China Shakes the World -- book captures the grand sweep of changes in the most populous nation on Earth

James Kynge's book China Shakes the World came recommended by about eight different people, so I went into it with high expectations -- and I was not disappointed. Kynge, a Financial Times correspondent who went to university in China, is an extremely entertaining writer who has a knack for spotting the exactly perfect little anecdote from his gigantic repertoire to illustrate the many fascinating points he makes about the rise of China and the perils it faces now.

There's a lot of nuance here, a picture painted in shades of grey. Kynge isn't entirely enthusiastic about the impact that China's rapid growth and industrialization has had on the country and the world, but he's also not a sinophobe. There's plenty to marvel at in China, and Kynge's happy to show us the amazing spectacle of failed German steel factories being packed up and shipped in hundreds of containers to China; to introduce us to brave and diligent and likable people who've endured incredible hardship and gone on to become titans (the founder of Lenovo started out as a night-soil collector, worked his way up to IBM salesman in a borrowed suit, and ultimately bought IBM's computer business from them).

But he's also possessed of innumerable stories of corruption, breathtaking disregard for the environment, and hardscrabble cruelty, and these are painted just as vividly -- like the story of a young woman who was informed that she'd been mistaken about being accepted into college, and whose life for decades was plagued by curious circumstances, like mysterious congratulatory baby-baskets when she'd had no child. Eventually, she discovered that her surpassing exam results and her identity had been appropriated by the slow-witted daughter of an important Party member who had been living as her for decades in a grand city, while she lived a life of rural poverty.

Kynge does an admirable job of capturing the sweep and scale of the changes racing across China, and when I was done, I found myself holding a book with dozens of dogeared pages and underlined passages I wanted to return to later as I work on my next novel, which is partly set in China. I've read dozens of books about China this year, and this one is easily the best so far. Link

• [CVR]

  “Night Soil” –learn something new everyday. I’m such a pampered westerner.

• [Felix Mitchell]

  That’s an awful book cover.

• [Rukasu]

  If you’re looking for a mammoth of a biography on Mao and the CCP in general for that matter, I highly recommend “Mao: The Unknown Story” by Jung Chang. Having lived in China, it is interesting to see how Mao and the CCP’s early days have shaped China to what it is today.

• [dfred]

  Kynge could have been more original there is already a french book with the almost same title “Quand la Chine s’éveillera– le monde tremblera”

  Which is a quote from Napoleon.

• [KevinK]

  China is finally figuring out communism simply doesn’t work. Good for them.

• [Nelson.C]

  I’ve tried to read Mao:TUS but every time I pick it up I have to put it down again because the main character is such an unsympathetic bastard. I’m only halfway through the Long March at the moment.

• [Takuan]

  thanks Cory, I’ll put that one on the haystack

• [Cory Doctorow]

  The UK cover is completely lovely — the US cover (shown here) not as good.

• [Nelson.C]

  I just put this book on my wishlist at Amazon.uk, went to check for the UK cover and realised that I’d already bought it yesterday. I think I’ll move it to the top of my to-read pile.