London Review of Books

This is a collection of previously published essays from eleven different authors, based on their different experiences in and of China. These range from one writer’s imprisonment and torture during the cultural revolution, to a piece on the avant-garde poet Gu Cheng who murdered his wife with an axe. We also hear about modernization, the one child policy, and the almost farcical events surrounding a man’s death at a business drinking event. Together these pieces capture many facets of China and Chinese society, past and present, rich and poor. Really very interesting and accessible little volume.… (meer)