Beijing Blur: A Head-spinning Journey Into Modern China

The Sunday Age

Sunday August 24, 2008

Lucy Sussex

BEIJING BLUR: A HEAD-SPINNING JOURNEY INTO MODERN CHINA

James West

Penguin, $29.95

A central feature of the 2008 Olympics has been the host country, and its attitude to the media. Author James West could have said: I told you so. Now he produces for Triple J, but in 2005-06, he worked for Chinese government radio. The propaganda shocked him: "So many people were being duped so often." In response, he went in search of the alternative China. Some of his quest involved having a surprisingly good time, such as at a rave party by part of the Great Wall. More personally, he sought out gay activists. What emerges is a stranger, darker China, in which suicide is the biggest killer of its young people. The book can meander, but it can also be bang on target, as when West touchingly depicts a young man confused about his sexuality, and whose father has just been executed.

© 2008 The Sunday Age

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