P.J. O'Rourke

The new issue of World Affairs ("A Journal of Ideas and Debate") features a short travelogue by P. J. O'Rourke called The Cleveland of Asia: A Journey Through China’s Rust Belt. In 2006, Mr. O'Rourke, a Cato Institute fellow and Atlantic correspondent, spent a month in China, visiting factories, Xi'an's famous Terra Cotta Warriors, the Three Gorges Dam and other charming locales to see how the place had changed since he was last there, in 1997, producing insights like the following: "The enormous dam was enormous. The scenic Three Gorges were scenic. And the mucky-looking reservoir that's filling the gorges looked mucky."

Mostly, it seems that Mr. O'Rourke was driven around in sleek black cars, invited to a lot of boozy meals by various factory owners and businesspeople (as well as someone who may have been Chinese secret police) and had a good time coming up with observational humor bits about Chinese people and Westerners that run along the lines of, "A white person eats like this. ... But a Chinese person eats like this!"  read more »