Invisible China: A Journey Through Ethnic Borderlands [Hardcover]

Colin Legerton (Author), Jacob Rawson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2009

In this eloquent and eye-opening adventure narrative, Colin Legerton and Jacob Rawson, two Americans fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Korean, and Uyghur, throw away the guidebook and bring a hitherto unexplored side of China to light. They journey over 14,000 miles by bus and train to the farthest reaches of the country to meet the minority peoples who dwell there, talking to farmers in their fields, monks in their monasteries, fishermen on their skiffs, and herders on the steppe.

            In Invisible China, they engage in a heated discussion of human rights with Daur and Ewenki village cadres; celebrate Muhammad’s birthday with aging Dongxiang hajjis who recount the government’s razing of their mosque; attend mass with old Catholic Kinh fishermen at a church that has been forty years without a priest; hike around high-altitude Lugu Lake to farm with the matrilineal Mosuo women; and descend into a dry riverbed to hunt for jade with Muslim Uyghur merchants. As they uncover surprising facts about China’s hidden minorities and their complex position in Chinese society, they discover the social ramifications of inconsistent government policies--and some deep human truths as well.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This odyssey—spanning 14,000 miles in four months—details China's rich diversity in a narrative jeweled with dazzling descriptions but lacking analysis. Legerton and Rawson, graduate students in the region's language and history, meander along the Silk Road, reporting on various hidden minorities and gaining extraordinary access to people's lives and homes. However, they take much of what they are told at face value and provide only superficial analysis of their ambitious undertaking. This is unfortunate because their sources and observations speak directly to the intersection of politics and culture that came to the fore in the days before Beijing hosted the Olympic Games. It is only in the afterword that they make explicit the link between China's official party line on minorities and what they witnessed. Nor do they attempt to explain what forces maintained China's cohesion over the turbulent past half-century. Despite these structural weaknesses, this is a spectacular achievement reminiscent of early 20th-century anthropological monographs by Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict, with much to charm readers in search of a travelogue on China's remote border and interior regions. (May)
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From Booklist

Students of Chinese and other Asian languages, Legerton and Rawson took their linguistic skills to the geographic periphery of China in 2006 and again in 2007. They sought members of the country’s non-Han minorities to learn about their lives, paying attention to their attitudes toward the majority Han. Upon arrival in some obscure town or village, they asked for a good place to eat, a query that yielded productive encounters with people and their cuisine as well as with local sites significant to them. As they narrate this method of introducing themselves, Legerton and Rawson interject explanations of policies, historical and current, of the central government toward ethnic minorities, such as religious persecution during the Cultural Revolution. They heard complaints about the Han, but making a livelihood was the predominant concern they discovered among Koreans, Mongolians, Uyghers, and several other of China’s 50-plus officially categorized ethnicities. Seemingly unfazed by rough accommodations and unusual foods, Legerton and Rawson eschew flourishes and hew to description in imparting their experiences for travel readers intrigued by China’s remote regions. --Gilbert Taylor

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Chicago Review Press (May 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556528140
• ISBN-13: 978-1556528149
• Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 6.1 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #811,716 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Invisible China should be on your summer reading list! May 13, 2009

By Kit Paulsen

Format:Hardcover

I expected invisible China to be a fairly dry, intellectual review of Chinese minorities. I couldn't have been farther from the truth. The book has travel-log appeal, dry wit, and an understated nature that is delightful to read and surprises you with the amount of history and background you learn. The authors do not intrude with their experiences as much as they allow you to feel as though you have had chance encounters with individuals who have interesting stories to share.

I sincerely hope these two authors continue to explore and write about the country and people they meet.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Frank, Informative, and Personal May 11, 2009

By McDisco

Format:Hardcover

Invisible China challenges some of the fundamental assumptions that Westerners maintain about China and the people in it. Myths like: "All Chinese use chopsticks," "All Chinese have dark hair," and "All Chinese speak Chinese," are shown to be false.

This is 225 pages of bald reporting. The authors, to their credit, insert very few of their own opinions, opting instead to broadcast dozens of local voices that very, very few English speakers would otherwise hear, from sites that Western tourists will never visit. What looks like a backwater village on the map more often than not turns out to be a swirling vortex of cultures, battered on all sides by conflicting cultural and ethnic influences.

Contradictions are aired shamelessly, proving the old maxim that China is impossible to summarize. This China, anyway, the China in Invisible China, is one that most of us didn't know existed.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An Exciting Adventure May 11, 2009

By Allison Lyzenga

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I can only dream of being this adventurous. This is a fantastic travelogue taking readers into isolated regions of China that the rest of us can only fantasize about visiting. And it is quite an eye-opener as well. The book provides a report on Chinese government policy toward its minority citizens, and it isn't always pretty. In fact, it rarely is. This is a must-read.