Book Box : Reading China
Dear Reader,
I feel grateful for my travel reading, for stories on politics, history and culture that help me seek truths in the spaces between texts and landscapes. And for all the fiction - family sagas, historical novels and murder mysteries that teach me even deeper truths about a country I visit.
This week I travel from Hong Kong to Mainland China with my husband to attend the Canton Fair. We board the China Ferry in Hong Kong, sailing up the South China Sea into the delta of the Pearl River and further upriver to Canton.
The skies are grey and it's overcast. Two hundred years ago, on this very Pearl River, I picture British ships loaded with opium on their way to Canton (now Guangzhou). Soon after come the British warships from the South China Sea, fighting for their right to sell opium to the Chinese people. I read these waterway scenes from Amitav Ghosh's fantastic historical novel River of Smoke set during this time :
'...the greatest of Canton's suburbs is the river itself! There are more people living in the city floating bustees than in all of Calcutta... their boats are moored along the water's edge, on either side, and they are so numerous you cannot see the water beneath.'
Today there are no bustee boats and no people. Instead, my very first view of Mainland China is barges full of containers and gigantic construction cranes that line both sides of the river and in the distance, factory chimneys and rows of skyscrapers.
I am reading The Water Kingdom by Philip Ball, an absorbing journey of geography, music, poetry and painting, all through the lens of China's rivers. This connection between water and Chinese identity seems even more real as I sail into the country on this grey morning.
Guangzhou feels like Mumbai with its traffic jams and its cluttered mix of buildings. Every morning we take the hotel bus for the Canton Fair where we spend all day, walking crowded aisles filled with everything from sensors and smart rings to cuddly Easter rabbits!
Passing displays of camera clad robots that look like guard dogs, I feel I have jumped ahead in time. This shift feels starker after reading Once Upon a Time in the East - a heartbreaking real life story of the writer Xiaolu Guo who grew up in the fishing village of Shitang in South Eastern China.
Xiaolu is first abandoned and then raised by an emotionally stunted mother, one of the dreaded Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution. She has malnutrition and finally discovers drinking pig's blood helps her get her iron levels up. She describes how she is goaded by this hardship to make it into the Beijing Film Institute and then to London where she becomes a well known writer.
Looking around at the hi-tech aisles of the Canton Fair, I find it unbelievable that all this happened just fifty years ago, and that China could have changed so much and so soon.
And then I read The House of Huawei: Inside the Secret World of China's Most Powerful Company, and I understand how this happened.
Here's how founder Ren Zhengfei grew Huawei to what it is today - leading by example, channelling the Chinese hunger to catch up with the Western world, sending Huawei engineers to war torn zones like Iraq and Afghanistan, sometimes even working with rogue regimes, learning from the West by employing IBM as a consultant, and using the Chinese government support to grow Huawei to where it is today.
Surely this is the story of so many giants in Chinese innovation, the AI DeepSeeks and the electric car maker BYDs of the modern world and this book is a fascinating glimpse into how this happened.
When we drive to Shenzhen, I look at the cluster of skyscrapers around me very differently. Once a fishing village opposite the bay from HK, here (and in close by Dongguan) is where Huawei has its head offices.
Here speciality chefs make food for their customers - like South Indian food for engineers from Bengaluru. Heads of state and film stars, everyone from Kim Jong II of North Korea and actor Scarlett Johansson have visited.
I know all this from reading House of Huawei - the best book I have read this year, a riveting lesson in geopolitics, tech and on the history of China through the last hundred years, all captured through the history of Huawei, a company that started making switches and now makes everything from smartphones and undersea submarine cables to surveillance equipment and EV cars.
One evening, we have dinner with Chinese colleagues at a Michelin star restaurant. We use Google Lens on our phones to translate, choosing interesting but less adventurous Chinese dishes, sidestepping frogs legs and geese delicacies, using chopsticks to feast on delicious barbecued pork and prawn dumplings and spicy pepper noodles.
The talk inevitably turns to the US-China trade war, and of tariffs. People are incredulous and bewildered.
'245 per cent tariff - now no US trade,' says one, shaking his head.
'The US is becoming more and more closed. And China is now open,' says another. And there it is again - like the Opium Wars, like the Cultural Revolution, these trade wars too have real human dimensions.
Leaving Guangzhou, I look back at the Pearl River —the same waters that once carried opium clippers now mirror China's technological ascendance in their barges full of shipping containers.
What strikes me most is both the stunning pace of transformation—from Xiaolu's struggle with malnutrition to world tech domination in a single lifetime—and also the continuities - water trades, the East versus the West, and the ways the historical wounds of colonialism still influence today's trade disputes.
Here's my list of books that bring together these complex realities - see below my top five non fiction books on China. Next week, in Part 2 of Reading China, I bring you fiction set in the Middle Kingdom - family sagas, historical novels and murder mysteries, each of which reveal deep truths in different ways.
5 Must-Read China Books (non-fiction)
1. The Water Kingdom by Philip Ball.
2. Once Upon a Time in the East (also called Nine Continents: A Memoir In and Out of China) by British Chinese writer by Xiaolu Guo
3. The House of Huawei: Inside the Secret World of China's Most Powerful Company by Washington Post reporter Eva Dou
4. Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China by New Yorker staff writer Evan Osnos
5. India's China Challenge: A Journey through China's Rise and What It Means for India by Ananth Krishnan
What is your favourite travel reading? And also your best books on China - do write in with recommendations.
(Sonya Dutta Choudhury is a Mumbai-based journalist and the founder of Sonya's Book Box, a bespoke book service. Each week, she brings you specially curated books to give you an immersive understanding of people and places. If you have any reading recommendations or suggestions, write to her at sonyasbookbox@gmail.com. The views expressed are personal)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
India.com
30 minutes ago
- India.com
10 Essential Facts About Kochi City That Every Visitor Should Know
People commonly call the eastern coast metropolitan city Kochi the 'Queen of the Arabian Sea' among Indian locations. The southwestern coastal city of Kerala functions as a busy port where cultural history collaborates with contemporary expansion and appeals of natural scenery. The following 10 interesting details about Kochi City will surprise any visitor who wishes to discover this coastal masterpiece. 1. A Historic Port City with Global Connections For many centuries Kochi has operated as an important trade center which drew merchants from worldwide sources. The port city achieved its position as a vital port during ancient times because of its location along the Arabian Sea. Traders who came from Arabia, China, Portugal, the Netherlands along with Britain contributed to Kochi's development through their historical activity there. European presence began in India after Vasco da Gama sailed his ship to Kochi in 1498. Various historical periods have united different cultures into one cohesive entity creating the current melting-pot atmosphere throughout Kochi which is visible through its architecture and food and traditional practices. 2. Yes the city features the well-known Chinese Fishing Nets Continuous operations of the Chinese fishing nets Cheena Vala create an iconic sight along the Fort Kochi coastal line. Single-line surveys were introduced by Chinese traders during the 14th century and they maintain their operational function until our present day. People should witness the powerful sunsets displaying the nets because this view represents an essential Kochi attraction. The historical Chinese fishing nets struggle for survival because maintenance expenses have increased while fish populations decline. 3. A Hub for Spice Trade For generations Kochi has maintained its role as the central hub for Indian spices. The area around the city provides abundant natural sources of black pepper and produces cardamom cinnamon cloves and turmeric and black pepper. Black gold served as an equivalent for spices which grew valuable enough to entertain such a description during the colonial period. The export activities of Kochi's spice sector fuel substantial economic value for India's economy throughout the present day. Guests who come to this location can visit the spice markets to learn about Kochi's historical role as a center of global trade. 4. Rich Cultural Diversity The city of Kochi serves as a notable display of peaceful combination between different religious traditions and cultural backgrounds. Hindus Muslims Christians and Jews dwell alongside each other peacefully in this city. The Paradesi Synagogue in Jew Town Mattancherry stands as an important attraction because its construction in 1568 makes it one of the oldest operating synagogues in the Commonwealth. The St. Francis Church in Fort Kochi maintains its position as a distinction of Kochi's Christian historical background through its place where Vasco da Gama received his initial interment. The Disparities within Kochi receive official acknowledgment through important celebrations of Onam and Eid along with Vishu and Christmas therefore establishing the city as warmly accepting of all communities. 5. Birthplace of Kerala's IT Boom As an historic city Kochi supports India's technological transformation through its active leadership in the IT sector thanks to its futuristic outlook. Kakkanad's Infopark together with SmartCity Kochi have established Kochi as a prominent selection for IT and technology startup enterprises. Advanced infrastructure together with qualified manpower enables Kochi to host homegrown and foreign businesses. The combination of historical roots with contemporary development creates Kochi into a thriving city for both living and professional reasons. 6. Backwaters and Natural Beauty The city of Kochi remains encircled by calm backwaters consisting of integration between lagoons, lakes and canals. The peaceful waterways provide visitors with sensational landscape vistas and they offer various recreational options such as houseboat excursions and kayak adventures and birdwatching tours. The largest lake in Kerala named Vembanad Lake functions as the vital water source for Kochi and surrounds the city from near Kochi. Also supported by the backwaters are agricultural and fishing activities while they create an environment where multiple species of flora and fauna rest and various migratory birds visit. 7. A Vibrant Arts and Cultural Scene The Kochi-Muziris Biennale stands as India's first international art festival which makes Kochi recognizable as a city of flourishing arts. Two years separate editions of this festival that demonstrates international contemporary art and brings together worldwide artists and criticism experts and enthusiasts to the city. Kochi maintains a strong reputation for its performance arts which include Kathakali and Mohiniyattam alongside Theyyam. Many seasonal cultural festivals take place throughout Kochi to recognize music performances alongside dance performances, theater performances and literary creations. 8. The Oldest European Church in India The primary European church operating in India can be found at Fort Kochi in St. Francis Church. The Portuguese constructed this place of worship in 1503 although it operated as a Roman Catholic church until both Dutch and British control followed. The original burial place of Vasco da Gama at the church existed in 1524 but his remains were transferred to Lisbon later. The church implements a simple architectural style that displays the colonial design influences which developed Kochi. 9. Gateway to Muziris Heritage Kochi stands as an adjacent area to the historic trading center Muziris that flourished as a major hub in ancient history. Research at archaeological sites of this vanished civilization discovered artifacts which include pieces of pottery along with coins. Tourists can now experience Muziris Heritage through the preservation efforts of the Muziris Heritage Project which showcases museums alongside restored destinations and heritage trails. The Muziris Heritage Project confirms Kochi's unique position as a connection between ancient India and its current state. 10. Culinary Delights Await People visiting Kochi must experience its culinary delights to have a complete exploration of the destination. Various types of traditional food exist throughout the city because of its multicultural heritage. Local seafood dishes prepared with native spices are available for seafood enthusiasts but vegetarians can choose traditional dishes like appam, puttu and avial. The city offers a variety of traditional food including famous banana chips and jackfruit recipes and payasam desserts. Both local food streets and beachside shacks throughout Kochi offer multiple chances to experience genuine tasting experiences. Conclusion Kochi exists as a special place which brings together historical displays alongside innovative qualities and historic traditional touchpoints alongside contemporary features. This South Indian city welcomes all types of visitors through both its modern commerce and historical attractions in addition to its diverse population and natural wonders. The city of Kochi delivers a memorable travel experience by so many means including visits to its historical synagogues together with water cruises and tastes of local cuisine. The 10 facts described barely capture the extensive range of wonders Kochi offers visitors hence you should seize the opportunity to explore its magic firsthand.
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
Dubai could soon unveil a project bigger than Burj Khalifa, says Emirates' Tim Clark
By the time a city builds the world's tallest tower, commands the skies with the world's largest airline, and positions itself as a global nerve centre of commerce, technology, and lifestyle, most would consider the job done. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now But Dubai isn't most cities. And few understand that better than Sir Tim Clark, President of Emirates, who has spent four decades watching the city grow into what it is today. Now, he's hinting that the story is far from over. In a candid conversation with British broadcaster , Sir Timothy Charles Clark, the man who has steered Emirates Airline since 2003, suggested that Dubai's next act could eclipse even the Burj Khalifa. 'I daresay there are other things that are going to come along that are bigger and more beautiful than Burj Khalifa – we don't know,' Clark said with a telling smile, suggesting that Dubai's growth trajectory is far from slowing down. At 75, Clark's perspective is unique. He's not merely a witness to Dubai's metamorphosis over the last four decades, he's been embedded in it. From his early days helping establish Emirates airline to guiding it into global dominance, his journey has mirrored the city's. Much of Clark's reflection with Morgan centred not just on what Dubai has achieved, but how, and why. Behind the glass and steel is a clear strategy, shaped by the leadership's decision to think far beyond it's limited fossil fuel reserves. 'If you look at the GDP and the broad basis of the economy and the multiple segments, whether it be media, tech, aviation, hospitality, or banking, it is all here,' Clark said. He continued, 'Somebody had to think that this really, if I am going to make it work, not only must I put the place on the map geographically with some iconic things, but I've also got to make the city come into a critical mass where it is going to develop wealth for the government, but it must work for all the citizens of Dubai as well.' Tired of too many ads? go ad free now In those words, Clark made it clear: Dubai's transformation has never been about spectacle alone. The intent was always to generate tangible, inclusive economic value, and do so at scale. The Dubai Media Office, which shared excerpts of the interview on X (formerly Twitter), highlighted just how much ground Dubai has covered in a remarkably short time. Reflecting on the early days of Emirates, Clark admitted he couldn't have foreseen the full extent of Dubai's trajectory. 'From the early 90s, the city has been on steroids,' he said, a telling phrase for a place that moved from ambition to execution with relentless velocity. That momentum, however, wasn't chaotic. It was deliberate. 'What the ruler said, no, we must put our money in this city and use that money to develop this city, that was part of the model,' Clark shared. Dubai's leadership chose reinvestment as its engine, ensuring that wealth generated by the city was reinvested into its development, a move that underpinned its evolution from desert port to world city. Piers Morgan, known for pressing his subjects, noted the sheer scale of Dubai's ambition, to be 'the biggest and best in the world as fast as possible.' Clark didn't flinch. That drive, he said, is part of the city's operating DNA. But he was quick to stress that none of it has been accidental. The city's growth has been 'guided and steered,' ensuring Dubai didn't become, in Clark's words, 'a sprawling and undirected metropolis. ' The hints at what's next, something potentially 'bigger and more beautiful than Burj Khalifa', aren't just hype. They're a glimpse into a city still unfolding. With Clark's insight, it's clear that Dubai's future, much like its past, is shaped by more than just bold ideas. It's powered by an unshakable commitment to execution, vision, and reinvention, again and again.
Hindustan Times
2 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Iron maidens: 200 years after the first one, where will trains take us next?
Apu and Durga hear a strange sound, of a kind they have never heard before. They run run run through tall grass to find out what is making the noise. They emerge from the grass to a sight that takes their breath away. Unfortunately, Durga stumbles and misses the spectacle. Her brother Apu stares, riveted: a steam engine, huffing and puffing, is pulling a passenger train. This is widely considered the most memorable scene in Satyajit Ray's classic, Pather Panchali (1955). Railways spelt magic. For young Apu and Durga. For most of us. It has been 200 years since the spell was first cast. The world's first steam-powered passenger train made its first run, from Stockton to Darlington in England, a distance of just under 42 km, in 1825. (The first passenger train journey in India, that famous one from Bombay to Thane, occurred 28 years later, in 1853). Trains have, of course, changed everything since. They have democratised travel, sped it up and made it more comfortable; changed how goods are moved, drawn hinterlands closer to markets; allowed remote regions to participate to a far greater extent in economies. They became, almost immediately, an integral part of economic progress. Food security, real-estate, defence: none of it was quite complete without the railroad. It would take the world a while to get used to these new speeds (of 50 to 80 kmph, at a time when cars averaged about 40 kmph). In 1830, in fact, a Liverpool-Manchester train ran over British Member of Parliament William Huskisson. He was attending the opening of a new rail link when he stepped from a train onto the tracks, with a few others. He was clipped by a rake on a parallel line, in what became the first widely reported death by passenger locomotive. It's a fatal error people continue to make; perhaps the brain cannot adequately assess something moving so fast. Every year in Mumbai, India's densest rail commuter hub, an estimated 2,500 people die while crossing the tracks, most of them unable to judge the time it will take the oncoming train to reach them. *** Back to the 1800s, the railways boosted the growth of cities and of empires. It became possible to live scores of kilometres away from work, and easier to rule continents where one had only the slimmest sliver of a claim. As these new links connected harbour towns and interiors, making business more profitable for trading companies, colonial powers such as the British used them to solidify their reign. In the US, the railroad networks shooting out across the continent spawned a new generation of millionaires. They also boosted an upwardly mobile middle-class that grew rich on investments in such companies, which saw stocks rise rapidly from 1865 all the way to the early stock-market bubble of 1873. The collapse would be swift and devastating: a sad and since-recurring tale of a fast-expanding industry and adventurous investment firms taking a tumble together. In early echoes of a pattern that continues to be repeated, banks and businesses that had leaned on each other, counting on the continued railroad boom to see them through, fell like dominoes, in what became known as the Panic of 1873, a downturn that spread all the way to Europe. *** The trains themselves chugged ever-forward. What started out as one type of rake, a steam engine pulling a set of carriages, grew to encompass a myriad forms. There would be a lot more belching of smoke and fumes before trains began to go electric. In fact, the world's first underground railroad system, set up in London in 1863, was powered by steam until 1890. These chugging engines would move troops, supplies and letters from home, during the Great War. Great big steam locomotives would play the sinister role of mass deportations to concentration camps, about two decades later, in what would come to be called World War 2. *** Across the colonies, by this point, a strange thing was happening. Disillusioned by their continued exclusion from their own growing economies, and tired of their second-class status — even as they harvested the fields for cotton and fought in the wars on behalf of their foreign rulers — large colonised populations began to get restive. In vast and diverse regions such as India and Africa, the cheap, fast-moving passenger trains were one of the things that made it easier to reach out across vast distances, and differences, and unite. (English, as a common language, would assist in this cause too; as would the radio, as a means of communication and broadcast.) Think about how often one sees the train in the 1982 film Gandhi. Think about how impossible the freedom rallies might have been without the ability to fly across the landscape and be in two distant places if not at once then at least in one day. *** Then the wars were over, freedom had been won. The sense of wonder, captured so evocatively by filmmakers, writers, poets and painters, faded a fair bit as new marvels took over: cars, planes, missions to the moon. Sample these awe-filled lines by the Scottish poet Robert Louis Stevenson, in his poem, From A Railway Carriage (1885)… Faster than fairies, faster than witches, Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches… Here is a cart run away in the road Lumping along with man and load; And here is a mill and there is a river: Each a glimpse and gone for ever! A very different view emerges, less than a century later, in the Jethro Tull rock classic Locomotive Breath (1971; lyrics by Ian Anderson). Here, the train serves as a metaphor for much of what it, and the industrial revolution, have enabled: explosions of human industry, activity and habitation: In the shuffling madness Of the locomotive breath Runs the all-time loser Headlong to his death Oh, he feels the piston scraping Steam breaking on his brow Old Charlie stole the handle And the train it won't stop Oh no way to slow down… No way to slow down No way to slow down No way to slow down No way to slow down *** Japan built the world's first high-speed train, the Shinkansen or New Trunk Line, nicknamed the bullet train for how fast it flew. Special tracks minimised friction; aerodynamic design raised speeds. At launch, the Shinkansen had a maximum speed of 210 kmph, in 1964. Speeds have since inched up steadily, to 320 kmph, then 443 kmph and now a high of 603 km per hour for its maglev or magnetic levitation rakes. China has used high-tech trains to reinforce its claims over autonomous regions on its fringes, such as Tibet, in a move that doubles as a symbol of its reach and power. These trains reach new kinds of highs. The Qinghai-Tibet link is currently the world's highest railway line, stretching about 2,000 km across the Himalayan plateau, from Xining in central China to Lhasa in Tibet. *** India is now entering a new rail era, with plush trains launched for the Everyman and plans for high-speed links. The country's vast population still depends on this extensive network, with the Indian Railways clocking the highest number of rides taken in the world: about 8 billion, across its 7,325 stations. The Indian Railways is also the country's second-largest employer after the Armed Forces (about 1.2 million are employed by the former; 1.4 million by the latter). Millions of train lovers, meanwhile, feel the same kind of thrill Durga and Apu did, when they hear the clacking or hoot that indicates a train will soon whizz by. (Ambi Parameswaran is a best-selling author and an independent brand coach. His latest book is Marketing Mixology. He can be reached at ambimgp@
