Through the centre of China's historic capital, Long Peace Street cuts a long, arrow-straight line. It divides the Forbidden City, home to generations of Chinese emperors, from Tiananmen Square, the vast granite square constructed to glorify a New China under Communist rule. To walk the street is to travel through the story of China's recent past, wandering among its physical relics and hearing echoes of its dramas. Long Peace Street recounts a journey in modern China, a walk of twenty miles across Beijing offering a very personal encounter with the life of the capital's streets. At the same time, it takes the reader on a journey through the city's recent history, telling the story of how the present and future of the world's rising superpower has been shaped by its tumultuous past, from the demise of the last imperial dynasty in 1912 through to the present day. -- .

Through the centre of China's historic capital, Long Peace Street cuts a long, arrow-straight line. It divides the Forbidden City, home to generations of Chinese emperors, from Tiananmen Square, the vast granite square constructed to glorify a New China under Communist rule. To walk the street is to travel through the story of China's recent past, wandering among its physical relics and hearing echoes of its dramas. Long Peace Street recounts a journey in modern China, a walk of twenty miles across Beijing offering a very personal encounter with the life of the capital's streets. At the same time, it takes the reader on a journey through the city's recent history, telling the story of how the present and future of the world's rising superpower has been shaped by its tumultuous past, from the demise of the last imperial dynasty in 1912 through to the present day. -- .

By the time of his death in 1989 at the age of 48, Bruce Chatwin had become one of the most celebrated writers of the twentieth century. Though his career spanned merely twelve years, his impact and influence was profoundly felt; Chatwin's first book In Patagonia 'redefined travel writing', whilst his later work The Songlines became one of the literary sensations of the 1980s. Incorporating original and extensive archival research, as well as new interviews with his family and friends, Anywhere Out of the World provides the definitive critical perspective upon the literary life and work of this enigmatic and influential author. The work, now available in paperback, offers a chronological overview of Chatwin's literary career, from his first, ultimately aborted work The Nomadic Alternative - here discussed in detail for the first time - through to his final novel Utz. In subjecting his work to such analysis, the study uncovers a striking thematic commonality in Chatwin's oeuvre: his work is fundamentally preoccupied with the subject of human restlessness. This volume provides detailed insight into Chatwin's treatment of the subject in his work, identifying and discussing the biographical and philosophical sources of this defining preoccupation. -- .

On a freezing January afternoon in 1992, Deng Xiaoping - China’s former paramount leader and now a revered elder statesman - set off on a month long trip around China’s south in defence of the reforms he had set in motion to open up China’s economy and transform the country into the political and economic powerhouse we know today. In this book Jonathan Chatwin charts the story of Deng’s legendary "southern tour" of China and the legacy of his programme of economic liberalization in the country today. Chatwin explores a nation still gripped by the pursuit of wealth that Deng legitimized, and transformed by the large-scale urban developments exemplified by the mega-cities of southern China, such as Shenzhen and Guangdong. Drawing on historical and contemporary eyewitness accounts, The Southern Tour brings to life the story of China’s transformation into a 21st-century superpower.