The Chinese: Portrait Of A People

by John Fraser

A journalist assigned to China from 1977 to 1979 recounts his experiences, clarifies misconceptions about modern China, assesses its current economic, social, and political problems, and outlines its attitudes towards the West

Genres: History, China, Nonfiction, Travel

463 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

John Anderson Fraser, CM, is a Canadian journalist, writer and academic. He served as Master of Massey College in the University of Toronto from 1995 until his retirement in June 2014.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Fr...


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Reviews

[Steve R]

Written following a tenure as a newspaper correspondent in Beijing and published in 1980 this work, subtitled ‘Portrait of a People’, was quite an interesting read. Learning a smattering of Mandarin, Fraser actually tried to understand how people in the capital of the world’s most populous country were feeling about their own lives and the state of the country and the world around them. Objective almost to a fault, he discovered a culture which seemed relatively pleasant, polite, compliant and placid on the surface, but which was almost frighteningly xenophobic and exclusive underneath.

With his wife, he would walk the streets and try as best as he could to communicate with people. The most lasting impression of the reading I still have now, more than a quarter-century later, is my memory of a perilous encounter with a crowd turned mob which seemed to turn suddenly hostile and potentially violent against the white-skinned foreigner. His wife told him ‘These people are not the same. We have to get out of here.’ They did so, but that impression of a nasty, unprincipled hostility to those who are different stayed with me. My half-Chinese son went to work in China for six years. Part of his return was a reaction to his realization that while they smile on the surface, they will never truly respect or accept the ‘gwai loh’ (‘foreign devil’ or ‘white ghost’) as their equal.

During the last decades of the last century – more than twenty years ago now - I looked on China as an interesting country: ripe with potential for political and economic development. Now, after the Tienanmen Square massacre and with the current belligerent and bellicose flexing of economic, military, genocidal and diplomatic muscles, I look on China as almost as bad as Putin’s Russia in representing a world wide spread of autocracy and rule by force. It is a critical part of the intense fragility of present-day democracy, which is regarded by the bullies Xi, Putin and Trump as weak, fragile and ultimately unworkable.

This book was revealing for the manner in which it unlocked the cultural mind-set which made such rigidity of social and political development possible. Almost embarrassingly objective at times, it was very well researched and written: a real eye-opener.

Highly recommended.

[David Bradshaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Toronto's Globe and Mail makes an inspired choice in placing a theater and arts critic as their principal correspondent in Beijing.
The author is an open and kindhearted individual who sees the Chinese not as inscrutable but human.
He makes friendships -something new in post Revolution China they are unsupervised
He participates albeit rather unwittingly in the Xidan democracy wall
Rampant individual ism was tearing many Western nations apart and the disadvantage suffered accordingly but the Chinese had a perspective from the other side they knew inequalities are rose from too tightly and forced cohesion from central socialist planning

The author understands how nationalism is Central in Chinese thought

Mao has passed, Chou is grieved, Deng has risen after his redemption

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was recommended to read this before I moved to China in 2012 to teach. of course, I was too busy preparing to move overseas to follow through on that. By some great chance, I stumbled on this book in a free library after my stint in Beijing a year after I moved back home.
it was like taking a walk back through my years in China, and a fascinating comparison of the city I lived in 30 years later.
Fraser writes so casually, but sophisticated and shares the love and bewilderment of China that I felt.
when I want to go back to Beijing I just pick up this book!

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

Offers a very interesting and well-written portrait of China during the late 1970s.

[Josiah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't express how easy it was to read this book while learning so much at the same time! Fraser writes as if he's just sitting down for a chat in his living room over dinner, and time passes without notice.

The conversation focuses on the Peking Spring of 1978 and how life, politics, and friendships changed in that year. I highly recommend this book for any historian or person interested in China!


Writing: A+
Plot: A
Vocabulary: A-
Level: Moderate
Worldview: Descriptive

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Textbook University of Southern Mississippi