To the Diamond Mountains: A Hundred-Year Journey through China and Korea

by Tessa Morris-Suzuki

This compelling and engaging book takes readers on a unique journey through China and North and South Korea. Tessa Morris-Suzuki travels from Harbin in the north to Busan in the south, and on to the mysterious Diamond Mountains, which lie at the heart of the Korean Peninsula's crisis. As she follows in the footsteps of a remarkable writer, artist, and feminist who traced the route a century ago―in the year when Korea became a Japanese colony―her saga reveals an unseen face of China and the two a world of monks, missionaries, and smugglers; of royal tombs and socialist mausoleums; a world where today's ideological confrontations are infused with myth and memory. Northeast Asia is poised at a moment of profound change as the rise of China is transforming the global order and tensions run high on the Korean Peninsula, the last Cold War divide. Probing the deep past of this region, To the Diamond Mountains offers a new and unexpected perspective on its present and future.

Genres: History, Travel, China, Nonfiction, Asia

216 pages, Hardcover

First published November 15, 2010

About the author

Tessa Morris-Suzuki is Professor of Japanese History at Australian National University and the author or co-author of more than a dozen books, including most recently East Asia Beyond the History Wars, with Morris Low, Leonid Petrov and Timothy Y. Tsu, and Borderline Japan, and a recipient of the 2013 Fukuoka Prize.

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

In her prologue to To the Diamond Mountains Morris Suzuki noted that it would be about her attempt to take a trip which was originally taken in 1910 from Manchuria (modern day NE China) through Korea by an intrepid English woman named Emily Kemp. I think Morris Suzuki accomplished three things with this book. The first was to describe Kemp’s experiences in the context of a time when that part of Asia was being forcibly assimilated into Japan’s colonial empire. With a timely use of quotations and some of the sketches Kemp made of her trip I got a clear sense of what the trip must have been like for her.

The second was to compare her own impressions of these places with those of Kemp as a reflection of how things had changed in almost 100 years. Morris Suzuki gave lush descriptions of what these places were like while she pursued Kemp’s itinerary. Sketches by her sister who accompanied her of some of the locales they saw were also helpful in that regard.

Finally, the author’s brief discussions of late 19th/early 20th century Chinese and Japanese history, the Korean War, and subsequent Korean history were informative and helpful in allowing the reader to gain some perspective.

I have one modest criticism of TtDM: at times its descriptions of sights, sounds, etc were excessive. I wish Morris Suzuki had provided more history instead of what at times felt like a travelogue. Having a great deal of expertise on the culture and history of China, Korea, and Japan she could have made the book even more informative than it was.

I also have one observation: she opined in 2010 when the book was published that North Korea was heading towards ‘an impending change.’ Additionally, she noted that South Korea and the rest of the world were ‘waiting for it (the North) to implode’ because of its failed economics and ‘internal tensions.’ Here we are 11 years later and that has not happened yet.

While there are notes at the end of each chapter, the bibliography only contains 20 sources. Its narrative style and direct prose make it readily readable.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Modern day account of the author's attempt to retrace a trip through China and Korea, first done by a feminist traveler over a hundred years ago. Book traces how Korean society at that time was coming under the new control of Japan vs. how things stand in China and both Koreas today. Good narrative telling of both the old journey and new.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a fan of the "historical footsteps" genre of travel writing, I give this re-tracing of Emily Parks' 1910 journey through northeast China and the Korean peninsula high marks. I did find her observations of North Korea slightly "rosy" having read Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, though the government does keep visitors away from ordinary life as much as possible.

[Ken Hasner · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very surprising book to me. At first glance I thought I was simply going to get a travelogue of a modern day woman (and friend) retracing the journey of the British adventurer Emily Kemp (and friend) but what I got was a fantastic journey through the late 19th and early 20th century history of East Asia. I learned a great deal about China, Korea, and Japan that I had never known and the events leading up to WWII were evident in this history.

The current day travelogue was also quite entertaining and I recommend this to anyone who likes travel in a historical context.

[Kaye Sivori · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up to familiarize myself with Korea...It was a great read!!