The Road to Sleeping Dragon, Michael Meyer
The Road to Sleeping Dragon, Michael Meyer
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The Road to Sleeping Dragon
Learning China from the Ground Up

Author: Michael Meyer

Narrator: David Shih

Unabridged: 13 hr 46 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 10/10/2017

Synopsis

In 1995, at the age of twenty-three, Michael Meyer joined the Peace Corps and, after rejecting offers to go to seven other countries, was sent to a tiny town in Sichuan. Knowing nothing about China, or even how to use chopsticks, Meyer wrote Chinese words up and down his arms so he could hold conversations, and, per a Communist dean's orders, jumped into teaching his students about the Enlightenment, the stock market, and Beatles lyrics. Soon he realized his Chinese counterparts were just as bewildered by China's changes as he was.

Thus began an impassioned immersion into Chinese life. With humor and insight, Meyer puts listeners in his novice shoes, winding across the length and breadth of his adopted country—from a terrifying bus attack on arrival, to remote Xinjiang and Tibet, into Beijing's backstreets and his future wife's Manchurian family, and headlong into efforts to protect China's vanishing heritage at places like "Sleeping Dragon," the world's largest panda preserve.

Both funny and relatable, The Road to Sleeping Dragon is essential listening for anyone interested in China's history, and how daily life plays out there today.

About Michael Meyer

Michael Meyer, author and journalist, is currently chief speechwriter for the secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon. Before that, he worked for Newsweek for two decades, most recently as Europe editor for Newsweek International, where he also oversaw the magazine's coverage of the Middle East and Asia. Between 1988 and 1992, Meyer was Newsweek's bureau chief for Germany, Central Europe, and the Balkans, during which time he wrote more than twenty cover stories on the break-up of Communist Europe and German unification. He is the author of The Alexander Complex, and he lives in New York City with his wife.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Susan on November 05, 2017

I couldn’t put this book down and really enjoyed his first two books of narrative non-fiction. Yet I kept finding myself scribbling notes in the margins in this one. Like when he talks about the design on the renminbi and how that’s changed and how foreigners used to pay much more than locals for ju......more

Goodreads review by Chris on May 15, 2018

Neither insightful or interesting. His "ground up" view is really just a story from his perspective, and reads like a travel log/journal. Not really worth your time.......more

Goodreads review by Audrey on December 30, 2018

I received this book for Christmas last year and decided to read Meyer's first two books first, and I'm glad I did - not because you need to read them in order, but because I enjoyed the first two a lot more. While The Last Days of Old Beijing and In Manchuria used more of a reporter's approach to d......more

Goodreads review by Jackinbottle on June 21, 2021

A lot of interesting stories in this book. Could use some editing. Meyer included a lot of Pin Yin for the Chinese words in this book, yet many of the tones were wrong, including at one point China (Zhong Guo). Meyer made a reference to Journey to the West towards the end of the book, befittingly when......more

Goodreads review by Lori on April 08, 2018

If you've always wondered what it's like to join the Peace Corps and see a foreign country from within here is your answer. Meyer is in China at the perfect time as it transitions from old to new, out of Mao's time into whatever comes next. Witty, observant, self-critical. He makes an insightful obs......more

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