It is a gorgeous and sunny day in Beijing but somehow I’m reluctant to leave my apartment.
On one hand the 2007 world cup rugby has me glued to the TV. In case you are not following the latest events, there has been some great drama over the last few days: underdogs such as France and England are beating the big favorites New Zealand and Australia. Both France and England are now to meet in the semi-finals. When I was in Japan last week, taking the train from Kobe to Kyoto, I bumped into an Australian guy who explained me in obsessive detail the rules of the game. Once you understand the basic rules, the game has so much more to offer than the brute force you see as a beginner and I love the upsets we are seeing now. Don't worry, I'm not turning into a rugby fanatic. Yet.
On the other hand, I can also not stop turning the pages of a new book. It was a rainy day yesterday, so I decided to go and visit a bookstore called the Bookworm that is getting some attraction here in Beijing (see picture). From their website I learned that: “The Bookworm was begun in 2004 by Alexandra Pearson, an Englishwoman resident in Beijing for the last 15 years. A small community library at its inception, The Bookworm is now the English language literary hub of all things book-related in China’s capital.” From my perspective, The Bookworm is more a coffee shop/ restaurant than a true book store. I was somewhat expecting a place like B&N or the FNAC, but the Bookworm is a much smaller place and the book I wanted -Road to Heaven by Bill Porter- was out of stock. Still it is the best place in town to find English books and it was crowded with foreigners typing away on their laptops. The store also has literary evenings where writers come and talk about their books and Bill Porter will be there on October 13. I’ve put that on my agenda and more about that in a future blog. So I met the owner Alexandra and asked her to recommend me a book about China that is her favorite and she gave me “the man who stayed behind” by Rittenberg. Here is an review from amazon.com: Rittenberg, the only American citizen to join Mao Zedong's Chinese Communist Party, befriended Zhou Enlai, debated with Mao and was influential in the '60s Cultural Revolution. Born in South Carolina, this former U.S. labor organizer had his faith in Mao's "sacred revolutionary organization" tested by 16 years in Chinese prisons. His first jail term (1949-1955), after he was wrongly accused of spying, only strengthened Rittenberg's resolve to prove himself a loyal communist. Released, he took a job scrutinizing co-workers' dossiers, sending suspected counter-revolutionaries to labor camps. His next 10 years (1968-1977) in solitary confinement broke his faith in communism. Time is up, I need to get back to the book.
On one hand the 2007 world cup rugby has me glued to the TV. In case you are not following the latest events, there has been some great drama over the last few days: underdogs such as France and England are beating the big favorites New Zealand and Australia. Both France and England are now to meet in the semi-finals. When I was in Japan last week, taking the train from Kobe to Kyoto, I bumped into an Australian guy who explained me in obsessive detail the rules of the game. Once you understand the basic rules, the game has so much more to offer than the brute force you see as a beginner and I love the upsets we are seeing now. Don't worry, I'm not turning into a rugby fanatic. Yet.
On the other hand, I can also not stop turning the pages of a new book. It was a rainy day yesterday, so I decided to go and visit a bookstore called the Bookworm that is getting some attraction here in Beijing (see picture). From their website I learned that: “The Bookworm was begun in 2004 by Alexandra Pearson, an Englishwoman resident in Beijing for the last 15 years. A small community library at its inception, The Bookworm is now the English language literary hub of all things book-related in China’s capital.” From my perspective, The Bookworm is more a coffee shop/ restaurant than a true book store. I was somewhat expecting a place like B&N or the FNAC, but the Bookworm is a much smaller place and the book I wanted -Road to Heaven by Bill Porter- was out of stock. Still it is the best place in town to find English books and it was crowded with foreigners typing away on their laptops. The store also has literary evenings where writers come and talk about their books and Bill Porter will be there on October 13. I’ve put that on my agenda and more about that in a future blog. So I met the owner Alexandra and asked her to recommend me a book about China that is her favorite and she gave me “the man who stayed behind” by Rittenberg. Here is an review from amazon.com: Rittenberg, the only American citizen to join Mao Zedong's Chinese Communist Party, befriended Zhou Enlai, debated with Mao and was influential in the '60s Cultural Revolution. Born in South Carolina, this former U.S. labor organizer had his faith in Mao's "sacred revolutionary organization" tested by 16 years in Chinese prisons. His first jail term (1949-1955), after he was wrongly accused of spying, only strengthened Rittenberg's resolve to prove himself a loyal communist. Released, he took a job scrutinizing co-workers' dossiers, sending suspected counter-revolutionaries to labor camps. His next 10 years (1968-1977) in solitary confinement broke his faith in communism. Time is up, I need to get back to the book.
1 comment:
Heard of him before, Rittenberg-李敦白,English expert in CCP media and a translator. Sent to prision 1st time because wrong information from Soviet KGB, 2nd time for being involved in a internal political fighting. The comentary sounds to me quite misleading, hope you could find the truth from his own words.
Ray
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