
When Sydney journalist James West lands a job at a state-run radio station in Beijing, he imagines he knows a lot about China
- from dragon's heads & acrobatics, to communist slogans & brothels. Then he arrives, & finds himself at a rave, dancing on the Great Wall. But is one night of hedonism on China's most well-known landmark an accurate reflection of the 'real Beijing'? Or an anomaly in an otherwise tightly controlled culture, still dealing with the aftershocks of the Cultural Revolution & Tiananmen Square? To find answers, he talks to the next generation about the China they will create for themselves. Against a backdrop of the changing seasons in Beijing, a city he grows to love, he enters a brave new world of bloggers, punk-rock dens & underground queer culture. An intimate account of one young Australian's year abroad, Beijing Blur is also the story of modern China
- a nation poised at one of the great turns of the global historical tide.