Monday, August 25, 2008

Thank You, Matthew!

I'm (very pleasantly) surprised to see a nice review of Apologies Forthcoming on the Waiguoren Critic of South China blog. I wonder why Google alert did not bring it to me -- because the blog is in China?

I believe this review is the first one that has appeared in China. As Matthew pointed out, the topic of the Cultural Revolution is still sensitive there. When an entire generation -- a whole nation -- actively participated in something that later became their biggest shame, what could anyone say? This is why today you can only hear "the victim voice," not the participant's, even if the victim had been a participant himself.

Apologies Forthcoming will also be exhibited at the Beijing International Book Fair, September 1-4, 2008, ironically in Tianjing, not Beijing, because of the Olympics. If you happen to be there, you should be able to find the book on a shelf of the Combined Book Exhibit. I would be very curious to see if and how a Chinese publisher would react to the image of the once familiar hand-written enthusiastic slogan shown on the book cover: "Ardently acclaim the publication of the New Year Day Editorial!"

1 comment:

Matthew said...

I'm always willing to write good reviews of good books. I'm passing it along to my friend and boss next.