I have just read Keyu Jin's "The new China Playbook" - and I am impressed.
To my surprise, nothing in this book surprised me.
Although I absorb every bit of information, I can get my hands on to build a more realistic and complete picture of China's past and present - a gift I suspect few in the West possess to any satisfactory degree - this book did more to achieve that goal than a whole host of others before it.
As an expert and scholar, Keyu was nothing new to me. I have listened to some of her posts on YouTube and read some of the articles she has written. It was always a pleasure to follow her unagitated words, which rather casually convey insights that other authors have to go to more trouble for.
This has a lot to do with her easy-to-understand, straightforward language and her precise way of expressing herself, which would suit many other experts in her field. Few authors succeed in treating this controversial and often misunderstood subject with such unexcited words.
As an ethnic Chinese who grew up in China at a time of dramatic change but received most of her schooling and academic training in the West, in the US and UK, she has one foot in each of the two worlds that are becoming increasingly estranged.
Keyu is an economist by profession and "it's the economy, stupid" - so perhaps she had the right academic tools at hand to add some coherent details to my still rough picture of the situation in China.
The book is neatly composed of 10 chapters, which could stand alone but make even more sense in the order presented.
For example, after reading the 3rd chapter on the one-child policy generation, I had gained a much more convincing insight into the economic and social implications than I ever had from any previous reading on the subject.
Rather unusually for a work written from an economic perspective, Chapter 4 even reads like an action thriller in places.
Keyu Jin discusses here in a very balanced way issues that elsewhere lead to quite controversial, heated and seemingly irresolvable antagonisms. She does not avoid controversial issues but addresses them courageously and, to my opinion, with appropriate and well-placed words.
She does so in an unagitated, not particularly academically flavoured and thus easily understandable language. This makes reading the book - at least for me - a pleasure. Nevertheless, I resisted the temptation to read it in one go.
On the contrary, I took my time reading this book, had to take my time. Because after each of the ten chapters, I first had to reflect on what I had read and integrate it into my existing knowledge.
Their arguments seem so convincing that I wonder how they might resonate in mainland China, leading to either rejection or acceptance.
In the current tense geopolitical situation, a lot is written about China, but little of it contributes to deepening knowledge. Most of the articles range from poorly researched misinformation to outright war propaganda.
In this heated situation, Keyu Jin's book reads pleasantly objectively. A rare voice of reason speaks here. In the end, its very existence might be sufficient reason for me to be surprised.
