- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Pen Press; First edition (17 Jan 2011)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1780030495
- ISBN-13: 978-1780030494
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 13 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 743,764 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Limp Pigs and the five-ring circus
and over 900,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| |||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Trade in Limp Pigs and the Five Ring Circus for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"A unique insight into how China's propaganda machine works." --BBC Chinese Service
"An inspiring work...Beijing's control over reporting of the (Chinese) Jasmine Revolution serves as a footnote to this book."
--Shirong Chen, BBC China Editor
"An inspiring work...Beijing's control over reporting of the (Chinese) Jasmine Revolution serves as a footnote to this book." --Shirong Chen, BBC China Editor
"A brutally honest and enjoyable book, written with a great sense of humor, albeit a sad commentary on the totalitarian communist regime as it still is today." --ChinaUncensored.com
"An inspiring work...Beijing's control over reporting of the (Chinese) Jasmine Revolution serves as a footnote to this book."
--Shirong Chen, BBC China Editor
"An inspiring work...Beijing's control over reporting of the (Chinese) Jasmine Revolution serves as a footnote to this book." --Shirong Chen, BBC China Editor
"A brutally honest and enjoyable book, written with a great sense of humor, albeit a sad commentary on the totalitarian communist regime as it still is today." --ChinaUncensored.com
Product Description
If the Beijing Olympics convinced you China is changing...think on this If it was, would China's media police have tried to airbrush from existence every less-than complimentary reference to the Olympic facilities? If it was, would the government have introduced transparency legislation then ban the press from writing about it? If it was, would China have asked the author to help turn its propaganda machine into respected news agency then ignore all transformation advice? Seven years of broken promises and mental torture at the hands of the masters of the machine left Mark Newham seeking psychiatric help. Eventually he fled, convinced the system is in need of similar treatment. To those taken in by the great Changing China deception, he says this. Don't believe everything you read about China. Change in the People's Republic is the equivalent of turning your underpants inside out. It might look like they've been changed but they're still the same pair of underpants.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A GEM OF A BOOK THAT STRIPS CHINA NAKED,
This review is from: Limp Pigs and the Five Ring Circus (Paperback)
What a find! An absolute gem of a book which deserves to be showered with awards.This is a far more important piece of work than the jokey title suggests. Being an insider account of the way the Chinese system operates makes `Limp Pigs' unique. Other books on the subject never get further than the front door relying heavily on informed sources and desktop study. By contrast, `Limp Pigs' makes it to the very guts of the beast reporting from a firsthand perspective on how China manipulates the news to strip out anything the masters of the machine might find unpalatable. `Limp Pigs' is to China what Evelyn Waugh's `Scoop' is to Africa and what Anthony Jay's `Yes, Minister' is to Britain with one exception. `Scoop' and `Yes, Minister' are fictional, comic accounts of the issues they cover. `Limp Pigs' is based on solid, well-researched fact and if ever there was a book that proves definitively that fact is stranger - and often funnier - than fiction, this is it. Until now, Western writers on China have largely fought shy of tweaking the dragon's tail for fear of feeling its breath on their necks and having their visas revoked. `Limp Pigs' could never be accused of such reverential timidity. On the strength of a lengthy and perilous infiltration of the dragon's den, the author lets the beast have it with both barrels for pretending to be a reformed character, for presenting itself to the world metamorphosed from fire-breathing, tyrannical raptor to loveable, bamboo shoot-nibbling panda which has nothing more on its mind than getting on with the neighbours. To the casual visitor, China appears exactly that these days. To those who've spent rather longer in the place than the average tourist, China in actuality remains a place of smoke and mirrors where nothing is as it appears and the system machine trundles relentlessly, indifferently on leaving its citizens in no doubt that the individual will never be more than the subordinate of the state. `Limp Pigs' captures the mood precisely and provides the world with a long-awaited, often hilarious, antidote to all those worthy tomes sombrely pronouncing the replacement of the old Chinese order with something the world can do business with. Now, at last here's a book that isn't afraid to tell it the way it really is in a way that keeps the reader turning the pages, alternately wincing and laughing out loud at the sheer absurdity of an anachronistic system that remains determinedly, immovably in place. As one who's travelled a similar road in the People's Republic I have no hesitation in recommending `Limp Pigs' as the perfect primer for anyone seeking an insight into the true, unadulterated China the authorities would prefer the world not to see. Nor the average Chinese citizen it would seem. `Limp Pigs' features on every Amazon country site except one - Amazon.cn, the one specifically designed to cater for the Chinese market. Hmmm.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good Honest Read,
This review is from: Limp Pigs and the five-ring circus (Kindle Edition)
I'm not one for long reviews, but I simply had to praise Limp Pigs and the five ring circus!I've spent time in china myself and seen a lot of the things mentioned in this book first hand! I think it's about time somebody wrote something so brutally honest and enjoyable! Limp Pigs and the five-ring circus gets my 5 Stars / 10 out of 10 / A* A MUST HAVE for anybody who has experienced 'hidden china' or anybody who wants to know the truth, this is quite literally a laugh out loud account! I look forward to a next installment!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Limp by name but FAR FROM LIMP by nature,
This review is from: Limp Pigs and the Five Ring Circus (Paperback)
If ever there was a `have to laugh or you'll cry' piece of writing, this is it.The author clearly went to psychological hell and back in search of his story and has produced a work of such approachable, outspoken honesty that it deserves to be included on the required reading list of anyone struggling to understand China and the Chinese - and on that of all aspiring journalists and seekers after truth. Highly readable, pacey and hugely entertaining throughout, `Limp Pigs and the Five-Ring Circus' succeeds where so many other books fail. Emulating anything produced by Bill Bryson or PJ O'Rourke, it both informs and educates while never forgetting to maintain a level of levity so vital in ensuring the point gets made. Consumed in less than a day, I have no hesitation in recommending this book to anyone trying to understand the complexities of modern day China - and anyone seeking a thoroughly good, mirth-making read that illuminates without the reader really being aware of it. Five solid gold stars.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
|
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192198663_.gif){kind=small}
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
