China [Paperback]

Neil Leach (Author), Laurent Gutierrez (Author), Valerie Portefaix (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2, 2004

China, the country formally known as the People's Republic of China, is the world's most populous country, with approximately one-fifth of the world's total population. It sits on a landmass of 9,600,000 square kilometers and is the third-largest country in the world. Since sweeping economic reforms instituted in 1978, the country's GDP has quadrupled and it is now the second-largest economy in the world. But those are just six basic facts. What does China really look like in the beginning of the 21st century? China paints a decisive and contemporary portrait of the country through short, thematic segments that blend lively, highly visual texts by Neal Leach and sumptuously illustrated photographs by Laurent Gutierrez + Val rie Portefaix. Each section considers a popular cultural icon--Mao, the Great Wall, video games, karaoke, Yao Ming, and so on--and divines what they reveal about Chinese culture. The book portrays China as the new America, a country that is fast becoming not only the leading industrial nation but also a dynamic center of world culture.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Map Book Publishers (September 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9628604090
• ISBN-13: 978-9628604098
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,085,077 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars disappointing read, September 20, 2004

By 

old china hand (Hong Kong) - See all my reviews

This review is from: China (Paperback)

Leach offers a tourist snapshot of "contemporary China". His impressions lack substance and originality, give very little pleasure to anyone familiar with the country, and are of little use to those who aren't.
The title is most misleading, as this thin book mainly deals with Hong Kong and Taiwan rather than The People's Republic. Such a naïve traveler might have failed to notice that Taiwan is a separate country and Hong Kong's national identity is the subject of a heated debate in the former British colony.
Gutierrez & Portefaix have done a much better job, but a pocketbook can hardly do justice to their pictures.
In my opinion, this is the literary equivalent of a Nissin Noodle Cup.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Really bad, April 5, 2008

By 

Sam Goffman "Sam G" (Shanghai, China) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: China (Paperback)

Every so often a book comes along that is so bad, you wonder how it ever saw the light of day. How could serious people agree to publish this? (Especially in Hong Kong, where the publishers presumably know a bit about China.) Leach says he is giving a snapshot of contemporary China, arguing that brief, quick-fire observations can have their own quality. This may be so, but if you combine such observations with shoddy research and arbitrary references that have little to do with China, the result is a starry-eyed collection of short sentences that sound like they are written by a high school student who has decided he will be an artist.

The book jars sharply with the experiences of those who have actually lived in China or have studied the country. Much of Leach's information is simply wrong; a couple of the observations he makes are almost interesting, but he doesn't develop them. From his writing, Leach sounds like someone who has a little bit of knowledge about a number of things, as well as a lot of energy -- I'm sure he would be more impressive in person than he is in print. In sum, the writing is extremely useful to see how one should not write.

Some of the photos are okay, but are pretty typical of Western photography about China -- mostly construction scenes and some pictures of workers' faces.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars just a touch, September 29, 2004

A Kid's Review

This review is from: China (Paperback)

If you want to get in contact to one possible lived experience of China, try this book. It's worth reading. You'll realize there is no such a thing as "China". China is just a composed image - be it an exquisite and shiny - mosaic-like one. What the author has tried here is one possible not-full-of-commonplaces point of view on China. In fact, the book is about a fresh contact with several major cities, the avant-garde of the explosive development that characterizes China today. Under the keywords "fast forward", what you may experience are just snapshots - in words and pictures. Like if China was some kind of puzzle - which is actually bound to stay undone, because some dark pieces of its immensity will always be missing. I liked the book especially for that: it is "true", open and impressionistic, like it was declared to be. No more, no less.