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Viewpoints China Road – before the book…the radio show
Viewpoints China Road – before the book…the radio show | China Road – before the book…the radio show |
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| Viewpoints | |
| Sunday, 19 August 2007 | |
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Switch on any news channel and it won’t be long before a headline about China crops up: Olympic host, talked-up superpower, industrial juggernaut, waking giant – that sort of thing. Yet what do Britons really know about China? China Road, a new book from British journalist Rob Gifford, aims to fill in the blanks. But back in 2004, Gifford made a short and punchy radio series for American network NPR. And it’s well worth catching - even now. From 1999 to 2005, Gifford was Beijing correspondent for America’s National Public Radio. Before leaving, he took a road-trip westwards along Route 312. The 3,000 mile journey took him from Shanghai to the borders of Kazakhstan by way of the Gobi Desert. In a seven part mini-series for NPR’s Morning Edition, Gifford reported on the changing face of China, and its place in the world, as revealed in the people and places he encountered. In 2005, he made the journey again in preparation for China Road, a refreshingly readable travelogue across the country he clearly loves. So, with comedian Paul Merton’s TV trip across China telling us virtually nothing, here’s a real chance for British audiences to get behind the headlines and hear an intelligent, insightful account about life in China. Listening to the series will save you reading the book or – more likely – will make you want to read it. Either way, it’s time well spent in the company of a Mandarin-speaking Briton whose appreciation of China, and its people, is a delight to hear. Listen to Rob Gifford’s seven part radio series at http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2004/aug/china_road/ Rob Gifford will be speaking about his book China Road at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on 21 August http://www.dimsum.co.uk/culture/edinburgh-sets-her-sights-on-china.html. He has his own website: www.robgifford.com |
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