Made in China

by Jean-Philippe Toussaint

Depuis le début des années 2000, j’ai fait de nombreux voyages en Chine, je me suis rendu à Pékin, à Shanghai, à Guangzhou, à Changsha, à Nankin, à Kunming, à Lijiang. Rien n’aurait été possible sans Chen Tong, mon éditeur chinois. La première fois que j’ai rencontré Chen Tong, en 1999, à Bruxelles, je ne savais encore quasiment rien de lui et de ses activités multiples, à la fois éditeur, libraire, artiste, commissaire d’exposition et professeur aux Beaux-Arts. Ce livre est l’évocation de notre amitié et du tournage de mon film The Honey Dress au cœur de la Chine d’aujourd’hui. Mais, même si c’est le réel que je romance, il est indéniable que je romance.
J.-P.T.

192 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2017

About the author

Jean-Philippe Toussaint (born 29 November, 1957, Brussels) is a Belgian prose writer and filmmaker. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages and he has had his photographs displayed in Brussels and Japan. Toussaint won the Prix Médicis in 2005 for his novel Fuir. The 2006 book La mélancolie de Zidane (Paris: Minuit, 2006) is a lyrical essay on the headbutt administered by the French football player Zinedine Zidane to the Italian player Marco Materazzi during the 2006 World Cup final in Berlin. An English translation was published in 2007 in the British journal New Formations. His 2009 novel La Vérité sur Marie won the prestigious Prix Décembre.

Reviews

[Stephen Durrant · Rating 4 out of 5]

An odd book, but in some ways a rather endearing one. Toussaint, a Belgian writer and cineaste, has been traveling to China for some years, where he has made several short films. This book is partly an account of his friendship with his Chinese editor, Chen Tong, with whom he can hardly communicate without a translator, and partly a more general and humorous description of working as a foreigner in China. Obstacles appear and vaporize constantly, adaptations and changes the rule rather than the exception, and one is frequently not even aware of where he is headed nor what might happen next! In the midst of all this uncertainty, Toussaint meditates on how art is so often a compromise or a response to contingencies that arise during its production and that these, surprisingly, strangely can enhance the final product. Moreover, in the midst of all the chaos, and concerned he is never really in control, Toussaint still feels very well taken care of and develops attachments that leave him deeply moved--even close to tears. Somehow being rather lost, not even understanding what is said around him, brings him closer to authentic emotion than he is back home. As someone who has lived and worked as a foreigner in the Chinese world, I could not help but smile and nod my head in agreement at so much that Toussaint describes. Been there, done that. Finally, in this particular trip to China, Tokussaint is making a very short film entitled "The Honey Dress." He ends his book by taking the reader outside its covers to see the final result--the last words of the book are a URL where the movie can be seen. An engaging read . . . and a head-scratching short film!

[Rivière Cécile · Rating 1 out of 5]

Je n'ai pas réussi à passer les 100 pages sur ce roman bien que j'ai adoré "Faire l'amour" du même auteur. Ce livre, qui mêle récit de voyage et journal personnel n'a pas la touche Jean-Philippe Toussaint qui m'avait plu.