Ever came across something that was awesome at first and will be awesome forever?

• The first System Of A Down album – awesome forever.
• The first Rocky movie – awesome forever.
• Stir-fried eggplant – motherfucking awesome FOREVER.

Well, this book wasn’t like that. It was good at first, but upon reading it a second time, I stumbled over a few things, and I didn’t like it that much anymore:

Connaisseur of (modern) China

[Please note: I have been reading a German translation of this work.]

The story: RG is a journalist with some 20 years of experience in China who decides to travel along the 312国道 (National Road 312) from 上海 (Shanghai) all the way to 霍尔果斯 (Korgos) on the border to Kazakhstan. This book is a compilation of some of his experiences on that trip, as well as stuff from another 2 weeks voyage he had done a year before that.

If you are interested in the People’s Republic of China that exists TODAY, then read this book. RG really seems to know what’s going on, and his thoughts on modern China, its inherent problems and the road that it may be taking sound more profound than much of the other stuff that I’ve come across in the media lately.

As a travelogue, the book is a bit too journalistic, but it does have some intriguing parts. Among some of the things that I found most memorable was RG’s stealth visit to the 艾滋病村 (Aids Villages) in 河南 (Henan). He also didn’t shy away from talking about his own personal feelings and reactions to China, which I appreciated as a reader.

One thing that that I didn’t like (besides the horrible quality of the translation) was the fact that he seemed to be a bit weak on history. I’ll give you two examples:

• The title of the first emperor of China is 秦始皇帝 (Qin Shi Huangdi). You could translate this into: Qin‘s First Emperor. Qin is the name of the state that he ruled over, NOT the name of the emperor – which originally was 嬴政 (Ying Zheng). If you consider this, it is just totally absurd that RG repeatedly calls this guy Qin, as if that had been his name. It’s kind of the same as calling Napoleon (His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of the French) just France.
• Then there is an instance in this book where RG suggests that 上海 (Shanghai) was a “small fishing village” in the first half of the 19th century, before it fell into the hands of the British. Wrong again. Shanghai had been fortified (and pretty freakin’ big) well before that, probably even as early as during the 明代 (Ming Dynasty 1368-1644) – or even before.

Okay, minor flaws like these don’t make this book a bad one, but they shed a weird light on it anyway.

All in all, I still recommend reading this. It offers a well balanced perspective on life in modern China, and you will probably look at the political and social circumstances of the Middle Kingdom in a different way after you finished this book.

That is, if you can forgive the minor flaws.

A 7/10.

[edit: after finding one more flaw (Jiayuguan is not the "mouth" of China, but the "pass"), I decided to subtract another point. So it's a 6/10 now.]