Sacha Trudeau takes personal look at China
Filmmaker with famous last name becomes part of the story in new book
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Trudeau in China.
Most immediately, the words bring to mind something so recent the figurative ink is barely dry: our prime minister’s state visit to the country earlier this month.
After that, depending on your generation, you might think of Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s Chinese sojourns, among them a trip as a young labour lawyer in 1960 (commemorated in a book written with fellow traveller Jacques Hebert, Two Innocents in Red China), and another as a visiting former head of state in 1990, his two oldest sons in tow.
The younger of those, Alexandre (known almost exclusively as Sacha), has gone on to tread a path decidedly private by family standards — studying philosophy and serving a two-year stint in a military officer training program before producing and directing a series of well-regarded but only fleetingly shown geopolitical travel documentaries. Now comes his most public gesture: His first book, on a subject that is growing ever more connected to the family name.
Barbarian Lost: Travels in the New China (HarperCollins, 289 pp, $33.99) is a work in the spirit of V.S. Naipaul’s celebrated India travelogues, an on-the-ground, agenda-free inquiry into a place that does not reveal its essence easily.
Trudeau ranges beyond the standard iconic spots, going to factories, forlorn industrial parks, nondescript suburbs, left-behind villages, talking with everyone from prominent newspaper editors to taxi drivers. Where he differs from the self-effacing Naipaul is in his willingness, indeed his eagerness, to insert himself into the story. Barbarian Lost is as much about its author’s search for self as the place he is exploring.
Chatting last week in an intimate Sherbrooke St. café just down the hill from where he lives with his wife and three young children in the art deco house once occupied by his father, the boyish 42-year-old exudes the zeal of the true enthusiast.
He could easily have happily filled our allotted time talking about the fine points of the Han and Song dynasties. Steered gently toward more contemporary issues, he infused his observations with a solid underpinning of histories both ancient and recent, and of how Confucianism and the Tao coexist with new market-driven realities.
“It’s important to remember how isolated China was for so long, and that it has been overcrowded, under demographic pressure forever,” he said. “The lid has been on tight; it has been a pressure cooker. And for that reason, codification of the society became extremely important. That’s in Confucius, the idea that you’re born not as an individual but as a part of something. You have to be at peace with that and seek ways to do honour to your position, whatever it is.”
It’s hard not to find parallels here with Trudeau following literally and figuratively in his father’s China footsteps.
“Chinese culture has always had a strong strain of ancestor worship, the belief that we owe our existence to their sacrifice. Because I inherit a family name with a strong identity, I’ve probably been subject to that more than a lot of people. The Tao, which I relate to more, is much more about accepting chaos.”
Running through the book as both theme and subtext, is the issue of a vast and exploding economy’s environmental impact locally and globally. The subject is at its most immediate when a close-up look at the flooding wrought by the vast Yangtze dam project brings on something like an emotional breakdown for the author.
“I really struggled with that chapter, until I realized that depression and the environment kind of go together,” Trudeau said with a chuckle. “Smog, for one, is a character in the book — it’s always there. As recently as 10 years ago, everyone was saying ‘We want a car, air conditioning, flush toilets,’ but the Chinese are very conscious of (environmental concerns) now. Poor air quality is one of the main motivators for migration out of the country. The other is the feeling ‘this (prosperity) could all go up in smoke at any moment.’ The Chinese instinct is to be super cautious.”
Asked how much the idea of Canada resonates with the Chinese, Trudeau said: “We like to ramp up the importance of people like (Norman) Bethune and (Pierre) Trudeau, but now it’s probably more Dashan (Mark Rowswell), the Canadian comic who’s there. They don’t need Justin Bieber. They’ve got their own pop stars. It does seem that they’ve really taken notice of my brother, but maybe more in a movie star way, like ‘Wow, what a dashing figure.’ ”
At one point in the book, a mention of Taiwan’s sovereignty movement leads to a few thoughts about Quebec’s similar, yet very different history.
“I’ve never been one for ethnic nationalism,” said Trudeau, “and I would hope, and have always hoped, that it will never prevail in Canada. The world’s getting worse, and Canada is a beacon of light and hope. At the same time, in a philosophical sense, I believe in self-determination, in people getting to choose what is best for them. The truth is the grievances on which the (Quebec sovereignty) movement was based were real. Montreal was a city run by an anglophone minority. There was a fair bit of injustice until the 1970s, but that’s gone. Les Québécois sont maîtres chez eux. They have their future in their own hands and they’re thriving within Canada.”
Trudeau has had a uniquely spotlight-lit life, of course, but it still needs to be asked whether the reflected attention that presumably comes with having a prime minister sibling — and a movie-star PM at that — might impinge on his ability to go about his work in reasonable anonymity. Does the new book itself, with the author pictured front and centre on the cover, signal a new willingness to be a public figure?
“Well, I was always in my documentaries,” he said. “If you’re saying a book is a more permanent thing than something shown on TV, I suppose that’s true. It’s candid. You’re deeply with me in this book, but it’s not like someone else wrote it. It’s mine. I have control over the picture of myself I present, and I’m at peace with it.”
And what about daily life in the city he has called home for most of his adult life? Can he still walk the streets of downtown Montreal in reasonable peace?
“Absolutely. That’s part of why it’s my favourite place. My father did the same thing. Apart from the occasional tourist, people here are genuinely cool in a deep way. There’s the (small-r) republican feeling that we’re all equal here. That whole ‘Can I have your autograph?’ thing is just not a Montreal way to be. So I doubt that will change.”
Did the prime minister pick the brains of his brother before his recent official visit to China?
“He didn’t have to, because he read my book, and the best of what I can say about China is in the book. He did say it got him feeling this place, and gave him an idea of what he might be dealing with. But it’s not as if I give him advice. He’s got professionals for that. His work is his, mine is mine. Besides, our family space is more important. He’s my brother.”
Writing his first book has taught Trudeau that “courage is more important than intellect. You have to be able to sit alone every day and tell yourself, ‘This is worth doing. It’s going to lead somewhere.’ ” He hinted that his next film will be his first foray into fictional feature-making.
And if he has any inclination to go into politics himself, he’s doing a very good job of hiding it.
“The answer to that is ‘No,’ and for two big reasons,” he said. “One is that I just don’t have the personality for it. To be always aiming to please … I just don’t know if I’d be capable of it. The other is that I love my life. I love walking my children to school. I love sitting unshaven in my basement writing, or going out travelling as a nobody. Why would I give those things up? I just don’t feel the compulsion. That being said, I’m vigilant, as all citizens should be. I stand up in this country when I think there’s injustice, and that has maybe grown more difficult with the government so close. But I still consider myself an outsider. Long ago, I chose a different way of doing things, and that remains true.”
It’s a claim conveniently and convincingly demonstrated a minute later as we leave the café and see a spontaneous lunchtime crowd forming at the nearby Ritz-Carlton. Montreal coolness notwithstanding, they were hoping for glimpses of famous folk arriving for the Global Fund conference inside: Bill Gates, London Mayor Sadiq Khan, rock star Bono, and, oh yes, PM-asrock-star Justin Trudeau.
Meanwhile, Sacha Trudeau, having said a warm goodbye, was off in the opposite direction. On his bicycle.
Barbarian Lost: Travels in the New China is being launched on Oct. 19 at Westmount Public Library, Victoria Hall, 4626 Sherbrooke St. W.
Chinese culture has always had a strong strain of ancestor worship, the belief that we owe our existence to their sacrifice.
One of the highlights of the year for bibliophiles is the Montreal Antiquarian Book Fair. This year, it features the largest collection of vintage books about Montreal ever assembled for sale in one place, and these are not people to make such claims lightly. A big part of the attraction is the simple thrill of standing among well-preserved old and rare books, and mingling with fellow appreciators. The fair takes place Saturday noon-6 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m.-5 p.m. in McConnell Pavilion at Concordia, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W. Tickets are $6 for both days.