Boxing With Shadows: Travels in China

by Brian Johnston

Boxing with Shadows is a beautifully crafted account of the two and half years Brian Johnson spent living and travelling in the People's Republic of China. He recreates his encounters with contemporary China and the Chinese with perceptiveness, subtlety and powers of evocation. At the same time he reveals the growing sense of loneliness and vulnerability he experienced, and his frustration at the mutual bafflement of his social exchanges with people of such a differing culture and language.
Boxing with Shadows is unique in its treatment of ethnic minority groups in China, and in giving a perspective on Chinese politics and society after the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, China

223 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would be much improved with a better editor; the author hardly puts a noun in without an accompanying adjective, a practise that quickly grates. At times Johnston writes thought-provoking prose about travel and the culture gap between the West and China (and dispels many prejudices, including his own, on the way) but he is not a natural writer and many important points get lost in his own eagerness to "paint a picture". Less is more - if he cut down the endless description this book could have been a four or five star.

As it is I think three is enough; but more for the journey than the writing.