Shaken by China)

Shaken by China

A novel by Rob Walters

Shaken by China is the story of a young Englishman who, for dubious reasons, becomes a teacher in the Chinese Republic - in the city that terminated Mao’s long march and which gave birth to the communist revolution. His experiences there provide him with startling insights into the thought patterns of today’s Chinese and into his own morality.

Though the locality is primitive and the teaching demanding he enjoys his new life, marvelling at the immense difference between England and semi-industrial China. Suddenly, mysteriously, he is abandoned by his more-mature teaching colleague and is then tempted into a sequence of irresponsible acts culminating in an ardent affair with one of the young students. Realising his own stupidity he ends the relationship and fosters less passionate yet more rewarding friendships entering a period of satisfying enjoyment in his adopted country. But this new found contentment is quickly dashed when the affair rebounds with chilling repercussions.

Seeking to buy his way out of the ensuing problems he risks all in a desperate gamble, loses and resorts to ignominious flight - and so his own long march begins. He trudges across the lonely hills of Northern China internally criticising his past actions by day, searching for accommodation by night. Through the march he meets many peasants, often staying overnight in their humble homes, enjoying their company, empathising and sympathising with their troubled lives. Sharing their problems serves to minimise his own, he becomes fit in mind and body.

Arriving at last at the city of the Terracotta Warriors he quickly succumbs to a job offer that results in a state little short of enslavement. At first he regards his new situation as a safe haven from his pursuers but soon realises that there can be no return from the valley in which he and the other workers are trapped. Foiled escapes and a severe beating break his spirit to the extent that, when the valley is finally liberated, he has lost the will to live.

Elevated to a national hero as a rescued westerner, he is used as a clumsy and unsuccessful counter to the bad publicity surrounding the approach of the Olympic Games in Beijing. Unaware of this and embroiled in a spiral of self-recrimination he attempts suicide but is finally reconciled to his own character defects by the intervention of his Eurasian soul mate from the past, the woman he had left behind in England. Their unbroken love for each other rescues him from the dark abyss of depression.

This is a novel packed with action yet balanced by the deep introspection of a flawed character. Its background is the moral inheritance of communist China in this time of capitalistic resurgence. It is based upon actual experience of teaching in modern-day China and weaves into its tale a combination of the innocent delights and some of the truly horrific practices and attitudes existing within that country today. It is a gripping glimpse of 21^st century China from the inside, fictional but firmly grounded in factual detail. A story of love, betrayal, escape, slavery and temptation set in an exotic and fast changing world.

Words 108K