Friday, October 26, 2007

In search of .... what exactly? Globe & Mail Review

n search of ... what, exactly?
Anthony B. Chan. The Globe and Mail. Toronto, Ont.: Aug 18, 2007. pg. D.11
Abstract (Summary)

Ostensibly, the story is one journalist's quest to satisfy his appetite for master criminal Lai. Along on this sojourn, August has his personal Katos. In the television series, Bruce Lee played Kato, the Green Hornet's sidekick. Here, the daughter of a Chinese diplomat, a Chinese lesbian and a Taiwanese exile play August's Number One Daughters/Sons. Researching and translating Chinese documents are their tasks, though the author boasts about his "fluent" Chinese.

INSIDE THE RED MANSION

On the Trail of China's

Most Wanted Man

By Oliver August

Houghton Mifflin, 268 pages, $34.95

Like the 2004 movie, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle , Oliver August's rambling and often disjointed personal memoir about his seven years in China ought to have been titled Green Hornet and Kato Go to the Red Mansion. In the 1966-67 television series, the Green Hornet was a crusader ferreting out the criminal and the corrupt. Similarly, August seeks out China's most wanted criminal.

After binging on marijuana, Harold and Kumar search for a White Castle restaurant to satisfy their hamburger craving. Along the way, they encounter unorthodox characters and bizarre events. Likewise, after 19 chapters, while searching for criminal Lai Changxing, August presents a smoky and almost drug-induced Chinese underworld of bandits, golf lessons, goose-liver merchants, Jesus freaks, lesbians, long-haired language tutors, police spies, thieves and prostitutes.

Ostensibly, the story is one journalist's quest to satisfy his appetite for master criminal Lai. Along on this sojourn, August has his personal Katos. In the television series, Bruce Lee played Kato, the Green Hornet's sidekick. Here, the daughter of a Chinese diplomat, a Chinese lesbian and a Taiwanese exile play August's Number One Daughters/Sons. Researching and translating Chinese documents are their tasks, though the author boasts about his "fluent" Chinese.

Unlike Harold and Kumar, who never waver in seeking out hamburgers, most of August's chapters have little to do with the chase for the thief named Lai. Rather, they have more to do with how Oliver can roller-skate into the Great Hall of the People, cause consternation among the security people, and then skate out unmolested and unshackled.

It is this type of Western arrogance that he uses to flout Chinese law. August also resides in Xiamen without government permission. He reasons that because China is authoritarian, non-Western and a bit bizarre, "defying limits imposed by the authorities ... held its own attraction." Just having fun in China drives this German-born British journalist to defy the Chinese.

If there is any suspense about the real Lai Changxing, it is clouded by the author's self-indulgent urge to tutor the reader with a constant barrage of translated Chinese words: pizi (ruffian), lai cai (bring vegetables), hua laofu (dirty old men), cu tanzi (jealous husband), ad nauseam. Whatever relevance his dictionary prowess might have on his quest is never stated.

Five chapters too many reveal the scope of Chinese prostitution. For August, it is an exotic and voyeuristic excursion into the world of the "other." We meet a madam, Lili, whose life's aim is just to survive. Yet we know little about the complexities of her life other than the selling of her body and the bodies of other Chinese women. These women and other obscure figures such as Fangming, Chen Xiuhong and Long Yamin are merely extras in this Chinese wonderland of the supreme Orientalist, Oliver August.

The author is exceptional at banality. His description of cleaning an old wok is laboured and unnecessary. Perhaps it was an example of his surprise at discovering something as completely non-Western as a large, round iron pot with a long wooden handle.

His recounting of a filial Confucian maxim and a wordy discussion about the famous Qing dynasty novel, Dream of the Red Chamber , are the backgrounders to why Lai Changxing might have chosen the name Red Mansion (chamber) for his palace. The earnestness in these passages is reminiscent of a gifted schoolboy trying to impress his teachers, to make the point that he is, indeed, a "China expert."

August also has a meticulous diatribe devoted to the numbers 4 and 8. He ascribes the abhorrence of the number 4 (also meaning "to die") to Mandarin speakers. In fact, it is the Cantonese who dislike the number 4 intensely. On Aug. 8, 2008 (8/8/8), many will strive to marry, because the number 8 also means prosperity.

In addition to these and other mundane and often inaccurate passages on things Chinese, August's sourcing and attributions are questionable. One of the major journalistic principles is truth. Yet August boasts: "I disguised my real purpose for engaging people in conversation. I did so as a last resort and only when in the public interest - these are the guidelines laid down by the UK Press Complaints Commission for justifiable misrepresentation."

After 218 pages, Lai Changxing finally emerges as a flesh-and-blood person. This results more from the actions of the Canadian government than from August's sleuthing. He corners Lai in an extensive interview in Vancouver, where in 1999 the Chinese millionaire had fled to avoid charges of corruption and smuggling in China. But what is revealed is nothing more than what can be gleaned on Google.

Before the liberation of China in 1949, such journalists as Edgar Snow, Nym Wales, Rewi Alley and Agnes Smedley helped the West understand China with their insightful, balanced and relevant writings. During the 1970s, Western reporters like John Burns and David Bonavia filed balanced and meaningful stories on China. They were all seasoned and thoughtful journalists seeking the truth about China, rather than the exotic, prurient, bizarre or sensational. Perhaps one day, we again may see the likes of Snow, Alley, Burns or Bonavia cogently and intelligently writing about China.

A former television journalist at HK-TVB and the CBC, Anthony B. Chan has written books about the Chinese arms trade, Chinese Canada, Li Ka-shing and Anna May Wong. He teaches journalism at the University of Washington.

No comments: