Title: Lost on Planet China: or how I learned to love live squid
Author: J.Maarten Troost
Genre: Memoir
Material source: iBooks
My rating: 3.5/5
Background note:
Originally posted on my previous site, Becky in China.
This was written prior to my leaving China. At the time I lived in Hebei Province in North-Eastern China.
Since becoming an expat in China, I’ve been recommended this book several times, by friends and by people in the blogging sphere. After failing to find it available for a long time, I finally managed to locate it on the vast thing that is the internet, and finished it just this morning.
Where to begin with this mammoth journey!
Firstly, I think I regularly note upon the sheer size of China. It is MASSIVE. With a MASSIVE population. Needless to say, this makes travelling around China rather more difficult than if the country was, say, the size of the UK. So it would do good to remember at this point that there is no way ever could a man experience everything there is to experience in this huge nation.
About the book:
J.Maarten Troost and his family seem well travelled. He is half Dutch, grew up in Canada, moved to America at some point, then with his wife lived on Pacific Islands, travelled around, and then he decided it would be a great idea to move his family to China. Except that doesn’t happen, so he goes off to explore and uncover China’s mysteries by himself.
Beginning as one usually does in Beijing, he does a rather large loop around the main destination cities in the country – Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Macau, Guangzhou, Yunnan Province, the mythical Shangri-La, Lhasa, Chengdu, Xi’An, Harbin, Dandong… and other places I have forgotten about in between. This is literally my dream China. journey. But with my job, embarking upon such a journey just isn’t possible right now, so I was happy to be able to read about it.
Many adventures occur in each location, and even on route between them as he takes all methods of transportation available- planes, trains, ships, small boats, taxis…
My opinion:
I’ve read a few unsavoury reviews about this book, and they do have a ring of truth to them. Troost is, after all, a western man, and so the book is written entirely from a western perspective. There are multiple times in the book when China is portrayed as nothing more than polluted and dirty, industrialising and not so pretty, with a lack of the ancient culture, and too much geared towards the tourist. Whilst I do agree at times with his statements, I also think that perhaps he has travelled so fast that he has only seen the superficial side of China. He has only seen the tourist side, which can very much appear as he describes. Living in China brings out an entirely different side of this mysterious country. It brings out the kindness and humorous side of the Chinese people. It shows the hidden ancient ways of life that people still adhere to. In these gigantic cities he visits, it is usually only the central and tourist parts that one sees. If you go deeper into these cities you see them as places, not just sprawling, industrialising, growing cities. You see quainter parts where people live slower lives.
Of course, China is very different depending on how you choose to see it – as a tourist or as an expat. My view on China, though similar in ways to Troost, is different simply because I have lived here for three years, largely in one city. When I travel to other cities, I see most of what Troost sees – old culture hidden or destroyed by newness, crowds and crowds of people everywhere, loud talking, spitting in the streets, pollution, and fabulous food! But living here, living my everyday life, I see kind people, I see blue skies (definitely not every day but they are here!), I see bits of old and new together, and I definitely see fabulous food. I have a feeling that if I were Chinese, I would be somewhat offended by some of what is said in this book, and I have certainly read reviews that align with this.
I also want to note that Troost remarks upon how fast China is changing. This summer certainly true. And I can see it myself in his pages. He travelled to China a decade ago and even since then the country has changed greatly. It is interesting to read about China on the cusp of development, especially because a decade later I am living here, and so much has changed, and so much is still changing. There was a part in the book where he is travelling with a friend, who remarks how he should have invested in cranes. It made me chuckle because still there are cranes everywhere you look here! China is changing fast, always developing, always building towards the future.
So I enjoyed Troost’s book. I laughed a lot, and I had a happy experience reading it. But be careful how you read it. Take it with a pinch of Western salt, because there is far more to China than what you read about here. As a travelogue it is brilliant – witty, humorous, packed to the brim of material that will leave you wanting to come to China yourself. There is good information here too, about history and economics and culinary delights found here. I think it is worth a read. Just don’t come away with a negative opinion of China after reading it – this country is certainly mysterious, but one that takes a lot more demystifying than a three month stretch of travelling it’s most popular destinations.
Bookish Wanders 