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Total entries in this category: 51
Published On: Mar 07, 2006 03:02 PM
Total entries in this category: 51
Published On: Mar 07, 2006 03:02 PM
The Once and Future Kingdom
Sitting in the airport, waiting to go to China, I
read a book called "Sailing Through China" by Paul Theroux.
It's a short book, only 64 small pages, and it was
written in the late 70s, at a time when very few Westerners had an opportunity
to see China for themselves. The tone is part reporting and part essay. It is a
mostly sad book; a picture of China struggling to become a modern
country.
China has changed a lot in the 25 years since the book was written, and in most cities, people's lives are similar to Westerner's. But many parts of China remain extremely poor, and not much different from what Theroux saw in 1978. He wrote that,
I first visited China in 1981 and his description matches much of what I remember. I last visited China three years ago and little of what I saw erased these first impressions. There have been great economic reforms between those two visits, and unmistakable improvements to the standard of living. But there was still a hollowness, and yearning for a purpose greater than staying alive and getting rich.
China has changed a lot in the 25 years since the book was written, and in most cities, people's lives are similar to Westerner's. But many parts of China remain extremely poor, and not much different from what Theroux saw in 1978. He wrote that,
The Chinese were practical, unspirtitual, materialistic, baffled and hungry, and these qualities had brought a crudity and a terrible fatigue to their country. In order to stay alive they had to kill the imagination; the result was a vegetable economy and a monochrome culture.
I first visited China in 1981 and his description matches much of what I remember. I last visited China three years ago and little of what I saw erased these first impressions. There have been great economic reforms between those two visits, and unmistakable improvements to the standard of living. But there was still a hollowness, and yearning for a purpose greater than staying alive and getting rich.
Posted: Sun - August 24, 2003 at 10:49 PM