China A to Z

A User's Guide to the Next Global Superpower
By Kai Strittmatter

It’s time we got to know a little more about the Chinese. Did you know that our Olympic hosts in 2008 don’t eat soup, they drink it? That their surnames come before their first names? That their good sense is to be found not in their heads but in their hearts? Or that white is their colour of mourning? This guide to avoiding the numerous pitfalls of Chinese culture and etiquette, and understanding the world’s fastest growing superpower, is both amusing and informative. Let it be your introduction to China and its people.

The writer and journalist Kai Strittmatter lived and worked in China for ten years. With the Beijing Olympics 2008 having lured even more travelers to China, this amusing, affectionate and perceptive book provides a fascinating guide to this lively, sociable and friendly people and their complex and often contradictory society. As the author says: ‘Be prepared for everything when you come to Beijing. It really is unbelievable what can happen here.’

‘Anyone who has spent a night on the same floor of a hotel as a group of Chinese tourists will know that most Chinese love re nao: “heat and noise”. They love to go where lots of people are already squeezed together, where all hell has broken loose.
 Re nao is a state of being that people strive for because it brings them pleasure and joy. The idea is to dive into as large a mass of people as possible and then, through emitting as many decibels as possible, to reassure each other that you aren’t alone in the world. Some people still suspect that the construction plans for fireworks are encoded in Chinese genes. As a result, they invented them and use them with a mastery and pizzazz unequalled anywhere else in the world. Today re nao is more popular than ever in China, thanks to the increase in happy occasions, which historically have been all too rare for this long-suffering people.
 The mother of all re nao’s was the day when it was announced that Beijing would host the Olympic Games. All that night you couldn’t understand a word the television reporters were saying. Re nao fits the Olympic spirit: the character re once represented a torch-holder. The opposite of re nao is tai ping, “the highest peace”. Here’s a tip: tai ping can only be found in Beijing in only one way – you’ll have to be alone in a swimming pool, with both ears underwater.’

'...this is a delightfully witty and insightful guide to today's China.'

The Guardian

'A humourous and insightful study of life in China’

WANDERLUST

Kai Strittmatter would tell you that Chinese is one of the easiest languages in the world to speak. He lived in Beijing as a newspaper correspondent and his articles have been collected in several books.