quite finished yet... I have to admit, I was hoping for something else. It's a very dated book, from a privileged male solo traveller perspective. I assume this is an early book, and look forward to reading his later ones.
I find the writing to be repetitive at times, echoing nearly word for word a previous phrase.
Some of the essays drag in parts - too long and could have wrapped up his point in fewer words. Personally, I also find his perspective, reported interactions and observations paternalistic and off putting at times, yet interesting for how it highlights our shift in attitudes (In the West). I did love his command of language; the wordplay, and evocative imagery.
I find the writing to be repetitive at times, echoing nearly word for word a previous phrase.
Some of the essays drag in parts - too long and could have wrapped up his point in fewer words. Personally, I also find his perspective, reported interactions and observations paternalistic and off putting at times, yet interesting for how it highlights our shift in attitudes (In the West). I did love his command of language; the wordplay, and evocative imagery.
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