ISHAM COOK CHINA

For the first time in China’s history, life is convenient. As many are traveling for fun as searching for work, and the countryside has collapsed into the city. Instead of struggling to put food on the table, the population is getting high on capsaicin in spicy hotpot restaurants. They indulge in Western classical music in state-of-the-art concert halls. They flock to libraries and museums that are architectural marvels, coffeehouses to pose for fashion photos, and meticulously constructed “ancient” towns built from scratch and of equal interest to genuine historical sites. The irony is that as China enters an era of prosperity and illusory self-sufficiency, it risks reverting to its insular roots and becoming increasingly closed and cut off from the rest of the world.

A resident of the country for over three decades, Isham Cook provides an informed, on-the-ground analysis of social and public life in twelve domains or “scenes,” with historical flashbacks showing how China got where it is today.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction: What in the world is a police café? (book only)
Chapter 1: A walk down the street
Chapter 2: A meal in a restaurant
Chapter 3: A stay in a hotel
Chapter 4: A visit to the library
Chapter 5: An invitation to a party
Chapter 6: An afternoon in a café
Chapter 7: A glimpse inside a school
Chapter 8: An immersion in a museum
Chapter 9: A journey to the hinterland
Chapter 10: A vision in a concert hall
Chapter 11: A timeslip to the glorious Qing
Chapter 12: An idyll in paradise

Available on Kindle and other paperback and e-book retailers this fall.

Books by Isham Cook of related interest:

At the Teahouse Café: Essays from the Middle Kingdom

“As an American who has lived in China for many years, Cook provides insights into a culture that is notoriously opaque to outsiders, its intricacies and quirks revealing themselves only after significant immersion.” — Kirkus Reviews

Confucius and Opium: China Book Reviews

“Isham Cook’s erudite, snarky, and very funny meander through books by and about Western expatriates in China serves up culture clashes that rarely see print.” — Hill Gates, author of China’s Motor: A Thousand Years of Petty Capitalism