China Observed

Fülszöveg

Travel to China, today, is no longer the
perilous undertaking it was, the privilege
reserved for the few. It is now possible for
the ordinary citizen of the West to visit and
discover something of China for himself. It
does not matter whether he goes seeking a
mysterious and secret China owing too
much to fiction, or the China of Confucius
and Lao-Tze, or even that of the Commu-
nists and the Canton Fair. The important
thing is that he should go and, in going,
look at China as it is today.
In thus travelling through the Chinese
countryside of the 1980's and observing its
people the visitor will find a world of
fascinating complexity, a world of harmony
and contradictions, of inconsistencies as
well as achievements. This world is re-
flected in this book, both if read in advance
of a visit, or used to awaken memories
afterwards. Chapters cover Southern,
Central, and Northern China including
Tibet and Mongolia, respectively. A group
of articles in which... Tovább

Fülszöveg

Travel to China, today, is no longer the
perilous undertaking it was, the privilege
reserved for the few. It is now possible for
the ordinary citizen of the West to visit and
discover something of China for himself. It
does not matter whether he goes seeking a
mysterious and secret China owing too
much to fiction, or the China of Confucius
and Lao-Tze, or even that of the Commu-
nists and the Canton Fair. The important
thing is that he should go and, in going,
look at China as it is today.
In thus travelling through the Chinese
countryside of the 1980's and observing its
people the visitor will find a world of
fascinating complexity, a world of harmony
and contradictions, of inconsistencies as
well as achievements. This world is re-
flected in this book, both if read in advance
of a visit, or used to awaken memories
afterwards. Chapters cover Southern,
Central, and Northern China including
Tibet and Mongolia, respectively. A group
of articles in which individual contributors
discuss Chinese cookery, art, poetry, music,
philosophy, the circus, Chinese writing,
literature and Buddhism, complete the
text - but this is to mention nothing of the
illustrations. One hundred and sixty mar-
vellously fresh colour photographs plus
twenty-one black and white illustrations
show China as it is today, the China that
has for so long remained an enigma to the
West, but is now perhaps at least willing to
open its heart, little by little.
The author, Charles Meyer, has lived in
eastern Asia for twenty-five years. He has
been a journalist, adviser to the Cambodian
government and a lecturer in ethnology;
he is married to a Chinese lady. Vissza