The Fat Years by Chan Koonchung – review
Jonathan Fenby enjoys a dystopian portrait of the world's most deceitful superpowerThe problem with writing novels set in the near future is that time catches up with you. The Fat Years, set in a China of 2011, appeared in Hong Kong in 2009. At first g...
Ai Weiwei’s Blog by Ai Weiwei – review
A collection of Ai Weiwei's blog entries proves he's much more than a playful dilettante of Chinese artMay was a big month for Ai Weiwei, probably China's best-known artist internationally. After his Sunflower Seeds installation at Tate Modern, his lat...
Mao’s Great Famine by Frank Dikötter
The horrors of China's Great Leap Forward are unveiled in this masterly study of the hateful planFrank Dikötter has written a masterly book that should be read not just by anybody interested in modern Chinese history but also by anybody concerned with...
