smitka

From education to surviving politics, reflecting firsthand experience

Revisado: 01-05-25

It’s great to have the author as narrator, he’s good and I didn’t have to suffer through mispronunciations of Chinese.

I used similar books while teaching courses before this Hessler book came out or I would have used it intensely. He conveys a good sense of how most things work well despite the authoritarian political system, including how the bureaucratic system creates interstices. His 25+ years experience adds to the richness.

Of particular interest was his account of his daughters’ elementary school, because my son and daughter both attended a local elementary school in Tokyo. The early schooling environment in the US, Japan and China clearly have a large and lasting impact on their societies. There appears to be a lot in common across China, but in Japan there’s disparity by high school (see Tom Rohlen’s study of 3 high schools), and even more in the US, with elite AP students alongside the functionally illiterate and innumerate.

What I don’t know is the impact of declining population on schools. Here Japan is in the vanguard, with widespread closures, particularly in rural communities where some neighborhoods have no one under age 70. Time for interlibrary loan requests? - I no longer have to go to Tokyo to access Japanese language materials.

Oh, and in learning to read Chinese, Hessler’s book indicates that I surely need to track down a couple anthologies of Tang poems as it’s part of the basic vocabulary even at the elementary school level. For Japan that’s not needed, “hyakunin isshu” (100 poems from 100 writers) aren’t quoted much, and in contemporary English novels authors seem compelled to have their characters point out when they’re quoting Shakespeare.

In sum, this is well worth reading for everyone with an interest in contemporary China. But it should be read more widely, for its insights in sociology and education.

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Good through the middle then overly complicated

Revisado: 07-03-24

At the start the thief character was interesting, and the accompanying details on planning and execution. The monster theme of creatures long around coming to light isn’t novel but the initial spin was OK. The author couldn’t leave well enough alone, and started adding twist after twist with problems that had solutions out of the blue. At each twist more powers were added, the well-used trope of a person with somewhat unusual characters discovering they were magical ran amok. To me the plot lost all coherence and it reached the point that the characters were no longer credible. Why do fey have to be Irish, and suddenly appear and prove central only at the very end of a story firmly set in New York City?

It wasn’t so bad that I gave up, but I stopped paying careful attention for the last third.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Good production, overused plot

Revisado: 12-21-23

Quite a cast, impressive as a production but the plot is well-trod, and IMHO better trod by others. To say more will spoil it for those who listen.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Thoughtful history, co-written which adds value

Revisado: 12-21-23

I studied East Asia in college, but my focus was Japan and China. Still, I have some knowledge of Korean history, have periodically visited starting in 1975, and a close Korean friend was involved in the Six Party talks from the start.

This is an excellent history, squeezing a lot into a small package, with telling anecdotes from the authors’ personal experience. I didn’t find any particular biases, except that they avoid the issue of what happens to the North’s weapons in the event of reunification. That is something national security types in Japan, China and Russia worry about, and since I know some of the principals I know it comes up in the circles in which they move.

I don’t follow popular culture, and was fascinated by their discussion. I now have a deeper knowledge of how the North’s politics developed. Their treatment of economic issues is fine and approachable by non-specialists (I’m an economist). I learned even there, on the ebb and flow of informal markets in the North.

In summary, kudos!

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Silly

Revisado: 07-16-23

I couldn’t get past the first couple chapters, I found it more silly than funny. And even a very bright 10 yr old doesn’t act like that.

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Lighthearted, sometimes witty sometimes humorous

Revisado: 05-18-23

Three central, interwoven story lines with characters sufficiently developed to care about. Silly plot twists, normally something I dislike intensely but here, well, mostly charming even if by the very end almost predictable so that most of the ending is unsurprising. Glad I took a chance in something different from the normal mystery / sci-fi books to which I listen.

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Characters you care about and subtle depth

Revisado: 11-27-22

This may be marketed as a YA story, but it is far more than that. The heroine listens to podcasts while tooling about, philosophy and history. The grammar may be that of the Edinburgh slums, but it’s magic in content. Poverty isn’t whitewashed but adds another layer to the story, it’s always there but not the story. Or not the only story. We get the African diaspora, specifically Zimbabwe. There’s girl/boy stuff and getting a first job as an outsider. The plot is, well, it’s not to worry about, less contorted than the detective novels I’ve listened to of late.

One warning: if you’re not comfortable with Scots, this will be a hard listen - I won’t recommend this to my wife, who has a hard time with Appalachian accents. I for one thought the reading added value, even if some of the slang is outside my kenning.

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Stand-alone start of a series

Revisado: 05-28-22

The two central characters are almost believable, enough so that I will look for another by the author. The plot weaves together worlds, not quite polished either. I expect the continuation to improve both people and place, and the relationship of the two so a “4” is part prediction.

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Threesome is interesting twist

Revisado: 04-28-22

Three main characters and a separate voice for each makes this come alive. There is also a sexual threesome, a bit tedious in places. The characters have their twists, ok but for me interesting in places but not captivating. The fantasy side focuses on a ghost, with angles novel to me. Overall though the plot makes little sense, lots of resort to deus ex machina solutions, and that annoyed me. Without stronger characters it made me downgrade my overall rating, but I did listen to the end.

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Couldn’t finish

Revisado: 04-27-22

Teenage characters without personalities that made sense to me. Plot uninteresting as well, built around a conspiracy that I didn’t find credible, modifying people and somehow a secret group could get decades ahead of everyone else when these sorts of things, if even remotely possible, arrive from decades of incremental progress across many large team’s. No plot spoilers I didn’t get far, the teen romance angle had nothing to make it interesting, at least to an adult.

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