The essential China condensed into a new 'little red book'

Dr Stephanie Donald, co-author of two books that give new insight on China.

Chairman Mao's little red book was an icon of the Chinese Cultural Revolution — now a new (predominantly) red book of less than 130 pages provides a remarkably rich insight to contemporary China and its people.

The State of China Atlas — co-authored by Murdoch Media Studies lecturer Dr Stephanie Donald — may not inspire a revolution, but it does provide a uniquely-accessible and invaluable source of information both for seasoned China watchers and the simply curious.

Don't be misled by the term 'atlas'. This is an eminently readable little volume, imaginatively illustrated to make it easy to assimilate what might seem daunting data about this nation of more than one billion people.

Dr Donald, and her colleague Professor Robert Benewick, of the University of Sussex, have managed to encapsulate the essential China in five chapters covering demographics, the economy, the Party State, society, the environment — and to add a sixth with the engaging title 'Unfinished Business', which looks to China's future and its commitment to sustainable development.

Donald and Benewick faced the challenge of making China, the enigma that is feted as a friend and feared as a potential enemy, comprehensible to a wide audience.

The sheer weight of statistics on China would have suggested that this task required several large volumes and pages of tables, but the authors, working closely with illustrators, have managed to create a book that is appealing to the general reader's eye, and to those requiring authoritative, hard data.

The role of Chinese youth features prominently in posters produced during the Cultural Revolution. Picturing Power in the People's Republic of China includes many full colour plates from the University of Westminster collection.

Chinese traditional epigrams, culled from Benewick's vast collection, add a piquancy to the introduction of each section. The section on population, for example, is headed 'You cannot wrap fire in paper' and the population 'clock' recording China's increase in population graphically illustrates the futility of available solutions to stem the growth: an increase of 24 a minute, 34,835 a day, more than one million a month! And the population growth is grossly unbalanced, with women in China (unlike trends elsewhere) increasingly outnumbered by men — despite the fact that women are living longer than men. Last year the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences estimated that one in six men (110 million) would not be able to find a wife.

China's phenomenal growth as a trading nation is summed up in the saying 'When an arrow is on a string it must go', and Go! China did in the decade of the nineties — rising from 15th largest trading nation in 1990 to fourth by 1997 (including Hong Kong). Australia still figures (just) in China's top 12 trading partners, but perhaps surprisingly is behind countries such as Singapore and the Netherlands.

The chapter 'Unfinished Business' reveals impressive details of China's plans for the future.

Among the developments are China's gender empowerment measures which now rank the nation above many Asian nations and just behind France; its commitment to be spending 1.5% of GDP on the environment by the end of this year, and demonstrable moves to promote economic and social sustainable development, including the establishment of 71 experimental sustainable communities.

But Dr Donald's research also reveals the paradox that is China. In a 1998 speech President Jiang Zemin 'vowed that China would never adopt Western-style democracy', but this has not stopped a symbol of Western Democracy — the Palace of Westminster (including a replica of Big Ben) being incorporated into a major housing estate on the Pearl River delta!

Acting to Academe

A passion for acting lured Stephanie Donald away from her study of China after completing an honours degree at Oxford, but her return to the research field has resulted in a prolific publication output.

The Atlas is one of three books on China that Dr Donald has been involved in recently, and their range of topics and style of presentation reflect her eclectic research interests in this nation, its people and its culture.

Not unexpectedly, the other two books (and a fourth being researched) are in the broad context of the media in Chinese culture.

Launched simultaneously with the Atlas, Picturing Power in the People's Republic of China examines the social impact and influence of posters during the period of the Cultural Revolution.

Dr Donald co-authored this volume with Harriet Evans, Senior Lecturer in Chinese at the Centre for the Study of Democracy at the University of Westminster.

The third book examines film in China and the latest research is an examination of Australia's multiculturalism in practice through a review of the impact of Australian media on first-generation mainland Chinese migrants.