Title: A glimpse into the opaque mindset of the Mainland Chinese
Review: Do not let the fact that this book is an easy read fool you into believing it is trite.To the average Westerner, China is opaque which gives it a kind of mysticism. The language barrier and script exagerates this. The author of this book spent two years submerged in non-tourist China. Armed with the ability to speak Mandarin the author allows the Westerner to glimpse and understand some of the mindset of the Chinese. This is not the mindset described in Wild Swans - authored by someone escaped Mainland China and can now loathe it as an outsider - or the China described in Simon Winchester's diverting River at the Centre of the World - which is more preoccupied by colonial tales. Instead it is a book in which the author ends up questioning his own cultural assumptions and political indoctrinations through the thoughts and experiences - occasionally absurd - of the people to whom he is teaching. Compulsive and unique.
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