Eric Enno Tamm's Blog: Eric Enno Tamm, page 5

A resolutely, bullishly inquisitive quest

An excerpt of a review by Jonathan Clements, the author of Mannerheim: President, Soldier, Spy:

Author Eric Enno Tamm is a journalist with firm ecological credentials and no fear of rattling cages. Applying for a visa in Vancouver, Tamm finds his path blocked by Chinese officialdom, but this only spurs him even more to imitate his hero. Forbidden entry as a Canadian journalist, he wings it in true Mannerheim fashion, by travelling under an Estonian passport. And off he goes, through...

The beast that is China's ruling party

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Review of The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers by Richard McGregor was originally published in the Vancouver Sun on August 14, 2010.

In the spring of 2006, I enrolled in a curious course at the B.C. Institute of Technology in Vancouver. It was called the "Fundamentals of Doing Business with China," but it turn out to be more like "Leninism 101."Our instructor, Lawrence Gu, had just become dean of Canada's first Confucius Institute, a partnership between BCIT and the Chinese ...

Mannerheim as Secret Agent

Gustaf Mannerheim, a colonel in the Russian Imperial Army, was the last Tsarist Agent in the Great Game.

In the spring of 1906, Gustaf Mannerheim, a colonel in the Russian Imperial Army who had recently return from war in Manchuria, was summoned to the General Staff Building in St. Petersburg. Inside to greet him was General Fyodor Palitsyn, Chief of the General Staff, who asked if he'd be willing to return to Asia to undertake a secret intelligence mission.Russia's humiliating defeat at the...

Mannerheim as Ethnographer

Gustaf Mannerheim disguised himself as an ethnographic collector during his secret mission to China.

In order to disguise the military nature of his secret mission, Gustaf Mannerheim, a colonel in the Russian Imperial Army, conducted extensive ethnographic research and collected Silk Road artifacts during his journey through China from 1906 to 1908. For the journey's first leg, from Samarkand to Kashgar, he even accompanied the French expedition of Paul Pelliot, one of the greatest...

A sneak peek at first book from printers

Author Eric Enno Tamm with the first copy of his book fresh from the printers.

After what seemed like an eternity, the very first copy of my book, published by Douglas & McIntyre and fresh from the printers, finally arrived this morning by courier. It has been a monumental project, which began a decade ago over a pint of lager at Lund University in Sweden. The official publishing date is September 1, 2010, but I've uploaded some photos below to give you a sneak peek before it hits stores...

"A wonderful book" – Wade Davis

Wade Davis, legendary anthropologist and National Geographic Explorer, is perhaps the most articulate and influential western advocate for the world's indigenous cultures. Through stunning photographs and evocative stories, he parlays a sense of wonder into passionate concern over the rate at which cultures and languages are disappearing – 50 percent of the world's 6,000 languages, he says, are no longer taught to children.Several chapters in The Horse That Leaps Through Clouds chronicles...

Trekking through China's "Long Tail"

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The whizzes at Chinfographics have recently designed some interesting graphics showing how China's enormity also creates anonymity for its many large cities. This is especially true for cities in the vast interior of China, far from the coastal mega-cities such as Shanghai or Shenzhen that are so well known in the West. While researching my book, I trekked through many of these huge, unheard of cities. Ever heard of Baotou (pop. 1.97 million) or Taiyuan (pop. 2.71 million)? Probably not, but ...

China's 'ghost city' frighteningly unsustainable

The final resting place of Genghis Khan is an utter wasteland—befitting, perhaps, of a ruthless conqueror who laid waste to so much of the world.

It is located about 70 kilometres south of Dongsheng, the capital of the prefecture of Ordos in China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Once...

Ethnic violence in a Silk Road bazaar

In 2006, I visited Osh, Central Asia's most ancient Silk Road market in southern Kyrgyzstan, for a few days while researching my book. I spent time investigating the Osh and Karasuu bazaars as part of my interest in the New Silk Road. (Chapter 5 is titled "Travels on the Synthetic Road.") I never felt any ethnic tension in the city, although I was warned not to go out late at night.

Still, I've been shocked at the violence that I've seen in southern Kyrgyzstan between ethnic Uzbeks and...