Iron and Silk [Paperback]

Mark Salzman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 12, 1987

Salzman captures post-cultural revolution China through his adventures as a young American English teacher in China and his shifu-tudi (master-student) relationship with China's foremost martial arts teacher.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In 1982, Salzman flew off to teach English in Changsha, China. He writes of bureaucrats, students and Cultural Revolution survivors, stripping none of their complexity and humanity. He's gentle with their idiocies, saving his sharpest barbs for himself (it's his pants that split from zipper to waist whilst demonstrating martial arts in Canton). Though dribs of history and drabs of classical lore seep through, this is mostly a personal tale, noted by the Los Angeles Times for "the charmingly unpretentious manner in which it penetrates a China inaccessible to other foreigners."

From School Library Journal

YA This anecdotal record of a young man's encounter with the Chinese and their way of life offers unique insights to readers. Salzman had majored in Chinese literature at Yale, and his first job after graduation in 1982 was teaching English to students and teachers at Hunan Medical College in Changsha. He met this considerable challenge with sensitivity, humor, and imagination, and was quickly regarded with respect and affection. Salzman had studied martial arts since he was 13, and he continued his practice in Changsha, where one of China's foremost experts, Pan Qingfu, accepted him as a pupil. Readers will become aware of the many styles of the sport, and, incidentally, the real meaning of ``kung fu.'' The personalities encountered range from Salzman's students and teachers to calligraphers, peasants, fishermen, and bureaucrats. Each fascinating episode illuminates the way to a deeper understanding of Chinese culture and character. This book is also notable for its unusually attractive design: the handsome calligraphy on the binding and chapter headings was done by the author. Rita G. Keeler, St. John's School, Houston
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; Vintage Departures edition (October 12, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394755111
• ISBN-13: 978-0394755113
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (78 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #63,478 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #44 in Books > Travel > Asia > China
  • #92 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Travel

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Sense of Wonder, October 26, 2000

By 

Boris Bangemann "boyse" (Singapore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Iron and Silk (Paperback)

In 30 short anecdotes, Mark Salzman gives a compassionate and humorous account of teaching English and studying martial arts in Changsha, a provincial capital in central China shortly after the opening of the country in the early 1980s. Changsha has the reputation that "there is nothing to do, nothing to buy, the people have no manners, the food is terrible and their dialect sounds awful" - so the book might have become very different from what it is: insightful, very funny, and full of respect for the often strange customs of traditional Chinese culture. In the best manner of innocents abroad, Mark Salzman knows how to make fun of his blunders in a very charming way. He conveys his sense of wonder beautifully, and does not pass judgment on anything he witnesses. Unlike many other authors who write about China, he is able to appreciate traditional Chinese forms of expression and self-mastery like martial arts (wushu) and calligraphy on their own terms. In his anecdotes he catches the essence of these arts: dedication, commitment, respect. "No matter what the quality of brush or paper," explains his calligraphy teacher, "one should always treat them as if they were priceless."

What Mark Salzman wrote about China some 15 years ago is not dated in many ways. Strange ideas are still being trumpeted as truths, and bureaucrats still like to harass foreigners (although humiliating unwitting foreigners is not "something of a popular sport in China" anymore; today it may even happen that a young female police officer at a police station first lectures you for half an hour on a minor transgression, but asks you out for a date right after she is finished).

Mark Salzman has a wonderful, gentle humor, and an admirable open-mindedness. He combines both to focus not on the ignorance of the people he meets, but on the insight which even ignorance can produce. There is no doubt that one little Chinese boy has no idea about the real Hong Kong, but being asked what he knew about this city, he answers "It's a big department store, isn't it?" Finally, let me say that I have never heard or read of a more charming and polite way of telling a Westerner that he has a big nose than in Mark Salzman's gem of a book: "You have a very three-dimensional face."

42 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hope this books gets on high school reading lists, April 26, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Iron and Silk (Paperback)

As a Chinese, I read Iron And Silk and am amazed at how much Mark got into the soul of the ordinary Chinese people. Written in simple, elegant language, there were so many enchanting anecdotes in the short-story-like segments, that it moved me to find an American knowing so much about China. As a naturalized American, now raising my children in the U.S., I have seen books such as Joy Luck Club on the reading lists of my children's high school English classes. It disturbs me that Joy Luck Club really presents a psudo, stereotypical China. I hope high school English teachers will take a look at this book, and include Iron And Silk in the reading lists for their students. I want my children to read good books that tell about a real China. In my opinion this book is much better than Joy Luck Club for high school education. The back cover of this book tells me Mark Salzman graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude from Yale in 1982 with a degree in Chinese Language and Literature. This book is much more than a martial arts book. While it is fun to read as a series of short stories on an American martial arts student's journey in China, it really teaches so much about how the Chinese society is. I highly recommend it for high school reading lists.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review the Book, not the Man, but if you want to......., December 13, 2002

By 

Selma (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Iron and Silk (Paperback)

When this book first appeared, I used it in an urban adult ESL class that was full of immigrants of all ages from China. They enjoyed it and occasionaly argued about parts. Then, a wonderful thing happened. Salzman was in town and agreed to visit our class. What a dear, sweet, and entertaining person he was--speaking in Cantonese, Mandarin, and English--keeping the students laughing for a couple of hours. He also appeared in a public talk with a very different kind of audience--and kept it just as fully entertained.
When the movie of the book came out, and Salzman played himself, I thought it was a bit much, but I can't deny his acting skill.
In answer to questions in the "review" of Lemas Mitchell (see below):
1. Unresolved characters: Who was the girl with whom he took a bike ride? Is this the one that later became his wife?
----Yes, that -was- unresolved, and we asked him about it. He was reticent, even shy about saying more.
He married a California Chinese-American woman, not the woman on the bike. His wife has been an award-winning independent film-maker.
2. Overly-romantic view of some Chinese cultural habits that would consider inappropriate:
----This was humor.
3. Self absorption: Was he really a kung-fu master? Was it all in his own head? Was his Chinese really that good after an undergraduate degree?
----He never said he was a master; rather, he had a master as a teacher. His study of martial arts was what led him into Chinese studies in the first place. Yes, his skill in the language(s) was good. Chinese literature was, I believe, his major at Yale, from which he graduated with honors.
----
I'm here reading reviews because I'm thinking of using the book again with college level ESL students and wanted to check out the current attitudes.