China in Ten Words

Yu Hua, 2011 [Allan H Barr, 2011]

(December 2012)

I’ve recently touched on the effects of Japan’s rapid industrialization and Westernization since the end of the sakoku period. My exact words, in case you've forgotten, were, “in barely five generations it’s gone from being essentially medieval to one of the most economically and technologically advanced nations in the world, and frankly it’s not surprising that social change hasn’t kept up with that hectic pace.” China’s in much the same boat now, but instead of five generations, it’s only been five decades. It’s been a fairly bumpy ride.

  

Part commentary, part memoir, this is a meditation on some aspects of where China is now and how it got there. A lot of the memoir part focuses on Hua’s youth during the Cultural Revolution, which is terrifying. The commentary focuses on how those experiences formed him and the country into the positions they now hold. Which is also terrifying.

The whole book is very anecdotal, and as such the memoir sections are stronger. The contemporary commentary does appear to lack a certain journalistic rigour. Lots of stuff presented as, ‘Here’s a story I heard about how society is going to the dogs. Young people today, eh?’ It’s consummately written and all too believable, but if I’d read a Western writer offering a story about a single teenage girl getting an abortion as evidence of the degeneration of society I’d be a little sceptical as to the wider picture. I see no reason to suspend that scepticism here, much as I may have been primed to do so.

That said, the chapter on ‘Reading’ is worth the cover price alone. Wonderful, life affirming stuff, that one. And the rest is pretty good too.