The Road to Sleeping Dragon

September 1, 2017
Impressions of China from an experienced guide.From 1995 to 1997, Meyer (In Manchuria: A Village Called Wasteland and the Transformation of Rural China, 2015, etc.) was stationed in a small town as a Peace Corps teacher of English. He later went on make bilingual travel journalism his livelihood, and here, he provides a humorous, detailed chronicle of the kind of bewildering, bracing contact impressions between him and the Chinese that illustrate both the huge divide between the two countries as well as the shared humanity. What he underscores throughout is how rare seeing a white person was for most Chinese at this transitional time and the curiosity of the Chinese students about Americans. Many admitted outright that they had been taught to distrust America, yet they liked him, whose name transliterated in slang as "Sold Son" or "Heroic Eastern Plumblossom." Speaking Chinese that sounded like a Sichuan farmer's, Meyer had many delightful and appalling adventures, and he delineates his experiences with a great verve and a light hand. He recalls the trepidation he felt when locals menacingly shouted their word for "foreigner" at him. But he also experienced a curious opening of the Chinese mind, a process that had begun some years earlier when Deng Xiaoping famously declared, "we have nothing to fear from the West." As a teacher, Meyer was urged to "teach the Beatles," which turned out to be "sound pedagogical advice." The author posted many of his early writings to publications in the U.S. as well as to his family via letters. Eventually, love intervened, in the form of a fellow teacher at his new school in Beijing; Frances was a bright student thwarted in her ambitions until she met Meyer. The author depicts many moving moments, such as the wonder of one student when he brought them (for "extra credit") to Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1999: the 10th anniversary of the famed clash. Some of the impressions are dated, but the majority are charming and revealing.

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September 1, 2017
China hand Meyer, whose nonfiction The Last Days of Old Beijing (2008) and In Manchuria (2015) have won universally high praise, along with travel-writing awards, details his beginnings in then-tiny Neijiang, Chinain Sichuan Provincein 1995 as a Peace Corps volunteer so callow that he must implore his mother in an early letter to send him boxes of Stridex acne pads. After his requisite two years, Meyer would make his way to Beijing, where the news was made and where he would meet his future Chinese wife. Their charming, twisting story proceeds all the way to the 2008 Beijing Summer Games. Meyer has a sharp eye both for the details of two such contrasting cities, but also for the seismic changes China would undergo in a mere 20 years. There's neither outsize pride, nor false modesty, here, but instead a humility gained from an immersion that finds him continually off-balance, which creates its own sort of wisdom.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

Starred review from August 1, 2017

Former Peace Corps volunteer Meyer (The Last Days of Old Beijing) continues to present his fascinating and worthwhile impressions of China. He explains that, unlike his first book, this latest work is mostly chronological impressions of lessons learned over time. Readers have an additional treat here in that Meyer shares his charming and challenging courtship of Frances, his wife whom he met while living in China. Frances's story brings further depth and insights to Meyer's observations and experiences of the country. For example, her mother used to tell her to finish what was on her plate because there were starving people in America. Meyer's comments are priceless; when his apartment was as cold as an icebox, he reported, "I called Frances and asked her how to turn on the radiator. She laughed. 'You can't. Beijing turns it on for you.'" VERDICT Those planning an actual trip to China as well as armchair travelers will be enlightened and entertained by this exceptional book.--Susan G. Baird, formerly with Oak Lawn P.L., IL

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