Life> Reading

Cities of China get makeover in new book series

By Yang Guang (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-08-09 09:43

American photographer and writer Bobby Brill called Los Angeles home until he moved to China in 2006, a "crushed" fine art teacher looking for change.

"China was never on my radar, because when I first saw China on TV, it was not positive information," he explains.

He meant to stay for three months, but the stint has turned into almost five years, and the 32-year-old has become a writer of three books about China.

"I found myself really opening up to the experiences that China has to offer travelers in Nanjing, and wanted to find a way to stay a little bit longer," he says.

Life on the Water's Edge, his most recent cultural guide to Nanjing, capital city of Jiangsu province, is part of the Cities of China series by Foreign Languages Press (FLP) - a bilingual project focusing on the country's second- and third-tier cities.

Brill says the concept behind his book is to give readers a look into the history of Nanjing, a solid foundation of what makes the city unique, and most importantly, the hidden gems not so easily found otherwise.

"The point is, all the things that are interesting in Chinese culture have no frame of reference to the Western mindset," he says.

"For instance, you tell me Kunqu Opera is good. But I have to admit that the first time I listened to it, I felt it was awful to listen to. I had to learn why it is good. And I think that's why FLP is trying to get a foreign perspective on it."

He still treasures the experiences of walking along tree-lined boulevards, drifting lazily down the waters of the Qinhuai, and strolling through the ancient lanes or walkways of the old city center.

Released together with Brill's book is American investment banker and government consultant Einar Tangen's The Kunshan Way, an economic guide to Kunshan in Jiangsu province, the country's No 1 county-level city by GDP and home to the world's major manufacturers of laptops, digital cameras and bicycles.

Tangen regrets the fact that although Kunshan is larger than Philadelphia, Atlanta, Algiers, Vienna, Hamburg and Perth in size, few have heard of the city outside China.

In the book, he sums up the major barriers the West might face, in trying to understand the country.

"The leading four are: the basic lack of knowledge about the country, its history, culture and structure of its government; the constant flow of 'China business books' with their anecdotal tunnel vision; the never ending stream of articles, books and talking heads who see China's economic development as a political strategy; and the unfortunate fact that the voices and experiences of those who have been shaping China's economic development have been largely silent when it comes to broadcasting their views to the rest of the world."

He focuses on how the city has managed the meteoric transformation from a collection of rural towns and villages 20 years ago, through introduction, interviews and case studies.

"If you are interested in how China has risen so quickly, I hope the book will show you part of the equation," Tangen says.

According to Hu Baoquan, president of FLP, 20 to 30 more titles in the series are due to be published in the next three years.

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