William Kinmond’s What a newsman found who got into red China and Mark Salzman’s Iron and Silk

William Kinmond’s What a newsman found who got into red China and Mark Salzman’s Iron and Silk

In William Kinmond’s “What a newsman found who got into red China” and Mark Salzman’s Iron and Silk, the reader experiences a mental ride of China. Both Salzman and Kinmond use subtlety and skill to write about what they found in Red China. The texts’ have somewhat different subject matters because each writer visited China with different motives and at different time periods. As the title suggests, Kinmond who goes to China in 1957 is there to report for the Canadian newspaper ‘The Globe and Mail’. On the other hand, Salzman goes to China in 1982 to teach English. Nonetheless, both writers’ construction of Red China and its people can be zeroed in with the help of one important issue; their coverage of train transport. Trains are by far the main means of transport in China and most people’s lives are centered around them. Although, through the analysis of train travel, both Salzman and Kinmond construct the Chinese people, Salzman concentrates on the government connection in train transport while Kinmond concentrates on the actual conditions aboard a train.

Salzman’s first point about government interference is that travel officials are on a power trip when it comes to dealing with travelers. Since the communist government controls and governs all aspects of train business, Salzman vividly constructs the relationship between the people and the government. He shows that unlike in his home country of USA, travel officials in China go out of their way to deliberately interfere with people’s travels. After two years of teaching English and learning kung-fu in China, Salzman’s received lots of gifts from hi...

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...r the reader through their coverage of train travel although they each largely concentrate on the different aspects of it. Salzman illustrates that the government is present in all aspects of train travel in china and people have to put up to its way of running the show. Kinmond shows that the train accommodation is of so low key, but the Chinese people put up to it anyway. Their similar observation concerning government propaganda soliciting should show the ‘the cause and effect’ relationship between government interference and bad accommodation.

Works Cited List:

Chui, May. Student at Lafayette College. An interview with her in the library. April 11, 2001.

Kinmond, William. “What a Newsman Found Who Got into Red China”. US News and World Report. New York. August 9th, 1957.

Salzman , Mark. Iron and Silk . Vintage Departments . New York (1986).