In the Red: Contemporary Chinese Culture by Geremie R. BarméReview by: Lucian W. PyeForeign Affairs, Vol. 78, No. 4 (Jul. - Aug., 1999), p. 147Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20049425 .

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traditional culture?a mix that has pro duced a nationalism vacillating between

self-deprecation and xenophobia. The

scene that Barm? describes is too lively and confusing to provide any clear guide lines on where China may be heading in

the post-Marxist cultural domain. Despite the recent resurgence of political repression,

however, it is not implausible that China's

writers, artists, performers, and cultural

entrepreneurs are already shaping post

Communist political culture into a

more pluralistic phenomenon.

The Era of Jiang Zemin, by willy

wo-lap lam. Singapore: Prentice

Hall, 1999,400 pp. $18.00 (paper).

Jiang Zemin has not commanded great

respect in the West?succeeding two

larger-than-life leaders, Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, is no easy assignment. But Willy Wo-Lap Lam, the doyen of

China-watchers, has drawn on inside

information and a deep understanding of

Chinese politics to paint a surprisingly

respectful picture of Jiang. Building on his pieces for Hong Kong's South China

Morning Post, Lam offers a detailed account

of politics at the pinnacle of power in

post-Deng China. He depicts Jiang as a

master political fixer and manipulator,

something of a showman, but also a leader

deficient in "the vision thing." With its old ideology discredited, the once all

powerful Communist Party is losing its

coherence and discipline while economic

problems are becoming

ever more ominous.

Nevertheless, Jiang's political skills are in fact quite impressive. He has shattered the

Beijing gang's hold on central power and

consistently maneuvered Prime Minister

Zhu Rongji into taking on impossible tasks. Lacking a grand vision beyond

Asia and the Pacific LUC?AN W. PYE

In the Red: Contemporary Chinese Culture.

BY GEREMIE R. BARM?. NewYork:

Columbia University Press, 1999,

448 pp. $30.00. Western news reporting often implies that

China is a land absorbed with economic

development and political repression. In

fact, it also possesses an astonishingly

lively popular culture. Australian scholar

Geremie Barm? is the most knowledgeable and well-connected Western authority on China's cultural scene, fully in tune

with the constant cat-and-mouse game that writers and artists play with authorities

oscillating between repression and hints

of liberalization. He is most informative

in his insider reporting on the shifting fashions among Chinese writers. The

lively prose charts the ambivalent Chinese

reaction to international cultural trends

as well as developments within Chinese

FOREIGN AFFAIRS - July/August 1999 [147]

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