Has anyone read the book "Lost on Planet China"?

[mirgcire]

This book by J. Maarten Troost was recommended to me by a friend. The more she described it, the less I wanted to read it. I looked around the web for some reviews and found a site with lots (1,959 to be exact). Most of the 30 reviews I read claimed 1) the book was hilarious, 2) it was full of useful information about China, 3) the reviewer knew almost nothing about china. My fears were confirmed by one reviewer who (while giving the book 5 out of 5 stars) states: "Troost travels to China, and though he goes open minded, he emerges all the more proud of being American".

I found only one review that echoes the conclusion that I would expect: "If you're planning on going to China, don't read this book. This cynical bitch has very little constructive to say about the place, and paints it pretty negatively. Sure, some of it is true. In the spare two weeks i spent (in only one city, i add), i can confirm that traffic is crazy, people hawk huge loogies on the street, and the pollution is pretty impressive. I'm certainly not as well traveled in the country as the author, but i don't find it anywhere as nasty as he did."

So I am hoping that someone in this forum has read the book and can provide a informed perspective on Troost's efforts. My guess is that this is a guy with a famously funny writing style (like Dave Berry) whowent to China and wrote all the strange things he observed. But provided absolutely zero cultural context. Is this an effort, thinly disguised as humor, to lambaste one culture in order to demonstrate the moral superiority of another?

Although, one may argue, Dave Berry's writing is essentially the same. I think there is a big difference because Berry's audience is the people he is lampooning. His writing is a mirror that allows us to see ourselves as others do ... and laugh at it too.

[Lao Che]

I listened to several chapters in audiobook format. I don't think the author's goal was to diminish one culture to promote another - that simply happens as a side effect of his unrelenting criticism and negative humour. For someone as well-travelled as Traust, he experienced a lot of culture shock. I couldn't get through the entire audiobook because the narrator used a stereotypically Japanese accent for any Chinese person in the book - a bit annoying - and read with a fairly negative tone. I think "Lost on Planet China" would be worth a quick read, though, as Traust goes to several destinations you wouldn't expect a middle-aged travel author to venture, like Tiger Leaping Gorge, for instance. Reading of his horror is quite funny, although the danger is totally exaggerated, and provides further evidence that the author is a bit high-strung and perhaps not cut out for travelling in less westernized countries.

[Gorman]

I read it earlier this year and can confidently make a bold statement: It was the worst book I've ever read about China!

It's basically written from the perspective of a tourist who (proudly admits) he knows nothing about China's culture or history and doesn't speak the language. He wanders from one tourist destination to another and makes the same observations we all make when we first arrive here (pollution, strange menus, spitting, crazy lines, etc.).

He really doesn't make an attempt to understand China either - he doesn't hire a translator and doesn't have a single real conversation with a Chinese person. Most of the dialog is between him and other travelers - and at one point his friend joins him half-way through the journey and we get to listen to his friend make the *same* observations that Troost made in the beginning of the book!

So.. it's really bad - although I have to confess, I finished it - but it was sorta like watching a car wreck unfold in slow motion.

On a more positive note - if you haven't checked out Peter Hessler's new book "Country Driving" or Rob Gifford's "China Road" - I'd recommend both. Hessler drives the Great Wall, profiles the changes to a Chinese village over several years, and watches a factory town spring out of nowhere. Gifford travels across the country and looks at some of the major challenges China is facing. Both authors have spent a lot of time in China and both books have a lot to offer.

[valikor]

I don't think the book is as bad as Gormann makes it out to be. Admittedly, I never finished it, though the part I read was acceptable.

If you have already lived in China before, and have read many books about China (as I would assume from your post),then perhaps his comments about "pollution, strange menus, spitting" etc. are nothing new to you.

But, having the perspective of someone who is not an expert can--I think--be valuable in some ways. You will learn something different from it.

That being said, I don't think it's accurate that he has NO understanding of Chinese culture and history, and makes no attempt to learn it. I recall at least some discussions of Chinese history in the parts of the book that I read. It was obviously not intended as a reading on Chinese history, though.

My $0.02

David

[cui ruide]

This is late and I admittedly read the book almost two years ago now, shortly before I decided to move back to China.

I think some are being overly critical and unfairly expecting something from this book it simply won't provide. It's a black humor travel narrative, and it does that exceedingly well. It is first and foremost an account of China from the perspective of an "FOB" individual without a China background--i.e. probably no formal study of Chinese culture or language. It would not be the ONLY book I would recommend to a friend thinking about moving to China, but it would certainly be one of them (I would probably pair it with the classic River Town).

Why would I recommend it? In short, Troost captures very well, and in an entertaining way, the daily onslaught of absurdity that confronts a foreigner living in China. This is an aspect of China that is very hard to relate to friends back home, and it's something like the mis-en-scene of every story you tell, but for which the listener has not enough attention span to absorb. For that, it makes great pre-entry reading. If someone simply asked me for a China book because they were curious, it would not be on that list.