Inside The Red Mansion: On the Trail of China's Most Wanted Man

ISBN: 0547053509

Author: August, Oliver

Condition: New

The notorious gangster Lai Changxing started out as an illiterate farmer, but in the tumult of Chinas burgeoning economy, he seized the opportunity to remake himself as a bandit king. A newly minted billionaire of outsized personality and even greater appetites, he was a living legend who eventually ran afoul of authorities. The journalist Oliver August set out to find the fugitive Lai. On his quest he encountered a highly entertaining series of criminals and oddball entrepreneurs-and acquired unique insight into the paradoxes of modern China. Part crime caper, part travelogue, part trenchant cultural analysis, Augusts page-turning account captures Chinas giddy vibe and its darker vulnerabilities.