Iron and Silk

by Mark Salzman

Release Date: 12 October, 1987

Edition: Paperback

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Taste the bittersweet to know the sweetness of live.

This movie is based on the book written by Mark Salzman about his two years in China, where he went to teach English. The author stars in the leading role and shows us the intricate web of east meets west in a country that shuns western tradition. Salzman was lucky enough to be taught kung fu, known in China as whushu, by teacher Pan a world-renowned instructor in the field of martial arts who now resides in Canada.

This is a wonderful look into the life of the Chinese in the early 1980's, the feeling of revolution, the communist party, and how it affects the people. Spiritual pollution is in the forefront of those minds not yet ready for western ways to take root.

This was a most enjoyable movie with some precise and memorable kung fu scenes, even a bit of love. Another book that I read recently by this author was LYING AWAKE. Kelsana 1/13/02

Salzman kicks Pennycook's butt in wushu and writing!

For academic types who haven't yet overdosed on Foucault or Pennycook, this book is well worth a read. Salzman shows his love for China and Chinese culture despite all its warts. If you've shied away from this book because some misinformed postcolonialist told you it was neocolonial, read the book and judge for yourself. I think you will find it charming, for its vivid description, its unconcealed enthusiasm, its honesty (e.g. Salzman admits to having little interest in going to China despite majoring in Chinese studies at Yale), its self-deprecating humor, and above all its lack of cynicism. It's an autobiographical narrative, not a critical (re: neo-Marxist) treatise and should be taken as such. The author is aware of how much his own misunderstanding and discomfort may be the result of cultural difference and he is quick to see the essence of good intentions in most of the Chinese he encounters. So, again, read with an open mind and don't allow yourself to be dissuaded by those in critical applied linguistics who couldn't match this artistic effort themselves but feel free to leap to unfair conclusions about the author's intent.