A Tale of Two Chinas: A Fifteen-Year Odyssey Through China's Cultural Heartlands

A Tale of Two Chinas reaches the parts of the People's Republic that other books don't reach. From bustling metropolises to colourful minority villages, from volunteering in earthquake relief to observing Sufi and shamanic folk festivals, Hugh Battye's travels in the mainland over a fifteen-year period reveal a diverse kaleidoscope of cultures and beliefs beneath the monochrome ideology of the ruling Communist Party. The contrast between the "two Chinas" he experienced – the sophisticated society of the Chinese urban mainstream, and the vibrant Muslim and Tibetan Buddhist cultures of the rural northwest – could not be starker. But his neatly crafted account weaves the two together, providing a comprehensive and timely portrait of what is arguably the most important country to understand in today's world. Hugh Battye spent fifteen years living in mainland China, where he studied Mandarin and taught English, before embarking on a master's and then a doctorate degree in ethnology at Lanzhou University, Gansu Province. He attained his PhD in the summer of 2020, and continues to write and speak on China's minorities.