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The Emperor's River: Travels to the Heart of a Resurgent China
A look China's recent cultural reinterpretation of the oldest canal in the world, dug when Confucius was alive, along which has traveled not only cargo but ideas, customs, and dialects
The face of modern China is changing. Liam D'Arcy-Brown travels the length of the Grand Canal, a symbol of national identity, Chinese pride, and cultural achievement. For those with an interest in China and its culture, people, or heritage, this book provides an exciting, fascinating, and well-written account of the navigation of the lifeblood of a rising power—the Grand Canal of China. At
more than 1,100 miles long, and dating back to the 5th century BC, the Grand Canal of China is the world’s longest artificial waterway and its oldest working canal. Though a source of great national pride to the Chinese, one of China’s most economically important transport routes, and the possible savior of a rapidly desiccating Beijing, it has never been investigated by foreign writers and travelers. The first non-Chinese to have made this journey since the 1780s, Liam D’Arcy-Brown traveled from Hangzhou to Beijing along the Grand Canal by barges,
boats, and road and here tells his tales.
The face of modern China is changing. Liam D'Arcy-Brown travels the length of the Grand Canal, a symbol of national identity, Chinese pride, and cultural achievement. For those with an interest in China and its culture, people, or heritage, this book provides an exciting, fascinating, and well-written account of the navigation of the lifeblood of a rising power—the Grand Canal of China. At
more than 1,100 miles long, and dating back to the 5th century BC, the Grand Canal of China is the world’s longest artificial waterway and its oldest working canal. Though a source of great national pride to the Chinese, one of China’s most economically important transport routes, and the possible savior of a rapidly desiccating Beijing, it has never been investigated by foreign writers and travelers. The first non-Chinese to have made this journey since the 1780s, Liam D’Arcy-Brown traveled from Hangzhou to Beijing along the Grand Canal by barges,
boats, and road and here tells his tales.
288 pages, Paperback
First published February 28, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 25, 2016
This one had been languishing on my "library books to look into" list for a while. Liam turned out to be a great travel writer, although he might be disappointed to learn that I wasn't as into the historical aspects of the journey. A few times he has what seem like hallucinatory conversations with historical figures, which may have been dreams, implied to be fictitious, but I took them as being presented as "real" accounts. I'm usually pretty good with keeping up on vocabulary, but he tosses in a few items that had me running for the dictionary, two of my favorite acquisitions being vademecum and cacography.
(Did I mention I can be very nerdy?)
(Did I mention I can be very nerdy?)
June 16, 2021
With China's rapid change this is no longer up-to-date but still worth reading. Gives a very interesting insight into life in China.
October 3, 2023
A very interesting book.
November 23, 2012
The idea of devoting a book not just to the history of China's Grand Canal but to its present state is a good idea, and I'm surprised no one else has done it (at least in English). It often takes foreigners to actually view Chinese history as something that includes the present, not just the musty past, as the Chinese themselves tend to see "history," eliciting from them much yawning. Of course, the reason why history as it is taught in China does not include the present is that the present often departs from the carefully scripted official story, according to which modern China's history ends in 1949 and after which there is no more history to write, because the country's socialist destiny has been reached, apart from a handful of ongoing self-congratulatory milestones - the Beijing Olympics, the space program, etc. So to write a history that addresses the reality of something in the present is quite a radical idea in China. D'Arcy-Brown found this out in his numerous encounters with baffled and suspicious police along the Canal who wanted to know what he was doing there.
Most of the Grand Canal today, it turns out, is not a pretty sight. Only the southern length, from Hangzhou north to Jining, has enough water to continue to be used mainly for coal transport on barges, some of which the author was lucky enough to be allowed onto after bribing the captain. The northern length is largely bone dry, despite a few brief showcase stretches passing through Tianjin, the Beijing suburb of Tongzhou and a few other cities, that have been beautified with parks and monuments. Elsewhere for long lengths of the canal the author could not even gain access, stuck in hotels in nearby cities and monitored by the police. His intrepid attempt to chart the entire canal, while not an unqualified success, is impressive enough that I doubt anyone else will need or want to try to surpass it. And fortunately for the reader, D'Arcy-Brown writes well. There are many evocative descriptions, seamlessly weaving past and present to flesh out the geographical or historical context, where a more prosaic account in the hands of a less imaginative writer would have less to say.
My issue with the book has to do with strategy. If I were to write such a book, I would stick closer to the Canal, spending more time on technical particulars: what is a canal, how this canal is different from others, what exactly is involved in its construction, more again about the huge loss of life (comparable to the millions of laborers who died building the Great Wall), what future prospects for the canal are technically feasible, and so forth. While Darcy-Brown does touch on these issues, far more space is allotted to things that have nothing to do with the canal. Instead, he has cast the Canal as a metaphor for China itself in order to spin off a wide-ranging essay on all aspects of contemporary Chinese society. This might work for readers unfamiliar with the country and looking for the latest capsule account. What made many passages of the book virtually unreadable for me despite the general quality of its writing was the frequent denouncing of the Chinese Government by your predictable know-it-all Westerner, the Westerner who is needed to channel the secret aspirations of the Chinese people, who knows what's right for China. I don't have much of a soft spot for the Party myself. But when yet another "objective" reportorial travel writer goes through the usual laundry list of corruption, inequality, repression, etc., as if culled from Western media reports, the risk is smugness and sanctimony. Leave speaking out against the Government to the Chinese. There's enough in China to preoccupy, mystify, appall and entrance the rest of us without having to resort to the same old cliché-ridden Western narrative about China's lack of democracy and the common people's yearning for freedom. Spare me.
Most of the Grand Canal today, it turns out, is not a pretty sight. Only the southern length, from Hangzhou north to Jining, has enough water to continue to be used mainly for coal transport on barges, some of which the author was lucky enough to be allowed onto after bribing the captain. The northern length is largely bone dry, despite a few brief showcase stretches passing through Tianjin, the Beijing suburb of Tongzhou and a few other cities, that have been beautified with parks and monuments. Elsewhere for long lengths of the canal the author could not even gain access, stuck in hotels in nearby cities and monitored by the police. His intrepid attempt to chart the entire canal, while not an unqualified success, is impressive enough that I doubt anyone else will need or want to try to surpass it. And fortunately for the reader, D'Arcy-Brown writes well. There are many evocative descriptions, seamlessly weaving past and present to flesh out the geographical or historical context, where a more prosaic account in the hands of a less imaginative writer would have less to say.
My issue with the book has to do with strategy. If I were to write such a book, I would stick closer to the Canal, spending more time on technical particulars: what is a canal, how this canal is different from others, what exactly is involved in its construction, more again about the huge loss of life (comparable to the millions of laborers who died building the Great Wall), what future prospects for the canal are technically feasible, and so forth. While Darcy-Brown does touch on these issues, far more space is allotted to things that have nothing to do with the canal. Instead, he has cast the Canal as a metaphor for China itself in order to spin off a wide-ranging essay on all aspects of contemporary Chinese society. This might work for readers unfamiliar with the country and looking for the latest capsule account. What made many passages of the book virtually unreadable for me despite the general quality of its writing was the frequent denouncing of the Chinese Government by your predictable know-it-all Westerner, the Westerner who is needed to channel the secret aspirations of the Chinese people, who knows what's right for China. I don't have much of a soft spot for the Party myself. But when yet another "objective" reportorial travel writer goes through the usual laundry list of corruption, inequality, repression, etc., as if culled from Western media reports, the risk is smugness and sanctimony. Leave speaking out against the Government to the Chinese. There's enough in China to preoccupy, mystify, appall and entrance the rest of us without having to resort to the same old cliché-ridden Western narrative about China's lack of democracy and the common people's yearning for freedom. Spare me.
January 7, 2017
I'm currently living in China and wanted to learn more about the Grand Canal. The Grand Canal was an extraordinary feat of engineering and labour, no less than the Great Wall, but it's not as famous. I wanted to know if any parts of the canal remained in Shandong Province, where I live, and more about its history. Mr. D'Arcy-Brown's book was the most detailed source (in English) that I could find. I enjoyed his travel writing, although I couldn't understand or "get into" his dreamlike conversations with historical figures, but I read about some cities that I look forward to visiting soon, and I found myself nodding in agreement at this: "What was it I liked about being in China? I knew our relationship was a selfish one. I enjoyed the way being in China made me feel. There was a sense of independence there, a lightheartedness, a liberation from anything other than immediate needs, and an escape from the worries that preoccupied me at home."
This book would suit armchair travellers and anyone planning a visit to China, especially to the Shanghai Hangzhou area.
This book would suit armchair travellers and anyone planning a visit to China, especially to the Shanghai Hangzhou area.
April 24, 2014
Interesting topic, but not a very engaging read.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews