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CHINA UNDERGROUND

Name: CHINA UNDERGROUND
Author: Zachary Mexico
ISBN: 978-1-59376-223-0

by Zachary Mexico ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2009

A hardy, useful work of journalism.

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In 16 punchy, occasionally underdeveloped essays, a young American journalist who has lived and studied in China spotlights some of the marginal types whose stories reveal a lot about this drastically changing country.

For better or worse, these are the faces of the new China: slackers running tourist bars in the idyllic hippie capital of Dali; ubiquitous prostitutes, estimated at one in ten women of the total population; students at the best universities resigned to cheating and noncritical thinking; ostracized homosexuals; addicts of ketamine and role-playing games; mafia kingpins; journalists and artists who bravely expose a still-fascist government. Mexico moves fluidly through the country’s highly stratified society. In the first essay, “The Peasant Who Likes to Take Pictures,” the author profiles the elusive photojournalist Maohair, whose pictures showing victims of mine explosions, migrant workers demanding back wages and environmental disasters chronicle the human toll of China’s devastating growth. In “The Black Society,” Mexico pursues a Chinese businessman whose tentacles extend into the crooked rackets of construction, karaoke parlors and seafood markets. In “The Killers,” Mexico infiltrates a complicated role-playing game called the Killing People Club, in which players obsessively enact rituals of masochism. The author, reflecting on the silence surrounding the Cultural Revolution, wonders if this is a way “for educated Chinese citizens to subvert their history as victims and to become, briefly and metaphorically, the oppressor?” Mexico doesn’t tip-toe around troubling issues of racism, in the form of the Chinese treatment of the Uighur minority and the immigrant Nigerians, and censorship, such as the government’s silence around the spread of AIDS and rampant environmental pollution. His work forms an invaluable auxiliary to more rosy official guides in navigating a perplexing culture.

A hardy, useful work of journalism.

Pub Date: March 1, 2009

ISBN: 978-1-59376-223-0

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Soft Skull Press

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2009

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.