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Title: The Missionary and the Libertine : Love and War in East and West by Ian Buruma ISBN: 0-375-70537-6 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 14 August, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: High standard journalism.
Comment: Very well documented essays about the East, although most of the articles are treating already out-of-date items. Still they will continue to be essential reading for historians.
In his ironic style, he unveils the lies and double-talk of political and industrial leaders. E.g. Sony's Akio Morita's statement that 'today's Japanese do not think in terms of privilege', while he almost disowned his son, when he wanted to marry a popular singer.
Other targets are Benazir Bhutto, Cory Aquino, Imelda Marcos and most of all the imperious leader of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew.
I recommend nevertheless the autobiography of Yew 'From first world to third', because it is an essential read in order to understand what's happening in China today. Lee Kuan Yew is Jiang Zeming's best friend.
Buruma is a very perceptive observer and reader. His analyses of writers like Yuhio Moshima, Mircea Eliade or Junichiro Tanizaki, or movie directors like Nagisa Oshima or Sayajit Ray are brilliant.
This book is to be put on the same high level as the works of Simon Leys on China.
Rating: 5
Summary: East is East and West is West etc. etc.
Comment: Sceptical of all talk of "asian values" (profound "culture differences" used to justify the denial of human rights), Buruma is a clear-sighted observer of the East. Buruma describes the phases that Western visitors to Japan tend to go through; an initial phase of delight oft succeeded by rage, and ultimately leading to a sort of near manic-depressing rapidly-alternating hatred/love of the East. Buruma, while obviously retaining a great love and respect for Eastern culture combined with a deep scepticism about "asian values", is unseduced by either extreme. The book opens with essays on individual figures, such as Yukio Mishima (it is impossible to take Paul Schrader's 'Mishima' seriously after Buruma's curt dismissal of its portentious bombast) and Wilfred Thesiger (again, one sees this oft-romanticised figure anew, as a misogynistic, rather sinister worshipper of racially pure noble savages) It closes with a section of essays devoted to Japan, on topics as diverse as Michael Crichton's Black Rain, the Hiroshima peace industry, the treatment of black American baseball players in Japan and the continuing echoes of Pearl Harbor.
Rating: 5
Summary: First-rate collection of essays on the Far East
Comment: I found Buruma's collection very absorbing, especially helpful to someone living out East (Hong Kong and Singapore), as I was in the late 90's. The Singapore essay, "The Nanny State of Asia," is an extremely perceptive look behind the official facade of Harry Lee Kuan Yew's police state. If you plan to visit/live in S'pore, the things the locals won't dare discuss with you (out of fear) are dealt with here. Even if you're just travelling from the armchair, this is a well-written and (again) extremely absorbing read.
As someone who lived out East I rank this up with Christopher Lingle's Singapore's Authoritarian Capitalism and Stan Sesser's The Land of Charm and Cruelty (another great essay collection on various Asian countries) as books helpful to the Westerner trying to learn about the region. Buruma's God's Dust has more essays on Asia, including S'pore. For Singapore, I also recomend Francis Seow's A Prisoner in Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore, and Paul Theroux's Saint Jack (a Singapore novel set in the Seventies but (I found) remarkably up to date in the attitudes it records of both locals and expats).
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Title: Inventing Japan, 1853-1964 (Modern Library Chronicles) by Ian Buruma ISBN: 0679640851 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 04 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Bad Elements: Chinese Rebels from Los Angeles to Beijing by Ian Buruma ISBN: B00008NRHO Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: November, 2001 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: Anglomania : A European Love Affair by Ian Buruma ISBN: 0375705368 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 11 April, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of Its Enemies by Ian Buruma, Avishai Margalit ISBN: 1594200084 Publisher: The Penguin Press Pub. Date: 25 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: The Making of Modern Japan : by Marius B. Jansen ISBN: 0674009916 Publisher: Belknap Pr Pub. Date: October, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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