The Chinese

I speak Chinese and have worked and traveled extensively in China since 1996. I have visited many provinces, including Bejing, Hebei, and Henan in the north; Jiangxi, Hubei, and Guangdong in the south; and Shichuan in the west. Therefore, I have a good background to evaluate this book, and I am not subject to the criticism of those who say reviewers who complement this book don't know China. If you want to understand modern China, this is the best source available. Becker gets it right, and he exposes culture and life there that is not seen by casual observers. This book is a harsh look at China, and I am sure many Chinese don't like what is presented. But many openly (some grudgingly) admit Becker knows China very well. This book is required reading for anyone with serious interests in modern China.

Jasper becker is one of the best China hands alive today. A seasoned author, he has also written accurate books about North Korea and Mongolia. Formerly with the South China morning post, he was pressured to leave after Hong Kong returned to mainland control. Today he follows China for the Christian science monitor. He not only writes with the concise, punchy style of a top reporter, he is objective and accurate. In THE CHINESE, Becker dissects the how and why of the modern "people's Republic," which is of course, not a republic, and does little good for the people. I will preface my review by noting that I speak Mandarin, and lived 17 years in East Asia, including in the PRC and Taiwan, and that I had many interactions with PRC officials at many levels and in many regions. First, I am in almost complete agreement with Becker's descriptions of the PRC, a nation where every data point is suspect and virtually every official a crook. Second, I think Becker is dead-on about so many of the problems that face China. Imminent or extant crises in health care, environment, clean governance, banking, and foreign policy. We in the West somehow look at a crooked, demagogic cadre of self-aggrandizing time-servers and preceive a patient and wise authoritarian caretaker government. Becker exposes the truth. I cannot believe that some reviewers, who apparently have never spent any significant time in China, have stood up for "achievements" of Chairman Mao. For instance, one claimed agricultural triumphs under the Great Helmsman, without explaining how millions starved to death simultaneously, and cannibalism resurfaced. Please ignore these sort of critics and DO read this book. It is a breathe of fresh air for those who believe the PRC is a coming superpower, responsible member of the world community, or well-governed.

Jasper Becker brings the seasoned China-watcher's cynicism to this book. His comment that "anyone who spends time working in China eventually comes to doubt even basic facts," sums it up nicely. Ironically, though, his own book abounds with facts. Some of these should be taken with a generous pinch of salt (see the probing review by "Brian" dated March 10, 2002, for some examples). In China statistics are for the most part propaganda. Even if the newspapers "uncover" that huge amounts of money have been embezzled, these figures have a function as propaganda; the purpose is to remove certain people (who fell out of favor) from their office. Sadly, the result of the mismanagement of information is that nobody in China, and least of all the so-called planners, knows what is going on. The only way to find out what is "real" in China is to go there and see for oneself.Jasper Becker's book is a good place to start exploring because he has been a first-hand observer since 1985, when he went to Beijing as the China correspondent for Hong Kong's South China Morning Post (at that time still a reputable, sufficiently independent newspaper). Becker has been fired by the paper in 2001, and I tend to regard this as a sign of integrity. "The Chinese" is a valuable primer on the bureaucratic origins of the present People's Republic of China, the mandarins' (and Communist cadres') venerable tradition of living off taxes levied on the peasants, the charming ways how to please superiors by cooking the books, and the various instances in which the bureaucratic system failed to perform. Becker shows how the problems of the present originated in the history of China, and highlights the similarities between the Communist rule today and the feudal Emperors of the past.Becker does not go as far as one of the most infamous critics of Communist China, the Taiwanese writer Bo Yang. He wrote a bestseller entitled "The Ugly Chinaman" and thinks that there is something wrong in the Chinese national character and at the very heart of Chinese culture: "Chinese culture, he delighted in telling everyone who came to see him in Taipei, was nothing but a vat of putrefied soy sauce giving off a horrible stench: 'Even if one were to place a fresh peach in a soy sauce vat full of putrescent brine, it would eventually turn into a dry turd.'" But any reader will come away from Becker's book with the uncomfortable and disturbing feeling that much in China is rotten to the core, and the prosperity of the coastal cities - foremost Shanghai where I worked for three years - may be built on very shaky ground."The Chinese" is comprehensive, informed, critical, and less polemic than "The Coming Collapse of China" (2001) by Gordon G. Chang, who worked as a lawyer in Shanghai. The book is arguably the best overview of the present state of China written by a journalist in recent years.

Kudos to Becker for his placement of the Chinese in historical context. The book is worth its salt if for no other part than the 20 page introduction that gives a synopsis of the Chinese state. And this book could have been written by no one other than someone who had observed every day life in China for a period of ten years. Even after all this, he is still good about admitting that the place eludes generalization.I've just finished living in China and have found that many of the things that he says are correct. For example: He mentions that the cities are among the most prosperous places and that the rich people live there as they always have. The further one goes from the city centers, the more obvious the real picture is.He makes some very prescient observations about the affinity of the Chinese for tyrants and their love of all-controlling, authoritarian regimes. If the CCP collapsed tomorrow, the citizenry wouldn't know what to do with itself if history is any guide.Everyone also seems to think that China is going to take over the world in the near future. After reading the details of the book, one wonders: "Is this really consistent with what you would expect from such a situation as he describes?" One or two things that are missing that were covered in later publications--by different authors: What happens in the case where there is a large peasantry that feels that their taxes are being extracted to support the wealthy? What happens when there is a huge excess of men to women in a particular country? At the beginning of the book, he said that he was not going to offer a book about political ideology. But it would have been nice if he had drawn just a few more parallels between what happened in other places under similar circumstances. (This story has been told many times before; Only the players are different.)Actually, there are too many good observations to even address within the word limit of the reviews. One other that is too good to resist noting is the Chinese concept of "race," as it was taught many years ago by Sun Yat Sen (Chinese and White are superior and all others are inferior, thus the Chinese race must regenerate itself or risk extinction) that is still very much believed in Taiwan and colors certain notions/ statements that one hears in every day life there as well as in the Mainland.Lastly, he could have shaved about 75 pages off the book and it would not have been diminished in any way. When dealing with such large amounts of factual information as he put in the book, shorter is always better. In any case, there is very little that I disagree with in this book and most people (especially Sinophiles and other romantics) would do very well to read this book and understand what it demonstrates.

This is a fascinating, hard-to-put down description of recent China which traces the roots of today's conditions into the past. Mr. Becker has visited many places in China which are off the beaten path, and he has talked to a wide array of people. He is also well-read in Chinese history and culture. The book is footnoted, making use of a variety of written sources in Chinese and English in addition to the author's own direct observations and interviews.A chapter which was especially interesting to me describes Chinese intellectuals of the present and past, their part in shaping 20th-century political developments, and ways in which intellectuals were affected by cataclysmic events such as the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution and the continuing roller-coaster ride of events since the 1970's. Some little-known intellectual and political movements of the first half of the 20th century are highlighted also. Another chapter shows the shocking effects of Maoist policies on education, and what happened to many teachers during the Cultural Revolution and afterwards.However, this is not a book which focusses just upon the elites. Also described, with substance and readability, are economic changes, minorities, health care, the environment, conditions among people in the countryside, the one-child policy, law, bureaucracy, access to information outlets, Chinese views on morality, and the role of the People's Liberation Army. There are some striking observations on the relationship between privatization and one-party rule, and resultant impacts on people's attitudes towards the state and the world in general.While the book focusses upon developments in the last few decades, it is one of the best, most balanced books I've read on China generally. It suggests to me that Mr. Becker has real understanding and compassion for individual Chinese people, and not just for cloudy concepts about Chinese people and culture. Based upon my own experiences in China, Mr. Becker's descriptions of places such as Shenzhen are right on target. Unlike many books by writers who attempt to explain current conditions in a particular country, and who, in the process, talk mostly to people who seem to be like themselves, this book is an in-depth, carefully researched study which lets Chinese people from many backgrounds speak for themselves.