The Horse that Leaps Through Clouds: A Tale of Espionage, the Silk Road, and the Rise of Modern China [Hardcover]

Eric Enno Tamm (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 26, 2011

On July 6, 1906, Baron Gustaf Mannerheim boarded the midnight train from St. Petersburg, charged by Czar Nicholas II to secretly collect intelligence on the Qing Dynasty’s sweeping reforms that were radically transforming China. The last czarist agent in the so-called Great Game, Mannerheim chronicled almost every facet of China’s modernization, from education reform and foreign investment to Tibet’s struggle for independence.

On July 6, 2006, writer Eric Enno Tamm boards that same train, intent on following in Mannerheim’s footsteps. Initially banned from China, Tamm devises a cover and retraces Mannerheim’s route across the Silk Road, discovering both eerie similarities and seismic differences between the Middle Kingdoms of today and a century ago.

Along the way, Tamm offers piercing insights into China’s past that raise troubling questions about its future. Can the Communist Party truly open China to the outside world yet keep Western ideas such as democracy and freedom at bay, just as Qing officials mistakenly believed? What can reform during the late Qing Dynasty teach us about the spectacular transformation of China today? As Confucius once wrote, “Study the past if you would divine the future,” and that is just what Tamm does in The Horse that Leaps Through Clouds.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for The Horse that Leaps Through Clouds

"Tamm utilizes [Baron Gustaf] Mannerheim's extensive journals to effectively recreate sights and sounds across a vast landscape in an effort to better understand China's future by examining its past." —Publisher's Weekly

"[P]art-travelogue and part-biography with rigorous social historical analysis, [The Horse That Leaps Through Clouds] demands perseverance, and rewards it . . . Tamm offers as lucid an insight into China’s malaise as any foreigner could be expected to provide." —PopMatters.com

"A complicated, ambitious travel adventure through modern Inner Asia . . . a truly inspired journey." —Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

Eric Enno Tamm is an author and journalist. His first book, Beyond the Outer Shores: The Untold Odyssey of Ed Ricketts, the Pioneering Ecologist Who Inspired John Steinbeck and Joseph Campbell, was a Kiriyama Prize Notable Book. His writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, and the Toronto Star, among others. Tamm currently lives in Ottawa.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Counterpoint (April 26, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582437343
• ISBN-13: 978-1582437347
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,158,851 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Eric Enno Tamm is an author, journalist and analyst with more than 15 years' experience in the media and non-profit sector. His first book, "Beyond The Outer Shores: The Untold Story of Ed Ricketts, the Pioneering Ecologist Who Inspired John Steinbeck and Joseph Campbell," was a Kiriyama Prize Notable Book in 2005. His second book, "The Horse That Leaps Through Clouds: A Tale of Espionage, the Silk Road and the Rise of Modern China," is being released in the fall of 2010.

Eric has worked as executive director of the B.C. Coastal Community Network, communications director of Ecotrust Canada, and as a correspondent in Europe. His writing has appeared in Wallpaper*, The Globe and Mail, Los Angeles Times Magazine, Canadian Geographic, San Francisco Chronicle, Toronto Star, among others.

Born in Tofino B.C., Eric developed his interest in history and current affairs at a young age. His father, an Estonian refugee, would often recount gripping first-hand accounts of the Soviet invasion of the Baltic States during the Second World War. At the age of 15, Eric became the editorial cartoonist for the local newspaper, and went on to earn a master's degree in journalism from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and a master's degree in European affairs from Lund University in Sweden. Eric remained in Sweden for three years, working as the Nordic Contributing Editor for Wallpaper* magazine.

While study in Lund, a Finnish friend told him about Gustaf Mannerheim's epic trek from St. Petersburg to Peking in 1906. Several years later, and back in Vancouver, Eric read Mannerheim's travel journal and was mesmerized by its piercing insights and the striking parallels between the country's modernization in the late Qing Dynasty and Communist China today. He began intensive historical research and logistical planning to retrace Mannerheim's route on the centennial in 2006.

However, before he departed his home in Vancouver, the Chinese consulate, through its network of spies and informants, caught wind of his plans to venture into China's restive and rugged borderlands. He was repeatedly denied a visa. Like Mannerheim, he devised a cover and snuck into China's back of beyond.

The Horse That Leaps Through Clouds chronicles two epic journeys along the Silk Road--past and present--that offer a cautionary tale about the breathtaking rise of modern China.

Eric currently lives and works in Ottawa, Canada.

Visit Eric's personal website at www.ericennotamm.com.
visit "Beyond The Outer Shores" website at www.beyondtheoutershores.com
Visit "The Horse that Leaps Through Clouds" website at www.horsethatleaps.com