[lengxzai]

i've spent nearly a decade in and around china (including some time at peking university which is down the road from tsinghua), for anyone trying to make sense of the contradictions that are china, i'd recommended picking up chan koonchung's (陈冠中) excellent novel the fat years (盛世 - 中国2013年).

although the way the novel wraps-up is a bit outlandish and disappointing... overall its does an excellent job of translating all the fascinating, bizarre, and creepy headlines we're constantly bombarded with these days into a plausible portrait of modern china (at least for me).