Tao: On the Road and on the Run in Outlaw China [Hardcover]

Aya Goda (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2007

As protests swirl in the cities and all foreign faces arouse suspicions, venturesome young Japanese student Aya Goda travels deep into the interior of China. There she falls in with the charismatic and combative wandering painter Cao, whose work is initially tolerated by the Chinese authorities and then banned, suddenly flipping the couple over onto the wrong side of the law. With the police on their tails, the pair criss-cross the vastnesses of middle China and push up into Tibet, where Cao has been trained as a sky-burial master. By truck and by jalopy, biplane and train, dodging bandits and bureaucrats alike, the pair take a high-speed, high-risk journey through this fast-changing country. Like some East Asian Cassady and Kerouac, Cao and Goda are wild kindred spirits in search of enlightenment and freedom, and Goda's prose—clear and metallic as a Himalayan stream—permits the reader to share their every intrepid step and twist and to taste the tangily different flavors of contemporary China.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Good travel books, like travel itself, open the door to new worlds. In the strongest works the author's vision becomes our own: for most of us, northern Russia will forever be defined by Colin Thubron's In Siberia. Antarctica is Sara Wheeler's Terra Incognita. Delhi will always be for me William Dalrymple's City of Jinns. Now, an arresting book is about to take hold of our collective vision of rural China. A dozen film producers would die to adapt this book into an irresistible road movie.' Rory MacLean, Guardian 'A unique memoir. At once naive, tough, stark and sentimental, Tao recounts an 8-month rite of passage in which the reader sees a Japanese art student entering an adolescent dream of love on the road' Colin Thubron --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Aya Goda works as a painter. This is her first book.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Granta UK; First Edition edition (August 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1846270243
• ISBN-13: 978-1846270246
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,236,507 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Aya Goda was born in Hokkaido, northern Japan. Aya traveled in West China while she was still a student of Musashino Art University, Tokyo in 1988 - 1989. "TAO" was awarded the Grand Prize for Non-Fiction from Kodansha Book Publishers, Japan's most prestigious book award 1995. Also English Version "TAO" was selected one of the 50 books touted as the "most worth talking about" World Book Day 2009.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A compelling read from a unique angle, September 7, 2008

By 

Anna (Takasaki-shi, Japan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tao: On the Road and on the Run in Outlaw China (Hardcover)

Fast-paced and intriguing, this true adventure across China on the run from the authorities shows China, Tibet, and some of neighboring Nepal through the eyes of a Japanese art student who falls in with Cao Yong, a great artist in trouble after his art was exhibited in Beijing.

Aya Goda's storytelling throughout the book is spare and to the point, and the tale is powerful and often moving while never trying to be. An unforgettable snapshot of Tiananmen-era China and ever-more relevant as the world turns its eyes to China and Tibet today.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Enthralling, Adventurous & Currently Relevant Memoir, April 18, 2008

By 

flourchild (Dublin, OH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tao: On the Road and on the Run in Outlaw China (Hardcover)

I have to admit that I wasn't really looking forward to reading this book which was given to me as a gift. Although I waited for the perfect time to read it, it isn't my usual taste. We need that sometimes, though. When I belonged to a book club, I read a lot of things that I really enjoyed but otherwise never would have picked up at a bookstore. When I procrastinated long enough, and had space to read it thoughtfully, I finally began. I have to say, honestly, that after about 50 pages I was hooked enough to be unable to put it down for long. That rarely happens. I can count the books that have done that to me... Life of Pi, Poisonwood Bible, Kite Runner... but I had no such expectation from this book and was thoroughly delighted. I have no interest in China, no interest in art. With Tibet and China in the news so much lately, and with the drama the Olympic torch passing has created, it was a timely read. I have a much more thorough understanding of the reality of life for Chinese citizens. It was not in the format of a lecture on world affairs, however, which I would have found dry and boring despite its current relevance. It was the background upon which the story of two people in love, of different nationalities, unfolded. Their desire for both freedom to be together and artistic expression lead them to try to escape. This memoir by Aya Goda, a Japanese woman who fell in love with artist Cao Yong, is a exciting ride and documents their escapes, failed attempts, and roadblocks. The fact that Cao Yong is an celebrated artist now and has supported this book gives it much in the way of credibility.
It was a bestseller in Japan, but only after many years has an English translation finally emerged. The Australian translator, Alison Watts, has done a great job, and has given us a book of such fluidity that I never got a sense of it ever having been written in any language but English. I understand a paperback version is due out in July. I hope you will find it as intriguing as I did and recommend it to any and all.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Goda rocks, April 24, 2009

By 

James Minibond "Jimmy" (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tao: On the Road and on the Run in Outlaw China (Hardcover)

I almost never do reviews but was inspired to do so after reading this book yesterday and then seeing the harsh reviews it received on Times and Guardian (Colin Thubron and Rory Maclean slated it bigtime).

Having hitched and backpacked across every continent in the world since my teenage years, and a avid gobbler of (good) books from Knut Hamsun to Paul Auster...I rate Goda's novel as one of the best travel books I have read. Not quite Kerouac or Thesiger, but miles better than the wry mincing drivel that Thubron and Maclean spew and that entire generation of 3rd rate Brit writers led by Martin Amis have dumped on the world.

Goda is flawed. Sure, she is a bit gushy (but hey girls, especially arty non-lesbian girls, do that). She obviously worships her man, but better that than people like Thubron or Theroux whose writing is all about worshipping themselves as 'heap big white sahib' in savage lands.

Her book has enough talent, and enough colour, to make me read it from cover to cover. Where she skims over facts to punctuate a point, at least it is done entertainingly and with skill, like a Leonard Cohen or Tom Waits. Whereas Thubron or Maclean or Pico Iyer self aggrandisement is neither entertaining nor skilled.

I'd read Theroux on a very slow and long holiday after all the newspapers have been read

I'd only read Thubron AFTER I've read everything including my 5 year old daughter's colouring books and the milk cartoon.

I'd read Kerouac, Thesiger, Chatwin, Naipaul, Chris Stewart and yes, Goda, anytime anywhere (for different reasons though)