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Title: Barbarian Lost

Subtitle: Travels in the New China

Author: Alexandre Trudeau

Narrator: Alexandre Trudeau

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs

Language: English

Release date: 07-25-17

Publisher: Audible Studios

Genres: Travel & Adventure, Essays & Travelogues

Publisher's Summary:

To this day, China remains an enigma. Ancient, complex, and fast moving, it defies easy understanding.

Ever since he was a boy, Alexandre Trudeau has been fascinated by this great country. Recounting his experiences in the China of recent years, Trudeau visits artists and migrant workers, townspeople and rural farmers. Often accompanied by a young Chinese journalist, Vivien, he explores realities caught in time between the China of our memories and the thrust of progress. The China he seeks out lurks in hints and shadows. It flickers dimly amidst all the glare and noise. The people he encounters along the way give up but small secrets yet each revelation comes as a surprise that jolts us from our preconceived ideas and forces us to challenge our most secure notions.

Barbarian Lost, Trudeau's first book, is an insightful and witty account of the dynamic changes going on right now in China, as well as a look back into the deeper history of this highly codified society. On the ground with the women and men who make China tick, Trudeau shines new light on the country as only a traveler with his storytelling abilities could.

Members Reviews:

A worthy read

It is definitely an interesting book, but it is more of a journal than a travel book and it jumps from one topic to another. You get some history, some politics, some art, some travel, some descriptions of homes of real Chinese people, some descriptions of the buildings he visits, descriptions of the food. It is especially interesting in that Alexandre goes to meet the type of people he chooses to meet, and is not under the auspices of any sort of Chinese tourist bureau. The arrangements are made by his guide, a university student, whom he has hired.

Five Stars

A great reflection of his travels and made me reflect on my personal experiences

Another Trudeau in politics?

In China, the Ming Dynasty lasted for 276 years. In Canada, the Trudeau political dynasty appears set to last for many years, although perhaps not 276! The author of this book, Alexandre Trudeau, is the son of former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and the brother of current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Alexandre Trudeau's book gives the reader a kind of "you are there" quality which is consistent with his career as a documentary film maker. In particular, Trudeau delves into the street life of China's packed cities to present a multifaceted and multilevel portrait of the China of the early 21st century.

It seems clear that the respect Alexandre and his brother Justin have for China was instilled by their father Pierre who was an obsessive world traveller and who coauthored a popular book about China in 1960. In fact, in this new book by Alexandre, some of the most delightful anecdotes involve the preparations of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to go with his sons to China in 1990 in the immediate post-Tiananmen Square era.

High spirited youths Alexandre and Justin gambolled up ancient Chinese monuments and went flying down historic stone stairways in leaps and bounds. They paid for it with painfully strained muscles and bones and admonishments from their father.

It was Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau who beat President Richard Nixon in the move by Western countries to reestablish diplomatic relations with Communist China - something that Nixon apparently resented as it took a bit of the wind out of his own historic overtures to China.