China Shakes the World

Although I finished reading China Shakes the World a few weeks ago already, I still have a strong impression of it. This is not because it was such a wonderful book, not was it absolutely horrible either. I have no doubt that the book was better back in 2006 when it first came out, but the biggest impression that I had of the book was this: reading it was a waste of my time. Now, to be honest, there were things in the book that were new to me. There were some interesting stories and a few facts that I found interesting. In total, however, I believe that the time I spent reading the book was not well spent, and could have been better spent reading a different book.

I was wary from the beginning about reading a book that was so old. I wouldn't consider all books published in 2006, to be hopelessly out of date, but since China is changing so fast I was automatically turned off by knowing the book was more than two years old. This may sound very strange to people who are not Sinologists or China watchers. Think about it though: the economy, society/culture, political situations and even the language are changing so quickly that a delay of a few years makes knowledge ancient and obsolete. Some books are still applicable after a few years, but many of the China watcher books are made obsolete by changing conditions. However, after seeing that  Mark's China Blog Reviewed this book, I decided to give it a chance. I should have trusted by gut reaction.

I think that most of the information that I got from the book was interesting, but were things that I already knew. I see this as complicated/exacerbated by two things. First, I read blogs (and when I have enough free time, tweets) about China, so I stay very up-to-date. For instance, nobody is gonna read anything about the attempted Jasmine Revolution at Wangfujing in a book for at least a year and I have great doubts that Yu Jianrong's micro-blog will get written in a book anytime soon, regardless of how revolutionary it has been. On a good day I know about the events and happenings before they even get published in the Washington Post or the New York Times. On a bad day I get the inside scoop on China issues that most people in the U.S. have never heard about, and that China watchers restricted to the New York Times, The Economist and Foreign Policy (as I used to be) won't hear about it for a week or more.

The second factor is that I already know so much about China. I am not gonna make any exaggerations: there are still loads of things that I don't know; I am not the smartest China watcher in the world; I often don't even draw my own conclusions. However, having taken a few undergrad classes, read a few books and having lived in Beijing and had plenty of conversations with smart people a lot of the information I get out of books or articles targeted and "regular" consumers are nothing new or special for me. May shocking news about how ethnically diverse China is, or about how China has so many polluted cities, or about China's this or China's that would be new to someone who isn't a China watcher. I am a part of this small population though; we are people who make a hobby/living out of knowing what is going on in this country. A lot of the info in China Shakes the World was like this: I already knew it. It is occasionally nice or pleasing to read things that just confirm what you already know, but rarely (ever?) is this intellectually stimulating.

I will just have to be a bit more selective with what China-focused books I read.