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 Invisible China: A Journey Through Ethnic Borderlands
by Colin Legerton and Jacob Rawson
Chicago Review Press, 2009
In this eloquent and eye-opening adventure narrative, Colin Legerton and Jacob Rawson, two Americans fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Korean, and Uyghur, throw away the guidebook and bring a hitherto unexplored side of China to light. They journey over 14,000 miles by bus and train to the farthest reaches of the country to meet the minority peoples who dwell there, talking to farmers in their fields, monks in their monasteries, fishermen on their skiffs, and herders on the steppe.
In Invisible China, they engage in a heated discussion of human rights with Daur and Ewenki village cadres; celebrate Muhammad’s birthday with aging Dongxiang hajjis who recount the government’s razing of their mosque; attend mass with old Catholic Kinh fishermen at a church that has been forty years without a priest; hike around high-altitude Lugu Lake to farm with the matrilineal Mosuo women; and descend into a dry riverbed to hunt for jade with Muslim Uyghur merchants. As they uncover surprising facts about China’s hidden minorities and their complex position in Chinese society, they discover the social ramifications of inconsistent government policies--and some deep human truths as well.
Hailed by Publishers Weekly as “a spectacular achievement reminiscent of early 20th-century anthropological monographs by Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict,” Invisible China will be available to the Monroe County Public Library community November 1-30. If you have already established a NetLibrary account through Monroe County Public Library, visit www.netLibrary.com and log in. If you do not have a NetLibrary account, you can create an account from any Monroe County Public library computer. For more information about NetLibrary or other
services available through Monroe County Public Library, please contact your librarian.
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