DIGGING TO CHINA: Down and Out in...

DIGGING TO CHINA: Down and Out in the Middle Kingdom by J. D. Brown (Soho Press: $10.; 246 pp.). Between 1984 and 1991, Brown traveled in China and spent several months teaching English in Xi’an. An astute observer, he visits the monuments of the ancient city (many of them defaced by Red Guards), noting the gap between the richness of traditional Chinese culture and the poverty of daily life. He sees people leading a bleak existence, coping with minimal plumbing, shortages of fresh food and a vast, inefficient bureaucracy. Finding a metaphor in the dangerous practice of driving at night without headlights, Brown concludes, “The sheer bulk of time in isolation has made China a world unto itself--a world forever in the dark, forever tearing itself to pieces, which is also the secret of its continuity.”