As I read China in 10 Words, I wondered how Yu Hua managed to stay out of trouble with the authorities in his native China. It turns out he has not entirely escaped their notice and his novel, This Life, was originally banned as is the movie made from the book.
But as I slowly read these essays and thought about them I realized the criticism of the Chinese government and the description of the nation''s almost total lack of what we would call ethics in many aspects of life is secondary. The book is really about people, in this case Chinese people, engaging in what looks like Capitalism but is more like a wild west shootout in the globalized manufacturing world. "Copycat" is an attempt to explain the Chinese reaction to foreign copyright and patents (worthless) and "Bamboozle" describes the apparently universal need to lie, cheat, and steal as a sort of national game.
Many famous high-end companies manufacturer their clothing and purses and such in China. The Chinese produce many more than the company requires and sell them at much lower prices as "the real thing." Who is to say that an item manufactured in the same facility by the same people using the same patterns and materials is not "real." Copyright is another significant problem. There are 11 more Harry Potter books for sale in China than there are in Britain.
Throughout the essays Yu weaves his life as a child of the Cultural Revolution and his observations not just about the country's economy but what might be called the sociology of a fast-changing country with its poverty and opression mixed in with the recent hyper-economy. He points out that the Communists tried to wipe out the historic religions and have replaced them with nothing that would guide people in their search for ideals and guides for their lives.
The ten words are "people," "leader," "reading," "writing," "Lu Xun," "disparity," "revolution," "grassroots," "copycat," and "bamboozle."
2011 No 204