Chinese Characters

lareviewofbooks: A Q & A with Pankaj Mishra by Jeffrey...

angileeshah — Thu, 23 May 2013 07:45:41 -0700

A Q & A with Pankaj Mishra

by Jeffrey Wasserstrom

Pankaj Mishra, whose latest book Drew Calver reviewed for this periodical, has surely been a familiar name to many Los Angeles Review of Books readers for some time now. They may have first become familiar with him via one of the many pieces he has done for periodicals such as the New Yorker, through one of his earlier nonfiction books, such as An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World, or by reading the profile Jennifer Schuessler did of him for the New York Times. In my case, I first encountered his name while looking for something on his native India to assign in a survey of the world in the twentieth century. Browsing in a bookstore in Bloomington, Indiana, where I was teaching at the time, I stumbled on The Romantics, his first and so far only novel. I found it a wonderfully engaging read (and very teachable).

I was delighted to learn a bit later on that China, the main country I teach and write about for a living, was one that he had long been interested in and had begun to visit and periodically ruminate on in print. We struck up a correspondence and went on to become friends, and now are even collaborators of a sort, since he was good enough to write the “Foreword” to Angilee Shah and my co-edited volume, Chinese Characters: Profiles of Fast-Changing Lives in a Fast-Changing Land.

I caught up with Pankaj by email earlier this month to put some questions to him. The LARB had previously done a video interview with him, which Angilee conducted in Los Angeles when his book tour was in its early phase, but a follow up seemed justified, since he had gone on to give talks on Ruins in widely varied places, including China, India and Japan. He got my questions just before setting off for Australia, where he is now, and answered them on the long plane ride there:

Jeffrey Wasserstrom: You’ve given talks on your book now in many parts of the world, including the U.K. and the U.S. and several Asian cities, most recently Tokyo. Let’s start with that metropolis, since From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectual Who Remade Asia begins with Japan, looking at the shock waves that the country’s defeat of Russia in 1905 sent around the globe. What was distinctive, if anything, about the kinds of questions you got about the book when you spoke in Tokyo?

Pankaj Mishra: In Tokyo, I was both intrigued and disconcerted by the nationalists who thoroughly approved of the parts of the book that fit their view of Japan as a great and sadly neglected power in history. (They obviously did not mention Tagore’s revulsion from Japanese militarism and imperialism) There were also other people who said there was a new conversation to be had in Japan about pan-Asianism, and more generally the country’s links with China and the rest of mainland Asia, and the book helped advance it.

JW: What about India? Was there, for example, particular interest there or perhaps some criticism of the way you brought Tagore into the book?

PM: There was some bemusement over my treatment of Tagore as a serious, if not systematic, thinker of many modern political and economic tendencies. Gandhi is usually allotted that role in India. There was also some criticism, of course, and valid points made. But then I think India, like Japan and China, has its own recessive political and intellectual histories, and if a book can help highlight them, or make them available for discussion, then it has succeeded. A book like mine can only be a modest link in a chain. Hopefully other books will deepen its research, and refine its themes.

JW: I was fortunate enough to be present for three of your book events, sitting in the audience for the L.A. one, taking part in a Beijing podcast with you, and serving as your onstage interlocutor in Shanghai. I’ve got my own thoughts here, but anything you want to say about similarities and differences between those events?

PM: The podcast in Beijing was great fun. In Kaiser and Jeremy we had two very acute observers and commentators, and we could quickly cover much ground in Chinese intellectual history, and confine ourselves to it fruitfully. The conversations in LA and elsewhere in the U.S. and U.K. tend to be more general and broad-ranging. One can’t assume much prior knowledge of people like Liang Qichao—-major figures though they are in China itself. So much of the conversation has to be devoted to introducing them, and replaying their greatest hits.

JW: One thing that was a particular hit in L.A. was you reading a section of the book about the Chinese intellectual Liang Qichao’s misgivings about American democracy after visiting the U.S. in the early 1900s. I think you brought that up to good effect in Shanghai as well. Was that something you did in all settings, or just a part that seemed particularly relevant to dwell on in China and the U.S.?

PM: I did it in many places—primarily for the shock effect. I think many people in the West are strangely bemused by the idea of a reversed gaze—the possibility that highly intelligent men and women from the non-West had travelled through their part of the world and made their own assessments of the political and economic arrangements prevailing there. They are so accustomed to judging non-western societies that the idea of someone from them judging their own societies is a bit disconcerting.

JW: Turning to your recent commentaries, but with an eye on the book, in an interview with the Boston Review you talked about the timidity of contemporary intellectuals and your worries about the place for free-ranging criticism in the public sphere. Did you have intellectuals or intellectual debates of roughly a century ago in your mind when talking about this? If so, which intellectuals and which debates?

PM: Well, the example that comes immediately to mind is the debates provoked by New Youth, the articles by Chen Duxiu and Hu Shih and others. These weren’t professional intellectuals. People wrote out of experience and conviction, and a passionate belief in the power of ideas to change the world. Some of this faith was misplaced, as we know, but at least there was no danger of a vapid consensus.

JW: I’ll refrain from asking you to comment on the latest issues that have brought Niall Ferguson (one person you’ve had a, shall we say, “heated” exchange with) back into the news, I do want to ask a Salman Rushdie question. You’ve sparred with him in the Guardian over Mo Yan’s Nobel Prize award, so I wonder if you have any thoughts on his latest expressions of opinion on China and freedom of speech in this Atlantic piece?

PM: I don’t fundamentally disagree with Rushdie’s criticism of the Chinese state for its repressive measures. I do think, however, that the situation in China is too complicated to be clarified through a cold-war lens or the pre-digital age assumption that the Chinese state monopolizes all discourses and stories and everyone else is just passive and apathetic, if not a patsy of the regime. There is a lot more freedom today to speak your mind—it takes only a few seconds to check out Weibo for proof of that. And look at Yu Hua’s writings in recent years. Rushdie himself acknowledges that this boldness and vibrancy came as news to him. For me the most important part of this interview is about India, where long-guranteed democratic rights are under threat, where non-state actors threaten artists and writers and intellectuals, and the state largely acquiesces. I don’t think we have found a way to make external pressure more effective there.

JW: Have you come across any book—or perhaps just article—that you now wish you’d read before writing Ruins, either because it gave specific information it would have been useful to know earlier or because it has arguments with which you would have wanted to engage?

PM: No one book, but bits and pieces of information and analysis that I wish I had included. Such as Tagore’s visit to Cairo and his exchange with Saad Zaghlul or the influence of pan-Islamism and pan-Asianism in Java—-I wish I had more on Indonesia generally. I am reading more on Japan these days and learning about how their writers and intellectuals perceived China—fascinating stuff. But, as I said, hopefully other books will fill up the gaps in this one.

Tonight at the New School: Dissent Magazine presents China’s 99%. A panel discussion featuring Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Maura Elizabeth Cunningham, and Megan Shank. Get more info here.

For Many in China, the One Child Policy is Already Irrelevant | ChinaFile

angileeshah — Wed, 15 May 2013 07:00:52 -0700

For Many in China, the One Child Policy is Already Irrelevant | ChinaFile:

Leslie T. Chang writes of a woman migrant worker: “She was ignored by the government, living at the margins — in China, that’s often the best place to be.”

Oiwan Lam reports on the 2012 China Cancer Census and reactions...

angileeshah — Wed, 01 May 2013 07:00:46 -0700

Oiwan Lam reports on the 2012 China Cancer Census and reactions from accross the country: Every Minute Six Patients are Diagnosed with Cancer in China · Global Voices

What’s the fastest growing wine producing region in the...

angileeshah — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 07:00:42 -0700

What’s the fastest growing wine producing region in the world?

China's Ancient Lifeline

angileeshah — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 07:01:21 -0700

China's Ancient Lifeline:

The 1,400-year-old Grand Canal is a monumental project that bound north and south China together. It’s still in use today.

by Ian Johnson with photos by Michael Yamashita

Censorship's Many Faces

angileeshah — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 07:00:42 -0700

Censorship's Many Faces:

The newspaper Southern Weekend, based in Guangdong Province, for years published exposés on corruption and malfeasance, becoming one of China’s most popular news outlets. Shrewdly, it focused its muckraking on other provinces, with the result that local censors often cut it slack.

Author Yu Hua on the surprising ins-and-outs of film, book publishing and news in China — and what that all has to do with food safety.

@tong_lam That’s amazing! How so?? cc @jwassers @annagreenspan @insideoutchina @alecash —...

angileeshah — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 07:00:00 -0700

@tong_lam That’s amazing! How so?? cc @jwassers @annagreenspan @insideoutchina @alecash

— Angilee Shah (@angshah)

April 19, 2013

The stories show students how history works its way into contemporary life. Highly animated discussion.@angshah @jwassers
— Tong Lam (@tong_lam) April 19, 2013

narrative junkie: Two Chinese students in America, found and lost.

angileeshah — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 07:00:48 -0700

narrative junkie: Two Chinese students in America, found and lost.:

chowleen:

A rare scholarly bright spot amidst a brutal week of news: today was the official launch of the Digital Public Library of America:

(From the NOBLE Digital Heritage collection, hat tip Rebecca Nedostop)

It is a treasure-trove of goodies, including this 1879 Boston studio portrait of Hong Yen Chang (aka Henry Chang or 張康仁), who was one of the first “overseas students” 留學生 in the United States.

"It has always been her dream to come to America to study. While she was here, she fell in love with..."

angileeshah — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 17:01:05 -0700

“It has always been her dream to come to America to study. While she was here, she fell in love with Boston and its people. She loved her new friends and her professors at Boston University. She wanted to play a role in international business, specializing in applied mathematics. She has been studying very hard toward her goal. Sadly, it was not to be.”

- Letter from the Family of Lu Lingzi | BU Today | Boston University

Ian Johnson: In China, the World’s Biggest Movie Lot Gets Even Bigger

angileeshah — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 07:00:42 -0700

Ian Johnson: In China, the World’s Biggest Movie Lot Gets Even Bigger:

Hengdian World Studios, in China, is the largest movie lot ever built. Some of China’s most iconic buildings have been erected on Hengdian’s eight thousand acres, giving the place the ersatz-historical feel of Colonial Williamsburg. On average, there are twenty movies or television dramas being filmed at Hengdian simultaneously.

Jeffrey Wasserstrom and Angilee Shah, co-editors of Chinese...

angileeshah — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 07:00:48 -0700

Jeffrey Wasserstrom and Angilee Shah, co-editors of Chinese Character will be at the legendary Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at the University of Southern California on Sunday, April 21. Come to roam the festival and find us at 3:30pm in Seeley G. Mudd (SGM 124).

Nonfiction: People & Place
(Conversation 2084)
Mark Binelli (Detroit City is the Place to Be)
Bill Boyarsky (Inventing L.A.: The Chandlers and Their Times)
Angilee Shah and Jeffrey Wasserstrom (Chinese Characters)
Moderator: Orli Low (Black Clock)

"Nepal used to be quite easy for Tibetans, to get jobs here and integrate into the community,” Tashi..."

angileeshah — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 07:01:00 -0700

““Nepal used to be quite easy for Tibetans, to get jobs here and integrate into the community,” Tashi Ganden, a former monk and prominent political prisoner in China, said as he sat on a cafe rooftop in the bustling Tibetan Boudhanath neighborhood of Katmandu. “That was before the Chinese influence.””

- In The New York Times: China Makes Inroads in Nepal, Stemming Tibetan Presence by Edward Wong

Bold Remembrances for a Chinese Reformer

angileeshah — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 05:30:27 -0700

Bold Remembrances for a Chinese Reformer:

Russell Leigh Moses writes in China Real Time:

April 15th is almost as sensitive an anniversary in China as the actual suppression of the protests that began on the evening of June 3rd. For years, the day passed with little mention of its significance in official media as the Party tried desperately to suppress anything that would revive positive memories of a movement it has always cast as a “counterrevolutionary rebellion.”

It was significant, then, that Liberation Daily, Shanghai’s main Party newspaper, ran two lengthy essays on Monday, each extolling Hu Yaobang as a reformer, while another essay originally published on the website of the Party-controlled China Youth Daily revisited political errors in the coverage of his death.

Rahul Gandhi’s dragon cliché

angileeshah — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 05:30:35 -0700

Rahul Gandhi’s dragon cliché:

Ananth Krishnan in The Hindu on what the heir-apparent of the Congress Party in India got right and wrong about China.

For analysis, read Evan Osnos in his New Yorker blog...

angileeshah — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 05:30:26 -0700

For analysis, read Evan Osnos in his New Yorker blog “Letter from China.”

China has become a global leader in high speed rail, but there...

angileeshah — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 05:30:36 -0700

China has become a global leader in high speed rail, but there have been some bumps along the way. Jeffrey Wasserstrom, author of China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know, joins Worldview to explain what makes China’s rail systems unique and how they came to be. (Photo: AP Images).

Tong Lam’s photo essay Consuming China in Dissent Magazine

angileeshah — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 05:30:35 -0700

Tong Lam’s photo essay Consuming China in Dissent Magazine

"Looking back on these four years, I know I did things I shouldn’t have done, that I killed reports..."

angileeshah — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 05:30:37 -0700

“Looking back on these four years, I know I did things I shouldn’t have done, that I killed reports that I shouldn’t have killed, that I removed content I shouldn’t have removed. But in the end I had an awakening, preferring not to carry out my political mission, refusing to go against my conscience and to become a criminal of history.”

- Zeng Li, a censor at Southern Weekly, wrote in his farewell letter. Read more: The death of a news censor - China Media Project

The Vatican and The Chinese Communist Party: More Similar Than You Think

angileeshah — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 05:30:38 -0700

The Vatican and The Chinese Communist Party: More Similar Than You Think:

Jeffrey Wasserstrom in The Atlantic:

They speculated on the likelihood that the new man in charge (no doubt about that the gender of the person selected in Rome would be the same as the one in Beijing) would be a “conservative” or a “reformer,” and also mused about whether his predecessor would fade away completely or exert some influence from behind the scenes. In both cases, Western reporters spoke of complex bureaucratic organizations that had been rocked by scandals, that many outsiders viewed as plagued by corruption, and that had traditionally been loathe to admit that they had made mistakes. Commentators also talked, in each case, of selection processes that were mysterious and cloaked in secrecy.

Review on Amazon

angileeshah — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 05:30:00 -0700

I have been fortunate enough to visit China three times. I saw many changes from 2000 to 2006 to 2012. The book really captures the changing world within China. As an English teacher, I also fully appreciate the high quality writing. The writers/journalists who contributed to this book have written compelling beautifully written stories of their experiences in China. I loved Ian Johnson’s piece about the Taoist monks and longed to read the rest of the story. I was greatly intrigued by the chapters on Chinese education as I compared it to the American and Western educational systems. I really felt for Old Lady Gao in Harriet Evans piece about Old Beijing. If you have any interest in China you should read this book; it is a great read. -“So So Retro” on Chinese Characters