In China with Harpo and Karl [Hardcover]

Sibyl James (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1993

Wry essays from a US feminist in China

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

During 1985 and 1986, poet James ( Vallarta Street ) lived in the People's Republic of China, teaching English in Shanghai; anecdotes from that remarkable year form the basis for 56 brief essays that educate and delight. Possessing a keen eye and a ready humor, she recounts traveling on airplanes that run "more by luck and whimsy than by science" and trains that cover 75 miles in 8 hours. A veteran of the "Dylan and Lennon sixties' version" of Marxism, she's dismayed to learn that Chinese society isn't classless and that communism is only the veneer over an older "red" system--bureaucratic red tape. At a Shakespeare festival, The Winter's Tale is rendered as traditional Shaoxing opera in which women take all the roles, and Macbeth gains a new character: a stuffed parrot that talks. As for the place of women, James is assured that "there is a Chinese word for feminism . . . but the men don't know it." p. 111 James teaches Kerouac over a culture gap, asking students what they would do with a car and the open highway stretching out before them; one answers that she'd sit in the car and think about it for a week.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Library Journal

The author is one of a number of Westerners who has taught English in China and then written a book about it. James was at the Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade in 1985-86. Hers is a modest recording of experiences and impressions, with very little about her teaching. To her credit, she doesn't draw sweeping generalizations or pontificate on ways Chinese. Her writing is well phrased, concise, and frank. Her experiences were more typical than unique. Like most diaries, this one tells more about the writer than the place. As a travel diary, it is a secondary purchase for China travel collections.
- Harold M. Otness, Southern Oregon State Coll. Lib., Ashland
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 210 pages
• Publisher: CALYX Books (July 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0934971161
• ISBN-13: 978-0934971164
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,377,289 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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