Pleasure of Thinking
Essays

Reading Xiaobo visualised in me a seahawk that flies far above the ocean, observing it closely and once in a while plunging into it and rising again with a fish on the beak. He gives us a general description of the subject and, when we least expect it, takes the plunge and throws towards us a surpri......more

The book is composed by well-written short essays from the author’s perspective of the Culture Revolution and American culture. It’s a different point of view of China’s rise and a comparison to the Western society. The reference to Chinese authors, myths and culture makes the book a must read for u......more

"Tchaikovsky wasn’t Little Ivan; Mariah Carey never picked cotton in a Southern plantation; the people who sang “On the Loess Plateau” were all decked out in jewels; the actress who played Qiu Ju didn’t look the slightest bit miserable once she sheds her makeup. She has plenty of money … and I hear......more

It’s an absolute delight of a book, an eclectic confusion, maybe even convulsion, of essays, some which will infuriate you, some which will definitely have you roaring with laughter, many which will lure you into sitting back to think … or even intimidate you into thinking. My only problem with it i......more

This collection of essays by Wang Xiaobo provides an understanding of how critical thinking developed in the 1990s in China. Wang's black humour, his incisive critique of officials and self-proclaimed professors of morality, his reflections on the Mao era and on rethinking social sciences in the glo......more