Dispatch from Beijing } Jeff Brown’s special reports
TODAY’S TOPIC:
44 Days | South China Sea Brouhaha Down And Dirty On Radio Sinoland, 2015.6.2
https://soundcloud.com/44-days/south-china-sea-brouhaha-down-and-dirty-on-radio-sinoland-201562
ADDENDUM
Also of interest to our readers: Jeff’s current project on China’s leader Xi Jinping. Do help if you can. Our correspondents receive no compensation (neither do our editors). What they do—and they do it exceedingly well—they do out of principle, conscious that someone has to step forth to fight the hegemonic juggernaut drowning out all possibility of a viable planet or a just global civilization.
| Red Letters The Diaries of Xi Jinping |
Hello, I’m Jeff Brown in Beijing. I am very excited to announce the start of my third book, called, Red Letters – The Diaries of Xi Jinping.
My inspiration is twofold. First, I was enthralled reading Marguerite Yourcenar’s majestic, 1951 book, The Memoirs of Hadrian. You remember Hadrian, that guy who built his wall in England, to keep out the Northern barbarians. Ms. Yourcenar thoroughly researched this fascinating, 2nd century, Roman emperor and then wrote in the first person what she thought would be his diaries, from childhood, until his death. It is a terrific read and she deserves all the credit she got for really getting inside Hadrian’s head, to capture how he thought about his life, times and legacy, as well as describing the mood of his age.
Secondly, Xi Jinping, China’s president for the last year and a half, is just as intriguing and fascinating as Hadrian, maybe even more so, especially since events are happening in our lifetimes. China and the rest of us have not seen the likes of a world leader like Xi in a long, long time, and he is doing it as head of the country that will very soon be Earth’s #1 economy – a true, modern, world power. Xi is creative, crusading and determined to take China and his people to new heights of international leadership – by following his vision and on his terms. He is the first modern Chinese leader to masterfully use the media at home and around the world to his advantage.
Enter the West in general and the United States in particular: after the loss of credibility for 20th century Communism, in Maoist China and Soviet Russia, XJP is offering the world a new model of society and governance, that is not only working here, but in the eyes of more and more countries around the world, is serious competition and a viable alternative to the West’s pluralistic democracy. Deng Xiaoping, the post Mao Zedong leader of China, called it “socialism with Chinese characteristics”. President Xi has brilliantly repackaged it into his much more relatable and inspirational “Chinese Dream”. People all over the world are taking notice.
So, who is President Xi? Other than milestones of his career, much of his life is a great mystery to outsiders, and like any world leader worth their salt, he is getting mainstream spin back home. In fact, there is a surprisingly large amount of information about XJP in China, but it is scattered all over kingdom come – in village and town newspapers, provincial magazines, old speeches, photos and film footage. His parents and siblings have also marked his identity, so they too need to be sketched in, to get a fuller understanding of Xi. At the same time, I will be scouring all the resources available around the world, in English and French. It will take an enormous amount of meticulous research to pull all these thousands of sources together, and then I will synthesize all this to create Red Letters and an intimate portrait of Xi Jinping, the man – his life and times.
This is where you come in. It will take $12,000 to make Red Letters become a reality. I need to hire Chinese university researchers to dig up all this scatter shot XJP information, across the four corners of China. It will take about 1,000 man hours and at $10/hour, that comes to $10,000. Another $1,000 is needed to edit Red Letters. John Chan did a great job on my first book, 44 Days, and he is currently editing my second book, Reflections in Sinoland. So, we are really looking forward to working together on Red Letters. Then, a final $1,000 is needed to create an eye catching book cover, format the text for print publication, as well as an ebook for Apple, Kindle and Nook. Red Letters will be researched and written throughout 2015, then edited, prepped and published the summer of 2016.
Please join me in helping bring Red Letters, and the real Xi Jinping to life. My third book has a chance to be of historical importance, as China and the West compete on humanity’s 21st century stage. Rewards for your contributions are on offer, so you won’t leave empty handed. I hope you will take five minutes and answer the call, as well as forward the Red Letters project to colleagues, friends and family. It is a book that will surely fascinate and interest a lot of people around the world. Thank you and all the best from the belly of the New Century Beast – China.
[printfriendly]Remember: All captions and pullquotes are furnished by the editors, NOT the author(s).
