‘Dit is ook China’ by Cindy Zhu Huijgen isn’t a perfect book, but it’s a very enjoyable read, and when you finish it — rather than feeling relieved you’re done — you’re glad you read it, and glad you’re a person who reads books.
Before starting, I was a bit discouraged by some of the reviews on Goodreads, which said the author jumps from topic to topic. I can see what they mean, but I think it comes down to the nature of the book. It tries to do several things at once: explain China to a Dutch audience, and tell the story of the author herself, a journalist adopted from China, searching for her biological parents. Add the COVID chapters and a few others, and yes, it covers a lot of ground. The threads don’t always hold together, but I didn’t mind. You just go along for the ride.
I like the author’s style. It’s casual, easy, and fast to read. As a Dutch person who lived in China for eight years, I recognised a lot. The book also shows parts of China that rarely make it into the news we read every day, and her perspective as a woman gave me angles I wouldn’t have come across myself. She does a good job of showing both the good and the bad sides of China, and of the Netherlands too, without turning it into a verdict on either.
What I liked most is her personal search, especially towards the end, when she is in Guiyang, her hometown. I couldn’t stop reading there. It was genuinely thrilling, and honestly, it could be a book of its own. And I think this says something beyond just this book as well: Whatever we make, it’s always best when it’s tied to us personally, when it’s something only we could make. So in this case, plenty of people can write about China’s economy or politics, and many journalists do. But only the author could have written this book.
