What You Get on a Book Tour of China

My great hero George Orwell wrote an essay in 1946 that all published, not yet quite published, wanna-be published and ever hopeful writers should read. It was simply called Why I Write. Owell outlined four reasons:

1. Sheer egoism- Orwell argued that many people write simply to feel clever, to “be talked about, to be remembered after death, to get your own back on grown-ups in childhood, etc.” He also says that it exists more in serious writers than journalists, though serious writers are “less interested in money”.

2. Aesthetic enthusiasm- Orwell explains that present in writing is the desire to make one’s writing look and sound good. He says that this motive is “very feeble in a lot of writers” but still present in all works of writing.

3. Historical impulse- He sums this up by simply stating this motive is the “desire to see things as they are, to find out true facts and store them up for the use of posterity.”

4. Political purpose - Orwell writes that “no book is genuinely free from political bias”, and further explains that this motive is used very commonly in all forms of writing in the broadest sense, citing a “desire to push the world in a certain direction” in every person. He concludes by saying that “the opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude.”

As ever of course Orwell (who never did a China book tour) is right but what do you actually get for free when you book tour China in these recessionary times? Having just completed a mini-book tour of China here’s a round up of the tangible stuff you can get while promoting a book in China place by place and in the order I did them:

M on the Bund Shanghai – a very good 3-course dinner and as much wine as you can drink

The Bookworm Suzhou – excellent pizzas and as much beer as you can drink

The Bookworm Beijing – plenty of beer, excellent toasties and a rather sweet Bookworm notebook

The Yin Yang Centre Beijing – wine and some homemade biscuits

The Beijing FCC – plenty of beer and a Beijing FCC T-shirt

The Hong Kong FCC – pre-speech G&Ts, a decent lunch with wine, a HK FCC reporters type notebook and a HK FCC polo shirt

The Hong Kong Royal Asiatic Society – a nice hardback copy of William Hunter’s An American in Canton (a great book) and drinks in the Captain’s Bar over at the Mandarin Oriental afterwards

The Shanghai FCC – beer, a complimentary nachos like thing and an Shanghai FCC T-shirt

It goes without saying that all the above venues and organizers also provide excellent audiences, conversation and, thankfully, wonderful people who buy books and I’m extremely grateful to them for inviting me. I’m left with a beer gut and some t-shirts to stretch over it – most gratifying.

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