Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Superb Read Ahead of the Beijing Olympics, July 28, 2008
About halfway through The Last Days of Old Beijing a question entered my mind. How long can Michael Meyer sustain a book which keeps repeating that Beijing's hutong are being torn down? The answer, to be frank, is 309 pages. I never tired of this one idea even though I expected my typical impatience to kick-in. This was a damn fine read.
So many ideas are floating through my head as I try to capture my reaction. Michael Meyer is a bit of a true believer. In some senses, this characterization portrays him as a romantic who has fallen in love with the hutong and its intangible cultural patterns and meanings. Yet, it also means he goes further than the rest of us, and that is something to be respected. How many times have I, or perhaps you, been to a museum or read the literature and dreamed of what it must have been like to experience life in another time or place? What empowers this book is that its author has done exactly what we only dream of. He moved to China, lived in a hutong, and made this experience all his own. The distance that allows us to safely consume the experiences of others is a divide that Mr Meyer has stepped over.
Consequently, this book is a portrait of what is to me another time and place, though it is present tense for our author. The portrait is a romantic one, his love of this place in every way seems genuine, and the sense of loss is compelling. Early in the book Mr. Meyer is cautioned by the police that living in a hutong is not safe, he stays and we are gradually introduced to a cast of characters such as the Widow, Recycler Wang, Miss Zhu, Soldier Liu, and Zhang Jinqi. Accounts of each are spread throughout the book, giving us yet another perspective on the hutong and reminding us that this special place in Beijing has no single meaning, as the Hand would have us believe.
The Hand is never seen or heard from, but its mark in well known. Overnight a character is drawn on the side of buildings scheduled to be demolished. Nobody knows who paints this symbol or how the decision is made. The Hand is not something you can speak to, as some folks might tell us in a movie or humorous commercial. Here the hand is power, authority, and decisive. The Hand is government. The residents learn they must move once this symbol appears, and they know there is nothing to be done. Hundreds of thousands of people have been subjected to this treatment.
And it is the Hand's action that destroys the hutong, and so much more. In other chapters we go through an extensive history of Beijing's history and development. We learn how a man-made mound protects the city center from negative energy coming down from the north and open roads allow positive energy from the South to radiate into Beijing unimpeded...or once did. We also learn about Chinese architectural history, a series of catastrophes and wartime acts that either built or destroyed portions of Beijing, and the various political leaders and groups at the center of these stories. Throughout it all, the hutong play an important role. In one sense, the Hand is no different as it tears at Beijing and reshapes the city into a modern marvel for the world to see at the 2008 Olympics.
But Michael Meyer does a wonderful job of not allowing the hutong to get lost in such broad strokes of history and distanced interpretation. He keeps our feet on the ground and shows the hutong are filled with fascinating people, a unique and rich culture, interesting foods, and more. Here I paraphrase, and the people themselves are quoted as saying we are merely poor, but we are not bad. We see that beautifully in Mr. Meyer's portrait.
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating and Informative!, July 18, 2008
"The Last Days of Old Beijing" is written by an American volunteer English teacher in an "old Town" Beijing elementary school. The area surrounding his rental room is being squeezed by encroaching redevelopment motivated both by profit and patriotism (putting on a good face for the Olympics). Public latrines take the place of indoor plumbing, central heating/cooling is non-existent, and the use of most appliances risks blowing a fuse and impacting many others. Many live in less than 100 square feet/person - less than the city minimum of 161 square feet.
Meyer speaks Chinese, and living among those directly affected is in an excellent position to relay their thought. His accounting is augmented by an interest in history, which he exercises through frequent library visits to learn the background of the individual streets and buildings in his area.
Not surprisingly, rebuilding is met with mixed reactions. The young generally are quite receptive - appreciating their indoor plumbing and central heat/AC (though often shoddy construction), while their elders, having spent decades in the same housing close to downtown, are not. The monies involved are substantial - for example, Mr. Zhang pays $2.26/month for rent (originally provided by his work unit), and is offered $32,000 to move - quite a lot, but not enough to buy a house downtown. Residents feel abused - graft reduces the amounts they are offered, and arbitration panels rarely rule in their favor. Those refusing to the end are liable to be physically removed by force, though changes in the law towards the end of the book provide hope for future holdouts.
Accounts of the schoolchildren taught by Mr. Meyer were the most interesting part of the book. Beijing students begin studying English (speak, read, write) in Grade One - three 45 minute sessions/week through Grade Six. Much of the instruction is automated, reducing the teacher's role to leading students through recitations, animated on a disc with the text. Teachers at the Coal Lane Elementary (pupils primarily from migrant labor parents) are paid less than the average Beijing average - at a level about equal that of a recycler. The teacher Mr. Meyer works with failed high school, and enrolled in a technical school to become an English teacher. One teacher handles grades one, two, four, and five.
Pupils stand for the national anthem each morning, and announce "Reporting" and bow upon entering the class. One student is responsible for collecting homework and reporting truants. Another leads a row of students through the outside morning exercises, reporting those not executing the deep knee bends and wrist twists. Still another supervised the cleaning of the classroom, another listened for foul language. Daily ten minutes of eye exercises said to improve vision were also pupil led, and he/she noted on the board the names of any laggards not massaging their eye sockets with enthusiasm. Class size is 25, and they have summer homework. English teachers are required to take an annual proficiency test.
I was also impressed with Beijing's goal of 35% of its citizens being competent in basic spoken English by the start of the Olympics, including 6,000 police. (Police were given a 200-page booklet on Olympic Security English).
Side Issues: Internet cafes may consist of 100 or so computers, renting for about a quarter/hour, and usually full. Entry to a modest bath house costs about $1.15.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating Portrait, July 30, 2008
Reading my way through translated Chinese literature, I've found that there's so much assumed knowledge that words flip by without leaving their mark. Meyer is the remedy to the problem. He's not a giddy traveler, pausing for a week or two, observing and moving on again. He stayed put, settled down, got a job, all in the backstreets of Old Beijing. He is soon accepted as a part of the community, not so much as a foreigner, but as a teacher. It's a patient, somewhat wistful book. Meyer isn't a romantic, he understands that for many, a working toilet and electricity will be welcome as they leave the old, winding streets behind. But he also conveys what will soon be lost, and more importantly, gives us a background to the vast rebuilding project that has uprooted more than a million Beijing citizens, producing the stories of his neighbors to give us a focused view. In the context of China in the 20th Century, the Olympic push seems more of a strange continuum from the Japanese Invasion, through the Great Leap Forward and into the 21st Century. Meyer writes well, but this is a rather beautiful dirge and like all dirges, you'll find that it relies on playing the same notes again and again. Still, a beautiful and timely book, at least for the summer of 2008 and a glimpse beyond the pomp of the Olympic welcome.
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