The Road to Sleeping Dragon: Learning China from the Ground Up

by Michael Meyer

From the highly praised author of The Last Days of Old Beijing , a brilliant portrait of China today and a memoir of coming of age in a country in transition.

In 1995, at the age of twenty-three, Michael Meyer joined the Peace Corps and, after rejecting offers to go to seven other countries, was sent to a tiny town in Sichuan. Knowing nothing about China, or even how to use chopsticks, Meyer wrote Chinese words up and down his arms so he could hold conversations, and, per a Communist dean's orders, jumped into teaching his students about the Enlightenment, the stock market, and Beatles lyrics. Soon he realized his Chinese counterparts were just as bewildered by China's changes as he was.

Thus began an impassioned immersion into Chinese life. With humor and insight, Meyer puts readers in his novice shoes, winding across the length and breadth of his adopted country --from a terrifying bus attack on arrival, to remote Xinjiang and Tibet, into Beijing's backstreets and his future wife's Manchurian family, and headlong into efforts to protect China's vanishing heritage at places like "Sleeping Dragon," the world's largest panda preserve.

In the last book of his China trilogy, Meyer tells a story both deeply personal and universal, as he gains greater – if never complete – assurance, capturing what it feels like to learn a language, culture and history from the ground up. Both funny and relatable, The Road to Sleeping Dragon is essential reading for anyone interested in China's history, and how daily life plays out there today.

Genres: China, Nonfiction, Memoir, Travel, History, Asia

320 pages, Hardcover

Published October 10, 2017

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Michael Meyer is an American travel writer and the author of In Manchuria: A Village Called Wasteland and the Transformation of Rural China and The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed. He graduated from University of Wisconsin–Madison. He first went to China in 1995 with the Peace Corps. Following Peace Corps, he graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied writing under Adam Hochschild and Maxine Hong Kingston.

His work has appeared in The New York Times, Time, Smithsonian, the New York Times Book Review, the Financial Times, Reader’s Digest, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, The Iowa Review, and on This American Life.

In China, he has represented the National Geographic Society’s Center for Sustainable Destinations, training China’s UNESCO World Heritage Site managers in preservation practices.

He lives in Singapore and Pittsburgh, where he is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh, teaching Nonfiction writing.

After a five year clearance delay, his book The Last Days of Old Beijing was published in mainland China.

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I couldn’t put this book down and really enjoyed his first two books of narrative non-fiction. Yet I kept finding myself scribbling notes in the margins in this one. Like when he talks about the design on the renminbi and how that’s changed and how foreigners used to pay much more than locals for just about everything in China, but there’s no mention of FEC. That kind of stood out. And when he and his wife traveled around China before they got married, there was no mention of needing a marriage certificate to stay in the same room. Maybe that was gone in the late 90s, but it was definitely a thing in ‘95. Just little things like that stood out to me, but I am probably being unfairly petty. If someone reads this book first, I highly recommend his two earlier books. Don’t skip those just because this one has some overlap. All in all, I found this book to be inspirational for young adults who might be thinking about going into the Peace Corps or teaching in China. It’s also a stark look at how China has changed so much in 20 years. Best of all, he’s a great writer and you’ll learn a ton from this book if you don’t know much about China. And if you do know something about it, it will be a nice jog down memory lane, as it was for me.

[Chris Csergei · Rating 2 out of 5]

Neither insightful or interesting. His "ground up" view is really just a story from his perspective, and reads like a travel log/journal. Not really worth your time.

[Becky Loader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meyer's time in China was very productive for him. He learned about popular culture from beginning to end. His descriptions of travel experiences and teaching are very interesting, but ultimately I was disappointed by the ending.

[Audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book for Christmas last year and decided to read Meyer's first two books first, and I'm glad I did - not because you need to read them in order, but because I enjoyed the first two a lot more. While The Last Days of Old Beijing and In Manchuria used more of a reporter's approach to delve into specific places and topics, The Road to Sleeping Dragon was much broader, providing a retrospective on Meyer's experiences in China to date. He didn't delve into any one topic, but instead gave general impressions and interesting anecdotes, which didn't have an overarching theme. Honestly, it felt like he thought back over his time in China, asked, "Okay, what sticks out in my mind the most?" and then wrote those things down. Interesting snippets of personal narrative, but ultimately insubstantial as the driving force for a fairly long book. Maybe I feel this way because I also lived in China, and so lots of the experiences he's had apply to probably every laowai in China. Sometimes that's a nice trip down memory lane, but I didn't find anything particularly insightful, unlike the actual research he put into his other books. So maybe this book would be better for a more general audience? Which is weird, because I feel like the majority of those who'd be drawn to picking it up are Meyer's fellow expats. Regardless of the audience, it's not a bad book by any means, but if you're looking for an overarching thesis or deep insights into China, this ain't it. I'd recommend The Last Days of Old Beijing or In Manchuria over this one; unlike The Road to Sleeping Dragon, those bones have meat on 'em.

[Jackinbottle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of interesting stories in this book.

Could use some editing. Meyer included a lot of Pin Yin for the Chinese words in this book, yet many of the tones were wrong, including at one point China (Zhong Guo).

Meyer made a reference to Journey to the West towards the end of the book, befittingly when he was traveling west on the Trans-Siberian Train. The description of Journey to the West in this book, however, suggests "and fight their way back to China", which made up merely 1 of the 100 chapters of the classic novel. Misleading.

Still, a lot interesting stories and a pleasant read. In Manchuria is arguably better.

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you've always wondered what it's like to join the Peace Corps and see a foreign country from within here is your answer. Meyer is in China at the perfect time as it transitions from old to new, out of Mao's time into whatever comes next. Witty, observant, self-critical. He makes an insightful observation that many travelers miss: you get so focused on crossing sites and cities off your to do list that you forget the real story is the people you meet along the way. I will definitely check out his previous books. Love the American names his students choose.

[Carol Wakefield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr Meyer lived and worked in China during some rapidly changing times. His views of a China that was opening to the west, planning for the olympics and modernizing its infrastructure and ideas were fascinating. He made the people he met real to this reader in coping with changes they had little to no way to effect

[Gary McCray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible book delivering the reality of China rushing from a rural and urban neighborhood culture to a modern power. As a regular traveler to the new China of endless factories and western hotels this provided a perspective that wish I would have experienced. Thanks to Michael Meyer fr sharing.

[Anne S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were parts of this book that I really enjoyed but I only gave it 3 stars because many parts of it were plodding. The author spent too much time discussing details of the Chinese language. I read Michael Meyer's 2 other books about his life in China and enjoy his personal perspective. I've also read Peter Hessler's books about his time in China. The 2 authors have very similar experiences.

[Bill Langeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-written book which is compelling on several levels. I loved finding out about China which I think I did a little bit through this book and I loved following the character developments and relationships which matured over many years.

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

I probably would have enjoyed it more before I read all the Peter hesslers and more China experiences books. It’s cool to read about his experience of back and forth between US and China and the occasional mentions if hessler

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating look at the rapid changes - social, economic, political, and cultural - in China over the last two decades.

[Esther · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting travel book of China. The author lives and travels off the tourist paths.

[Supriya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book, readable, started meandering sentimentally a bit after the part where he meets his girlfriend (now wife) so I stopped midway. But good writer

[Abhay · Rating 2 out of 5]

It read like the authors story, interspersed with some interesting factoids

[Lady · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really struggled to get into this book

[Tom Niebergall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather slow but interesting glimpse into Chinese life

[PS Ng · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite similar to Hessler’s River Town

[Jennifer Bakody]

Meyer's previous writing established him as a keen observer of China and its life at this fascinating time in its history. His work here in The Road to Sleeping Dragon further cements his well-deserved reputation while giving us readers more evidence of his writerly ability to relate any subject matter with objectivity, including himself. Although I've been to China and studied its history, politics and language to a certain degree, Meyer's telling of his experience with all this and more casts a wide net that takes us all in. I love this book for the intimacy of its descriptions, its honesty and heart. A fitting, almost poetic conclusion to the trilogy.