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Chinese journalist and leading dissident, XuZhiyuan, paints a portrait of the worlds second-largest economy via a thoughtful and wide-ranging series of mini essays on contemporary Chinese society. He understands his homeland in a way no foreign correspondent ever could. PAPER TIGER is a unique insiders view of China that is measured and brave, ambitious in scope and deeply personal.

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In PAPER TIGER the Chinese journalist and intellectual Xu Zhiyuan paints a portrait of the world´s second-largest economy via a thoughtful and wide-ranging series of mini essays on contemporary Chinese society.

Xu Zhiyuan describes the many stages upon which China´s great transformation is taking place, from Beijing´s Silicon district to a cruise down the Three Gorges;he profiles China´s dissidents, including Liu Xiaobo, Ai Weiwei and Chen Guangcheng;and explores lesser-known stories of scandals that rocked China but which most people outside that country did not hear about - and which shed troubling light on China´s dark heart.

Xu Zhiyuan understands his homeland in a way no foreign correspondent ever could. PAPER TIGER is a unique insider´s view of China that is measured and brave, ambitious in scope and deeply personal.

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´[Xu] does everyone interested in China a valuable service. Great political and moral questions loom, and it is not just "hostile foreign forces" asking them. As Xu notes: "History always exceeds our expectations." I suspect that in Paper Tiger he has published a more optimistic volume than he realizes´ Financial Times .

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Zhiyuan, Xu
Xu was born in Beijing in l976. He was a visiting scholar at Cambridge University from 2009 to 2010. He is editor-in-chief of the Chinese edition of Business Weekly and writes columns for the FT.

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