Did Cape Argus reviewer Bianca Capazorio actually read Cracking China?

It is said that it is “not the done thing” for an author to engage with a reviewer of his book. Notice the passive structure of the previous sentence. There is no agency. Nobody knows who came up with that tradition. Anyway, my criticism of Capazorio’s review is mostly with a glaring factual error, not so much with her opinion of my book. I have also written this because, like many ex-pat writers, I am concerned about the literacy level and blinkered thinking of too many SA journalists and reviewers and that needs to be brought into the light again and again.

Initially anyone would have at least a small twinge of misgiving about a review in a leading newspaper when the reviewer does not bother even getting the author’s surname correct. This was my first small qualm that Bianca Capazorio, as gleaned from her review of my book in the Cape Argus, had either skimmed my book Cracking China or read it with a very jaundiced, selective eye or both.

Capazorio says the following about my experience of Chinese food: “I was astounded that he [the author] didn’t like most Chinese food as, having been back in South Africa for some time since my own trip, I still wake up some mornings with my mouth watering after a particularly tantalising ‘dream dinner’ ”.

This is nonsense for more than one reason. In many instances in the memoir I show my huge enjoyment for certain mainland Chinese cuisines. In chapter thirteen I talk about the food served up by the Head of English Department’s wife at their home where they kindly treated us for lunch: “We were soon invited to Wei Linghu’s home for the most delicious lunch of baozi (dumplings) we have ever eaten. It was freshly prepared by his wife with the flour still on her hands and cheek. I devoured at least a dozen and the Chook [my wife] was not far behind. Restaurant dumplings paled by comparison”.

In chapter fourteen I talk about “the tasty braised beef and noodles flavoured with a piquant garlic and coriander sauce” served up at Davy’s restaurant, a place which served both samples of Korean and Chinese food. Sure, I talked about the clownish bad service; meals never arriving or the wrong ones arriving, and Davy’s unsavoury reports about his cooks. Further, I mention that some of the menu items, including “large intestines with bean curd”, “bullfrogs” and “seafood custard”, did not appeal to us at all. But, as related in that chapter, we kept going back to Davy’s because the food we did have was amazing.

In other places, such as my visits to the cities of Shaoxing and Suzhou I describe how much I enjoy Hunan and Sichuan Chinese cuisine, both of which are very spicy and hot, and which I love to the point of masochism: even with the painful deluge the next day, I still never learn from my wiser bottom. Yes, there were foods we did not like the thought of, such as chicken’s feet and heads, which is something most westerners, certainly South Africans, do not eat.

The other bit of nonsense is Capazorio’s sweeping statement about Chinese cuisine. She makes it sound like there is just one. Codswallop. (If she was aware there was more than one style of cuisine she should have made this clear; I make it clear in my book.) There are dozens of varieties in China, varying from province to province and even from city to city. Shanghai people love sweeter cuisine (as I do) but dislike the more bitter food to be found in Shaoxing and further north. In turn, Beijing people are known to dislike the “sweet” Shanghaiese food.

So which book has Bianca Capazorio read? It doesn’t appear to be Cracking China.

As Capazorio has got my taste for Chinese food horribly wrong, I invite the reader to consider that this is a strong indication she has got a lot else wrong about Cracking China in her review, titled, “Author’s superiority complex leaves China smashed”. Now Capazorio may not have come up with that hilarious title. When I was a book reviewer, I was peeved by how sub-editors, without even asking me, simply changed my headings, thus skewing the contents of my review. But it is most interesting to see Capazorio feels I have a superiority complex when dealing with mainland Chinese, whilst Julia Denny-Dimitriou, in her review for The Witness, avers that the Chinese have the superiority complex, not the author. Denny-Dimitriou says: “The Chinese are known for their superiority complex, content in their misapprehension that theirs is the oldest and most sophisticated culture in the world, and that their language is too complex for any foreigner to master”. Both reviewers have been to China. Which reviewer is correct? Well, who has the “superiority complex” is up to the reader to decide, or to have a different interpretation.

On a final and personal note, living in China for five years was one of the most memorable experiences and learning curves of my life. And I was not there on holiday; I worked there, which makes for very different encounters to what the tourist gets. That’s why I just had to write a memoir celebrating it and also blog about my experiences. Hopefully I help South Africans and others to see something of a very different world. Much as I love clean, orderly, gorgeous, laid-back New Zealand, it just isn’t as inspiring, so far. Why? China is just way different to South Africa and New Zealand, sometimes eccentrically so. I still aver the hard-working, mostly friendly Chinese people are often wonderfully dotty. If Bianca Capazorio has a problem with that depiction of dottiness in that she interprets my memoir as patronising and condescending, she’s right: it’s her problem, not mine. The politically correct and those who mind their p’s and q’s are boring, blinkered and take their viewpoints too seriously and remain blind to others’ views. On this note Julia Denny-Dimitriou made a telling remark when she said, referring to my photo on the back of the book (the same photo as on this blog): “The author’s picture on the back cover has to be the goofiest and least-flattering I have ever seen, which cheered me. At least it looked like he would not take himself too seriously. I was right, and enjoyed this much more than I expected or even hoped to.”