The fingers of pianists are broken for playing bourgeois music, teachers are humiliated and worse-the Cultural Revolution is in full fury on the mainland. Hong Kong is rife with rumors and riots. Nonetheless, Dimitri Johnston feels an affinity for China that is not shared by his wife. (She is not so taken with him either.) When he meets a young Chinese dancer, they become infatuated.
Christopher New was born in England, grew up in Kent and was educated at Oxford and Princeton Universities. Philosopher as well as novelist, he founded the Philosophy Department in Hong Kong University, where he taught for many years whilst writing The China Coast Trilogy (Shanghai, The Chinese Box and A Change of Flag) and Goodbye Chairman Mao, as well as The Philosophy of Literature.
He now divides his time between Europe and Asia and has written novels set in India (The Road to Maridur), Egypt (A Small Place in the Desert) and Europe (The Kaminsky Cure). His books have been translated into Chinese, German, Italian, Japanese and Portuguese.
