Sacha Trudeau’s trek to China
The prime minister’s brother captures a glimpse of an emerging world superpower
Near the end of his book on the world’s emerging superpower, Barbarian Lost, Travels in the New China, Alexandre (Sacha) Trudeau interviews Milton Chang, a senior editor at Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post.
Chang asks the second son of one Canadian prime minister and younger brother of another, how he intends to tackle this immense subject and Sacha replies, candidly, “As a travel writer . . . my mission is to track glimpses, chosen moments that might reveal the grand affairs that lie beneath. Then sew them all together into something that’s fun and easy to read.”
By this metric, Trudeau succeeds admirably.
Over the course of his grand tour of the new China, he goes everywhere and chin wags with an exceedingly diverse crosssection of contemporary Chinese society: from peasants living in hovels in back country villages to sophisticates in superrich Shanghai, to internationally famous dissidents such as artist Ai Weiwei.
Aiding on this ambitious reportorial peregrination is a young Chinese woman named Vivien whom he’s employed as his translator.
Together, they make quite a duo — Sacha, brash and argumentative; Viv, demure and determined.
Ultimately, the topic that animates Trudeau’s book is the long-term consequences of China’s enormous economic success.
Ever the contrarian, the Jesuit-educated Sacha sometimes comes across as an apologist for Communist Party of China repression and, near the end of the book, Viv chides him on this point, “Are you still defending the CPC?”
To which the devil’s advocate Trudeau responds, “You realize I generally seek to disagree with people whose views I share. It forces us both to refine our ideas.”
Still, if there’s a political leitmotif in Barbarian Lost, it’s this: Can an economically powerful China also respect the human rights of its citizens? Can it truly “mature” into a democracy?
In one pointed exchange, editor Chang asks Trudeau whether people in Hong Kong are any less suited, or less deserving of the freedom Canadians enjoy. Trudeau answers that everyone deserves such rights, but concludes pages later that democracy will not dawn anytime soon. “The (CPC) dynasty is not yet crumbling . . . There will be no revolution. Only slow transformation.”
Other activists argue whether “democracy” is part of China’s DNA.
“The Chinese don’t have a mind for laws or rulers,” says artist Chen Danqing. “They are good at surviving and not asking meaning.”
Gratefully, Alexandre Trudeau’s book adds useful meaning to this raging debate over China’s future. Robert Collison is a Toronto writer and editor.