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Aug 15, 2011

mark rated it:

Salzman is a sweet guy, there's no doubt about it. his tales of his time in china are direct, cleanly written, and rooted in a clear love of the world around him and the people in it. he manages to effortlessly sidestep any potential landmines in terms of race, culture, or class simply by being himself - a warm, unpretentious and rather unsophisticated sweetheart. and Iron & Silk is a great mouthwash after reading the sour musings of the irritable and irritating Paul Theroux. but despite all of More...

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Nov 30, 2011

Rob rated it:

I actually just re-read this. Read it like 10 years ago (before becoming involved in martial arts or chinese culture, or travelling to china (or anywhere)) but I enjoyed it then. This time, having become sort of ensconsed in those things, I enjoyed very very much.

Definitely gets inside the duel-natured chinese character in a light hearted and really cool/informative way (a series of short non-fiction stories). Recommended for anyone interested in how chinese culture is different fr More...

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Feb 01, 2012

Stephen rated it:

I'd been under the impression of already having read this one, along with practically everything else Salzman has written. I picked it up the other day only because all the books now in my queue are in the Kindle, and I have to share that gadget with another avid reader in the family. It turns out I'd only seen the video for Iron and Silk.

Since Salzman had a hand in making the movie (and played himself), the two versions of the story of his two years in China are probably equally val More...

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Jan 26, 2011

Melissa rated it:

This was a nice little book. While it was rather short, it was filled with delightful impressions and stories from the author's time spent in China. Mark Salzman had originally gone to China to teach English at a medical school to both the teachers and some students. He found so much more and learned quite a bit in his time there as well.

Most specifically, Salzman tells us in this autobiography of sorts of his time spent learning "Wushu" which is Chinese martial arts. He shar More...

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Oct 16, 2007

Sv added it

damn! the guy speaks Chinese, does kick-ass gong fu (sic) AND can write?

dated but in an interesting, pre-boom China way
need to read some new travel writing to compare
very funny, concise, well-written. a quick, satisfying read.

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Nov 12, 2009

Amanda rated it:

I picked this book up because I saw Mark Salzman in the documentary, "Protagonist". I was fascinated with what he had to say about his life and about martial arts, and drawn in by his apparent excitement and zest for life.

I enjoyed the writing style, which was straightforward and easy to follow - it didn't get in the way of the story. I also really enjoyed the gentle humor found in the clash of the East/West cultures. There was a lot of talk about various styles of mart More...

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Sep 13, 2007

Blair rated it:

a very good look at life in China in the 80's as it was just emerging. Most interesting is that the experiences the author has can still be felt nowadays, if not as starkly.

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Jul 26, 2009

Newengland rated it:

This memoir of the two years Salzman spent teaching English in China quietly wins you over. It's a series of anecdotes introducing you to a wide range of Chinese people, from the powerful to the poor, the obstinate to the kind, the proud to the humble. Many of the tales show Salzman's characteristic ear for humor. What I liked best? I felt like I understood the culture of the Chinese people better after reading it. They are incredibly different from Americans and yet... the ties that bind. More...

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Apr 30, 2009

Isaac rated it:

This book is fantastic. Simply written but well written, unpretentious but full of genius, comedic quip, and beautiful personalities. Mark Salzman writes about his experiences teaching english in Changsha, China. A full time and seemingly brilliant teacher, he manages meanwhile to spend countless hours learning the drawing and martial art styles of masters around him. He illuminates a China that makes you shake your head at bureaucracy and unfortunate tradition, while marveling at and envyin More...

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Aug 24, 2011

G rated it:

Save yourself some trouble and read River Town: Two Years on the Yangtzeinstead. Iron and Silk is essentially a watered-down, less intellectual version of Hessler's classic read on China's recovery post 1978 yet not post-Mao. It's not a horrible book, but it wanes in comparison to River Town. Essentially, the only unique quality that Mark Salzman brings is his experience with gong fu and marsial arts. Additionally, some of the Mandarin and cultural aspects citied in the book are very localized t More...

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Oct 23, 2010

K rated it:

A wonderfully entertaining travel memoir, consisting of anecdotes from author's 1982 stint teaching English in China. I liked it a lot. Favorite parts, when students were describing their happiest moments, martial arts training.

It did strike me how so much of the stories are distancing, framed so that the Chinese are quaint little characters, summed up with some incident or phrase that illuminates yet conceals. The majority of the Chinese individuals that Salzman describes come across More...

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Mar 06, 2011

Laia rated it:

This is a short read written with wit and filled with stories of the author's time in China from 1982-84, teaching English, but also putting his time to other uses, such as learning kung fu and calligraphy from highly-touted masters. The book has enough poignant moments, insights into a foreigner's experiences with another culture, and just good story telling to make it a rewarding read, for little effort. The whiff of name dropping & self-aggrandizement was forgiven for the fact that not only More...

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May 12, 2009

Christy rated it:

This book was interesting and provided a lot of insight into the Chinese culture, especially with regards to the student-teacher relationship. I have many Chinese students now that have never been to the STates before, and I would recommend it to any teacher in the same position. It may not tell you tons, but it tells me a bit about what they're used to and how they view failure. Anyway, this book was also easy for me to relate to being that he is an English teacher in a foreign country. It i More...

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Nov 28, 2011

Ensiform rated it:

The author, a graduate of Yale in Chinese language and literature, went to China for two years to teach English and study martial arts. This account is presented as a series of episodes, each with its own life lesson. The book gives a clear picture of the variety of experiences he had, from the unsympathetic, even vicious, foreign-hating bureaucracy, to the incredibly open hospitality of those who had the least time to give.

The culture gap (and gape) is made readily apparent, in th More...

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Jan 23, 2009

Aaron rated it:

Salzman has created a work of art out his experiences in China, his quick wit, and his charismatic personality. This book leaves nothing to be desired.

Salzman went to China for two years in the 1980s. There he taught English to a several classes of students (and several English Teachers), travel around the city and the country, and learn martial arts. He proves himself to be a master story teller with a casual, relaxed and smooth style. You get the feeling he's sitting in the room, More...

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Oct 22, 2009

Rebecca rated it:

Surprisingly lovely and personal vignettes. I was really tempted to resent this author, at whose feet all of 1980s China seemed to fall on account of his white skin and youthful charm. But it's sort of impossible not to be won over... a fearlessly social soul armed with a sense of humor and a lifelong dedication to Chinese martial arts / language, Salzman comfortably slips into all the crannies of a very closed society. Beautiful, honest writing about the intensity and absurdity of living abroad More...

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Jul 26, 2011

Peterh rated it:

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in China, martial arts, or travel. Mark Salzman has the ability to tell some really incredible anecdotes from the time he spent teaching English at a Chinese medical college. His stories are sharply observed, compassionate and often humorous. His writing is sometimes flat for a lack of character development (including a lack of development of himself as the narrator), but the reading is still more than worthwhile. In a word, "touching."

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Apr 16, 2011

Jeremy rated it:

I get impatient with biographies because I'm always trying to find the plot arc, but other than that, this was pleasant and interesting. China is one of those places that I vaguely know is Different From Here but don't have a good handle on how - there were a number of charming anecdotes in Iron and Silk that highlighted some of the differences. It seemed, overall, kind of unrelentingly cheery, and I am not sure how much to take it seriously, but it's a short book and I enjoyed it.

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Jan 15, 2009

Ellen rated it:

I give this book five stars because Mark Salzman is one of the people I most admire. His experiences in China in the early 80's are both funny and moving, and he tells them in a way that fully conveys how special the experiences were to him. If my blog of my time in Korea is ever close to his storytelling ability, and if I have half the talent at expressing the meaning in even the simplest cross-cultural encounter that he does, I will be happy.

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Jul 02, 2009

Nancy rated it:

Entertaining & easy read for a road/camping/plane trip. Author's experiences in China during his stint as an English language teacher in the 80s. Cultural nuances abound, foodie insights & an interesting intro to martial arts. The book generates a real desire to have an educational skill/talent to take on the road and become part of the fabric of a colorful culture (see: 'Tales of Female Nomad'). What's your thang?

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Nov 28, 2011

Chana rated it:

This is a great book, so funny that it kept a smile on my face nearly the whole time I was reading it. It is Mark Salzman's story of his 2 years in China working as an English teacher and learning Wushu. Communist China probably is not the easiest place for a foreigner to live but Mark does his job well and keeps everyone laughing including his students.

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Dec 28, 2009

Chilly rated it:

Well presented stories from a guy who went to central China to teach English in 1983-4. A bit scary in some ways, as I am soon of to do this same thing myself...but meanwhile it's been a quarter century of rapid changes for them. Some "issues" for westerners will be the same, some not so much. Hopefully many "discovered joys" for westerners will remain...
A quick and easily digestible read. Also excellent "thanks for helping with the wedding" gift from a gr More...

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Aug 12, 2011

Robbie rated it:

Although I typically dread my summer reading books, and I did kind of rush this one as school begins Tuesday, I found that I really enjoyed Iron and Silk. Although sometimes dated, it is entirely a collection of true short "stories" following Mark Salzman during his years in China, while he was teaching english. Each and every story is entertaining, and all very short, so there is always new subject matter, ranging from a foreigner adjusting to Chinese culture to becoming an expert in More...

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Aug 24, 2010

Kevin rated it:

Before Peter Hessler was writing great non-fiction about his time in China, Mark Salzman was getting the crap kicked out of him in Sichuan by martial arts masters who, after the beatings, sat down with him for English lessons. He's way funnier than Hessler, and in many ways more sympathetic toward his subjects and China generally.

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May 02, 2008

dead letter office rated it:

really a pretty excellent travel memoir about teaching english in communist china in the 1980's. he's a great storyteller and the characters (himself included) are unusual and memorable. he does a good job of conveying the strangeness of living in a place so utterly foreign that you can be taken for a ghost. he's the rare type who managed to fully embrace a place in which he'd always be set apart. i saw a movie once about a foreigner in china (i can't remember the name... i saw it in the theater More...

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Dec 11, 2007

David rated it:

Like Autumn Lightning, I first read this book in middle school during a phase when I read everything I could find about martial arts. Like Autumn Lightning, I have revisited it periodically ever since, not because of the martial arts connection, but simply because it tells good stories about interesting characters. This is really a book of anecdotes about the sometimes interesting, sometimes irritating, always very human people that Salzman met as a young English teacher in China in the early More...

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Jun 24, 2011

Nehama rated it:

Finished reading Iron & Silk. I loved how Salzman's storytelling gives a peek into the Chinese culture of the 1980's. Instead of reading a list of cultural differences, or having it pointed out- Salzman's story incorporates his experiences and interactions with people during his two year stay in China.

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May 24, 2010

Lbsantini rated it:

If you read American Shaolin by Matthew Polly, you must read the original text-- Salzman's book of teaching English, practicing wushu and calligraphy, and living in in Changsha,the capital of the Hunan province of China. This text is reflective, gentle, and beautifully written.

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Oct 01, 2011

Osho rated it:

This is an easy to read account of Salzman's two years teaching in China. It was the 1980s, so his perspective on China (and the Chinese perspective on him) is different from that of Peter Hessler's in River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze in the next decade.

Salzman's encounters are charming and depict rural China very positively. One wonders when he found time to teach and prep his lessons, to say nothing of grading, between his various martial arts trainings, calligraphy lessons, a More...

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Nov 24, 2008

Shane rated it:

If you purchased Lost in Place, Mark's previous book, you should make sure to have this as a follow up.

Mark will take you on a journey behind the walls of communist China where you will meet the beautiful people who touched his life.

Do not miss.

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