FAQs

Journalist and author Steven Crook recently caught up with Troy Parfitt to talk about his latest book, Why China Will Never Rule the World. Here’s their interview.

Q. Why won’t China rule the world?

A. It all boils down to culture. Culturally, I don’t believe China has anything to offer the world and that’s because the vast majority of national cultures are not Confucian. The Confucian paradigm, or Confucian hierarchy, can be said to represent the core structure of most social relationships in Chinese society, like in a company for instance. You have this rigid hierarchy which makes for a lack of cooperation and focus. The people at the top exert total control and believe that benevolence will be taken as a sign of weakness, and that underlings will take advantage of this, so the hierarchy must always be maintained. In the lower echelons, you have the employees, who are unwilling to make suggestions or report inefficiency. That would only make those at the top appear incompetent and would mark the employee as a troublemaker. The upshot is organizations working at cross purposes and a lack of quality. Of course, this exists in the West, too, but in the Chinese world it’s almost formulaic. There are dozens of reasons why China will never rule or even exert a tangible influence on the world, but the fact that Chinese society is built around the Confucian paradigm is probably the most obvious one. Confucianism is patently incompatible with the Western way of doing things, and, for better or worse, the world is still Western led.

Q. What about China’s economy?

A. China’s economic gains are certainly impressive. I don’t think there’s any arguing with those numbers, but I think it’s important to bear in mind that 60 percent of production for export in China is foreign controlled. That number is 85 percent when you’re talking high-tech production, and the average Chinese person still only makes a fraction of what someone would in the United States. Of course, you could easily argue that all the other statistics concerning China’s economy outweigh such details, but China’s rise, or its pending global domination, is always contextualized as something that transcends economics. When so-called China experts make the claim that we’ll all be marching to the Chinese beat, they’re talking about culture, mindset, education, and so on. The message is that China has something to teach the world, but I would argue that China has virtually nothing to teach anybody.

Q. Why did you decide to craft this book as a travel narrative?

A. If you look at books about China that claim it’s going to rule the world, or shake the world, or what have you, they’re largely theoretical – with chapters constructed around certain topics and lots of figures, pie charts, and graphs thrown in. You may come away with information, but I don’t think it will bring you any closer to understanding China’s essence or even its direction. To do that, you need to view China from the ground. What does China look, feel, and smell like? What do the Chinese themselves say? How do they react to nosy Westerners? What’s the texture of their social fabric? The idea was to supplement on-the-ground experience and observation with key information about Chinese history, culture, and the national psyche in order to depict what China is and how it got that way. The reader is then left to make a reasonably-informed prediction as to what it is likely to become.

 Q. What gave you the idea to write the book?

A. I originally got the idea by reading Paul Theroux’s Riding the Iron Rooster: By Train through China, written in the mid-1980s. I thought, ‘I should do something like that,’ only updated, thesis driven, and sprinkled with facts, anecdotes, and interesting historical asides that I’d collected over 10 years of living in Taipei. I was also inspired, if that’s the right word, by a book whose title I won’t mention, but where the author travels though the heart of the dragon, or something like that, in order to show us this modern-China-on-the-go. In addition to not being particularly engaging, I didn’t find it particularly honest. It was extremely upbeat and there was hardly any mention of anything being shabby or out of order, which, to my way of thinking, is sort of like venturing through the Sahara and failing to note that it’s hot. I thought, ‘I’ll do something vaguely like the Theroux book and nothing at all like this other one.’

Q. Why do think you wrote this book before someone else did?

A. For one, I think there are only a handful of people who could have written a book like this. The only way to acquire an in-depth knowledge of the Chinese world is to live in and study it for a protracted period of time. But most people who do that come to accept or even admire it. Either that or they’re unwilling to express criticism because it wouldn’t be in their best interest to do so. It might tarnish their social standing, or what have you. But luckily, I didn’t have any social standing, so I felt free to investigate and arrive at any academic conclusion I might happen to reach. I think it also has to do with cultural relativism and political correctness, neither of which I subscribe to. It’s become unpopular to criticize foreign cultures – a throwback to the colonial era, or some such thing – but Western philosophy teaches us we are free to examine any subject.

Q. You mention Western philosophy in your book.

A. I do. I talk about Socratic questioning or the Socratic method and how it spawned the Scientific method. I then juxtapose this with the teachings of Confucius in order to illustrate how, at their roots, Western and Chinese philosophy are antipodean, or incompatible. The debate about whether China is or isn’t going to rule the world is a fascinating one because on the one side you’ve got a handful of people prophesying China’s global domination, a much larger group  acknowledging it as a major future global influence, and virtually no one questioning the merits of these propositions. One prominent writer has argued that China is going to lead the way because the Han Chinese are racially unique. But isn’t every race of people unique? And has it been proven that success is based on race? What would happen if an intellectual were to declare that a Western country was going to rule the world because it was racially unique? Socrates teaches us that all exhortations, propositions, opinions, dogmas, and so on must be held up to a very bright light. Saying that China is going to come out on top because its citizens are racially unique, or because China is a civilization-state and not a mere nation-state, like the other 194 countries in the world, is emblematic of the kind of mythomania that clouds the China debate.

Q. You talk about myths & mythologizing a lot in your book. Why is that?

A. I think the topic of China is riddled with myths, so I attempt to dispel them while enlightening the reader as to the truth behind those myths, which is always more interesting than the myth itself. I explain how there isn’t really a Great Wall, what really happened at Tiananmen Square in 1989, how China and Taiwan were not split in civil war, that China has never been a peace-loving or harmonious nation, and so on. The Chinese, and in particular the Chinese government, invent and perpetuate such myths, but so do some Western observers. Again, this only impedes a proper analysis. China is not mysterious or inscrutable at all. Because of its traditional culture, it’s entirely knowable and often predictable. China as future hegemon is the latest myth, and a very dangerous one, too, because not only is it misleading; it’s very distracting. There are lots of tough questions that need to be asked about China and its role in the world of tomorrow, but scrutiny can get crowded out by a sound byte.

Q. Was there anything that you liked about China?

A. Oh, sure, and when I liked something, I made sure to say so. And I did live in Taipei, Taiwan for 10 plus years, so it wasn’t as though I thought Chinese society was unbearable or something. But ‘like’ is not the same as ‘can objectively determine how the world might benefit from doing things the Chinese way.’ China is a fascinating subject. Its modern history is absolutely riveting. But rather than simply cheer on China’s rise or mindlessly echo that it’s going to have a big influence over our lives any day now, I think we would do well to stop exoticizing it and to take a closer look at it.

Q. What China writers do you like?

A. I mainly like historians such as Jonathan Fenby and Jonathan Spence, but I like Peter Hessler a lot, too. He writes intelligent, honest, and informed stuff, and it’s good for people because they don’t have to wade through 800-page Mao biographies in order to get a better understanding of what’s gone on in China and why it is the way it is.

Q. Are you going to continue to write about China?

A. I’m not sure, but I hope to continue to write about travel, using it as a springboard to discuss culture, history, and so on. There’s nothing better than reading a compelling, clever, and well-penned travel narrative. I’ve recently finished writing a travel narrative about Canada and plan on having it published in a year or two. I’d also like to write a novel set in my hometown of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. I don’t think anyone’s ever done that before.

To see Steven Crook’s excellent blog, click on this link: http://crooksteven.blogspot.com/

The website Reviews4Reviews recently interviewed Troy Parfitt as well. Below is the somewhat abridged version.

R4R: How long have you been writing?

I’ve only been writing since 2004. I’d always read, and had always thought about writing a book of some sort, but it wasn’t until 2004 that I started setting ideas down on paper. I started by writing about trips I’d taken to countries in East Asia. I then penned some stories about unusual events that occurred to me when living in Taipei, Taiwan. I sent them around to my co-workers, all English teachers, who said they enjoyed them and that I ought to try and write a book. So, I started working on one. It took about six months to get my writing up to what it had been as a university student – as a history major, I had to turn in plenty of papers – and it took another two years to write the book, which I called Notes from the Other China. Miraculously, it got published. I say miraculously because, looking back, it seems a pretty weak effort.

R4R: Why do you write?

As I say, I’d always thought about it. I’ve had lots of hobbies, but reading is the only one I’ve never abandoned, and it just occurred to me one day that writing fit the bill, that it was what I ought to be doing, or at least what I ought to be doing in my free time. I’m not the best speaker. Except when teaching, I tend to mumble and search for words, but not when I write. When I write, it just flows. Writing is also a great way to organize my thoughts, and it’s cathartic, therapeutic.

R4R: What books you have written and can you give a synpopsis of each?

 Notes from the Other China deals with my decision to move to East Asia and my travels and experiences there. I report from South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, and Vietnam. Notes was meant to be humourous, but it’s a bit fragmented. It’s a memoir here, a travel narrative there…. It lacks focus. Some people thought it was funny whereas others found it offensive. I suppose I was just trying to depict how unusual life can be when you move far away from home. I attempted to avoid traps young male writers tend to fall into when writing about the Orient, such as descriptions of red-light districts, but there’s a dearth of maturity nonetheless and it’s derivative, disjointed, and too cute. It’s a good thing Notes from the Other China didn’t succeed because I mightn’t have evolved so quickly as a writer. I realized many things from that effort, including that if you want anyone to take you seriously, you have to be serious. I also stopped hiding my intellectual side behind sophomoric jokes, and I worked hard on improving my craft. I’m still not where I’d like to be, stylistically, but feel I could be there eventually if I keep working at it. Why China Will Never Rule the World challenges what has become an assumption that China is going to dominate in the twenty-first century and beyond. Living in Taiwan gave me a front-row seat to China and a unique perspective. The Republic of China (Taiwan) and the People’s Republic of China are arch enemies. China is featured in the news every day in Taiwan and its influence is often felt. Taiwan’s is a superior society to China’s. It’s much more progressive and much richer – at least in terms of GDP per capita, where it matters – and it has the freest press in Asia. Taiwan is democratic and infinitely more stable and normal than China is. China wants Taiwan to return to the fold, slight of hand because the island-nation was never really part of China to begin with. Chinese culture in Taiwan thrives, yet 89 percent of citizens say they want nothing to do with China, that China has nothing to offer them. If China has nothing to offer a country that’s only 160 kilometres away and shares a language and culture, what does it have to offer non-Chinese, non-Asian, and non-Confucian nation-states? Advocates of China’s great rise are fond of saying it isn’t just about economics, that just as China exports goods, it will soon be exporting its culture, mindset, education, business practices, value system, and so on. But I knew that was impossible. The West has been interacting with China for five centuries, yet there’s virtually nothing it has borrowed in that time and there’s a reason for that. I also knew that most Westerners know very little about China, and what they think they know is often wrong, so I set out on a kind of investigative journey to depict what China is and to put its recent economic rise into context. I crafted the book as a travel narrative as I figured that was the best way to get beyond the theoretical, to examine China from the ground up. I could then jump off into cultural commentary and historical asides as I saw fit. I wanted to strip away the myths and correct the misconceptions. The book is a thesis-driven travel narrative, the thesis being that China’s quote-unquote ruling the world, or even its integrating in a sincere and responsible manner with the world, is highly unlikely, that being the big man on campus involves much more than liquidity or cash flow.

R4R: What do you find to be the most challenging part of writing?

Probably loneliness. You need hours of seclusion to write, yet you also need someone to tell if you if you’re on the right track. Some days, you’re sure you’re onto something, whereas others you think you’re way out in left field. Spending so much time alone can make you antisocial, aloof, and a bit weird. As a writer, you need to be on the outside looking in, but you’ve also got to incorporate normal activities into your life. Perhaps it’s all the isolation that drives many writers to drink or makes them misanthropic. It’s important to network with other writers, readers, and people in general. You need to get away from the computer.

R4R: What do you find to be the most rewarding part of writing?

Writing something that meets my standards and seeing that I’m improving. I’m not terribly proud of my first book, but my second one exceeded the bar I set for myself. That’s another thing I learned from my first attempt: don’t write to satisfy someone else, just write for yourself. Write the book that you think is missing from the bookstore shelf while choosing a subject that isn’t so niche that no one will notice.  

R4R: Do you edit as you write?

Sure. You have to constantly revise and you need to be ruthless in cutting excess. When your editor says, ‘This part is rubbish. Trash it,’ don’t argue. Just do it. Editing and revision are tough and suck a lot of fun out of writing. It’s hard to get things just the way you want them. Style guides help. William Strunk’s The Elements of Style is indispensible.

R4R: How do you develop your characters?

As a travel writer, my characters are all real. I usually bring them to life, so to speak, by noting some characteristic they exhibit. I then change their names to hide their identity. Characters are a cinch in travel literature. As Paul Theroux once wrote: they appear before your very eyes.

R4R: Do you ever get writer’s block?

No, and that’s another great thing about the travel literature genre. When you travel, there’s almost always something happening, something to write about. And when there isn’t, you can pen some background information on the place you’re visiting or dust off an interesting bit of history. Usually, it’s a matter of sifting through the bits, of picking out the pieces that are most arresting. And if nothing happens, you just keep moving, snooping, talking to people, and researching until it does.

R4R: Which book was the most difficult to write? Why?

Why China Will Never Rule the World was the most difficult. It’s the result of years of research and effort. I couldn’t have written it from my apartment in Taipei. I had to go to China and travel around. I had to take Mandarin classes, I had to read piles of books, and I had to think a great deal about the book’s structure, or what cultural and historical themes to insert and where in order to make for consistency and linearity – all while holding down a full-time job. Besides the writing process, my life was pretty much chaos at the time. Both my parents died, I had some other traumatic experiences, I moved back to Canada – a huge readjustment after nearly 13 years in Asia – and so on. My first book wasn’t easy either. I spent nearly one month travelling through Vietnam, for example, which wasn’t always fun. In fact, it was extremely dangerous. Slick TV shows can make travelling appear relaxing and breezy, but real travel is hard work. Spend ten hours on a rickety Vietnamese bus barreling through mountain passes with invisible guardrails, avoid thirty maniacal touts, pop another Imodium tablet, hope that rash on your leg goes away, and check into the local roach hotel at 11:00 p.m. to find your air conditioner does a sterling imitation of a British Spitfire and see how eager you are to take notes describing things you saw that day, or study up on a site you’re going to visit tomorrow. Bill Bryson seems to have given up on travel writing. At the advanced age of 39, I think I can see why.

R4R: What do you do for fun?

Fun? What’s that? I’m a bit of a workaholic these days, but I try to get out and do regular things. I go for walks, go to the gym, kick the soccer ball around. I like to watch hockey and soccer or the occasional movie. I still enjoy music and the odd social event. But mainly, I work, read, and watch the news. Ten years ago, I was up for anything. Nowadays, I’m quite boring.

R4R: Who are your favorite authors? Why?

Writers I like make up a long list, but the two I like best are Paul Theroux and Mordecai Richler. Theroux’s the godfather of travel writing, certainly. I’m not familiar with his novels – I haven’t even read Mosquito Coast – but I’ve read about eight of his travelogues. People say he’s abrasive, but they’re missing the point. He’s only abrasive when warranted. He’s intellectually gifted and a fine narrator. He’s also a polymath and doesn’t seem to be put off by anything. It takes a lot of stamina and guts to do what he does, and he seems tireless. He wrote a fantastic travel account called Ghost Train to the Eastern Star in his mid-sixties. The Great Railway Bazaar, The Happy Isles of Oceania, Kingdom by the Sea, and The Pillars of Hercules are all classics, and even the ones that aren’t classics are really good. Richler is Canadian, so perhaps I’m a bit biased, but he’s another excellent writer. You always hear about Margaret Atwood and Robertson Davies when you hear about Canadian literature, and they’re great, I concur, but Richler had much more to say. Barney’s Version is a gem, and The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and The Incomparable Atuk, though lacking the intellectual energy and scope of later efforts like Solomon Gursky Was Here, are still great reads – timeless. Mordecai Richler has to be the world’s most underappreciated writer, though it was good to see Barney’s Version made into a movie in 2011. Theroux and Richler actually have a lot in common. They’re both the sons of immigrants, both had strained relationships with their mothers, both had sons who became television personalities, they’re both curmudgeons, both social critics, both write across different genres, and they’re both autodidacts with a staggering array of knowledge to bring to the creative process. They’re also brutally honest and each has a wicked sense of humour, though Richler wins out in that regard. I should add that whereas Theroux is still writes, Richler died in 2001.

R4R: What’s the one thing you’ve learned about yourself since you’ve been writing?

That’s a tough question. Perhaps that I tend to thrive on adversity. When a few people became personally upset with me for some of the comments and observations I made in my first book, it spurred me on to write something better, and to strengthen such comments with sources and examples – to not back down from scorn from the peanut gallery. When you write in a genre that requires you to supply an honest opinion, you have to have a thick skin.

R4R: What advice would you give to someone who wants to be a writer?

I’m not sure if I’m in any real position to sagely dispense with advice, but I have learned a couple of things. First of all: practise, practise, practise, and get feedback from some type of expert, someone not afraid to tell you you’re not quite there yet. You also have to write something people will pay money for and you have to find a way to reach your audience. Moreover, as a writer, you’ve got to wear many hats.

R4R: Do you have any new books coming out soon?

I’ve written a manuscript about my return to Canada. After I came back to my estranged homeland, my dad died and I got depressed. My work situation wasn’t exactly contributing to a positive frame of mind, so I left and drove across the country with a stack of notebooks. Originally, I just thought I’d get away – travel around Atlantic Canada, where I’m from, and clear my head while getting in touch with my roots. But then I bought a Canada guidebook, a history of Canada, writing supplies, and a tent. I read the other Canada travel narratives out there and found them wanting. I realized nobody had ever travelled across the country in its entirety and written about it, so that’s what I did. It took four months and gave me the framework for a decent book, if I ever have time to complete it. The working title is A Sort of Homecoming – In Search of Canada. It could be my last book. I figure if I don’t get any serious recognition by the third attempt, I’ll have to put writing on the back burner for a while. If I do write a fourth, it’ll be a novel or something I can do in the library. No more traipsing around gigantic countries.

R4R: Have you had any issues with publishers you would like to share?

I had a horrible experience with my first publisher in New York, Algora, as did other writers published by them. They were dishonest and hostile, but I’ve discovered they’re like that to everybody. Call them, and they’ll hang up on you. Book buyers who call them get hung up on, too, as one emailed to tell me. How they stay in business, I have no idea, but I do know I haven’t gotten a cheque from them in two years. From their website you’d think they were a beacon of social justice, champions of the downtrodden, and all of that jazz, but they’re really just bitter and sinister. I was also ripped off by a publicist in Texas called Phenix & Phenix. They negotiated a contract with me just before sacking their staff and filing for bankruptcy. Like any industry, the book industry seems to be made up of all types, from nobles to thieves. Oh, and toll collectors. Lots of them. The book world can seem a tough nut to crack.