Thomas Bird’s Harmony Express: Perceptive & Lovely
An organization I’m involved in recently hosted a talk with Thomas Bird, an “old China hand” who’s been navigating the Middle Kingdom since 2005. I missed the talk but bought his book on Amazon when I saw that it was only $6.99; for now, this site (POTIC) has no affiliate links, so you can check it out yourself without fear of self-promotion–and you should.
It’s named Harmony Express after a transliteration of the Chinese railway’s name and was published in November 2023 by Earnshaw Books. I’m only halfway through, but it’s been a long time since I’ve felt this immersed and carried off by a text (and a non-fiction one, no less!). Bird combines personal story-telling with local history in such a deft way that describing it as such makes it sound clunkier than it actually is. In addition, he introduces a quotation early on that explains China better than anything I’ve ever read:
“With each tunnel, William Gibson’s famous quote, ‘The future is already here—it’s just not evenly distributed,’ whooshed through my mind.”
Chapter 1, “Songs of the South,” page 9.
Not to be melodramatic, but it’s an incredibly accurate characterization of China. Not that the nation isn’t aware; since before the pandemic, China has focused on eradicating poverty in rural areas after conditions in top-tier cities was already improved. They’ve succeeded, too, not just according to state-sponsored sources1,2, but also foreign ones3,4,5. Still, as Bird’s work reveals in clairvoyant prose, the gap remains, and the metrics used to evaluate such conditions often depended on “progress at all costs” kind of measures, which Bird poignantly introduces in the first few chapters.
“I took my last look at Nan’ao, realizing this storm-pummeled islet was faced with a wave that could very easily envelop it and the centuries past: the tide of progress.”
Chapter 1, “Songs of the South,” page 31
I’ll share more when I finish, but the book is worth a look both for its insights and its style–a rare gift, in my experience. I have rarely felt so taken aback by a work of non-fiction. Read it. Now.
Find out more here:
- Podcast interview with Thomas Bird at Travel Writing World
- The book’s Amazon listing and its listing at Earnshaw Books
- The organization that sponsored the talk that I missed (RASBJ)–they hold many online events that can be accessed from anywhere in the world.
[…] somewhat facetiously looking up the term “old China hand” for the last article, I stumbled across a precious repository of oral histories and related items hosted at California […]