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China High: My Fast Times in the 010, A Beijing Memoir
by ZZ
Reviewed by Kerry Brown
Never judge a book by its cover.'s China High: My Fast Times in the 010, A Beijing Memoir looks, from its cover, like another "fast cars, fast chicks" self-aggrandizing memoir about how much Beijing rocks these days. But while the eponymous ZZ's tale is partly about this, it is also well-written, full of well-placed irony, and contains, at its heart, a surprisingly moralistic tale of partial redemption through imprisonment.
ZZ is unusual, as he tells us, because he was born and brought up till early adolescence in Shanghai, then moved to California, where he went through the first of his reinventions, having to recreate himself as an all- American boy to gain acceptance in the new community he found himself in. Over a decade later, after graduation, and training as a lawyer, he decides to try his luck back in China, though this time in Beijing, offered a huge salary by a law firm. A sideline in a small delivery company he has set up distracts him from his high-powered day job, and he finds himself laid off, and on his own. His social life is concentrated on the Sanlitun bar district, which goes through as many renovations and makeovers as he does himself, bars and streets disappearing almost as soon as they crop up. But it is here that he finds a group of friends, and a lifestyle, which appeals, with its transience, fast pace, and amorality.
This all partly leads to his downfall. Smoking some hash, mixed with morphine, while openly walking along Sanlitun from his favourite cafe one day, he is apprehended by the police, who drag him in, and, when they finally find out that he is not an American passport holder but still Chinese, throw the book at him, sending him down to a prison for the dreaded rehab. ZZ learns that the lack of legal process in China is every bit as bad as he had been led to believe, with hardly any proper procedures, and the arbitrary exercise of power by a series of increasingly unpleasant and tyrannical officials. The worst comes in a cell he has to share with almost 30 other convicts, which he joins at the bottom of the pecking order. Only the realisation that he has some serious guanxi (connections) means that things ease up for him, with the prison governor in effect telling him that, for a 50,000 yuan bribe, freedom is his. Even when the money is secured, there are a number of false starts, stretching out his time inside to almost a full fortnight.
ZZ writes with a light touch, and is at time, very funny. Being ethnically Chinese and originally from China, as he relates on a number of occasions, helps little in the end in working out what the hell is going on. His "foreign interlude" always marks him slightly off from others. He is caught between being foreign and Chinese.
ZZ wishes to convey a lot with his story, and that makes his telling of it slightly overlong, coming in at just over 350 pages. Some of his musings on recent Chinese history and Chinese culture, for instance, disrupt the flow of his narrative, and at times read a bit throwaway and over casual. With those stripped away, however, his story is one well told, compressed into very short chapters almost like diary entries, although the slightly saccharine ending where he finds true love after years of living fast and lose stands as an anti-climax. While he rides off into the sunset with the rather terrifying sounding Ginger, his final love, one can't help regretting the passing of his wilder, much wittier and funnier past.
--
Kerry Brown is Associate Fellow, Chatham House, and author of Struggling Giant: China in the 21st Century (Anthem Press).
by ZZ
Reviewed by Kerry Brown
Never judge a book by its cover.
ZZ is unusual, as he tells us, because he was born and brought up till early adolescence in Shanghai, then moved to California, where he went through the first of his reinventions, having to recreate himself as an all- American boy to gain acceptance in the new community he found himself in. Over a decade later, after graduation, and training as a lawyer, he decides to try his luck back in China, though this time in Beijing, offered a huge salary by a law firm. A sideline in a small delivery company he has set up distracts him from his high-powered day job, and he finds himself laid off, and on his own. His social life is concentrated on the Sanlitun bar district, which goes through as many renovations and makeovers as he does himself, bars and streets disappearing almost as soon as they crop up. But it is here that he finds a group of friends, and a lifestyle, which appeals, with its transience, fast pace, and amorality.
This all partly leads to his downfall. Smoking some hash, mixed with morphine, while openly walking along Sanlitun from his favourite cafe one day, he is apprehended by the police, who drag him in, and, when they finally find out that he is not an American passport holder but still Chinese, throw the book at him, sending him down to a prison for the dreaded rehab. ZZ learns that the lack of legal process in China is every bit as bad as he had been led to believe, with hardly any proper procedures, and the arbitrary exercise of power by a series of increasingly unpleasant and tyrannical officials. The worst comes in a cell he has to share with almost 30 other convicts, which he joins at the bottom of the pecking order. Only the realisation that he has some serious guanxi (connections) means that things ease up for him, with the prison governor in effect telling him that, for a 50,000 yuan bribe, freedom is his. Even when the money is secured, there are a number of false starts, stretching out his time inside to almost a full fortnight.
ZZ writes with a light touch, and is at time, very funny. Being ethnically Chinese and originally from China, as he relates on a number of occasions, helps little in the end in working out what the hell is going on. His "foreign interlude" always marks him slightly off from others. He is caught between being foreign and Chinese.
ZZ wishes to convey a lot with his story, and that makes his telling of it slightly overlong, coming in at just over 350 pages. Some of his musings on recent Chinese history and Chinese culture, for instance, disrupt the flow of his narrative, and at times read a bit throwaway and over casual. With those stripped away, however, his story is one well told, compressed into very short chapters almost like diary entries, although the slightly saccharine ending where he finds true love after years of living fast and lose stands as an anti-climax. While he rides off into the sunset with the rather terrifying sounding Ginger, his final love, one can't help regretting the passing of his wilder, much wittier and funnier past.
--
Kerry Brown is Associate Fellow, Chatham House, and author of Struggling Giant: China in the 21st Century (Anthem Press).
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