Behind the Wall: A Journey Through China

by Colin Thubron

Book Overview

Winner of England's Thomas Cook Prize for best travel book of 1987, this superbly written, sharply observed account . . . illuminates the spiritual and social temper of contemporary China.--Washington Post.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060972564
• ISBN13: 9780060972561
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 306 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Decent travel book about 1980s China

Colin Thubron is one of the most prominent living travel authors and his journeys through Asia are justly praised by fans of the genre. He has a peculiar approach to travel writing, by generally going to one country only and then trying to visit as much of it as possible while talking to the maximum amount of people, unlike for example Paul Theroux, who generally writes about travel across many societies. In this book, "Behind the Wall", Thubron takes us on a tour of China, and then I really mean all of China (except Tibet and Manchuria), as it was when he visited it in 1987. The result is an interesting overview of Chinese society as it was just opening up to foreigners after the long periods of war and revolution. Thubron was by no means the first tourist to do a tour of China since 1949, but he did travel when European tourists were very rare and limited to expensive package deals and the corresponding upper class environment, be it by Chinese standards. He studiously avoids following in their footsteps, and instead tries to take the cheaper hostels, the lower class train carriages and so forth in order to get an impression of real Chinese society as the Chinese experienced it. The degree to which one can do this as a total outsider is still always limited of course, and as any anthropologist knows the very act of being an observant as a stranger can and will change people's behavior. Nonetheless, the rarity of a white foreigner in the places Thubron goes greatly aids him in conversing with a number of random Chinese he meets, and this leads to some interesting conversations and good insight into the diversity of the Chinese peoples as such, 'even' under Communism. Thubron has been particularly praised for his good descriptive writing with regard to places and landscapes, and this is fully borne out in the book. He manages to be almost poetic about many of the remarkable sites he visits without either sounding over the top or like a travel brochure, which is quite a feat. His somewhat cynical detachment from the actual society probably helps in that regard. Nonetheless, this can get quite irritating too. Even though the year is 1987, he insists on asking every single person about the Cultural Revolution, obviously fishing for horror stories - and when a poor farmer tells him the Cultural Revolution for him meant an improvement, he simply refuses to believe it. Generally Thubron seems remarkably hostile to the society he is travelling in, not just politically, but also with regard to culture and habits. He is duly impressed by China's history and architecture, but seems to find most Chinese people he meets easily boring and backwards, and even helpful officials lazy and corrupt. There is probably some truth in this, in both the culture shock and the political cynicism, but it does make Thubron seem like a closed-minded conservative diplomat sent to some outpost of faded glory and poor manners. Overall though, the book contains sufficient

Impressive Backdrop to Modern China

If you want to know something about the geography, history, and culture of China in the mid-1980s, this is the book for you. Although many things have changed in the China of 2009, this book provides a wonderful foundation of information to better understand this emerging country. Colin Thurbron is a fabulous writer with an effective ability to weave in historical and cultural information in his memoir of traveling alone through China on public transportation. For those people who want to understand China, it's a MUST READ.

Best book on China out there

I try to read as much as I can about China, and Mr. Thubron's treatment (nicely updated in his recent 'Shadows of the Silk road) is the best I've read. More serious than Mark Salzman, more fluent than Rob Gifford's recent book, more interesting than Peter Hessler, and more insightful than Paul Theroux or Simon Winchester -- fine writers all, but none quite capture the place the way Thubron did. Most of these books cover the same themes, but this is the only one I wish had been longer. Of the many people he meets and talks to on his journey, the story that sticks longest in my mind is of the statuesque young bride of an American he meets while visiting a cave. He paints a portrait of an absolutely indominatable woman, noting that her husband "didn't stand much of a chance." But the unexpected end of the encounter shows what a masterful writer he is. If you can't read everything about China -- and who can? -- put this on your short list.

Great Wanderlust Read

Very informative adventure/travel book about what life in China was like in the mid 1980s. Rare in the sense that the author can actually speak Chinese (Mandarin), so he's not as limited as to who he can speak with as some other travel writers. We get a pretty good cross-section of Chinese people--farmers, businessmen, city dwellers, homemakers, university students. Also of interest is the author's exploration of the generation that came of age during the Cultural Revolution, and that missed out on the usual educational opportunities. I like the details, like how eating an owl, feathers and all, is supposed to cure epilepsy. This is a great read if you are interested in learning more about such an important place.

Great book

The book is just wonderful, and it is written expetionally well. I've been to China and I can see that his descriptions are very true (I don't mean geography here).