I Have Seen the World Begin

by Jensen, Carsten

• ISBN13: 9780151007684
• ISBN10: 0151007683
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-03-01
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Summary

When Carsten Jensen set out by train from Denmark on a journey to the East, he expected to find lands of rich history and culture, and people undergoing radical change at the end of the twentieth century. In this illuminating narrative of his travels, there is this and much, much more. Fusing social commentary and history with vibrant descriptions of people and places, Jensen brilliantly evokes the sights, sounds, and smells of these venerable civilizations. He examines the reverberations of the Tiananmen Square massacre in China, always attuned to the restless air of expectancy in the country, but also finds time for remote concerts of ancient Chinese music. He renders the pervasive sense of destruction, despair, and loss in Cambodia with particular sensitivity, wondering at the specter of death that still hovers over the landscape. And it is in Vietnam, with its palpable legacy of colonialism and war, that Jensen ultimately loses himself in an extraordinary love affair.At once compelling and richly informative, I Have Seen the World Begin is an incredible journey.

Author Biography

Born in 1952, Carsten Jensen made his name as a columnist and literary critic for the Copenhagen daily Politiken. During the 1990s he had several major press assignments around the world, including Yugoslavia and several cities in Asia. The author of six collections of essays and two novels, Jensen lives in Copenhagen.

Table of Contents

Maps
China	ix
Cambodia	x
Vietnam	xi
A Brief Prologue	1	(4)
China: The Highest Mountains
Days of Glass	5	(7)
A Man with a Shopping Bag	12	(5)
Night on the Shanghai Express	17	(3)
An Unbelievable Number of People	20	(3)
The Joy of the Stunted	23	(2)
A Clown in the Arena of Words	25	(3)
Big Bang	28	(6)
The Long River	34	(9)
A Fight in Chinese	43	(5)
Nature's Stop Sign	48	(6)
The Artistry of Violation	54	(8)
Upwards, Ever Upwards	62	(4)
A Shameful Rebel	66	(17)
In the Heart of Civilization	83	(2)
Partisans of Love	85	(7)
The Music of Old Men	92	(3)
The Biggest Tiger in the World	95	(6)
As the Wall in Space, So the Book Pyre in Time	101	(4)
Out of the Clay Pit	105	(2)
A Blessing for the Traveller	107	(4)
Cambodia: Hour of the Tiger
Invention of a Nation	111	(12)
A Scar on the Landscape	123	(9)
Propaganda with a Stammer	132	(2)
S-21: Where the World Vanishes	134	(5)
The Children's Revolution	139	(10)
With Greetings from a Tree	149	(5)
Confession of a Fratricide	154	(6)
Black Spaces on the Globe	160	(20)
River Patrol to the End of the Earth	180	(13)
Pure Evil	193	(5)
The Woman under the Rain Tree	198	(5)
Vietnam: Arrival on Earth
Motorized Flowers	203	(2)
A Chink in the Wall	205	(15)
Victor Hugo and the Coconut Monk	220	(7)
Man is Like a Bamboo Shoot	227	(20)
Would I Could Own the Face of Eternity	247	(7)
Land of Women	254	(5)
A Garden City	259	(6)
Ask the Immortals about the Meaning of Life	265	(7)
The Snow Behind Thien Mu Pagoda	272	(4)
The Eunuchs' Graveyard	276	(6)
Remote-controlled Death and Murderous Innocence	282	(11)
Scent of Spring and Harvest Moon	293	(9)
Intimacies between Strangers	302	(11)
Embroidery is their Native Land	313	(9)
The Simplest of all Gifts	322	(11)
Parting is the Little Sister of Death	333