Bookworm: Chinese Whispers

I don’t know how many book reviews change the world, but I spotted one in Beijing last week that might at least give a substantial part of it a nudge in the right direction.

You might not have heard of either the book being reviewed, Ship Taiping in 1949, by Zhang Dianwan, or the reviewer, Zhu Yuan, a China Daily journalist. But to understand why his review is important, you must realise the depth of the antipathy between the two sides in the Chinese Civil War of 1946-49, in which 1.25 million people died. The war ended when the Nationalists retreated to the island of Taiwan, taking all of China’s gold reserves and many of its cultural treasures with them. Some of the tension between the two sides continues: according to Reuters, China has as many as 2,000 missiles aimed at Taiwan.

ShipTaiping in 1949 is the story of the accidental sinking of a passenger ship en route from mainland China to Taiwan when it collided with another vessel. Of its nearly 1,000 passengers, only 38 survived.

Mr Zhu begins his review by pointing out he had never heard of the Taiping tragedy before reading the book. Indeed, until relatively recently it would have been impossible for a book like this to be published in China. True, he says, in comparison to the founding of the New China, the sinking of a ship, particularly one heading away from it, might seem of little import.

It’s not, he argues. Such stories go beyond dogma, and show us historical events from a new angle. That is necessary because the more one is involved in historical events, the harder it is to view them objectively. “As the poet Su Shi (1037-1101) wrote, you can hardly recognise the real Mount Lushan if you are on the mountain and do not have the distance necessary to have a clear picture of it.” Precisely.

“This book reminds me of the necessity and urgency for more writers to write about the lives of ordinary individuals during the various political movements on the Chinese mainland,” Mr Zhu concludes. “There are some, but not nearly enough.”

Decode that, and he is saying the Chinese don’t just need to know the stories they’ve been told already, but also ones that challenge the official version of their past. That’s what history is really about. And, regarding Taiwan, not demonising your former political enemies and trying to understand them is what lasting peace is about too. Good for you, Mr Zhu.