jmaney28

I honestly wish I liked Beijing Welcomes You more than I actually did. I picked it up thinking it was largely about changes to the city and its culture and government during the run-up to the 2008 Olympics. I didn't realize just how much detail Tom Scocca writes about each sporting event, both during the Games and at the smaller match-ups before the Olympics. I'm not interested in sports, whether its the four page GO GRIZ! section in my local fishwrap or an otherwise interesting first-person analysis of current events in China's capital. My eyes were glazing over during these sections of Beijing. And it's a shame, because it detracted from my enjoyment of Scocca's humorous descriptions of the years-long tug of war the Chinese bureacracy went though in trying to get its citizens to behave in new, different, acceptable-to-Westerners ways once they were in the global spotlight (chief among which was: STOP SPITTING EVERYWHERE). Aside from the (to me, anyway) zzZZzzz subject matter, Scocca provides readers a surprisingly even-handed look at modern urban China. While its communist government does come in for strong criticism over political repression and censorship, he takes Western human rights activists to task for their--in his view--misplaced support of a Free Tibet. According to him, not only is it strange that many who live in secular democracies back the aims of a (admittedly very nice) god-king, but if the West is willing to defend Tibet, if China is so horrible, so repressive, then we should also help the Muslim Uighurs in the western province of Xinjiang in their own fight for independence. But we're not. Why? If you like a rather large dash of sports with your current Asian events, this is the book for you. As for me, I prefer the story of 2008's changes in Michael Meyer's The Last Days of Old Beijing .

2022-11-14 17:08