49 Myths About China

According to Galtung and Stenslie, members of the Norwegian Defence Staff, the Western view of China has fluctuated, for centuries, between sinophilia and sinophobia. Their intentions here are to undermine such myopic perceptions, and for the most part they do. Divided into five sections that range from "The Party" to "The Future," the book covers familiar myths related to China's recent past and present, as well as unfamiliar ones like the idea that the Chinese are born moneymakers. The most interesting material comes within "The People" section, especially Myth 13, which concerns the one-child policy. Galtung and Stenslie clarify the Chinese phrase's exact translation ("birth planning") while pointing out that many families find ways around it and that a surplus of males is hardly unique to China. Another section addresses how the Chinese prioritize written or oral history over physical history such as monuments. The authors tend to deemphasize the racism behind some of the myths, but do pay a great deal of attention to the cultural differences between China and Western countries. While the book offers some intriguing facts, none of the myths are given extensive enough treatment to do more than whet the appetite of the curious. (Nov.)