Red Dust

Book Description

Critics

• 'Red Dust' by Ma Jian

  I'm not a huge fan of travelogues, but I decided to read Red Dust based on the strength of Ma Jian's superb novel Beijing Coma and Max Cairnduff's excellent review . I read it on my Kindle while in China last month, and found much of Jian's descripti ... (read full critics)

  readingmatters published on Thu, 30 Dec 2010

• Dust of a nation

  Red Dust: A Path Through China Ma Jian Chatto & Windus £12, pp324 On 18 August 1983 the Chinese poet and painter Ma Jian turns 30. His ex-wife has just pronounced him a political criminal and forbidden him to see his daughter. His girlfriend has take ... (read full critics)

  guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

1 Review

• 

  I find I'm not a big fan of modern Chinese books translated into English. I've enjoyed classical, 19th and early 20th century Chinese stories translated into English. I like modern Chinese authors who write in English or French. But I've yet to find a modern chinese book that I really like. I was qu ... (continue)

  I find I'm not a big fan of modern Chinese books translated into English. I've enjoyed classical, 19th and early 20th century Chinese stories translated into English. I like modern Chinese authors who write in English or French. But I've yet to find a modern chinese book that I really like. I was quite dissapointed in this book. It had been advertised as the Chinese On the Road, two of my favourite things combined. But unfortunately it wasn't. The author, Ma Jian, was kinda the anti-Kerouac. Instead of going around and digging everything, seeing the beauty in everyone and everything, Ma seemed to hate everything and everyone. He seemed to have no appreciation for the places he was visiting. Which as places I would give almost anything to be able to see I found particularly upsetting. He went to the caves and Dunhuang and didn't get them. He mentioned in one paragraph how he'd gone to the Imperial burial grounds for Wu Zetian, and all he said was he tried to pee on her burial mound and the wind blew it back in his face. (Which made me happy Wu Zetian 1, Ma Jian 0). He seemed to scorn the people he stayed with, seeing them as backward and bragging about the "advances" and westernisation of Beijing. He seemed to hate the communists, but was a member of the communist party working in their propaganda department. He disliked that his friends did nothing to attempt to change anything, but he did nothing either. He came across as a very dull, self obsessed and self righteous man. There were little glimpses into China in the early 80s that were quite interesting. I learned that Deng Xiaoping had originally declared anyone caught listening to Deng Lijun would face 5 years in prison, which was later revoked. There were a lot of references to Deng Lijun in fact which made me happy. But overall the book was rather dull and frustrating.

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Book Details

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• English Books
• Mass Market Paperback 324 Pages
• ISBN-10: 0099490846
• ISBN-13: 9780099490845
• Publisher: Vintage Books
• Pub date: Sep 26, 2006
• Also available as: Paperback, Hardcover and eBook

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