14 書香人物 P E R S O N A L I T Y & B O O K S SUNDAY, APRIL 26, 2009 • TAIPEI TIMES

[ HARDCOVER: US ] SUNDAY PROFILE

China’s other he first time that Sara Campbell blacked out T in the water, she was minority, in transported to a lush green field. It was summer, she says, and she was surrounded by gorgeous men whispering to her. “The their own eyes interesting physiological aspect of a blackout,” she says, “is that your Rebiya Kadeer’s book, ‘�Dragon���������������� Fighter,’ senses return one by one. Your gives an insider’s view on the plight hearing comes back first, and your sight last. So, in my meadow, I of the Uighurs could hear people whispering to me, and as my sight came back, I by HOWARD FRENCH was looking up at a blue sky; then NY Times News Service, new York suddenly I saw a boat, and water, and people around me, and I had It is the awkward fate of China, a moment of complete disconnect. more than any other country, to I was gone.” Seconds later she be arriving late to any number of heard, “You’re safe, you can parties where most other revelers breathe.” The gorgeous men were are either long gone or leaving, her safety divers. having declared the celebrations This isn’t the only time declasse. Such is the case with Campbell has been unconscious “ I realized you don’t China’s booming smokestack in the water. As one of the economy and with its ardent new world’s best, most fearless, free have to go through fling with the automobile, with its divers, hazard comes with the desire for a deep-water navy built job. It happened again earlier therapy, or weeks of around aircraft carriers, and with this month, as she attempted her its ambition for a space program most ambitious dive yet. feeling crappy — I that will land on the Moon. Competing at the Vertical China is also just beginning Blue competition in the Bahamas, could just jump in to grapple with the creation of Campbell set a world record in what most in the developed world the women’s constant weight the water and feel would recognize as a modern legal discipline, diving down 96m brilliant. system, and it is in much the same DRAGON FIGHTER: One Woman’s Epic with no oxygen and nothing to position with its cobbling efforts Struggle for Peace With China propel her except a mermaid-like to reinvent the welfare state. monofin. The film of that dive is — Sara Campbell, world Most anachronistic of all, By Rebiya Kadeer, with mesmeric: a tiny figure descending champion free diver though, is the country’s treatment Alexandra Cavelius along a dropped rope, her safety of its two largest minorities, the 423 pages divers dangling in the water Tibetans and Uighurs, both old, above her as she moves through although doctors have established Kales Press non-Han indigenous civilizations the green murk, plummeting that she has a lung capacity 25 that claim meaningful autonomy into silence. Just watching her is percent bigger than most people in China’s vast, resource-rich and enough to make you frantically her size, this doesn’t account for sparsely populated west. Our about the many humiliations draw breath — Campbell was her incredible aptitude. Many of Western legacy may give us little imposed by Beijing on the underwater, altogether, for three the world’s best free divers spend to cluck about, but in today’s Uighurs, including routine busi- minutes 36 seconds. hours every day in training, but world the rights and interests of ness harassment and forced That dive was celebrated when I ask Campbell whether she native peoples have rightly won abortions, massacres and barriers with a punch of the air, but the indulges in any of the more bizarre greater recognition. to trade and contact with other next one, five days later, wasn’t practices, she just laughs. “I don’t In this memoir, Dragon central Asian neighbors. so successful. Campbell was do technique training, strength Fighter, part defiant political On one level, Kadeer’s book determined to push herself to training, I don’t do lactic-acid tell-all, part engrossing personal is a routine account of recent the round figure of 100m, and tolerance … For me, the sport is saga, Rebiya Kadeer paints a Chinese history. Much more managed it, but as she reached the about the love of discovery. The vivid picture of her life as a interesting is its core autobio- surface she lost consciousness. numbers, the records themselves, mother of 11 and a business- graphical story: the remarkable The result was disqualification, Mighty Mouse the are incidental.” woman who spent nearly six rise from modest roots to a life as, and a level of exhaustion she’d A group of physicians at a years in prison on her way to the author claims, the wealthiest never experienced before. “I university in Italy have been becoming the Uighur people’s woman in China and a politically wasn’t even able to string a studying Campbell among a most prominent dissident. prominent member of the National sentence together. I got cold sores group of free divers, and have Even Westerners who pay People’s Congress. around my mouth and I thought, mermaid established that “people are relatively little attention to China Here, though, the book is my body is run down now. It’s not excelling in these areas as they will be at least vaguely familiar marred by language that betrays wise to put it through that again.” Four years ago she was a yoga teacher who had never even get older. It’s not like tennis or with the plight of Tibetans. limited modesty and perhaps even It’s not easy to fathom why free heard of free diving. Now Sara Campbell, aka Mighty Mouse, is football, where you have teenagers Such is not the case with the limited self-knowledge. divers put their bodies through and people in their early 20s Uighur, a central Asian people Through sheer force of such stress. Their sport involves the world champion in one of the world’s most dangerous sports being the superstars. It’s people who are distant relatives of personality Kadeer overcomes doing something counter-intuitive in their 30s. What the physicians the Turks and native to what a bad marriage to an abusive — diving far away from any By Kira Cochrane are interested in is how our more China calls the Xinjiang Uighur husband, then seeks out and oxygen source. And the physical The guardian, london advanced mental development and Autonomous Region, or the New marries a former political prisoner changes are significant. As soon self-belief — and ability to control Frontier, an area three and half and poet. as your face is immersed in water, squeeze”, when someone dives too to pay the bills,” and her sister had She hadn’t even heard of free stress and set goals — affects us.” times as large as California, whose Years later, having built a your heart rate slows. Then comes deep for their lungs to sustain the just had a baby. “I was incredibly diving, but Dahab is a center for Campbell’s next goal is to indigenous people look all but set fortune (and a big reputation) in peripheral vasoconstriction, in compression. “It might lead to a unhappy about that. I think deep the sport, and soon some of her reach the 100m mark — without to join the ranks of history’s great, department stores and real estate, which blood is drawn from your slight cough with a spot of blood, down I knew that she was very ful- yoga clients, noticing how long blacking out. At 37, she has gone overrun losers. Kadeer begins to attract the arms and legs towards your body’s to handfuls of blood coming out of filled in her life, and that I wasn’t.” she was able to hold her breath from an unhappy life in London One thing the Uighur, spelled wooing calls of the party. Her big core organs. As you descend your lungs. It happened to a girl in Campbell went on holiday to during meditation, suggested she to making her living from the Uyghur in this book, have never moment comes in a speech before further, your lungs contract to the the Bahamas, and she was diving Dahab, in Egypt, “and the only way try it. Her talent was immediately sport. “My initial motivation in had is a leader with great recogni- the Congress in Beijing, in which size of lemons, and on the ascent again in three or four days.” I can describe it is that someone obvious. Less than a year after free diving was just that it made tion outside China, like the Dalai she boldly switches the approved “the compression in the lungs is Although there have been opened a lid in my head and put a she started, she broke three world me so happy. I realized you don’t Lama, who has contributed a brief text to ask: “Is it our fault that the reversing. In the final stages of the deaths among people practicing note inside, saying: ‘This is where records in a single weekend. Then have to go through therapy, or introduction for this memoir. Chinese have occupied our land? dive, from 10m to the surface, the “no limits” free diving (which you’re going to live.’” She had been she won gold in the constant weeks of feeling crappy — I Kadeer writes: “Politicians and That we live under such horrible size of your lungs doubles.” involves being propelled much teaching yoga and meditation for weight category at the world could just jump in the water and human rights organizations from conditions?” Forbes magazine once named it further underwater on a weighted a year alongside her PR business, championships in Egypt. From feel brilliant. Even more so than all over the world were active on If not the first time she had the second most dangerous sport sled), Campbell emphasizes that so she arranged to set up classes nowhere, she was diving head- meditating in a yoga room, there behalf of Tibet. The conditions in spoken truth to power, it was in the world — after sky diving no one has ever died in any form at one of the local hotels. “Within to-head with the brilliant Natalia are no distractions. You don’t the Uyghur nation were much the certainly the beginning of the off buildings. Campbell, her 1.5m of competition. two weeks of moving there, I had Molchanova, an ex-Soviet fin have cars passing, or phones same. But interest from abroad in end. Soon afterward Kadeer was frame curled up on her boyfriend’s Four years ago, she had never rented a house with a camel. Bed- swimmer who is, in Campbell’s ringing, or people making a noise the two, though literally we were arrested. She was tried, impris- couch, denies this, although she even tried the sport — she was ouin kids shoved six kittens under words, “a consummate athlete.” in the next room, or dogs barking. next-door neighbors sharing a oned for nearly six years and admits free divers sometimes in her mid-30s, living in London, my door, a puppy got thrown over The pair still jostle for dominance It’s utter silence.” common border and both under exiled to the US. rupture their ear drums — “but running her own PR agency, and the wall, and there I was, all of a of the women’s sport. But doesn’t the water pressure Chinese occupation, could not This remarkable life is now that’s minor. You get a puncture feeling increasingly sad. She didn’t sudden, living in the middle of this Campbell has been nicknamed hurt? No, she laughs. “It’s more have been more dissimilar.” added to the saga of the Uighur in a piece of skin and it heals.” enjoy “the intense pressure to Bedouin village with a camel, six Mighty Mouse due to the strength like being rolled up in a duvet. It’s Kadeer writes perceptively people, a people without leaders. And there’s “a thing we call lung earn enough money each month cats and a dog.” of her diminutive body, and comforting — like a big hug.”

[ PAPERBACK : U K ] Slumdogs and superstars Shobhaa De applies her exuberant energies to dissecting Indian and Chinese cultures, and putting the world in general to rights. How shocking! by BRADLEY WINTERTON bursts between eating a chapatti in common with De’s homeland wait to hear what I think of them, adherence to austerity, and even almost everywhere. She recounts Contributing reporter and reaching for a glass of lassi, — fake goods openly on display now can you? sacrifice, and the affluent young’s meeting the UK’s Prince Charles A string of salacious novels, a and prompting exclamations of in licensed shops, seriousness It’s hard to unravel the penchant for cool spending, living (“Jug Ears”) and telling him the high-flying lifestyle, a glamorous Really? I don’t believe it! Too in putting the family first, and a author’s genuine feelings from all for the moment, and succumbing to novels she writes are “bodice- presence and consistently shocking! and How dare she? The willingness to answer personal this tangle of chatter. She does “the urge to splurge.” rippers,” takes a few days off in provocative opinions characterize effect is augmented by Penguin’s questions without batting an eyelid. have a lot to say about women, In this, De is what she is in St Moritz, and eats at “a very posh Shobhaa De, India’s best-selling decision to highlight what it “Just like India! ... I love it!” though any suggestion that she’s many other spheres of life — on Steak House in Dubai.” English-language author. In this deems to be key sentences in “What is the truth in China?” a feminist is received with horror the one hand still the affluent rebel There are many serious points, new book — to be published in bold type, and scatter the pages she writes. “Nobody knows. And in Indian academic circles. Indian who mentions the unmentionable though — that it suits politicians London next week — she embarks with other sentences reprinted nobody cares.” Should India be women are still too used to playing almost as a matter of course, to keep minorities insecure (“Hate on a round-up of aspects of life in large, magazine-style. This has the afraid of China? You bet! “With the second fiddle, she asserts, and she but at the same time also the creates vote banks. Tolerance modern India, from sex to money effect of drawing your attention world’s biggest standing army and sees Indian men as terrified by responsible matriarch. When it doesn’t. It’s that simple”), that food and fashion to politics, coming up to the text, while at the same time the soaring territorial ambitions a woman with her own opinions comes to religion, for instance, shortages are mostly man-made, with a sequence of racy taunts, ensuring you’re never tempted to they have, there’s no way we can and a disposable income. Marriage she’s quite happy with modern, as the Nobel laureate Amartya unsupported assertions and take any of it too seriously. sit back and relax.” Again, “Chinese for money, on the other hand, she laborsaving shortcuts when Sen demonstrated, and that the gushing enthusiasms. A section on her first visit to chicks will buy the lot — hand perceives as only natural. Sex is preparing for the great festivals single-child Chinese girl marrying This isn’t a book to look to for China is typical of De’s approach. creams, face creams, butt creams. probably more frequently indulged such as Diwali, while also hoping the single-child Chinese boy will measured analysis or a systematic She arrives in Shanghai (“the glitzy Chinese women will all want to be in by the younger generation, that India’s traditions, including have to look after two sets of thesis. De’s style is essentially that city on steroids that’s attracting Zhang Zilin (張梓琳).” On the other she believes, though underneath its spiritual ones, will survive. aging parents, her own and her of the magazine columnist faced the world’s high-rollers”) and finds hand, if China and India were to the boasts and bravado many (Are the young concerned about husband’s. Poverty, domestic with readers with short attention its airport superior to the one combine their economic energies, traditional attitudes prevail. poverty and interested in snake violence, dowry-deaths, the spans — catchy phrases, a would- at Mumbai (“Have garbage. Will they could dominate the world. SUPERSTAR INDIA: Money is an even more promi- charmers? She’s not too sure). treatment of Muslims, the way be-shocking honesty, exclamation throw.”). She thinks the Chinese This is a book that you imagine From Incredible to Unstoppable nent topic in Superstar India than She can be sardonic. “When Western women on their own in points in abundance, and para- have got the tourism business right was written by someone with a sexual attitudes. De is the mother all else fails, we pull out Gandhi,” India tend to get groped — none of graphs that end with Right now! too — “... the basic infrastructure, flowery hat and a tight-fitting sari, By Shobhaa De of six and the financial habits she writes, and counts four Paris these are swept under the carpet. You bet! Scary! or Crazy or what? good roads, decent hotels, sweeping you through airports 456 pages of the young — brash, aggres- restaurants named after the “Am I being a cynical bitch?” De’s cast of mind and her clean and well-organized sites, with her redoubtable energy and sive, ignorant, and obsessed with Mahatma. Vegetarian and teetotal she asks at one point. Probably not. Penguin style are, of course, connected. inexpensive food and no touts or unstoppable flow of opinions. brands and labels — come in for establishments? “Hell, no — beef This garrulous book tells you a lot Superstar India, you feel, is a beggars harassing the unwary.” Come along, darlings, it’s the some criticism. She sees herself as pasanda and Burgundies galore on about modern India, even though book intended to be read in short But in other ways China has a lot Chinese next, and I bet you can’t stranded between her own father’s all these menus.” And she’s been it’s best taken in rather small doses.