Quiet Rebellion Emony in Tiananmen Square in 2014, Conclusion That Britain, If Only Ing Up

28 May/29 May 2016 ★ FTWeekend 9 Books divided by regions, sectors and by individuals, nowhere more so than among the country’s 300m inhabitants aged Game changers between 16 and 30. Eschewing generali- ties, Ash hopes that “single dots can form an image, and six notes can make England’s finest footballing hour is conjuredupin amelody”. Politics as such plays little part in the a memoir of adolescence, writes Mark Damazer narrative,exceptforintheswitchesand ruminations of Fred, who ends up in a boring teaching job, with a Taiwanese Congress of Vienna (“He entered boyfriend who gives courses in classical theroomaboyandleftitaman”). Chineseculture.Butthebookinevitably He is marvellous when describ- provokes the reader to ponder how ing the micro milieu around the this restless, ambitious generation can family home in Noel Road, Isling- be contained by the mantras offered by ton. Jayne Mansfield and her hus- XiJinping. band appear in a big black car out- Ash’s subjects grew up in a privileged side the print factory at the top of time.Economicexpansionwasstrongin the road, a bomb crater is filled by the early part of this century and was “luxury flats” owned by celebrity then bolstered by a huge credit publisher Anthony Blond, Harold programme launched at the end of OutofTime:1966andthe Wilson’s mysterious friend Lord 2008. The hangover is now kicking in, End of Old-Fashioned Britain Kagan arrives every weekend in a with the state-sponsored press in by Peter Chapman Jaguar to stay with his mistress, disarrayabouthowtorespondgiventhe Bloomsbury £18.99, 288 pages and two men are living together needtopreservepartypower. uptheroad—whoturnouttobe Incontrasttothattop-downethos,the JoeOrtonandKennethHalliwell. people whose lives are charted in this ondon was swinging, Football is threaded through- book have retained their individuality England’s football team out, captured from the point of was on the verge of view of fans, bit-part players and glory, the Beatles and international stars. As a decent Aspiring punk star Lucifer the Stones were in their teenage goalkeeping prospect for goes to London to win Lpomp, there was full employment unfashionable Leyton Orient and —andblissitwastobePeterChap- BedfordTown,Chapmanprovides a ‘global competition’ that man, a sporty,sharp-witted gram- an intimate perspective on foot- does not fulfil his dreams mar school boy from Islington. ball low life — a part of the foot- Young people at the airport in Martin Parr’s ‘Hong Kong’ (2013) — Magnum Photos But,ofcourse,itisnotsosimple. balling universe that may not Chapman’s subtle evocation of have changed much since 1966. within the system, able to duck 1966 does not make the claim that His adventures as a fan read more and weave to make their way in life. everything was suddenly “cooler”, surprisingly. The police take no Ash recalls that, watching the televi- more tolerant and cosmopolitan interest as he wanders on to the sion broadcasts of the National Day cer- — but he nudges the reader to the pitch when the players are warm- Quiet rebellion emony in Tiananmen Square in 2014, conclusion that Britain, if only ing up. He seeks out famous play- “many of the elder generations shed a tentatively, was sloughing off lay- ers in London hotels and many of patriotic tear [but] among young Chi- ers of post-second world war dow- them seem keen to hang around nese there was a combination of cyni- dinessandfindingsomepzazz. andmakesmalltalk. A closely observed study of China’s millennials offers a provocative portrait cism and genuine pride in their country OutofTimedescribeswithcharm Nobody expected England to do — often at the same time”. His subjects and self-deprecating humour the well in the World Cup, apart from are apolitical in the sense that they have attractions of sexual fumbling, theirtenseandlonelymanagerAlf of a fast-changing society riven by internal contradictions, says Jonathan Fenby been brought up to accept the party’s holidays abroad, the London Ramsey. But England were post-1989 bargain that it will ensure music scene, Chinese food and improving and they got lucky, people get richer so long as they leave much else. But this joyous book, a helped by the spacing of fixtures, the power politics to it. But the real memoir of late adolescence laced choice of venues and, famously, longside the flow of books Wish Lanterns: China, from the revolution that over- scopeofpoliticsreachesfarmorewidely with social and football history, is the referees. For decades after the on China’s politics, econ- Young Lives threw the empire to Hong Kong’s 2014 in today’s China, where people have also a catalogue of both the untidi- 1966 win, England teams were omy, history and interna- in New China Umbrella protests, along with glimpses become liberalised in their everyday nessandthelimitsofchange,anda bathed in patriotic hyperbole tional relations, a consider- by Alec Ash intosuchvariedspheresaskaraokepar- lives in many ways, even if the regime reminder that even in London wildly disproportionate to their able literature has grown Picador £16.99 lours, the far western territory of Xin- continues to lock up human rights law- opportunities were circumscribed actual virtues; not so in the only Aup in recent years describing the lives of 336 pages jiang and the stultifying rote education yers and dissidents. Growth and job cre- andaspirationsoftenthrottled. year of real English football suc- the people who inhabit the new super- system. The half-dozen characters are ation comes mainly from private com- In Chapman’s world, those who cess, when the soon-to-be legends power. Young Chinese have come in for all interesting in their different ways, be panies; meanwhile, Xi calls for innova- made it past the big hurdle of the were largely seen as journeymen particular attention in works about and it the aspiring punk rock star who goes tionbutdefendsthestate. 11-plus exam but were from the untilalmostthefinalitself. sometimes by the country’smillennials, to London to win a “global competition” The people in this book are not rebels wrong side of the tracks could not Chapmandoeshistoryascollage, the generation born after the economic that does not fulfil his dreams, the in the classic sense; even Lucifer, the hope for much more than their and events fly by — the Rhodesia reforms launched by Deng Xiaoping in deeply serious Fred, who moves punk musician, has an eye for the main parents — at least at Highbury crisis, the theft of the World Cup the late 1970s that transformed the thought, internal mobility, foreign through successive political stages and chance in the system. But they display a Grammar. His account of school trophy, the Aberfan disaster, country — and the world. They did not travelandaccesstotheinternet. concludes that “the only ideology left degree of free-spiritedness that may life is devastating: of being “leath- marchesinNorthernIreland—but know the privations and terror of the AlecAsh’sbookisafineadditiontothe was pragmatism”, or the tattooed fash- surprise those who believe conformity ered”acrosshisfacefornothaving there are telling observations MaoZedongyearsandwereonlyinfants field, one of the best I have read about ionistawhocarriesaknuckledusterand mustruleinthelastmajorLeniniststate therightsportskit,ofaschoolmas- about Britain’s relative economic whenthetanksrolledthroughBeijingin the individuals who make up a country whose mobile phone case is inscribed on earth. How those spirits will coexist ter who could not abide one pupil decline: “As a matter of course, we 1989 to suppress the student demon- that is all too often regarded as a mono- “BITCH: Beautiful Independent That with the preservation of a People’s getting 100 per cent in a Latin test had learned in our post-war lives strators, and kill many more of the lith, but which abounds in diversity on CanHandleanything”. Republic that bears distinct resem- and retaliated by chopping 10 per that Britain had the best of every- residents living along the route to multiple levels. Fluently written with This is not a complete picture; there blances to the empires of old is a major cent off everyone’s marks, of a thing in the world — the finest air TiananmenSquare. nice touches of humour, Wish Lanterns are no factory workers or migrants question for our times, for which this clever boy with Cambridge poten- force, army, empire, motorbikes, As Xi Jinping tries to impose a new focuses on six members of the younger labouring in menial jobs, nor any repre- book supplies much food for thought, tial being jeered and buried under goalkeepersandsoon . evidence conformity on the nation, one key ques- generation,contemporariesofAshhim- sentatives of the plutocratic families informing the wider debate while classroomfurniture. to the contrary,however,had been tion is of the reaction from people in self. Some are identified by unexpected who have prospered so enormously retaining its value as a closely observed Chapman himself — now an FT building up for some time.” It is their twenties and early thirties who are English names such as Lucifer, Snail from their country’s growth. But gener- pictureofhowsomeChineselivetoday. journalist — was heading for a job dexterouslydone,nostalgicbutnot accustomed to a way of life very differ- and,forawomanacademic,Fred,butall alisingaboutChinaisadangerousgame, as a clerk in the town hall, having sugary,andveryenjoyable. ent from that preached by Communist arerecognisablypartofthenewChina. as shown by the way in which forecasts JonathanFenbyisauthorof‘WillChina failed to impress

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