Summertime is reading time, which is why we are once again presenting a selection of China literature. It includes books on current topics such as doping or how young people see life under the Xi Jinping system, broader issues and trends such as Germany’s entanglement in business with China, and the Taiwan question.
The selection may seem a little gloomy with these titles. There is also a book on oppression in Xinjiang or how China has changed for the worse under Xi Jinping. But this reflects the situation on the book market dominated by publications expressing great disillusionment with China.
Nevertheless, these are highly readable and insightful books by authors who treat their topics with excitement and dedication. So if you can’t get enough of China while on holiday, there’s sure to be something for you.
German political scientist Andreas Fulda from the University of Nottingham is often wrongly labeled as a hardliner with nothing positive to say about the People’s Republic of China. Although Fulda is indeed very critical of the autocratic regime in Beijing, his arguments are objective and stringent. This objectivity makes his new book “Germany and China – How Entanglement Undermines Freedom, Prosperity and Security” worth reading.
Fulda takes an in-depth look at the paradigms of German foreign policy that have shaped Germany’s relationship with China for decades. He explains why the slogan “change through trade” and Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s “interdependence and integration” are founded on highly problematic basic assumptions and how they were used to downplay the repressive character of autocracies. Using examples from various areas of society, Fulda analyzes how Germany’s past governments have sought ever closer ties with China in the interests of short-term economic benefits. From this, the author deduces the risks of increasing interdependence not only for Germany, but also for Europe and the international world order.
Fulda manages to trace the causes and manifestations of a strong interdependence between a democracy and an autocracy without leaving the impression of trying to get even with anyone. Instead, he creates a valuable contribution to the German discourse on China. His conclusion: If Germany does not fundamentally change its China policy, it will pay dearly for it. Marcel Grzanna
Andreas Fulda: “Germany and China – How Entanglement Undermines Freedom, Prosperity and Security,” Bloomsbury, 242 pages.
“River Town” is Peter Hessler’s very personal account of his time as a provincial teacher in the town of Fuling. It was a surprise success, especially in China, where people were very interested in reading the outside view of the changes shortly before the construction of the Three Gorges Dam.
In 2019, the American returned after 25 years to teach literature and journalistic writing to young Chinese people, this time at the University of Chengdu. Intended as a sequel to “River Town,” Hessler encounters an entirely different environment. Every classroom is fitted with cameras. Access to the campus is only allowed to those who have their faces scanned. In contrast to the past, the students no longer strike him as naive and idealistic, but rather hardened and sometimes bitter. He calls them “Generation Xi,” who have adapted to the surveillance and social pressure, but also appear somewhat disillusioned.
Hessler compares their biographies with those of his former students from Fuling, for example, that of the teacher Emily, whose brother committed suicide because he fell victim to the speed and elbow mentality of the opening years. It takes years of trust to be told such stories as a foreigner, says Hessler.
This strength also characterizes “Other Rivers”: Hessler has a genuine interest in the people behind the statistics, whom he lets speak with humor and a great deal of empathy. Yet Hessler also appears more hardened than before. He is now the father of twin daughters, whom he sent to a Chinese school amid the Covid pandemic.
Everyday life becomes something of an obstacle course, reminiscent of the stories of George Orwell and Franz Kafka. On top of this come anonymous accusations that he denigrated China in his classes. In the end, his employment contract is not renewed without anyone giving him clear reasons. His conclusion: “Everything has changed, nothing has changed.” Fabian Peltsch
Peter Hessler: “Other Rivers. A Chinese education.” Penguin Press, 464 pages.
In 1990, Xue Yinxian, a Chinese sports doctor at the time, made a fateful decision. She disobeyed the instructions of her superiors and stopped administering doping agents to the Chinese national team athletes entrusted to her care, as she had always done since the 1970s. The consequences changed her life and that of her family.
Her youngest son, also a doctor, was dismissed from the civil service by the sports administration and never again practiced as a doctor. In 2007, her husband was killed when a high-ranking sports official pushed him down the stairs in the family home during a fight. Her eldest son, the documentary filmmaker and artist Yang Weidong, was later imprisoned for four months for making a socially critical interview film. Because she had gone public with her doping confession, the pressure on Xue Yinxian and her family continued to increase. In 2017, she took advantage of a medical examination in Germany to apply for political asylum in Germany along with Yang Weidong and his wife.
China’s Doping is a seven-volume collection of Xue Yinxian’s diaries, which are reprinted and annotated in the original. They meticulously trace the history of Chinese state doping in the 1970s and 1980s based on Xue’s work and describe the events in the years that followed until she escaped to Germany in 2017. The series is a contemporary document that tells much about post-Mao China and follows the rise of Chinese sports to the top of international sports. Marcel Grzanna
Xue Yinxian/Yang Weidong: China’s Doping (中国毒品), seven volumes.
The claim that Taiwan has always belonged to China is easy to disprove. In fact, it took China’s rulers a long time – too long – to fully grasp the island’s strategic importance. Emperor Kangxi (r. 1661-1722) still referred to Taiwan as a “lump of dirt” on the other side of the sea. Only the interest of foreigners, above all the Dutch and Japanese, changed their thinking.
“Narrow Waters, Dangerous Currents” is the second non-fiction book by the Taiwan-based novelist, which looks at the historically unique developments on the island. While Thome’s other Taiwan book was primarily an entertaining portrait of the country for the traveling bag, this one is about hard-hitting geopolitics. With a writer’s sense of suspense, Thome illuminates possible scenarios of military escalation in the Taiwan Strait. His historical deductions are precise and fascinating. Who knows, for example, that even Prussian politicians once wanted to build a “German Hong Kong” on Formosa”?
It is well known that Taiwan has been preparing for an invasion from the mainland for 70 years. The new risk factor is now Xi Jinping, who could feel forced by the weakening economy and other internal problems to make a “now or never” decision. “In the proudly swollen chest with which China presents itself on the international stage today,” writes Thome. The People’s Republic is already using sanctions, disinformation campaigns and intimidation to undermine the morale of the democratically governed island. His book is an impulse to take these and other challenges in the supposedly “most dangerous region on Earth” even more seriously. Fabian Peltsch
Stephan Thome: “Narrow waters, Dangerous Currents. On the conflict in the Taiwan Strait”, Suhrkamp, 366 pages.
What is known about the repression in Xinjiang is depressing and disturbing. The leaked documents detailing torture and oppression provide an insight into a horrific system. And then there is the book: “Waiting to Be Arrested at Night: A Uyghur Poet’s Memoir of China’s Genocide” by Tahir Hamut Izgil. Taken directly from everyday life in Xinjiang. Soberly told, only ever hinting at the true horror – making it a must-read for those who want to learn how oppression and fear are destroying the entire Uyghur society in Xinjiang.
The author is considered one of the most prominent modern poets in the Uyghur language. He may also be the only Uyghur writer to have managed to leave the country alive. Izgil uses this to tell of the cruel events in his homeland.
Over just 270 pages, Izgil shows how quickly and thoroughly the Chinese central government is building up its repressive apparatus in Xinjiang province: “Within days, numerous schools, government offices and even hospitals had been converted into detention and re-education centers hastily outfitted with iron doors, window bars and barbed wire. Rumors spread that, outside the city, construction was proceeding rapidly on multiple new so-called ‘study centers’, each meant to house tens of thousands. Fear reigned everywhere. People said the day of judgment had come.”
With frightening soberness, Izgil describes people’s uncertainties, the constantly growing pressure, the omnipresent surveillance. He describes how each individual tries to come to terms with the circumstances: from Eli, the bookseller, to Perhat, his long-time friend. It could hit all of them. And it will hit them all in the pages of “Waiting to Be Arrested at Night.” The noose tightens relentlessly.
At some point, Izgil, his wife and daughter decide to flee the country after all. It is almost too late. They are only allowed to leave for the USA under the pretense that their daughter needs special medical treatment. They escape with their lives. Their friends, relatives and acquaintances did not. Michael Radunski
Tahir Hamut Izgil: Waiting to Be Arrested at Night: A Uyghur Poet’s Memoir of China’s Genocide, Penguin Press, Munich, 2024, 272 pages.
History and politics are made by people. That may sound trivial – but it can be very complicated. Especially in China’s case. When Xi Jinping was appointed General Secretary of the Communist Party in 2012, many believed that Xi would lead China into a new era as a great reformer. Things turned out quite differently – and yet it shows how important it is to know the people involved as precisely as possible. That is why “Zhou Enlai – A Life” by Chen Jian is not only an excellent book, but an important one.
Zhou was one of the most influential figures of the People’s Republic. He served as China’s premier for 27 years and as foreign minister for ten years. He is regarded as the architect of the Chinese administrative apparatus and has determined the country’s foreign policy direction for many years. And yet Zhou always stood in the shadow of the great helmsman Mao Zedong. Now, he has received an outstanding biography in the form of “Zhou Enlai – A Life.”
The professor at New York University and NYU Shanghai has produced an astonishing book filled with facts and anecdotes. Over 840 pages, he focuses on Zhou Enlai, who should have deserved such a book much earlier. It is a nuanced portrait of a man who was at times a rash revolutionary and at others a reserved master diplomat. Who, together with Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon, organized the first trip by a US president to China. And who was able to hold his own for decades amid the intrigues, power struggles and trench warfare of the Communist Party.
From the founding of the People’s Republic to the “Great Leap Forward” and the Cultural Revolution – Zhou experienced and helped shape many events in leading positions. What is remarkable in relation to the close friendship between Russia and China that is so often praised today is that when the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968, Zhou Enlai gave a fiery speech three days later, describing the Soviet Union as a social-imperialist threat to the world. One should know history in order to better shape the future. Michael Radunski
Chen Jian: Zhou Enlai – A Life, Harvard University Press, May 2024, 840 pages.
Starting them young: In Chinese bookshops, customers are not just allowed to browse through the books. It is quite normal for them to sit down somewhere in the store and read the books from front to back. Nevertheless, bookstores seem to make enough money out of it. China is one of the countries that read the most.
Summertime is reading time, which is why we are once again presenting a selection of China literature. It includes books on current topics such as doping or how young people see life under the Xi Jinping system, broader issues and trends such as Germany’s entanglement in business with China, and the Taiwan question.
The selection may seem a little gloomy with these titles. There is also a book on oppression in Xinjiang or how China has changed for the worse under Xi Jinping. But this reflects the situation on the book market dominated by publications expressing great disillusionment with China.
Nevertheless, these are highly readable and insightful books by authors who treat their topics with excitement and dedication. So if you can’t get enough of China while on holiday, there’s sure to be something for you.
German political scientist Andreas Fulda from the University of Nottingham is often wrongly labeled as a hardliner with nothing positive to say about the People’s Republic of China. Although Fulda is indeed very critical of the autocratic regime in Beijing, his arguments are objective and stringent. This objectivity makes his new book “Germany and China – How Entanglement Undermines Freedom, Prosperity and Security” worth reading.
Fulda takes an in-depth look at the paradigms of German foreign policy that have shaped Germany’s relationship with China for decades. He explains why the slogan “change through trade” and Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s “interdependence and integration” are founded on highly problematic basic assumptions and how they were used to downplay the repressive character of autocracies. Using examples from various areas of society, Fulda analyzes how Germany’s past governments have sought ever closer ties with China in the interests of short-term economic benefits. From this, the author deduces the risks of increasing interdependence not only for Germany, but also for Europe and the international world order.
Fulda manages to trace the causes and manifestations of a strong interdependence between a democracy and an autocracy without leaving the impression of trying to get even with anyone. Instead, he creates a valuable contribution to the German discourse on China. His conclusion: If Germany does not fundamentally change its China policy, it will pay dearly for it. Marcel Grzanna
Andreas Fulda: “Germany and China – How Entanglement Undermines Freedom, Prosperity and Security,” Bloomsbury, 242 pages.
“River Town” is Peter Hessler’s very personal account of his time as a provincial teacher in the town of Fuling. It was a surprise success, especially in China, where people were very interested in reading the outside view of the changes shortly before the construction of the Three Gorges Dam.
In 2019, the American returned after 25 years to teach literature and journalistic writing to young Chinese people, this time at the University of Chengdu. Intended as a sequel to “River Town,” Hessler encounters an entirely different environment. Every classroom is fitted with cameras. Access to the campus is only allowed to those who have their faces scanned. In contrast to the past, the students no longer strike him as naive and idealistic, but rather hardened and sometimes bitter. He calls them “Generation Xi,” who have adapted to the surveillance and social pressure, but also appear somewhat disillusioned.
Hessler compares their biographies with those of his former students from Fuling, for example, that of the teacher Emily, whose brother committed suicide because he fell victim to the speed and elbow mentality of the opening years. It takes years of trust to be told such stories as a foreigner, says Hessler.
This strength also characterizes “Other Rivers”: Hessler has a genuine interest in the people behind the statistics, whom he lets speak with humor and a great deal of empathy. Yet Hessler also appears more hardened than before. He is now the father of twin daughters, whom he sent to a Chinese school amid the Covid pandemic.
Everyday life becomes something of an obstacle course, reminiscent of the stories of George Orwell and Franz Kafka. On top of this come anonymous accusations that he denigrated China in his classes. In the end, his employment contract is not renewed without anyone giving him clear reasons. His conclusion: “Everything has changed, nothing has changed.” Fabian Peltsch
Peter Hessler: “Other Rivers. A Chinese education.” Penguin Press, 464 pages.
In 1990, Xue Yinxian, a Chinese sports doctor at the time, made a fateful decision. She disobeyed the instructions of her superiors and stopped administering doping agents to the Chinese national team athletes entrusted to her care, as she had always done since the 1970s. The consequences changed her life and that of her family.
Her youngest son, also a doctor, was dismissed from the civil service by the sports administration and never again practiced as a doctor. In 2007, her husband was killed when a high-ranking sports official pushed him down the stairs in the family home during a fight. Her eldest son, the documentary filmmaker and artist Yang Weidong, was later imprisoned for four months for making a socially critical interview film. Because she had gone public with her doping confession, the pressure on Xue Yinxian and her family continued to increase. In 2017, she took advantage of a medical examination in Germany to apply for political asylum in Germany along with Yang Weidong and his wife.
China’s Doping is a seven-volume collection of Xue Yinxian’s diaries, which are reprinted and annotated in the original. They meticulously trace the history of Chinese state doping in the 1970s and 1980s based on Xue’s work and describe the events in the years that followed until she escaped to Germany in 2017. The series is a contemporary document that tells much about post-Mao China and follows the rise of Chinese sports to the top of international sports. Marcel Grzanna
Xue Yinxian/Yang Weidong: China’s Doping (中国毒品), seven volumes.
The claim that Taiwan has always belonged to China is easy to disprove. In fact, it took China’s rulers a long time – too long – to fully grasp the island’s strategic importance. Emperor Kangxi (r. 1661-1722) still referred to Taiwan as a “lump of dirt” on the other side of the sea. Only the interest of foreigners, above all the Dutch and Japanese, changed their thinking.
“Narrow Waters, Dangerous Currents” is the second non-fiction book by the Taiwan-based novelist, which looks at the historically unique developments on the island. While Thome’s other Taiwan book was primarily an entertaining portrait of the country for the traveling bag, this one is about hard-hitting geopolitics. With a writer’s sense of suspense, Thome illuminates possible scenarios of military escalation in the Taiwan Strait. His historical deductions are precise and fascinating. Who knows, for example, that even Prussian politicians once wanted to build a “German Hong Kong” on Formosa”?
It is well known that Taiwan has been preparing for an invasion from the mainland for 70 years. The new risk factor is now Xi Jinping, who could feel forced by the weakening economy and other internal problems to make a “now or never” decision. “In the proudly swollen chest with which China presents itself on the international stage today,” writes Thome. The People’s Republic is already using sanctions, disinformation campaigns and intimidation to undermine the morale of the democratically governed island. His book is an impulse to take these and other challenges in the supposedly “most dangerous region on Earth” even more seriously. Fabian Peltsch
Stephan Thome: “Narrow waters, Dangerous Currents. On the conflict in the Taiwan Strait”, Suhrkamp, 366 pages.
What is known about the repression in Xinjiang is depressing and disturbing. The leaked documents detailing torture and oppression provide an insight into a horrific system. And then there is the book: “Waiting to Be Arrested at Night: A Uyghur Poet’s Memoir of China’s Genocide” by Tahir Hamut Izgil. Taken directly from everyday life in Xinjiang. Soberly told, only ever hinting at the true horror – making it a must-read for those who want to learn how oppression and fear are destroying the entire Uyghur society in Xinjiang.
The author is considered one of the most prominent modern poets in the Uyghur language. He may also be the only Uyghur writer to have managed to leave the country alive. Izgil uses this to tell of the cruel events in his homeland.
Over just 270 pages, Izgil shows how quickly and thoroughly the Chinese central government is building up its repressive apparatus in Xinjiang province: “Within days, numerous schools, government offices and even hospitals had been converted into detention and re-education centers hastily outfitted with iron doors, window bars and barbed wire. Rumors spread that, outside the city, construction was proceeding rapidly on multiple new so-called ‘study centers’, each meant to house tens of thousands. Fear reigned everywhere. People said the day of judgment had come.”
With frightening soberness, Izgil describes people’s uncertainties, the constantly growing pressure, the omnipresent surveillance. He describes how each individual tries to come to terms with the circumstances: from Eli, the bookseller, to Perhat, his long-time friend. It could hit all of them. And it will hit them all in the pages of “Waiting to Be Arrested at Night.” The noose tightens relentlessly.
At some point, Izgil, his wife and daughter decide to flee the country after all. It is almost too late. They are only allowed to leave for the USA under the pretense that their daughter needs special medical treatment. They escape with their lives. Their friends, relatives and acquaintances did not. Michael Radunski
Tahir Hamut Izgil: Waiting to Be Arrested at Night: A Uyghur Poet’s Memoir of China’s Genocide, Penguin Press, Munich, 2024, 272 pages.
History and politics are made by people. That may sound trivial – but it can be very complicated. Especially in China’s case. When Xi Jinping was appointed General Secretary of the Communist Party in 2012, many believed that Xi would lead China into a new era as a great reformer. Things turned out quite differently – and yet it shows how important it is to know the people involved as precisely as possible. That is why “Zhou Enlai – A Life” by Chen Jian is not only an excellent book, but an important one.
Zhou was one of the most influential figures of the People’s Republic. He served as China’s premier for 27 years and as foreign minister for ten years. He is regarded as the architect of the Chinese administrative apparatus and has determined the country’s foreign policy direction for many years. And yet Zhou always stood in the shadow of the great helmsman Mao Zedong. Now, he has received an outstanding biography in the form of “Zhou Enlai – A Life.”
The professor at New York University and NYU Shanghai has produced an astonishing book filled with facts and anecdotes. Over 840 pages, he focuses on Zhou Enlai, who should have deserved such a book much earlier. It is a nuanced portrait of a man who was at times a rash revolutionary and at others a reserved master diplomat. Who, together with Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon, organized the first trip by a US president to China. And who was able to hold his own for decades amid the intrigues, power struggles and trench warfare of the Communist Party.
From the founding of the People’s Republic to the “Great Leap Forward” and the Cultural Revolution – Zhou experienced and helped shape many events in leading positions. What is remarkable in relation to the close friendship between Russia and China that is so often praised today is that when the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968, Zhou Enlai gave a fiery speech three days later, describing the Soviet Union as a social-imperialist threat to the world. One should know history in order to better shape the future. Michael Radunski
Chen Jian: Zhou Enlai – A Life, Harvard University Press, May 2024, 840 pages.
Starting them young: In Chinese bookshops, customers are not just allowed to browse through the books. It is quite normal for them to sit down somewhere in the store and read the books from front to back. Nevertheless, bookstores seem to make enough money out of it. China is one of the countries that read the most.
