Impressive book

Last year my friend Stefan Blommaert launched his book “De eeuw van Xi”.
He had asked me to review one chapter only ” Hoofdstuk 8 – Vervuiling en duurzaamheid”. I started reading and decided to review the entire book, sending him my remarks.
I was impressed with his analysis and comments on “China Today” as I would call it.

I am generally speaking cautious with books about China by journalists and so-called “sinologists”. I knew Stefan well as he was journalist in Beijing many years ago, working for Belgian media (VRT).
See one interview:

Belgian PM Charles Michel in the Embassy
http://blog.strategy4china.com/2016/11/belgian-pm-charles-michel-embassy/

The book is one of the few I can recommend; it is a balanced view on China and I can fully agree with his views.

I was happy to receive the printed copy, and one copy I gave to our Belgian ambassador Marc Vinck on 13 March 2019, in his name.

The book is in Dutch, for those who can read it, strongly recommended.

Remark: how to buy

Het boek kan online besteld worden via de website (https://www.polis.be/de-eeuw-van-xi.html), maar ook bij bol.com en consoorten en ook de webshops van standaard boekhandel, Fnac, en de onafhankelijke boekhandels die daarover beschikken (29 January 2021)

Another Old China Hands

Mark Levine is the author of “Stories from My Chinese Journey”. He is also a member of my monthly gathering, the Old China Hands Lunch, see here the latest lunch where he was present. He is also part of our Foreign Expert team under SAFEA (China International Talent Exchange Foundation) and we jointly participated is several events. See here about our team.

Two pics from our trip to Qinyuan, Shanxi Province – Changzhi City, where Mark took the stage, to the delight of the local crowd, in August 2019.
Mark, together with his partner Ms. Fu Han, have performed all over China. Their duo is called In Side Out, here their introduction in Chinese: In Side Out_intro

About his book

I had the honor to write a few words for “Stories from My Chinese Journey”, see the pic of the back of the book.
I finally read it, I am terribly behind in my reading…

I admire Mark for his talents as a speaker, professor, musician and especially for his role as a bridge between China and the West. I am also impressed how he could remember so many details of his intense track record. I am so bad at it myself.

He brings a unique and personal insight in the Chinese academic world, how Chinese students are going through their studies at university, how he successfully bound with the students and remained in contact with many. It gives a good picture of the Chinese universities from the inside. He shows how a foreign teacher, not speaking Chinese, navigated the universities and their administration all over China, successfully.
It also gives a correct and detailed insight on how Chinese society functions, how young people think, study, marry and how they deal with their parents and in-laws.

Another interesting part tells the story what role some foreigners played during the early years of the People’s Republic of China, earning them the respect and honors from the government.

Mark could go through all his fascinating experiences with his limitless patience and jovial attitude.
For sure an interesting book by an insider!

China Culture Center

On 15 April 2017 I joined the book talk “Lotus by Lijia Zhang” organized by the China Culture Center. I was very much attracted by the title “China’s underground sex industry” as I know quite a bit myself about the topic. I was a bit surprised Ms. Zhang Lijia (as I prefer to call her) could publish a book about it and freely talk about this sensitive topic. The event was well organized, small crowd but just right to have a proper Q&A.
I was certainly not disappointed and gladly bought her book that she kindly signed.

[Show as slideshow]

More about her: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lijia_Zhang

My take on Lotus by Lijia Zhang

After so many years I finally read the book. Yes it is a novel and I was fascinated till the end as I was eager to know how the story would end. (I won’t tell you!)

The book is one of those that discourage me. Being a writer myself and vaguely planning to write a kind of novel/love story, I feel so poorly able to write anything after reading Lotus. Yes, it it took her some twelve years to write the novel. But how she could develop the story with all the details fascinates me and leaves me with a sense of helplessness. There are many details in the story that sound very familiar to me so I can say she knows what she is talking about. Contrary to what other book reviews may say, see further, the depiction of the individuals is pretty realistic, the way they act and feel. That is how many Chinese really are. As mentioned in SCMP: “Male sexuality in the novel is either brutish or monkish. This may be a function of the setting, but in a novel of sexual empathy, this feels like a structural flaw.” I tend to disagree because I see it the same way as the author. Many aspects of the attitudes of the people depicted are very realistic. That is how some segments of Chinese society are.
In other words, a thumbs up for the book. Great stuff, at times I felt emotional as some scenes seemed all too familiar.

See here the book review done by South China Morning Post, in the PDF you find the link to the original article: 170104 LotusSCMP
So I do not fully agree with the review.

The author has been touring around the world to promote her book and it is now published in several languages.

See here some pics from her visit earlier this year to Vilnius to launch the Lithuanian version.