Just a few odds and ends to report from Moscow:
* The New York Review of Books has called Out of Mao’s Shadow “one of the most revealing books about China since it opened up to the outside world in the 1970s.” Richard Bernstein’s kind piece in the March 26 edition here discussed my profile of Chen Lihua, the real estate tycoon who used her ties to party officials to demolish and redevelop neighborhoods in Beijing — and make herself the richest woman in the country.
*The Council on Foreign Relations has put Out of Mao’s Shadow on the short list for the prestigious Arthur Ross Book Award along with five other works of nonfiction. The prize honors the best book published in the last two years on international affairs and will be awarded in late May.
*The paperback edition of Out of Mao’s Shadow is set to be published this summer. It is available for pre-ordering on Amazon and elsewhere, as are discount copies of the hardcover edition. Check out the new cover!
*Both the Washington Post and the Economist magazine listed Out of Mao’s Shadow as one of their Best Books of 2008. Listen to the Economist’s books editor Fiammetta Rocco discuss it at the top of the magazine’s books-of-the-year podcast.
*Links to my interviews on Bill Moyers Journal and China Digital Times.
*An invitation to share your thoughts on Out of Mao’s Shadow on Facebook, and a note of gratitude to Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, whose very kind review of the book there means a lot to me because I’m such an admirer of his reporting on China and now Russia for the BBC.
A simply brilliant book – I couldn’t put it down! I hope China’s leaders read it.
This is one of the most insightful books of China I have come across in a very long time. I was reading up on China for an investment and this book as practical application for business people as a way to gauge some of the risks that are present in China–I read the book cover to cover in about 2 days and it raised as many questions as it answered….I hope Mr. Pan continues his work as it was incredibly insightful and courageous.
I am a Harvard PhD student. From what you wrote on your blog, it seems to me that you did not really understand China. You just simply carry the viewpoint commonly held by Westerners, and did not get to know the Chinese society and the Chinese people.
Your book may be best sellers in the US, but it is not good book to introduce China to US people.
For American people, if you want to understand China, please go and visit China by yourself. If you can learn some Chinese, that would be great, so that you can listen to what Chinese people say. Reading the books from “so-called” Chinese experts would not help much. Do you want to get an unbiased view about China? Go and visit China.
I’m 12 years old and I understood 100% of this book. The best book I’ve ever read.