Decadence Mandchoue is the most memorable book I read in 2013. It’s the memoir of Edmund Trelawny Backhouse, and it covers China’s last decade under the emperors. Backhouse was an English eccentric and talented linguist who gained access to the Forbidden City and became one of the Empress Dowager’s many lovers. His own predilection was unambiguously homosexual, however, and his reminiscences in this sphere are nothing if not outrageous. The book was long considered a pack of lies, but Earnshaw Books in Hong Kong has come up with this newly-edited edition that makes Backhouse’s revelations seem entirely credible, as well as irresistibly readable.
Of the other books reviewed this year,The World’s Rarest Birds is remarkable as a passionate plea for the world’s most endangered avian species. Notable is the plight of the albatross. With 100,000 being killed every year on the baited lines of modern industrial-scale fishing boats, this fabulous bird is facing certain extinction if nothing is done to help it. Simple procedures, such as weighting the lines, can reduce the carnage to zero. Altogether, this book is a full-color, information-packed catalog of some of the most spectacular inhabitants of our beleaguered planet.
Thai Stick is a vivid account of marijuana smuggling between Southeast Asia and the US during the 1960s and 1970s. It makes for compulsive reading, and was put together by an academic (Peter Maguire) in conjunction with a self-confessed former smuggler (Mike Ritter).
The First Bohemians is the second book by art historian Vic Gatrell to survey the riotous world of London’s 18th-century satiric cartoonists, following City of Laughter in 2007. It’s an account that manages to be both scurrilous and authoritative. Gatrell is an expert with the common touch, who gives special emphasis to the sexual exploits of the artists then living in London’s Covent Garden area.
The Last Train to Zona Verde is Paul Theroux’s dyspeptic account of an overland trip from Cape Town to Angola. He sees both sides of life in South Africa, is reasonably tolerant in Namibia, but finally blows his top when he reaches Angola. And as always, Theroux is best of all when he’s angry.
On Taiwan, The Third Son by Julie Wu (吳茗秀) is an excellent first novel that’s expertly constructed and lucidly written. Though mostly set in the US, its theme is the oppressiveness of the traditional Chinese family. “A wound that never healed. A promise never to be fulfilled. That was family.” But it’s an optimistic and buoyant book nonetheless.
Finally, Thunkbook 1 surfaced this year, as the incarnation of the former Taiwan-based English-language literary magazine Pressed. In August, I found that the best item it contained was by H.V. Chao, and I had announced an imminent first collection of his short stories. Unfortunately this arrangement fell through, so anyone in the book business wishing to publish real talent should contact him (he’s Edward Gauvin on LinkedIn) immediately.
Recently the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and its Mini-Me partner in the legislature, the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), have been arguing that construction of chip fabs in the US by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is little more than stripping Taiwan of its assets. For example, KMT Legislative Caucus First Deputy Secretary-General Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) in January said that “This is not ‘reciprocal cooperation’ ... but a substantial hollowing out of our country.” Similarly, former TPP Chair Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) contended it constitutes “selling Taiwan out to the United States.” The two pro-China parties are proposing a bill that
March 9 to March 15 “This land produced no horses,” Qing Dynasty envoy Yu Yung-ho (郁永河) observed when he visited Taiwan in 1697. He didn’t mean that there were no horses at all; it was just difficult to transport them across the sea and raise them in the hot and humid climate. “Although 10,000 soldiers were stationed here, the camps had fewer than 1,000 horses,” Yu added. Starting from the Dutch in the 1600s, each foreign regime brought horses to Taiwan. But they remained rare animals, typically only owned by the government or
Institutions signalling a fresh beginning and new spirit often adopt new slogans, symbols and marketing materials, and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is no exception. Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), soon after taking office as KMT chair, released a new slogan that plays on the party’s acronym: “Kind Mindfulness Team.” The party recently released a graphic prominently featuring the red, white and blue of the flag with a Chinese slogan “establishing peace, blessings and fortune marching forth” (締造和平,幸福前行). One part of the graphic also features two hands in blue and white grasping olive branches in a stylized shape of Taiwan. Bonus points for
It starts out as a heartwarming clip. A young girl, clearly delighted to be in Tokyo, beams as she makes a peace sign to the camera. Seconds later, she is shoved to the ground from behind by a woman wearing a surgical mask. The assailant doesn’t skip a beat, striding out of shot of the clip filmed by the girl’s mother. This was no accidental clash of shoulders in a crowded place, but one of the most visible examples of a spate of butsukari otoko — “bumping man” — shoving incidents in Japan that experts attribute to a combination of gender
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