Reading the Tea Leaves
Tales from Behind the Great Wall
Robert E. Jones
A narrative that moves seamlessly from the present into the author's past as he travels across China and through time to examine such diverse subjects as the plight of migrant workers, religion in a supposedly godless society but potentially the largest soul-market on earth, the broken environment and climate change, resource colonialism as China reclaims its position as the Asian hegemon and challenges the United States in a reordering of the global pecking order. It is a timely, humanistic portrayal of contemporary China chock full of tasty tidbits and other morsels that both inform and entertain. With his tongue-in-cheek dry humor and classic (formerly British) understatement, the author gives us a fascinating glimpse of a country haunted by its recent past, outwardly confident but wracked with paranoia and insecurity, hurtling towards an uncertain future. As China changes the world in its relentless push to become the next super-power it too is changing out of all recognition and what you see is invariably "not what you get". This book is for those who seek to have a better understanding of China today and is essential reading for anyone who is concerned with the rise of China, and who shouldn't be, as it storms back onto the world stage. China has not only flooded the world with goods bearing its Made in China label but is actually in the process of re-making the world itself.