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Author revels in the diversity of culture
By David Maguire |
March 8, 2009, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THERE'S a definite currentness about the Beijing-based American author and foreign correspondent James Fallows, not the least of which is his new book of observations on contemporary China.
Fallows started his current China assignment for the respected US monthly magazine The Atlantic in July 2006 by being based initially in Shanghai, ahead of moving to Beijing. Before arriving here, he had spent the previous five years in Washington DC, mainly writing about Iraq War policy and related defense and terrorism issues, which continue to prevail.
"I had had enough of that, and was eager to spend an extended period in China, where I'd visited several times in the 1980s," he said this week. "So much about China is so important and interesting to everyone else that the magazine was happy to sign on."
At another period of his career, the 59-year-old scribe was former US President Jimmy Carter's chief speechwriter in the first two years of his administration. Carter was in China in January to help celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of Sino-US diplomatic relations on January 1, 1979, which was accomplished on his watch.
"Although Richard Nixon obviously began the heavy lifting of opening relationships between the United States and China, Carter played an important part in solidifying the deal," he said.
"I think he may be respected in China both for his vision and effectiveness in improving the relationship and for his personal principle and consistency."
Fallows has been working on his new book "Postcards from Tomorrow Square: Reports from China" throughout his time on assignment in the country. It has been praised as a "top-notch primer on contemporary China" which takes the reader "to the factories and export zones that have turned China into an economic powerhouse."
He has been heartened and grateful at the "mostly favorable response from readers inside China." "Obviously it's a certain subset of the Chinese public that I'd hear from - people who can read English and feel able to correspond in English with a foreign journalist," he said.
"But I've gotten fairly little of 'how dare you say ...?' or 'how could you hurt the feelings of the Chinese people by saying ...?' which I've taken as an encouraging sign of people being willing to hear a sympathetic, mixed good-and-bad assessment of China's situation at the moment."
Being published at a time when the world's economic fortunes are in a downward spiral, Fallows is nothing but upbeat about the future for China. "I don't believe at all that China is facing 'the end' of its previous 30 years of expansion, or a radical shift into some kind of era that will make the previous few years seem entirely irrelevant," he said.
"Any assessment of Chinese life, or for that matter, American life or world life, is a portrait of that moment in its evolution. We'll all keep watching what happens."
His extensive travels throughout China are reflected in both his magazine writing and the new book, and the country remains a rich source of topics for him to report on. "One of the things I most enjoy in my reporting life is the ability to immerse myself, and family, and learn about some of the most interesting places and cultures on earth," he said.
"My wife Deb and I have traveled to nearly all the provinces and regions of China, and we still feel as if we have seen only a tenth of one percent of what the country has by way of surprises and stimulation. Every day I'm here, I have a list of 10 new things I'd like to learn about and write about."
He has also gained a strong appreciation of the country's diversity of cultures and lifestyles. "I've ended up feeling that every part of China is so different from all the others that basically each of them is its own universe," he said.
"Down in the far south, it's all business all the time, even more than in Shanghai. From the perspective of western Sichuan or Gansu Province, the big cities seem impossibly far away.
"Beijing has all of its various attitudes toward Shanghai and I am reminded how hard it must be for anyone, based anywhere in the country, to maintain a sense of the diversity and vastness of the rest of it."
Fallows will continue interviewing for another writing project in his remaining months in the country.
Fallows started his current China assignment for the respected US monthly magazine The Atlantic in July 2006 by being based initially in Shanghai, ahead of moving to Beijing. Before arriving here, he had spent the previous five years in Washington DC, mainly writing about Iraq War policy and related defense and terrorism issues, which continue to prevail.
"I had had enough of that, and was eager to spend an extended period in China, where I'd visited several times in the 1980s," he said this week. "So much about China is so important and interesting to everyone else that the magazine was happy to sign on."
At another period of his career, the 59-year-old scribe was former US President Jimmy Carter's chief speechwriter in the first two years of his administration. Carter was in China in January to help celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of Sino-US diplomatic relations on January 1, 1979, which was accomplished on his watch.
"Although Richard Nixon obviously began the heavy lifting of opening relationships between the United States and China, Carter played an important part in solidifying the deal," he said.
"I think he may be respected in China both for his vision and effectiveness in improving the relationship and for his personal principle and consistency."
Fallows has been working on his new book "Postcards from Tomorrow Square: Reports from China" throughout his time on assignment in the country. It has been praised as a "top-notch primer on contemporary China" which takes the reader "to the factories and export zones that have turned China into an economic powerhouse."
He has been heartened and grateful at the "mostly favorable response from readers inside China." "Obviously it's a certain subset of the Chinese public that I'd hear from - people who can read English and feel able to correspond in English with a foreign journalist," he said.
"But I've gotten fairly little of 'how dare you say ...?' or 'how could you hurt the feelings of the Chinese people by saying ...?' which I've taken as an encouraging sign of people being willing to hear a sympathetic, mixed good-and-bad assessment of China's situation at the moment."
Being published at a time when the world's economic fortunes are in a downward spiral, Fallows is nothing but upbeat about the future for China. "I don't believe at all that China is facing 'the end' of its previous 30 years of expansion, or a radical shift into some kind of era that will make the previous few years seem entirely irrelevant," he said.
"Any assessment of Chinese life, or for that matter, American life or world life, is a portrait of that moment in its evolution. We'll all keep watching what happens."
His extensive travels throughout China are reflected in both his magazine writing and the new book, and the country remains a rich source of topics for him to report on. "One of the things I most enjoy in my reporting life is the ability to immerse myself, and family, and learn about some of the most interesting places and cultures on earth," he said.
"My wife Deb and I have traveled to nearly all the provinces and regions of China, and we still feel as if we have seen only a tenth of one percent of what the country has by way of surprises and stimulation. Every day I'm here, I have a list of 10 new things I'd like to learn about and write about."
He has also gained a strong appreciation of the country's diversity of cultures and lifestyles. "I've ended up feeling that every part of China is so different from all the others that basically each of them is its own universe," he said.
"Down in the far south, it's all business all the time, even more than in Shanghai. From the perspective of western Sichuan or Gansu Province, the big cities seem impossibly far away.
"Beijing has all of its various attitudes toward Shanghai and I am reminded how hard it must be for anyone, based anywhere in the country, to maintain a sense of the diversity and vastness of the rest of it."
Fallows will continue interviewing for another writing project in his remaining months in the country.
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