In preparation for an oncoming trip, I have been trying to learn more about China, through the easiest way I know, by reading more books on China. Despite having worked with a number of colleagues and co-authors of Chinese descent and national origin, my knowledge about China has been relatively lacking. Hopefully, these steps will redress some of those failings.
This reading project is ongoing, but I will put short notes on the books that I have read and have been reading. I start with reviews of the easiest (shortest) books for anyone to start with.
The 1 Hour China Book by Jonathan Woetzel and Jeffrey Towson.
Does what the book promises to do, namely, a one-hour introduction to large trends in recent China post-1970s. Woetzel and Towson point out six major trends – Urbanization, Rising Chinese Consumers, Scale of Manufacturing, Financial clout and money, Growth of Brainpower, and “Chinese” Internet.
Each of them is an interesting macro-trend by itself. The authors have included several tidbits of factoids and trivia that I love. (For instance, China consumes half of the world’s pork). The tidbits are paralleled with several interesting life-stories (founders of Huawei, China Vanke, Huayi Brothers, and Tencent). One issue with the book is that writing and updating editions have been outsourced, which has led to some inaccuracies: In comparing China to Brazil (BRIC), the authors comment about differences between Chongqin and Cancun(?!).
Overall a pleasurable quick read, a bit like the “mental floss” books that are packed with disparate information for trivia lovers. Of course, I do not expect that reading the book would make anyone an expert. It would be illogical to expect that, since the book is clearly pitched as a “1-hour” book. However, the book easily exceeds its set goal. I do recommend the book for those who haven’t read much about China and are curious about trends in modern China.
Does the 21st century belong to China?
I had heard of the Munk debates mainly through the famous Hitchens-Blair debate. (I do miss Christopher Hitchens — his erudite and yet easy debating style, his skillful turn-of-phrase and sarcastic wit. I did not always agree with what he said, but he surely made the most convincing counter-arguments that challenged my beliefs).
The Munk debate book is mostly a textual transcription of the debate organized on the above question (with two additional interviews appended in the book), with David Li and Niall Ferguson debating for the case that the 21st century belongs to China, and Henry Kissinger and Fareed Zakaria arguing against. It was apparently the very first time that Henry Kissinger (who was 88 then) participated in a debate, but I found him fairly unimpressive in the debate. I suppose that it is a matter of forum that suits one style, as Kissinger is impressive (as expected), in a free-wheeling conversation/interview with Toronto Globe and Mail that is appended near the end of the book — his recollection of the five Han treatments of barbarian outsiders is fairly interesting.
I thought that Fareed Zakaria and Niall Ferguson were quite impressive in their arguments. Even though they held opposite viewpoints, and occasionally engaged in backhanded compliments and near-insults, I found their viewpoints fairly intersecting. Ferguson’s (somewhat prescient) worries about complacency in western democracies are fairly outcome-aligned with Zakaria’s perspectives on the multi-polar future of the world.
I find reading such books an efficient use of one’s time compared to watching the debate. (I only saw a small portion of the debate as it is 2-hour long). However, the book costs money, and the entire debate video is available free on YouTube.
Please feel free to email your recommendations for books on China. Follow me on twitter.