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China Underground (Paperback)

~ Zachary Mexico (Author)
Key Phrases: black society, lama temple, lamb pizza, Jimmy Boy, Lao Zhang, Hong Kong (more...)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
List Price: $16.95
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Frequently Bought Together

China Underground + Postcards from Tomorrow Square: Reports from China (Vintage) + Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China
Price For All Three: $33.76

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  • This item: China Underground by Zachary Mexico

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  • Postcards from Tomorrow Square: Reports from China (Vintage) by James Fallows

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  • Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China by Leslie T. Chang

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Collected through intimate encounters over an impressive range of travels, Mexico's menagerie of voices tell the unique story of contemporary China's seismic social shifts from the point of view of the marginalized and disaffected. A musician and writer, Mexico is a remarkably eloquent and perceptive participant-observer. Focusing on and dissecting broader cultural, political and economic issues in episodic chapters, he puts faces and names to the staggering statistics. We learn about the government-estimated 5 to 10 million active homosexuals, through the story of a closeted graphic designer. We meet an infamous photojournalist who chronicles China's mining disasters, corruption, car accidents and environmental degradation. We encounter bohemians—80-year-old women selling marijuana on the side of busy streets and slackers whose indolence is a protest against the frenzied consumerism that surrounds them. One such self-proclaimed social parasite opened a bar in a trendy area of Beijing to sell drinks at cost and only to his friends. The overall effect is a seamless portrait of a complex modern society in which an ancient culture persists in spite of lightning-speed economic changes. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From The New Yorker

Through encounters with sundry artists, musicians, students, bar owners, gangsters, prostitutes, and slackers, Mexico assembles a compelling portrait of China�s contemporary youth culture and the limits of Communist control. The book�s subjects include a twenty-seven-year-old self-taught disaster photographer from the coal country in Shenyang; a twenty-nine-year-old mobster in Qingdao; a twenty-two-year-old Hendrixian Uighur guitar player making a splash in Shanghai; a Beijing university student who wishes that the system encouraged less rote memorization and more original thought; and an investigative journalist who no longer publishes himself, instead leading Western reporters to controversial stories. Mexico, a musician and poet who was a student in Beijing and subsequently managed a night club, has assumed a pseudonym to avoid trouble with the Chinese authorities. While occasionally anxious about his youth and his lack of credentials, he is a good listener and knows how to tell a provocative and illuminating story.
Copyright ©2008 Click here to subscribe to The New Yorker
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Soft Skull Press; 2nd Printing edition (March 1, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1593762232
  • ISBN-13: 978-1593762230
  • Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #279,228 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:
Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
black society, lama temple, lamb pizza, karaoke parlor, black hash
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Jimmy Boy, Lao Zhang, Hong Kong, Nine Dragons, Little Shi, Killing People Club, Han Chinese, Xiao Wang, Communist Party, Little Monkey, Killing People Game, Yunnan Province, Beijing Movie Academy, Liu Jianfeng, Vox Bar, Yunnan University, Tang Dynasty, Wang Dalong, Wang Gang, Zhu Ning, Cultural Revolution, Zhou Xingping, New York, Bird Bar, Sichuan Province
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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Customer Reviews

15 Reviews
5 star:
 (12)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
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Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (15 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars This is not the Communist China we grew up with!, February 21, 2009
By Lynda Lippin (Providenciales, Turks & Caicos Islands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)      
Having recently read and reviewed Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven, in which two women travel to Communist China in the '80s, I was fascinated to read Zachary Mexico's riveting portraits of "underground" artists, musicians, and intellectuals in the newer, more open China of the 21st century. I actually had Zachary Mexico's father as a guest Pilates client for several days here at Parrot Cay. I always ask guests about the books they are reading while on holiday, and he actually gave me his copy of the book just before he left so that I could read it for review.

Having lived in Kunming, China from 2002-2004, Mexico found that he really missed China. As he says, "it is hard to imagine a more exciting place than China." With a growing economy and more personal creative freedom, people at every level of Chinese society are changing and growing in ways nobody would have imagined 10 or 20 years ago. So he decided to return and write "about the crazy people I'd met in China and the even crazier people they'd introduced me to."

China Underground takes us from the mountains of Dali, where green marijuana grows freely and is smoked freely by just about everybody, to Linfen, the most polluted city in the world, where everyone wears masks to filter the obvious particles out of the air. He visits with prostitutes (known as chickens), with minority Uighur musicians, with filmmakers, writers, homosexuals (rabbits), and academics.

I must admit that I was at first shocked by the amount of drug use among the younger Chinese. Pot, black hashish, ketamine, cocaine... many are stoned all day every day. And they are disillusioned after growing up in a Communist system that actively discourages individual creative thought and any kind of critical argument.

The overall feeling of the book is hard to pin down, as even the same people express desperation, glee, excitement, despair, boredom, and impatience all in the space of a few hours or days. People want change, but aren't necessarily prepared for what change might mean.

Mexico offers a peek into the inside inner workings of daily life in China that most of us will never get to see. You will be surprised, shocked, and horrified. You will laugh, cry, and get angry. But most of all China Underground will make you think about China differently. This is not the Communist China we grew up with!
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Mexico in China, February 6, 2009
By Dana S. Cohen (Newtown, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
>> I just finished Zachary Mexico's book. I'm amazed by his
>> eloquent story telling, the clarity of his observations and his
>> proficiency in the subtleties of the Chinese language. I was struck by his
>> bravery to travel alone throughout China following leads, exploring the dicey
>> underbelly of an enormous, complex country and exposing his findings.
>
>> The writings show an avid interest in people's stories, a gift of
>> conversation, a true non-judgemental ( my spell checker is telling me that is not a word) compassion for how people deal with their lot in life.
>>
>> The book was captivating because of the fascinating, real people interviewed and because of Zachary's youthful yet wise reactions to his surroundings. In addition to character descriptions and life situations he fleshed out his studies by writing about their living spaces, food choices, clothing fit and interestingly, brand names of their cigarettes as if that too reflected upon one's character. He sees China as a worldly, yet objective, young outsider, free to express what is often not sanctioned in China. His inclusion of historical contexts was extremely helpful.
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4.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting and entertaining., September 20, 2009
By Anca "Nora" (Princeton, NJ) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
My travel companions and I read this book during our second lengthy travel through China and found it a great complement to what we could see on our own and to Peter Hessler's books. Its writing is uneven in style but always interesting and entertaining. I not only recommended it to others but bought several copies for my friends.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Chapters survey the rejects and outsiders of contemporary Chinese society
This firsthand memoir of the author's encounter with the 'new China' and its cultures and characters makes for a key travelogue focusing on contemporary Chinese culture from the... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Midwest Book Review

5.0 out of 5 stars buy this book
if you even have the sligghtest intrest in china then you have probably read some boring travel books about the country and its historical atractions. Read more
Published 3 months ago by John K. Johnson

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Book
China Underground quickly captured my attention. Zach Mexico skillfully recounts stories told from the private perspective of his real life subjects. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mary Carey

4.0 out of 5 stars Shock and awe
Whether he's writing about the majestic beauty of Dali, or the suffocating sickening putridness of Linfen (China's most polluted city), or the disaffectations of the sometimes... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Techie Evan

3.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, but not serious
I enjoyed China Underground for its look at various aspects of 21st century Chinese culture, but I think Mexico spent too much time on gangsters, drugs, drinking, music and clubs... Read more
Published 6 months ago by J. Rosenberg

5.0 out of 5 stars enjoyable and quick read
I like this book for travel because it is a compilation of short stories. Entertaining insight into the Chinese culture.
Published 7 months ago by eds

5.0 out of 5 stars china underground
I've never been to China but after reading this book, I feel like I have had a glimpse of what touring China would be like with a Chinese citizen who knew about how things worked... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Jacob I. Feigenbaum

5.0 out of 5 stars China Underground-
The book was truly astonishing. I was amazed by all of the unique people and situations the author encountered over his time in China. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Mark Rutta

5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and Educational
The China Underground gave you the opportunity to step into the secret world of China. I was given a glance of what it is like to be a citizen of that country. Read more
Published 8 months ago by G. Keith

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating insider's view
Understated, dry, and witty - this is a captivating commentary on the side of Chinese life that we don't see in our "typical" interactions. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Nightreader

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