The Edgar Snow of the Chinese political economy

This is a fantastic work-turned-audiobook by Dr. Nolan, the contemporary doyen of the Chinese economy at Cambridge. It is an appeal for cultural understanding from, perhaps, one of the final generations of western scholars on China that will be allowed to speak their mind before the pressures of this New Cold War soon suffocates academic freedom once again as it did in the 1950s. Perhaps if China collapses as the USSR did, the willful abject ignorance of China and the copycat re-use of plagiarized Cold War motifs to pin on the new adversary would pay off. After all, one don't need to bother learning about something that will (in their view) disappear - this is the prevailing mentality in the western world today. China will disappear like a bad dream, and no one needs to remember anything about their dreams.

Yet, if that does not happen, an understanding of China is necessary and Dr. Nolan's book "China and the West" in audio form is a great resource to begin this journey of understanding. In this, I would go so far as to say Peter Nolan's efforts is akin to the great Edgar Snow, the American journalist whose name looms larger than nearly all 20th century ivory tower Oxbridge and Ivy League scholars, whose fame comes from the great hardship and effort this one Westerner, equipped with only the pen, committed to understand the movement that would then later found the People's Republic. Dr. Nolan is far better equipped than Mr. Snow had been afforded through his immense wealth of knowledge as a trained scholar and this work explains the contemporary Chinese political economy, its nature and its philosophical roots within the expanse of Chinese history. It explains how China sees the West and the history of the West. It explains the leading role of the Party in modern China and its historical path to that role today. Dr. Nolan does not shy from pointed criticism or analyses of any shortcomings in the Chinese political economy, but the difference is that he never approaches his assessments from an adversarial standpoint. Like Mr. Snow, his aim is to promote an understanding of contemporary China on its own terms.

When I say that Dr. Nolan is akin to Mr. Snow, I mean that in all respects. Mao once said of Edgar Snow (in paraphrase) that, fundamentally, "he never did understand Marxism-Leninism and yet was nonetheless a great advocate of the Chinese people." The same characteristic is true of Dr. Nolan. He sees the Chinese adoption of that political position as a means to an end - the best way for the Chinese nation in slowly building up a society prosperous for all its citizens, regardless of class and wealth. He is unconvinced that such a position could be seen as an end unto itself and thus this work is not intended for those who want to gain an understanding about how China sees Chinese socialism. For anyone who braves to take that step, they can search out the scholarship of Roland Boer.

This is a great resource, either in print or in audio, for understanding the contemporary Chinese political economy and how China sees both itself and the West. With scholars like Dr. Nolan who have the integrity to put out a work like this in such an (increasingly) stifling academic environment for China studies as today's in the West, these is no excuse as there was in the days of the first Cold War with the USSR to protest that "there is no accessible literature" to understand that designated "adversary" nation on its own terms. Here it is, and in audiobook format at that with a smoothly rendered performance by narrator Zeb Sloanes, for anyone willing to approach.

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