China After Mao: The Rise of a Superpower by Frank Dikötter Bloomsbury, 416 pages, £25
When I arrived in China for the first time in summer 1985, I was astonished at what I found. “People people people dust dust dust,” I wrote in a letter home. Compared with Taiwan – a foodie paradise – there seemed to be nowhere to eat; worse, to eat. I had gone from one China, which worked, to another, which did not.
