Another evening at the Bookworm
Last month the Bookworm hosted Timothy Garton Ash. His stay in Beijing was not merely an act of self-promotion; his son Alec is a long-time Beijing resident and a writer here. He was, however, able to schedule time at the Bookworm to deliver a talk and sell a few books. Garton Ash's talk was titled "From Berlin to Beijing: Reflections of a Political Writer."
I was looking forward to anything Garton Ash had to say. And the evening was to be moderated by Ian Denis Johnson, whom I also admire and have seen a few times at the Bookworm as well. Of course, I had the kids with me, so we sat in a corner as far back as we could. Brigid very quickly put on her headset, though Myles listened off and on. He was intrigued about Garton Ash's experiences digging through his Stasi file as he portrayed in his book The File. Myles had been reading recently about World War II and Cold War spying (and begged to watch Foyle's War), with the SOE and MI6 in England and the Stasi in East Germany, so he was curious about someone with actual interactions with the Stasi.
More after the jump
When Garton Ash arrived in Germany in the 1970s, he was there initially to research German history, and specifically, the Weimar era. His interests quickly grew to more contemporary issues across both sides of then-divided Germany as his area of research provided him the ability to travel between East and West. At the talk he used the Hegelian term "Weltgeist" to describe this sense of Berlin at that time being the center of European politics, the spirit of the world that drew him there.
Later in his talk, he said he was believed, like many, that Weltgeist was here in China, and specifically in Beijing. Because of this he understood the attraction of the city to young people, like his son. I found this comparison somewhat expected (especially since his talk was titled, "From Berlin to Beijing", though I have to wonder how much of the sense of Weltgeist in Germany in the 80s for an outsider was like what it sometimes feels like here in Beijing--a lot of people waiting for something to happen.
I really appreciated Garton Ash's spending so much time on the "Berlin" part of his talk. The fall of the Berlin Wall was, as he described for the benefit of the much younger people in the audience, was as though the Alps had collapsed, so immovable and permanent this division seemed even going into 1989. (In Chapter II, Garton Ash notes that major historical event of the late 70s, those pointed to as the end of the "Cold War," like the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan or the election of Pope John Paul II, figure little in his personal diary of the time, where the entries are about conversations with poets and preparations for a party. I feel the same about the fall of the Berlin Wall. From my college German classes in 1992 I learned "Am 9 November, 1989, die Berliner Mauer...." This huge, changes-everything-date, also happened to be my seventeenth birthday. I have clear memories of watching the Berlin Wall fall on CNN; it was that huge of a deal. I have some vague recollection of that birthday, having received a Tom Petty cassette from a friend. I do not, however, have any strong connection between these two coincident events, and I would think I should have, shouldn't I?)
Not only through his son, Garton Ash has had some experience of his own in China, some in dealing with how his books have been translated and received in Chinese. The subject of translation (and the willingness to accept manuscript edits in the process in the PRC) has been widely discussed elsewhere recently. However, what I found really interesting is that in Taiwan, Garton Ash encountered readers The File who equated the Stasi with the KMT, and others with the PRC, depending on what their political identity.
I really appreciated the opportunity to hear Garton Ash discuss circumstances and actors as he saw them in 1980s, and especially when he compared him to more recent events (like the Arab Spring, which did not bring about the changes like in Central Europe in the 1980s). One point I recorded Garton Ash making, was that in Central Europe there was an underlying civil and liberal society, which really helped the Germans guide their country with openness and reconciliation. In the West, for instance, we often attribute the events that were brought about in Central Europe to outsider-activist types, like Lech Wałęsa and Václav Havel. However, the activists can only carry the campaigns so far. The Arab Spring had some activist leadership, but the movement could not go further.
Timothy Garton Ash was an engaging, entertaining speaker. My personal notes take up so many pages, that I can't even begin to convey them all. I will say that The File was every bit as good of a read as I hoped it would be, even now eighteen years after publication. It doesn't feel terribly dated, as a book of politics and contemporary history can feel at times. Having unfettered access to his own Stasi file (and some of others' as well), Garton Ash was given an amazing framework with which to look back through an incredible time. And since he was never really a threat to the East German government, and suffered no great penalties (well, his visa was cancelled), many of the people he interviewed for this book had little to fear if they opened up to him about their reporting on him. All of these allowed him to write a complete and satisfactory book.
And yes, Myles was quite happy with Garton Ash's discussions of learning about his Stasi file. The writer was not a really spy, but Myles accepted that, thinking it was funnier that even a writer was tracked by the Stasi to begin with. My son also found it uniquely and awesomely German that when Garton Ash was kicked out of East Germany, they took his bus pass, his train pass, and his but the authorities realized he needed the use of his own car to leave. I have no record and not much memory of Garton Ash saying these things, but, just like the differences between Garton Ash's diary and his Stasi file, Myles and I found significance in very different things.
(There was also an analogy that Garton Ash used about political culture and toilets which Myles found EXTREMELY funny and memorable. I won't retell it here, but if you see Myles you could ask him about it. Trust me; you won't have to ask him twice.)
I was looking forward to anything Garton Ash had to say. And the evening was to be moderated by Ian Denis Johnson, whom I also admire and have seen a few times at the Bookworm as well. Of course, I had the kids with me, so we sat in a corner as far back as we could. Brigid very quickly put on her headset, though Myles listened off and on. He was intrigued about Garton Ash's experiences digging through his Stasi file as he portrayed in his book The File. Myles had been reading recently about World War II and Cold War spying (and begged to watch Foyle's War), with the SOE and MI6 in England and the Stasi in East Germany, so he was curious about someone with actual interactions with the Stasi.
More after the jump
When Garton Ash arrived in Germany in the 1970s, he was there initially to research German history, and specifically, the Weimar era. His interests quickly grew to more contemporary issues across both sides of then-divided Germany as his area of research provided him the ability to travel between East and West. At the talk he used the Hegelian term "Weltgeist" to describe this sense of Berlin at that time being the center of European politics, the spirit of the world that drew him there.
Later in his talk, he said he was believed, like many, that Weltgeist was here in China, and specifically in Beijing. Because of this he understood the attraction of the city to young people, like his son. I found this comparison somewhat expected (especially since his talk was titled, "From Berlin to Beijing", though I have to wonder how much of the sense of Weltgeist in Germany in the 80s for an outsider was like what it sometimes feels like here in Beijing--a lot of people waiting for something to happen.
I really appreciated Garton Ash's spending so much time on the "Berlin" part of his talk. The fall of the Berlin Wall was, as he described for the benefit of the much younger people in the audience, was as though the Alps had collapsed, so immovable and permanent this division seemed even going into 1989. (In Chapter II, Garton Ash notes that major historical event of the late 70s, those pointed to as the end of the "Cold War," like the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan or the election of Pope John Paul II, figure little in his personal diary of the time, where the entries are about conversations with poets and preparations for a party. I feel the same about the fall of the Berlin Wall. From my college German classes in 1992 I learned "Am 9 November, 1989, die Berliner Mauer...." This huge, changes-everything-date, also happened to be my seventeenth birthday. I have clear memories of watching the Berlin Wall fall on CNN; it was that huge of a deal. I have some vague recollection of that birthday, having received a Tom Petty cassette from a friend. I do not, however, have any strong connection between these two coincident events, and I would think I should have, shouldn't I?)
Not only through his son, Garton Ash has had some experience of his own in China, some in dealing with how his books have been translated and received in Chinese. The subject of translation (and the willingness to accept manuscript edits in the process in the PRC) has been widely discussed elsewhere recently. However, what I found really interesting is that in Taiwan, Garton Ash encountered readers The File who equated the Stasi with the KMT, and others with the PRC, depending on what their political identity.
I really appreciated the opportunity to hear Garton Ash discuss circumstances and actors as he saw them in 1980s, and especially when he compared him to more recent events (like the Arab Spring, which did not bring about the changes like in Central Europe in the 1980s). One point I recorded Garton Ash making, was that in Central Europe there was an underlying civil and liberal society, which really helped the Germans guide their country with openness and reconciliation. In the West, for instance, we often attribute the events that were brought about in Central Europe to outsider-activist types, like Lech Wałęsa and Václav Havel. However, the activists can only carry the campaigns so far. The Arab Spring had some activist leadership, but the movement could not go further.
Timothy Garton Ash was an engaging, entertaining speaker. My personal notes take up so many pages, that I can't even begin to convey them all. I will say that The File was every bit as good of a read as I hoped it would be, even now eighteen years after publication. It doesn't feel terribly dated, as a book of politics and contemporary history can feel at times. Having unfettered access to his own Stasi file (and some of others' as well), Garton Ash was given an amazing framework with which to look back through an incredible time. And since he was never really a threat to the East German government, and suffered no great penalties (well, his visa was cancelled), many of the people he interviewed for this book had little to fear if they opened up to him about their reporting on him. All of these allowed him to write a complete and satisfactory book.
And yes, Myles was quite happy with Garton Ash's discussions of learning about his Stasi file. The writer was not a really spy, but Myles accepted that, thinking it was funnier that even a writer was tracked by the Stasi to begin with. My son also found it uniquely and awesomely German that when Garton Ash was kicked out of East Germany, they took his bus pass, his train pass, and his but the authorities realized he needed the use of his own car to leave. I have no record and not much memory of Garton Ash saying these things, but, just like the differences between Garton Ash's diary and his Stasi file, Myles and I found significance in very different things.
(There was also an analogy that Garton Ash used about political culture and toilets which Myles found EXTREMELY funny and memorable. I won't retell it here, but if you see Myles you could ask him about it. Trust me; you won't have to ask him twice.)
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