Globe Corner Blogs

When you come into the store, it is impossible not to notice all the books about China. They come in every shade of red possible, in all sizes and weights – including the hefty new edition of the Lonely Planet China. Saying that they are everywhere would be a slight exaggeration, but they have taken over four shelves of one of our bookcases. They have very intriguing titles. (Don’t you want to know how to cook a dragon, or what on earth The Corpse Walker is about?) After looking at all those books for a while your resistance is eventually undermined – your curiosity is piqued – and this is when you give in and pick one up.

I still can’t tell exactly why I picked up China High. Maybe it was just the right shade of red. Or maybe because the author is easy to relate to and gives a very good look at China – a place that is not so easy to understand. This book turned out to be about his own astonishing personal changes following his experiences in China.

China High is the autobiography of a recently returned emigrant from China – the author spent most of his teens and twenties in the United States – and returns to start a business. Bright, smart, witty, but sometimes arrogant and stubborn, the author is bombarded and annoyed by “cultural differences” every day, ignoring the Chinese philosohy that for change to happen outside, one should let it first happen within. ZZ’s notes on Chinese lifestyle describe his efforts at “civilizing” his fresh-out-of-the-countryside employees, intricate guan xi‘s (“relationships”), and rich descriptions on the bubbling nightlife in Beijing and Hong Kong. All goes well, although the author encounters too many “one a day”s – things he hates about living in China. And then, everything ends with him unexpectedly ending up in… Chinese prison. Why? How? Well, it might just be Dao – when all your future luck depends on how you choose to change yourself in the present. And in ZZ’s case, the change was big, just like all the changes happening in China right now. The title of the book has many meanings, after all.

Read more: Beijing, Book Reviews, China, China High, Culture Shock, Lonely Planet, Memoir, News, World Culture


Nastia was born in Russia, and probably that's the reason why she is so inexplicably attracted to the coldest parts of the world, such as Finland, Iceland, Denmark, Alaska and Canada. The more it snows out there - the better. Although would she be even thinking about all that cold if she hadn't first enjoyed Turkey, Bulgaria and Ukraine?

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