Riding the Iron Rooster: By Train Through China

This is an often hilarious and extremely informative look into Chinese culture and geography from a travel standpoint. Very enjoyable for anyone who likes Chinese culture, as well as those who know little to nothing about it (which was once me). It was on a college class list of mine, but now I buy it for people. A good read, tho he does get slightly vulgar from time to time.

This was my introduction to Paul Theroux, first with the cassette read by Paul Pritchard, then I ordered to book so that I could review it for the Magazine Club. He has a way with communicating with people and gives good character analysis. Reading Paul Theroux's factual account of his trip through China in RIDING THE IRON ROOSTER several years ago, I was impressed that he was brave enough to go where others dared not. His account of the car ride over the Himalayas resulting in an accident and the aid the erratic driver and he received to toll the vehicle to a safe location, the forbidden photos of the Dahlai Lama he distributed along the way while being persued by the Chinese officials made for many daring adventures and close calls before he reached his destination. I am thinking he no doubt had read H. Harrer's SEVEN YEARS IN TIBET (on which a movie was based) which was originally published in 1953. Harrer was only in his twenties when he spent this time during and after WWII in the 1940s. He observed that the Tibetans are a laughter-loving folk. Since he and his fellow traveler had let their hair and beards grow during the strenuous trek to the holy city, he noticed that, like all Mongols, the Tibetan men have almost no hair on their faces or bodies. Some of the peasants wear a pony tail, but most shave their heads. He went on to write RETURN TO TIBET. Paul made many trips, another on a different train, another in China on a boat, and many in his mind. He influenced my thinking more than any other human being as I read his nonfiction and O-ZONE. His other fiction was not easy to decipher. I thought MY SECRET HISTORY was truth, but he admitted later it was all myths, the things he wished he had experienced. This writer was an intrepid traveler and explorer in his youth, from Peace Corps in Africa to places far and wide.

I am great fan of Thoreaux, and have read ALL of his travelogues. It is rare for someone of his literary genius to risk his life and reputation to travel to remote places in the most inconvenient manner to report his candid observations and penetrating insights into the characters and cultures of the place. We the readers are the beneficiary of his extraordinary ability to take the least traveled road and report back the very essence of the experience in a most vivid and often impolitic manner. That said, I found Thoreaux's relentless questioning of every local he meets about Cultural Revolution irritating as well. Thoreaux seems to find curious or amusing the Chinese' reticence about discussing their haunted past. However, Thoreaux's own behavior is inconsistent and rather curious, since when he was in South Africa ('Dark Star Safari'), he did not interrogates the locals there about the Apartheid. When he was in Russia ('Great Railway Bazaar'), he did not interrogate them about the Stalinist purges. When he was in Australia ('Happy Isles of Oceania'), he did not press the locals about the Australians' long hisory of mistreatment of the Aboriginals. Every country - especially those with history as a Colonial power - has its own haunted history of violence that it'd prefer not to revisit in depth. America has its own share, including slavery, lynchings, and violence against the native Americans. If a foreign writer travels solo through the American Deep South questioning the locals about these topics, s/he may receive a response more hostile than an uncomfortable 'Haha'. It's a tribute to the civility of the Chinese culture that Thoreaux did not suffer violence at the hand of the locals for his deliberate provocation. Thoreaux admits that he is an equal opportunity offender, that his writings have alienated or offended his publishers, his business contacts, foreign governments, etc. Yes, his writings are very often politically incorrect, but overall he is a brilliant writer of exceptional courage and singularity of vision. There is no one like him, and I admire him greatly as one of my favorite writers of all time.

I find Paul Thoreaux to be an excellent writer, even though he seems a little pessimistic sometimes. He has way of looking beyond the glittering surface of things and telling it how he sees it. There is nothing fake about his work. He captures the concept and the depression of the poverty of Warsaw and Moscow wonderfully, and depicts China's issues and complaints wonderfully. He is perfect at seeing through culture and gender to the pain that lives underneath. He is a wonderful, honest writer, and so far I am loving his book. I could almost believe that I had been to some of the places he traveled.

I do not travel much (unfortunately), except in my lazy chair, with P. Theroux. I love the way he describes the people he meets, the way he critisizes local authorities etc. He's not an xenophobic, but neverthless, stays American. He travels by train, and describes the scenery, the other travellers, the landscape, the buislings etc.