{"id":1325,"date":"2013-05-10T06:54:50","date_gmt":"2013-05-10T11:54:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/parforchina.com\/?p=1325"},"modified":"2016-05-16T11:58:07","modified_gmt":"2016-05-16T15:58:07","slug":"early-reviews-for-my-unsavory-elements-chapter-are-positive-whew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/danwashburn.com\/forbiddengame\/early-reviews-for-my-unsavory-elements-chapter-are-positive-whew\/","title":{"rendered":"Early reviews for my Unsavory Elements chapter"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple months ago I mentioned<\/a> my involvement in a new anthology of writing from China entitled Unsavory Elements: Stories of foreigners on the loose in China<\/a><\/em>. Well, the early reviews are in \u2014 mostly from publications in Shanghai \u2014 and they’ve been largely positive.<\/p>\n

Editor Tom Carter and publisher Graham Earnshaw were able to corral an impressive corps of 27 contributors, including Peter Hessler, Simon Winchester, Jonathan Watts, Alan Paul, Audra Ang and Michael Meyer.<\/p>\n

City Weekend<\/em> wrote<\/a> that Unsavory Elements<\/em> “will hit close to home for any foreigner who\u2019s lived in China.” Shanghaiist<\/em> gave the book<\/a> “a solid B+.” And That’s Shanghai<\/em> calls it<\/a> “eminently dip-into-able, informative and enjoyable collection.”<\/p>\n

Mercifully, each reviewer had nice things to say about my offering, which hopefully bodes well for my forthcoming book (due out sometime next year from Oneworld Publications<\/a>), from which my Unsavory Elements<\/em> chapter is loosely adapted.<\/p>\n

City Weekend<\/em>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Of all Unsavory Elements\u2019 stories, 27 of which were commissioned expressly for this book, Kay Bratt\u2019s and Dan Washburn\u2019s are the most touching. … Washburn, the founder of Shanghaiist, is now Asia Society\u2019s Managing Editor; in \u201cEvery Thousand Years,\u201d he goes to Qixin, Guizhou, \u201cperhaps the poorest village in the poorest province in China,\u201d to meet the sweet, elderly parents of golfer Zhou Xunshu, whom he\u2019s been following for a year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Shanghaiist<\/em>1<\/a><\/sup>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dan Washburn’s account of a trip to poverty stricken rural Guizhou to meet the family of a golfer he was profiling is poignant and well observed. Dan, who founded this website, and in who’s shadow we his successors always remain, is an annoyingly accomplished writer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s Shanghai:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Rather than being \u2018on the loose,\u2019 many of these writers seem to be gently observing, and it is this that generally yields results when it comes to gaining insight into a culture. Take Dan Washburn\u2019s journey into the winter hills of Guizhou and the humble family of a Chinese professional golfer he was aiming to write a book on. It is a charming, curious tale, from their utter ignorance of what golf is, to a hard-drinking yet unfailingly hospitable brother, and made all the warmer by the culminating revelation that they all have absolutely no idea what Washburn is doing in their home.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thanks to all who have read and reviewed the book. And for those who would like to pick up a copy, check out the Earnshaw Books website for details<\/a>. It’s currently only available in Asia, I believe, and is set to make its Amazon bow sometime in July. (Also, I hear the initial printing sold out, so be patient.)<\/a><\/p>\n

1. Of course, they are contractually obligated to like everything I do.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This hopefully bodes well for my forthcoming book (due out sometime next year from Oneworld Publications), from which my Unsavory Elements<\/em> chapter is loosely adapted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1326,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[173,4,7,174,175],"class_list":["post-1325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-books","tag-china","tag-golf","tag-reviews","tag-unsavory-elements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/danwashburn.com\/forbiddengame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/danwashburn.com\/forbiddengame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/danwashburn.com\/forbiddengame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danwashburn.com\/forbiddengame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danwashburn.com\/forbiddengame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1325"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/danwashburn.com\/forbiddengame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1474,"href":"http:\/\/danwashburn.com\/forbiddengame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1325\/revisions\/1474"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danwashburn.com\/forbiddengame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/danwashburn.com\/forbiddengame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danwashburn.com\/forbiddengame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danwashburn.com\/forbiddengame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}