Wild Grass: Three Stories of Change in Modern China
by Ian Johnson. New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 2004. 324 pp. $24 hardcover.
China's literary giant, Lu Xun, published Wild Grass, a series of prose poems that described his feelings toward China's struggle against imperialism and warlordism, in 1926. In 2004, former Wall Street Journal correspondent Ian Johnson published Wild Grass: Three Stories of Change in Modern China, a book that reveals the struggle of contemporary Chinese people against the grip of the Chinese Communist Party. In a succession of true stories, Johnson describes the difficulties faced by farmers overtaxed by corrupt officials, home owners unfairly compensated for resettlement and demolitions, and Falun Gong practitioners persecuted for their beliefs. Johnson believes these injustices are sowing the seeds of political change that will be led by ordinary Chinese citizens.
Johnson hooks readers in the first story when he recounts how a lawyer was jailed for suing the PRC government for overtaxing farmers. The author explores the lawyer's personal history to discover what made him brave enough to confront the government on behalf of the tens of thousands of farmers covered by the lawsuit. Coming from a peasant family himself, the lawyer believed that if the upper levels of government knew what was happening, farmers would be vindicated.
The second story shows the dark side of urban redevelopment in China. Though China's official resettlement policies are more humane than those of many other developing countries, they are imperfect and political interests often influence the process. Johnson strongly sides with residents forced from their homes and deplores the destruction of older, historic areas in Beijing. The author, however, appears unrealistic about resettlement and China's development needs. For instance, though he has undoubtedly experienced rush-hour gridlock in China's major cities, he describes a six-lane highway in Beijing as one of the "egregious wrongs" urban planners have done to the old city. Redevelopment is often necessary and can be done well, but in China many real estate deals are shady, residents are often poorly compensated, and important historical buildings are frequently razed.
Johnson saved the most gripping story for last. Informative as well as suspenseful, the final tale investigates the beatings and deaths of detained Falun Gong practitioners. Johnson tends to sympathize with followers and believes that Falun Gong is not a cult. Recounting a massive, peaceful protest of Falun Gong practitioners he witnessed in Beijing, Johnson states that, in his experience, it is the PRC government, not the Falun Gong, that kills people. But he fails to mention well-known incidents when Falun Gong practitioners have harmed themselves or others as a form of protest.
While reading the book, I was uncertain at times who was bolder, the interviewees or Johnson himself. I cringed at his tales of secret meetings to obtain sensitive information and classified court documents in hotels, restaurants, and on park benches, wondering if Johnson actually wanted to see the inside of a Chinese prison.
Johnson's lucid descriptions of Chinese landscape, architecture, and people will make those who have been to China nostalgic. Such descriptions are surpassed only by his deep knowledge of Chinese history, government, economics, literature, art, architecture, religion, and tax system—a testament to his careful observation and research over his seven years working as a journalist in China. His stories convey that many PRC citizens are dissatisfied with China's current state of affairs and possess the ability to organize to demand change from the government. Wild Grass, well written and informative about sensitive topics rarely discussed in China and not fully understood in the rest of the world, is well worth reading.
—Doris Grage
Doris Grage is a research assistant at the CBR.
Making the Foreign Serve China: Managing Foreigners in the People's Republic
by Anne-Marie Brady. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2003. 320 pp. $24.95 paperback, $65 hardcover.
Anne-Marie Brady's Making the Foreign Serve China: Managing Foreigners in the People's Republic is a scholarly analysis of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) attitudes and policies toward the Western world. Through historical examples, Brady successfully exposes the CCP's carefully orchestrated strategy, which began in the 1930s and continues today, of targeting foreigners to support the party's agenda.
Brady expertly tracks the CCP's policies toward foreigners, from the Long March of the 1930s to the economic boom of the 1990s. She reiterates how the CCP has consistently provided foreigners with an attractive, yet narrow, window of information on China and how it has actively induced foreigners to help the CCP's cause du jour. One current example is China's slick English-language channel, China Central Television 9, which supplies foreigners with positive views of contemporary China, much as English-language party newspapers did in the past. And whether it was Edgar Snow documenting rebel communists in the 1930s, friendly journalists reporting on China's struggles in the 1950s and 1960s, or multinational corporations providing China with access to today's technology, the PRC has aggressively courted foreigners to promote and improve China's status in the world.
According to Brady, the CCP's early policies toward foreigners followed a Soviet-style central plan with Chinese characteristics. She also applies China's history of tensions with the West, from the Opium War through the Cold War, to explain the seemingly obsessive, military-like strategy used in such policies. The author also discusses the party's call to "know the enemy and know oneself" to show how ordinary Chinese were taught to view everyday personal relations with foreigners with suspicion.
Though Making the Foreign Serve China mainly focuses on China before the economic reforms of the 1980s, the CCP's underlying policies toward foreigners remain largely unchanged today. This consistency makes the book relevant for foreigners in China now—whether for business, diplomacy, or study. After all, current PRC government officials and industry leaders have been trained in the policies Brady describes, and government efforts to convince foreigners to share advanced technology are as strong as ever.
The book is written for academics, and certain chapters may not interest business readers, but the text is digestible and will engage anyone with basic knowledge of modern Chinese history. It is unfortunate, though, that Brady focuses exclusively on Western foreigners; it would have been interesting to read about the PRC's different policies toward other foreigners and overseas Chinese.
Overall, Making the Foreign Serve China is a successful account of an area of PRC policy that doesn't get much attention, but that affects foreigners every day. Foreigners and multinational companies involved in China are viewed by the PRC government as strategic opportunities—a view that underlies the PRC's hospitality and generosity toward them. These larger strategic goals are never spoken about in public and are worth studying to better understand China's current political and business environment.
—Adam Ross
Adam Ross is a research associate at the US-China Business Council in Shanghai.
Arbitration Law and Practice in China
by Jingzhou Tao. The Hague, the Netherlands: Kluwer Law International, 2004. 331 pp.
The sharp increase in international trade and investment between China and foreign countries over the past decade has led to the need for functioning and internationally accepted legal mechanisms in China. Because arbitration is a preferred resolution mechanism for many international disputes, it is unsurprising that China swiftly developed an arbitration system of its own.
Jingzhou Tao, a well known international business lawyer and adjunct professor at the Beijing University Law School, adeptly draws on his expertise to clarify exactly what arbitration with Chinese characteristics is and how it has developed over the years.
Tao begins the book with a concise historical overview of domestic and international arbitration in China before the adoption of the 1994 Arbitration Law. He then delves into the development of arbitration law since then, focusing on the application, interpretation, and implementation of the applicable laws. Using comparative case studies and first-hand experience, Tao explains the practice of arbitration in China and provides foreign practitioners with guidelines for using this system. Foreign businesspeople in China will value his emphasis on the differences between Chinese and foreign arbitration systems.
Though most of the book is dedicated to a straightforward analysis of arbitration jurisdiction, procedure, and enforcement of arbitral awards, in the final chapters Tao also provides an outline of the most recent legal changes and an extremely useful annex of the most relevant laws and regulations.
Arbitration Law and Practice in China is an extremely well-organized and practical guide to China's arbitration system, and is clearly aimed at entities seeking to partner or do business with Chinese entities in China. General practitioners of international arbitration, students of alternative dispute resolution, and academics interested in the development of China's legal system should also read this book for an enlightening explanation of China's arbitration system.
—Rebecca Culley
Rebecca Culley is currently a JD candidate at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York.
Rhapsody in Red: How Western Classical Music Became Chinese
Sheila Melvin and Jindong Cai. New York, NY: Algora Publishing, 2004. 362 pp. $33.00
Music, which absorbs indigenous and external influences, adds a rich, subtle texture and tangible voice to a country's culture. This blending of influences is the subject that wife-and-husband team Sheila Melvin and Jindong Cai tackle in their book Rhapsody in Red: How Western Classical Music Became Chinese, which examines the history of Western classical music in China. To this collaborative effort, Melvin, formerly the Shanghai representative of the US-China Business Council (publisher of the CBR), brings many years of experience in China; Cai brings his experience with Western classical music in China since the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), a time when the PRC alternately heralded and persecuted classical music.
Melvin and Cai follow Western classical music's development, appreciation, and use in China from the late Qing dynasty (1644-1911) to today. The authors show that diverse foreign influences have played a part in China's musical development. Following the Jesuit missionaries, the Italians, French, and Russians in turn influenced the structure, standards, notation, melodies, and development of classical music in China.
The book opens with the development of the Shanghai National Orchestra in the early 1900s. It then looks back at the Qing dynasty to examine the role of Jesuit missionaries, such as Matteo Ricci, in bringing western instruments and musical knowledge to the Kangxi and Qianlong Imperial courts (1661-1722 and 1736-99, respectively). The book highlights the careers and influence of Italian pianist Mario Paci, who was instrumental in the establishment of the Shanghai Orchestra in 1919, and Tan Shuzhen, the first Chinese to play with the then foreign-only orchestra in the late 1920s. Rhapsody in Red then traces the fate of classical music during Mao Zedong's rise to power and under communism. The authors recount the struggles of classical musicians during the Long March (1934-35) and the Hundred Flowers Movement (1957), before examining China's "darkest hour of classical music"—the Cultural Revolution. The book concludes with an analysis of the relationship between music and political power that traces the effects of "classical music diplomacy," and touches upon classical music in modern China.
Well-organized and easy to read, Rhapsody in Red is a must-read for scholars and practitioners interested in Chinese culture, history, and arts.
—Shannon Conrad
Shannon Conrad is an information specialist focusing on China and Tibet in the East Asian Research Division of the Voice of America.
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