Bad Elements (Electronic book text)

As China's leaders attempt to refute the Tiananmen Papers, condemn Falun Gong protests, and press Taiwan to embrace the one-China principle, a burning question emerges: Who are these opponents -- struggling not only in the People's Republic but overseas, in the U.S., Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan -- who dare to stand up to the Communist party's powerful rulers, and what drives them? Buruma reports dramatically on exiles in California and religious dissidents in Beijing. He explores the tensions between cultural traditions and contemporary politics, illuminating Taiwan's transition from dictatorship to democracy and the handover of Hong Kong in 1997. Part travelogue, part analysis, "Bad Elements" illuminates the story of the Chinese opposition for Western readers who want to understand where China is headed. "Ian Buruma -- at his best Witty, insightful, revealing. The author adds a new, broader dimension to the China subject showing that the struggle for this country transcends far beyond its borders. Very refreshing and fascinating." RYSZARD KAPUSCINSKI ""Bad Elements" is a marvelous guided tour of the many worlds of Chinese free-thinking. We visit frustrated refugees in New Jersey, rebels turned evangelist in California, gadflies in the authoritarian duchy of Singapore, long-suffering campaigners for Taiwan independence, punctilious Hong Kong democrats, stubborn Tibetans, and many more. We meet mayors and cooks, professors and streetwalkers. We go from city to town to tiny village to cyberspace. Two common threads hold the resplendent variety together. One is the reliable presence of the tour guide, Mr. Buruma, whose sharp eye, arch irony, and underlying moralseriousness provide a consistent vantage point; the other is the character of the bad elements themselves, who, despite all the differences in their contexts and concerns, display a common orneryness. After this book it will no longer work to argue that 'Chinese people like to be told what to do.'" PERRY LINK, PROFESSOR OF EAST ASIAN STUDIES, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY "In this sharply observed and finely written book, Ian Buruma takes the reader with him on a deeply personal quest: why is it that, in the face of overwhelming state power, some Chinese consistently refuse to 'Live in the Lie'? What does their cussedness tell us about the meaning of being Chinese? And can the roots of their individual acts of courage be traced either to their religious faith, or their belief in science?" JONATHAN SPENCE, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, YALE UNIVERSITY