Tiger Head, Snake Tails: China Today, How It Got There, and Where It Is Heading Hardcover – October 25, 2012

This is a worthwhile read. It is extremely current and the author is quite obviously an experienced China hand who is well-informed. The perspectives of corruption balanced by opportunity are valuable in gaining a sense of the challenges facing China. It is not an easy read. A great many facts are presented in an almost list-like format which can be disruptive to focus of the reader and impair the author's ability to present a coherent theme. However, the persistent reader will reap a rich reward in current knowledge and perspective. Highly recommend.

Fenby clearly has access to much insider information which coupled with a ability to present an objective and objective assessment of current China together with a reasoned view of its future place in the world scene. Not a book for light bedtime reading , rather for reliably learning something about a country (?continent) that has and will have much to contribute to the world.

This is a long and dense book that is mostly full of stats that exemplify (endlessly) how big and impressive China is in its size, population and economy. The main fault of the book is that it simply lists statistic after statistic without much of a narrative or authorial message.This book is an impressive collection of recent (as of 2012) statistics on China, but not a very enlightening read. There are much better books out there on the impact of China on the rest of the world and the effects its current policies will have on its future.

Very impressive. Very few could be as accurate and as up to date as this author. A very good book for those who are serious about understanding present day China.

In this ambitious work, Jonathan Fenby proves himself once again, a writer unafraid to take on massive subjects. From a point in time when China stood on the verge of its generational change of leadership in 2012, Fenby takes an in depth snapshot of where China is, how it got there and where it is going. In so doing, he gives us a superb analysis which dives deeply into the complexities of China's political, economic, social, regional and demographic strands.What emerges from Fenby's book is that reaching any conclusive answers, or indeed identifying consistent themes, on these issues is virtually impossible, given that China is such a vast, complex and multi-faceted nation. China has transformed so rapidly since, in 1978, Deng XiaoPing coupled free-market economics with the maintenance of the authoritarian control system built by Mao, that pinning it down is like nailing jelly to a wall.Just a few of the facts Fenby tells us to illustrate this are worth quoting here. Six of China's 31 provinces, municipalities and regions would, if they were nation states, rank in the world's thirty-two largest nations in terms of purchasing power. Five of its provinces have more inhabitants than Western Europe. With mind-boggling superlatives like this, Fenby puts China, for the reader, in its proper context. It is a country about which so many opposing sweeping contradictory generalizations have been made, because China is of such magnitude in everything, that plenty of evidence can be found to support all sides of the argument, all the time. On its face, China may seem like a single unit governed by control from the top-down. But below the surface lie many different strands. China is a tiger head, with many different snake tails (hence the name of the book).How can China's constraining political control system continue to cope with such a fast-changing, multi-dimensional society? This is one of the main questions that the book takes on.On one side of the equation Fenby gives us a snapshot of China, economically, being a nation on speed. Its telephone system has been transformed in 10 years from a rudimentary one, into the most modern of modern communication systems, with 930 million mobile handsets and 420 million internet users. The number of cars China produced leapt from 2 million in 2000 to 18 million in 2010. Consumption is conspicuous (like the wife of a Shanxi coal mine owner who, on a trip to Paris asked to see the most expensive handbag in the shop and ordered two dozen of them), prices have risen as a result and the uniformity of the Mao era has been replaced by the diversity of middle class wealth. Regulations have abjectly failed to keep pace with this economy on steroids, however. Safety scandals abound, from coalmines to milk powder to railways.On the other side of the equation is the controlling nature of the political regime. The genie is out of the bottle, many commentators suggest, and it is only a matter of time before the economic diversity unleashed will rupture the constraints of the political strait jacket. But Fenby gives a deeper picture of the extent to which that control goes. The Communist Party is deeply embedded within the new economic system it has created. Those who have benefited from the new economy are Party members and have an interest in perpetuating the political system. Indeed, it is the Party that has delivered this economic progress: more people have been made better off in a shorter space in time than ever before in human history. The Party's goal in perpetuating growth (and hence, itself) is why China's foreign policy is purely realist in seeking out guaranteed sources of raw material to feed the domestic economy's appetite. Foreign companies are allowed in, but only for what they can offer by way of knowledge transfer, rather than to participate on equal terms. More surreptitious means of knowledge transfer are revealed through the hacking scandals and the 863 programme started in Beijing in 1986 which aimed to acquire technology from abroad by any means. This is the realization of the 19th century self-strengtheners doctrine, which aimed to take the methods of the barbarians, but make them better. Capitalism with Chinese characteristics, is Deng's perfection of the socialist model.Economic expansion is what underpins the preservation of the regime, according to Fenby, from which its legitimacy and support is derived. That this political system may collapse when the economy goes into reverse, unless some form of political reform is undertaken to provide the right safety valves, is the conclusion Fenby reaches following his extensive review. In this, Fenby's answer is no different from many other China commentators.For me, however, the real value of the book is not so much the unoriginal conclusion, but the astonishing breadth and depth of the snapshot which Fenby provides of China. China is a hugely complicated nation, but recognizing these complexities is vital to our understanding of a country that is dominating, and will continue to dominate this century.Peter Gregoire - author or  Article 109

Considering the growing power of the China's military, political and economic influence , it's rather natural that more and more books will be written about China. Thus, it becomes harder and harder to pick the "right" books to read about China. In my opinion, "Tiger Head, Snake Tails", stands above most of the other "China" books."Tiger Head, Snake Tails" has a very broad narrative, which covers almost every area of interest of China. It seems that the main goal of the book is to provide the reader with a better big picture understanding of China rather than a micro-analysis of some specific aspect of China. However, readers who are well versed with China might find this book to be not detailed enough and slightly shallow, although they might enjoy the overview of China.Fenby has managed to write a very readable, accessible, and one might even dare say, rather captivating book for a non-fiction.

This is the best book on China I have come across, a wonderfully detailed but also immensely readable "one-stop" shop for anyone interested in China, past, present and future. Sometimes shocking, sometimes funny, always awesome - like its subject - it's hard to put down. If you are going to China for work, on vacation, or you're just interested in trying to make sense of this huge and complex country (which feels like a continent) and its people, this is the book for you.

There are supposed to be a book in three book in three parts: China as today, how it got there, and where it is going.The book is far strongest on the first part - where it is today. It is a compelling and vivid snapshot of China after three decades of extraordinary social and economic change. One gets a sense of the immensity of the country's achievements in eye-popping statistics but also of the commensurate social, economic and environmental challenges. He also pours some cold water on some of the inflated claims of China's imminent and inevitable rise to global dominance. The fact China finances the US deficit for example does not give China the whip hand over the US: China needs US consumers to buy its goods. China is assuming greater equality of status vis-à-vis the United States but it does not hold all the cards. Moreover, the speed and scope of the transformation have produced immense strains and it is a moot point whether the Party can continue to manage these strains indefinitely with perpetual one party rule.It is weaker on how it got where it is. I did not get a sense of why the CCP embarked on the process of reform three decades ago. After the excesses of Mao, the Party certainly craved stability, as the Soviet Communist Party did after the death of Stalin in 1953. But why did it decide to concoct the risky formula of one party rule and vigorous capitalist growth? Was this the only option available to the CCP at the time? I felt that more discussion of the origins of the reform process might have been made.In addition, the author appears to hedge his bets as to where China is going. He seems reluctant (understandably so) to make any bold prognoses of where China is going. Most cocksure predictions of where China is going are likely to be wrong. This is an experiment without real precedent and it is impossible to judge where it will end up. And he fights shy of trying to shoehorn his portrait into any fancy sounding idea like China as a `civilisation state' and again he is probably wise to do this. In the end we get a few sweeping admonitions that China will find it harder to maintain one party rule as economic and social advances make the country more variegated, stratified and harder to control. We shall see.So, overall, a good book about China today rather than how it go there or where it is going. But still a very good portrayal of where it is. The ground the author does cover is covered very well. Four stars.

We already had one masterwork from Jonathan Fenby in his Penguin History of Modern China. With such a hard work to follow, questions were abound, at least with this reader, as to whether this volume could live up to the standard of a previous masterwork. Jonathan Fenby certainly has lived up to his reputation.Tiger Head Snake Tails is a metaphorical title referring to the all powerful head of China, it's fast paced economic growth and potential for world dominance, the Tiger's head, contrasting with the Snake tails, the underlying faults and cracks in the mirror.The book opens with an examination of China's startling re-emergence and all the underlying details that astonish more than the simple GDP figures, how maps in Shanghai need constantly updating, how China produces enough toxic ash every two minutes to fill an Olympic size swimming pool, how Mainland Chinese make up the bulk of foreign students in the US and UK, and how luxury goods shops in Paris are forced to limit the amount of goods Chinese shoppers can buy.However, the more masterful part of Fenby's work is to examine the underlying faults of the Chinese system, which appear in regular western parlance as little more than phrases like social inequality, or human rights violations. Fenby puts flesh on the bones and provides the stories behind the headlines. These range from the high level of people suffering from depression, the cases of human rights lawyers who have been arrested and arbitrarily tortured without trial or charges, to cases such as the 2011 Wenzhou Rail Disaster and the attempted cover up.Examinations of history are given, but without digressing too much into the details of the Maoist past. Rather, the chapter on history, rather appropriately entitled "Owning History" is an expose on how the Communist Party have the final say on history, at least in the Mainland.A major theme in the book, and again, one of those words which is often circulated but without providing much details, is corruption. Here we are given the extent of China's corruption, leading from embezzlement and bribes of local officials, incorrect and dangerous product safety, and the extent that nearly everyone is implicated and exposure of corruption, in the case of Bo Xilai, has more to do with falling out with the party consensus rather than the actual crimes themselves.Corruption and environmental degradation are presented as the major obstacles that could derail China's ascent.The other aspect, often circulated in the news, is China's impending property bubble. Fenby takes neither a bullish nor a bearish line, and takes into account the severity of this bubble, but also accounts for the state controls and nature of the Chinese system, a system which could, conceivably, see off a major market disruption and avoid a Japanese style lost decade.Toward the end of the book, Fenby offers a fairly clear and revealing picture of China's outgoing and incoming leaders, with more information provided on Xi Jinping than previous news accounts have provided, making him less of the dark horse this reader previously viewed him as.The only discernible fault with the work, and it's no real fault of the author's, is the difficulty of writing an up to date work on politics, no matter how fast the turnover time from printing to publication. By the time of this books publication in June 2012, a major character within the book, Bo Xilai, was already removed from the political scene. No need to recount the very familiar circumstances of his removal.This book is a recommended read for both China newcomers and bonafide Sinologists. Having read over 12 books on China in recent years, and having lived in China for 3 years, this still informs this leader of new things, and consolidates previously acquired knowledge.This is a book that should be read by all, regardless of how tepid, or strong, one's interest in China is.

Good condition on the mysterious economic march in modern history of the spectacular rise of China but with all faults unveiled by the experienced informed Jonathan Fenby former Editor of the South China Press. A brilliant book by a superb writer that leaves a massive legacy of knowledge to posterity for a more aware readership.

This is not a history of China but records what China was, what China is, and most importantly what it may become by discussing political,economic,social and regional elements that make up China.Very well written and researched by an ex editor of The South China Morning Post who demonstrably has a feeling and understanding of how China works which for many less well versed authors is a complete mystery.Ther is a good section on notes and a elect bibliography.Highly recommended.

Explodes, sweeps up and then neatly rearranges so much of what one thought one knew about China. Essential reading for anyone engage in studies on China, intending to live there for an extended period of time or just very interested by the country's current affairs. One warning note (though it shouldn't dissuade the curious): economics often escapes me, and so some explanations here I found quite heavenly and boring - my own fault really, should read up. Just be warned for those similarly lacking that knowledge.