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BOOK - China in Ten Words
Yu Hua

DIANA CARROLL - Reviewer
INDAILY - 13.12.12

CAN you describe a country, a people and an era in just 10 words? That's the challenge Yu Hua tackles in this illuminating look at his home country.

China is a country in flux. Just a few short years ago it was the nation of Mao and the cultural revolution, a largely agrarian country where everyone was equal but some were more equal than others. Today it's often described in glowing terms, an economic miracle to some; to others it's the dark side that matters, the lack of civil liberties and the massive inequalities between the urban rich and the poor on the land.

Many visitors see only the impressive cities and obvious wealth. In Shanghai, I attended the opening of the most sophisticated (and expensive) nightclub I am ever likely to enter, but there appeared to be few local Chinese there to enjoy the Moet and caviar on ice. This was a privilege afforded to expat businesspeople and a few Ferrari-driving offspring of local billionaires.

So what is going on in China? And how can an outsider begin to understand the nation and the people?

China in Ten Words is a good place to start. The 10 words – people, leader, reading, writing, Lu Xun, revolution, disparity, grassroots, copycat, bamboozle – are used by Yu Hua as jumping-off points for a series of seriously good essays about his homeland. The author clearly has mixed feeling about China and its future. He is concerned by what he sees as "a breakdown of social morality and a confusion in the value system in China" but also has a great affection for the country and its people, if not its leadership.

Yu Hua, an awarded novelist before this, is passionate about writing and not afraid to declare his love. "Writing enables me to claim ownership of two lives, one imaginary and one real … as my real life becomes more routine, my imaginary life is all the more brimming with incident". His writing is direct and vigorous, translated in this edition by Allan Barr, an academic from California.

China in Ten Words is an engaging social history and a revealing memoir of a milieu that will probably never be repeated. A "must read" if you're going to China and a "good to read" if you're interested in our most powerful northern neighbour.

ENDS.