Beijing Blur : A head-spinning journey into modern China

by James West

Published in the United States and Canada under license from Penguin Book Group, Australia. The wit of David Sedaris, with the wanderlust of Jan Morris & Bruce Chatwin. James West , a 23 year-old ABC Radio journalist from Sydney, is transferred to Beijing for a year to work as an exchange employee with China Radio International. Timely, insightful and magically droll, West chronicles a China that most tourists never see, from dancing on the Great Wall at a rave, to asking candid questions of budding entrepreneurs and successful business people by day, to exploring China's new frontiers of bloggers, punk-rock dens and underground gay (tongzhi) and lesbian (lala) culture by night. In his chapter, THE CAPTAIN, West It is the fact that CRI broadcasts in the world's two most popular languages, English and Chinese, that gives it so much weight, something made even clearer with the 2008 Olympic Games. In twenty years time, said then British finance minister Gordon Brown during a 2005 speech in Beijing, the number of English speakers in China is likely to exceed the number of speakers of English as a first language in the rest of the world. Valued upwards of US $60 billion, in 2005 China was already the world's largest market for English-language services, according to The Economist . And it was not just the Chinese getting friendly with the lingua franca of globalisation. It worked the other way too Westerners wanted a piece of the pie, though they didn't always get it right. One of Coca-Cola's first names in Chinese characters could be transliterated as bite the wax tadpole ; KFC's successful finger licking good ; campaign translated as so good, you'll bite your fingers off . Pepsi had hoped to bring more life to consumers after a can of its refreshing soda. Instead it promised to raise your ancestors from the dead . Today multimillion-dollar branding consultants can dream up the perfect combination of Chinese characters to connote every nuance of a Western brand hitting Chinese shelves. Being on this sometimes-shaky bridge between languages appealed to me a lot. It was a place where meaning could be contested, where things that could not be translated still had to find currency in English. What better way to get to know the culture and language of a new country? , I thought. One look around Beijing and the need for professional English services was evident. I had my own favorites. One was a CRI radio ad encouraging listeners to write in with their experiences of love to win a bunch of red roses. The on air promo ended with a male voice, one of the very conservative senior managers, confessing, Love is the feeling of being really penetrated. But for pure shock value, a directory sign in the Gynecology and Obstetrics Department of a big Beijing hospital took the gold medal. Reading the list you were directed to the following

Emergency Room
Observation Room
Obstetrics Centre
Cunt Examination I had my work cut out for me.

Genres: China, Travel, Asia

230 pages, Paperback

Published August 29, 2008

Reviews

[NinaCD · Rating 2 out of 5]

James West writes well for 3/4 of the book, as he doesn't assume to know everything about China for the first segment. When aware of his own ignorance, his observations are interesting and his approach solid. He blows it for himself in the final chapters when he tries to wrap things up in the theme of "now that I get China."

If he had stayed in China for more than a year, James may have realized that even the best China experts never really "get China." Even Chinese people don't "get China."

I give this book at 2 because in spite of some great passages with keen observations and great writing style, the author missed the point and jumped to too many unfounded conclusions.

[Alan Pottinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really interesting travelogue, I was in China the same year as the author and recognised much of the politics he discussed, but unsure if I would have bothered with it otherwise.

[Matt John · Rating 3 out of 5]

[Nikki Chee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellently written. West's observations of and participation in modern China is insightful, honest and controversial and entertaining. Must read.

[Quiver · Rating 3 out of 5]

Insights from a twenty-something Australian journalist on a internship in China.

[Adam van Rooijen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the anecdotes and insightful stories throughout