Beijing Time

By Michael Dutton, Dong Dong Wu, Hsiu-Ju Stacy Lo

Book Overview

"Where is the market?" inquires the tourist one dark, chilly morning. "Follow the ghosts," responds the taxi driver, indicating a shadowy parade of overloaded tricycles. "It's not called the ghost market for nothing " And indeed, Beijing is nothing if not haunted. Among the soaring skyscrapers, choking exhaust fumes, nonstop traffic jams, and towering monuments, one discovers old Beijing--newly styled, perhaps, but no less present and powerful than in its ancient incarnation. Beijing Time conducts us into this mysterious world, at once familiar and yet alien to the outsider.

The ancient Chinese understood the world as enchanted, its shapes revealing the mythological order of the universe. In the structure and detail of Tian'anmen Square, the authors reveal the city as a whole. In Beijing no pyramids stand as proud remnants of the past; instead, the entire city symbolizes a vibrant civilization. From Tian'anmen Square, we proceed to the neighborhoods for a glimpse of local color--from the granny and the young police officer to the rag picker and the flower vendor. Wandering from the avant-garde art market to the clock towers, from the Monumental Axis to Mao's Mausoleum, the book allows us to peer into the lives of Beijingers, the rules and rituals that govern their reality, and the mythologies that furnish their dreams. Deeply immersed in the culture, everyday and otherworldly, this anthropological tour, from ancient cosmology to Communist kitsch, allows us to see as never before how the people of Beijing--and China--work and live.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674047346
• ISBN13: 9780674047341
• Release Date: May 2010
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.6" x 7.6"

Customer Reviews

lonely planet guide: graduate edition

The two earlier reviews I read are essentially correct. A careful academic work this is not. It's more like a graduate level Lonely Planet guide. And that is what I wanted from this book, so I give it high enough marks. The authors actually did take LP to task at one point, at which point I thought to myself regarding this book's weaknesses, "Physician, heal thyself." And like good LP guides, it is generally superbly written, fresh, and interesting. I just returned from Beijing, and visited many of the same sites as this book. It cast new light on them, in some occasionally overheated rhetoric. That said, I wish I had the book in Beijing as there are a few more places I would have visited. I thought the strength of the book was in its first half. This contained a description of Beijing's architecture and grand urban plan--its Cartesian nature with the y-axis the old imperial city, and the newer x-axis being the Communist contribution, with the Tiananmen Gate/The Great Helmsman at the origin. The authors are at their peak here, connecting architecture and politics. Its second half weakened (for me anyway) into bar-hopping, shopping excursion descriptions, and a too-long description of the second hand CD scene. It was too much like one of the more vapid "Style/Escapes" sections of the modern NYTimes. Nevertheless, the authors brought some new insights to me and held my interest through a rapid four hour read over two days.

Helpful for Visitors to Beijing

I recently lived and worked in Beijing for a period of three years. I would have very much appreciated the opportunity to have read this book prior to my arrival. It would have enabled me to better understand what I was seeing & experiencing all around me. Highly recommended for diplomats, business reps and ex-pats heading in that direction for both short and long term stays.