To Learn: "The China Fantasy: How Our Leaders Explain Away Chinese Repression" by James Mann (Viking, 2007, 127 pages). As a long-time student of U.S. policies and attitudes towards China, I am always amazed at one enduring element I call "the China Exception." Presidents can come and go, Congress can be led by either the Democrats or the Republicans, but China has always been viewed with a special eye by Americans. The Chinese are allowed to live in a parallel universe where ordinary rules and standards simply don't apply. The author of this book dispels the two mainstream notions of China's future -- the Soothing Scenario in which economic freedoms will bring political ones and the Upheaval Scenario in which the contradiction between a market economy and Leninist politics is not sustainable -- and contends a more likely third scenario in which capitalism continues to evolve but the government fails to liberalize. In other words, China's dictatorship is here to stay. I love the book and agree with the author very much. That he was able to spell out his case in such a slim volume is impressive.
To Escape: "An Apple a Week" by David Tang (Next Publications, 2006, 205 pages). Chris Patten, the last governor of Hong Kong and the current chancellor of Oxford University, says it all in his review: the author is "Hong Kong's Renaissance man -- accomplished musician, film buff, retailer and designer supreme." The book is a collection of Tang's articles from Apple Daily, a local newspaper (full disclosure: I was responsible for inviting him to start the column). The author writes about pork rice, fung shui and fake Rolexes as well as about chess, mathematics and hearing Schubert played in Venice's La Fenice theater. "A rattling good read," says Lord Patten.
Feel free to swap the two books, though. You can certainly learn a lot from David Tang. And James Mann describes his subject so well that with his book, you can also dive into a fantasy world.
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