Product Description

In booming Shanghai, Mark Kitto hit the big time. The Financial Times called him a ‘mini media mogul’. One weekend, Mark escapes to Moganshan, a dilapidated mountaintop village built by foreigners in the early 1900s as a summer retreat. It’s a familiar story: Mark falls in love with the place and decides to restore one of the villas, as if he were in Tuscany or Provence. But here the familiarity ends. The process is full of the usual pitfalls – but multiplied to the nth degree, Chinese-style. And then, when he dramatically loses his business empire to the Communist Party, what began as a weekend getaway becomes much more: Mark moves his family up the mountain and makes Moganshan his home. The ex-tycoon has gone ‘China Cuckoo’. Funny, touching and inspiring, Mark’s story gives a very different view of China today – from someone who’s chosen to stay.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #80719 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-26
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
A genuinely fascinating insight into life in rural China, written with humour and nerve. --Daily Telegraph

A fascinating and often hilarious insight into China and the Chinese. --Good Book Guide

Evocative and lyrical. --Irish Times

About the Author
Mark Kitto was a Captain in the Welsh Guards before he became a metals trader in London and then China. His series of That’s listings magazines became the most successful English language publications in China. On the verge of signing the groundbreaking deal that would make him the first authorised foreign publisher, the Communist Party took over his business. He is still in a legal wrangle over copyright. Variously accused of being a spy, pornographer and terrorist, he retreated to Moganshan where he now lives with his wife and two children. The family runs a successful coffee shop that is bringing foreigners back to the mountain for the first time since the Communists came in 1949.

Customer Reviews

Shanghai-ed but not defeated
After being bored senseless reading books about people's accounts of their migration to foreign fields - usually to not so far away countries like Spain, France or Italy - it was a relief to find that one that was not saccharine sweet but instead was enlightening and also very entertaining.

The difference is that Mark Kitto has upped sticks to live in a country, China, that whilst economically is expanding rapidly, still is rather mysterious and possesses a culture that is totally alien to our own. This means that instead of the usual twee tale, which would mainly concern making friends with the slightly eccentric locals and the getting of a water supply, Kitto has a much darker, grittier story to tell.

He tells us how, after building a highly successful magazine publishing empire in Shanghai, he lost nearly everything after the Chinese authorities forced him out of business. He tells us why he fell in love with the remote mountain region of Moganshan, and the struggles he faced once he and his wife decide to purchase property there. He tells us about the house fire that came close to destroying this property soon after it was renovated. He tells us about the coffee shop he opened in the village, which whilst very successful now, struggled initially due to interference from the authorities. He tells us about typhoons and the extreme cold, corruption and culture clashes.

Despite all the problems he has faced it is clear that Kitto loves China and, whilst not necessarily being in agreement with how they go about things, both understands and respects the Chinese people.

China Cuckoo is so well written that after reading it I too can better understand the mysterious land that is China.

Utterly charming
What do you do when the Chinese Government steals your magazine empire?

Retreat, in retirement to the hills of Moganshan, a former colonial era Hill Station, open a coffee shop in a former brothel, and turn misfortune on its head.

Mark Kitto is a beguiling narrator and this memoir, one of the funniest and most honest accounts of a foreigner's experiences in China that you could wish for. Utterly charming.

A very good read - recommended
Even if you don't travel to China you will find this a very easy and interesting read, as it's a nice blend of a very personal story intertwined with the history of the area (From just over 100 years ago up to modern day China)
There are many amusing annecdotes, and if you do travel or live in the region you will easily relate to a lot of what is written.
Lastly, if you get a chance, do visit Moganshan it's literally a breath of fresh air!