Movie: Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

Norwegian Wood is without doubt one of my favorite novels of all time which I read on average once a year. Its a simple enough coming of age story with incredible complexities and amazing insights into relationships, human nature, frail insecurities and a Japan in transition. So much has been written about Murakami's masterpiece and I doubt there is anything I can add to the dialogue and therefore won't even try. However, I heard rumour of the movie coming out last year and it seems to have a December release date in Japan. I have always thought putting Murakami onto film effectively would be a challenge too far. Can you imagine trying to write the screenplay for The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle or Kafka on the Shore? Murakami is an amazingly gifted and imaginative novelist and one that I have admired ever since I read Dance Dance Dance. Since the movie has been announced I have waited for it with great anticipation (although not with as much anticipation as the The Lord of the Rings trilogy), but still, I am very keen to see if the director gives the novel justice. The challenge of the movie is not only Murakami's story and intent, but the director was Vietnamese who doesn't speak Japanese I believe directing Japanese actors acting in Japanese. The film debuted earlier this year at the Venice Film Festival and has had a good reception by the critics so I am hopeful. Hopefully the Taiwan release will have English subtitles or I will be doomed to waiting for the DVD release a few months down the line. Anyway, a trailer to the movie can be seen below (with English Subtitles). You can see more about the movie at the official Norwegian Wood Movie homepage.

Buy from Amazon @ Norwegian Wood

Speech: Cycling Home from Siberia by Rob Lilwall

Cycling Home from Siberia by Rob Lilwall (Lilwall's site)

I was recently in a small bookstore in the Landmark Center in Hong Kong waiting for Queenie and I saw this book quite by accident. We needed to rush off for another appointment but that night, in the hotel, I thought a lot about the book. The next day I went back and bought it and I am REALLY looking forward to reading it. I am sure it will be in the tradition of great travel books like Who Needs a Road and The Great Railway Bazaar. When I saw this book I immediately thought of my friends Simon and Helen who went for a very long cycling journey accross America and Europe way back in 2002. This book I am sure truly encapsulates the spirit of adventure and seems to embody a naive and honest belief in the goodness of people. I am really happy I went back to buy the book.

On this book the Guardian writes:

The man starts with a confession: he's a Christian - and later confirms he prefers to stay with priests or nuns. I almost gave up there, but the honesty makes for compulsive reading: he farts on Russian live radio and gets the giggles, he camps in disabled toilets in Japan - and observes that they are cleaner and more comfortable than Russian hotels. When he is mugged at gunpoint, he has violent revenge fantasies, then feels guilty and prays for his attackers.

His disarming, open-faced bravura gets better and better as the book progresses. In Papua New Guinea, a place he decides to cycle around, he is chased by drunken men brandishing cudgels. Afterwards he wonders if perhaps he had pre-judged them and they were only being friendly.

The speech is pretty funny and he is very engaging. Its on the lighter side and this might be the next book I read. My wife is reading it now. Enjoy!

Buy from Amazon @ Cycling Home from Siberia: 30,000 miles, 3 years, 1 bicycle

Current Reading: The Making of Modern Japan by Marius Jansen

The Making of Modern Japan by Marius Jansen

I am currently reading this incredible book by the late Professor Jansen. I am about 1/3 of the way through. It is an incredible book and worth the blood, sweat, tears and time to get through it. I did a quick google search for the book and found a very good "capsule" review of the book on the Foreign Affairs website. The reviewer, Lucian W. Pye writes:

This magisterial work [The Making of Modern Japan] has all the details one would want in a reference work, but the mature reflections of a lifelong Japan scholar at Princeton make it a pleasure to read. Last year, the Japanese recognized Jansen's learning by decreeing him a "National Treasure: A Person of Cultural Merit." (Jansen, who died just as the book was published, is the only foreigner ever to have been so honored.) Nearly half of the book is devoted to the Tokugawa period, when Japan became an integrated feudal state and put in place many of the fundamentals essential for modern nation-building. Jansen answers the question of whether the Meiji Restoration destined Japan to authoritarianism by detailing the interwar period, when Japan went far in the liberal, democratic direction. At every turn, Jansen looks behind the political stage to examine cultural and social developments. He avoids abstract theorizing by recounting the experiences of specific Japanese individuals, giving the story a strong human dimension. This authoritative work goes up to the present and ends with Japan's current economic problems. [See review here.]

To get a small taste of Jansen's writing ability and insights, you can also read this 1990 paper called [pdf link] "The Opening of Japan." I agree with Jansen when he writes:

Within half a century of its forced opening by the West it [Japan] had begun the building of an industrial system, installed the institutions of a modern state, and scored impressive victories over China and Tsarist Russia. Freed of the restictions of the unequal treaties, allied with Great Britain, master of Taiwan and soon of Korea, Japan was poised to alter permanently the balance of political power, and soon the balance of economic power, in East Asia and the Pacific world. On that dimension the opening of Japan was indeed a change with permanent significance for world history.[PDF download of "The Opening of Japan]

As I said, I am only a third of the way through the book but highly recommend it for anyone who is serious about studying Japan. You can buy it from Amazon @ The Making of Modern Japan

Download: Formosa Betrayed by George Kerr

Formosa Betrayed by George Kerr

This book was very popular among the expat community when I first arrived in Taiwan and forms the beginning of the blueprint for any argument by the expat community defending the sovereign rights and nation status of Taiwan. Someone lent it to me once but I never got the chance to read it and had to return the book. I haven't seen it around in any bookstores of late and was thinking about it the other day. I looked it up on Google and to my surprise and delight there is a complete copy that can be downloaded from the University of Saskatchewan Taiwan Library Online page. I suggest you download it ASAP as one never knows how long these things stay online. Its good to see books like this available to the general public in such an easy way. Fourteen reviews on Amazon give the book a five star rating so I am sure it is a good read and certainly a good place to start the discussion of the early years in Taiwan after the KMT took over. Much of what happened then has a direct impact on current day politics and current day conflicts and disputes accross the Taiwan Strait. Should be a good read.

Download from the Formosa Betrayed page (pdf link)

If you REALLY INSIST on buying it, you can buy it from Amazon @ Formosa Betrayed

Speech: Richard Koo - Japan's Recession & Lessons for Today

The Holy Grail of Macroeconomics: Lessons from Japans Great Recession by Richard Koo

Richard Koo's "Holy Grail" is definitely on my wish list and I will definitely get to it before the end of this year (2010). He has a fascinating proposal that the 15 year recession in Japan was in effect was a "balance sheet recession" whereby asset prices and property prices dropped dramatically giving companies more liabilities than assets on their balance sheet. However, he argues the cash flow of these companies were still good so even though they were effectively bankrupt, they were still able to pay down their debts and it took them 10 years to pay off their debts. He argues (at least in the speech below) that this was the responsible thing to do. The speech below I believe covers a lot of the issues in the book very briefly. He comes accross as very sensible and rational economist and someone worth listening too for, at the very least, very engaging perspectives on Japan and also for the lesson we can learn for today.

I have embedded two speeches. The first is 10 minutes long and covers the essential ideas. The second one is a little more detailes in putting these issues in a global context.

You can buy from Amazon @ The Holy Grail of Macroeconomics, Revised Edition: Lessons from Japans Great Recession

Interview: Jay Taylor - The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-Shek

The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern China by Jay Taylor

I have heard a lot of good things about this book. Arthur Waldron when reviewing The Generalissimo wrote: "Now at last we have a good biography of Chiang Kai-shek, one of the most important figures in modern China, but also one of the least understood and most regularly caricatured." Waldron continues saying "Taylor’s book is a magnificent achievement" and "very good reading." I have this book on my bookshelf. I bought it over the summer. I have paged through it a bit and seem to prefer it to Jonathan Fenby's earlier account Chiang Kai Shek: China's Generalissimo and the Nation He Lost. No doubt Chiang Kai-shek is a significant historical 20th century figure. I am looking forward to reading Taylor's account. In the meantime, I found an interview with Jay Taylor, the author of The Generalissimo. You can watch the interview below and it is posted on YouTube.

Buy from Amazon @ The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern China (Belknap Press)

New Purchase: Asian to Global Crisis - Sheng

From Asian to Global Financial Crisis by Andrew Sheng

I just picked up a copy of this book today at PageOne in Taipei 101. Am looking to try to understand the current financial crisis we currently find ourselves in. The book looks like a pretty detailed account by a central banker in HK who was in the middle of the Asian financial crisis way back in 1997. I remember when I first came to Taiwan to teach English at the end of 19998 many teachers had fled Korea due to the currency collapse at that time. It seems so long ago though now and seems to have been swept aside in terms of people memories as to what caused it and where it came from. I decided to buy the book as it seems to link the gap between the crisis then and the crisis now and will hopefully help to explain how the crisis developed and grew. Sadly though this is on the back of a long list of books I am currently catching up on (and some of them are pretty lengthy). Hopefully I can get to this one in a month or so. I am looking forward to it. Should be a good read.

You can read the first chapter on at the Amazon.com prodcut page linked below.

Buy from Amazon @ From Asian to Global Financial Crisis: An Asian Regulator's View of Unfettered Finance in the 1990s and 2000s