Books on Tibet and China

From the Financial Times:

The great brawl of China

By Geoff Dyer

Published: July 11 2008 20:04 | Last updated: July 11 2008 20:04

A Year in Tibet
By Sun Shuyun
HarperPress £20, 234 pages
FT Bookshop price: £16

The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama
By Pico Iyer
Bloomsbury £12.99 288 pages
FT Bookshop price: £10.39

Holder of the White Lotus: The Lives of the Dalai Lama
By Alexander Norman
Little, Brown £20, 446 pages
FT Bookshop price: £16

Why the Dalai Lama Matters: His Act of Truth as the Solution for China, Tibet and the World
By Robert Thurman
Atria Books £16.99, 231 pages
FT Bookshop price: £13.59

Modern China is at its most unsettling when its purpose and power give way to feelings of victimhood. Among Chinese, the inherited memories of humiliating imperial incursions have a powerful resonance, from the burning of the Summer Palace in Beijing by British and French troops in 1860, to the Japanese invasions of the 1930s. That the Communist party has deliberately and repeatedly fostered these emotions among its citizens doesn’t make them any less real.

Tibet is wrapped up in these stories of humiliation. The official Beijing line holds that Tibet was an integral part of the country until western powers began to bully and weaken China in the 19th century, and that China’s rightful sovereignty has since been restored. For them, the modern era in Tibet starts not with the arrival of Mao’s armies in 1950 or the Dalai Lama’s flight to India in 1959, but with the opium wars.

The intense scrutiny from around the world running up to next month’s Beijing Olympics was bound to provoke tension in a single-party state that permits no formal opposition. On March 10 this year, the anniversary of the Dalai Lama’s departure from Tibet, monks began protesting in Lhasa. This triggered more than 60 demonstrations across Tibetan regions, including a race riot in Lhasa against Han Chinese.

There are many explanations for the unrest. But events in March confirmed that Beijing’s attempts to win the loyalty of Tibetans through economic progress have floundered. To make such a point as a journalist, however, was to invite a storm of abuse. The government systematically blocked the foreign media from finding out what had happened yet denounced us for getting the story wrong. Under attack over the military crackdown on dissent, China again presented itself as the victim.

Alongside the hundreds of new books on the People’s Republic this year are a number on Tibet. They cover many genres yet all are political in some measure. And judging by the number of biographies of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan religious leader remains the most enticing subject matter.

Indeed, discussion about Tibet repeatedly returns to the ageing spiritual leader, now 73. But after this year’s protests, there seems no way through the impasse between Beijing and the Dalai Lama. It is difficult to read these books without a sense of foreboding for Tibet. Each new book on the Dalai Lama prompts the question of whether his global profile hinders or boosts the chance of finding a lasting solution. The Chinese government has repeatedly denounced the Dalai Lama for stimulating violence and trying to sabotage the Olympics – charges he vigorously denies. Yet, as these books make clear, he remains hugely popular among Tibetans, and his many supporters in the west, including several governments, believe he is a moderating influence. After all, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.

Read the rest of the review.

Tags: Books, Tibet, China, Buddhism, Financial Times, A Year in Tibet, Sun Shuyun, The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Pico Iyer, Holder of the White Lotus: The Lives of the Dalai Lama, Alexander Norman, Why the Dalai Lama Matters: His Act of Truth as the Solution for China, Tibet and the World, Robert Thurman, Olympics