Xi’s China is a seminal piece of work by Edel Secondat which takes stock of the decade 2010-2020 from a sociologist’s viewpoint and comes up with people-centric observations on a society in churn. Much has been written about the transformation that has taken place in China, especially of the mind blowing infrastructure that has been developed, that makes even the United States look dated! But there is much more happening in China that needs to be recorded and understood. Digitisation has transformed society to the extent that a new nation is breaking ground.

In this book, the reader is invited to peer inside the Chinese laboratory and tread the path taken by the author. Edel Secondat’s observations are neither pro-China nor Sino-phobic. But he tells his story with the skill of a great raconteur, the passion of an avid seeker and the clinical analysis of a precisionist. Once far away China seems now so close, with both her best and worst aspects clearly visible. The author, who lived and worked there, tells us the story of the tale he witnessed, in his inimitable style.

Edel Secondat is a graduate from the La Sorbonne university philosophy department, where he studied sociology under Professor François Vatin. After graduating from the University, he spent a wide part of the decade 2010-2020 in the Peoples Republic of China, wandering across the land and interacting closely with the people. During his sojourn through China, he wrote letters to Professor Vatin, encapsulating his observations of important social issues that Xi’s China raises and how they impacted the people. These letters discussed not just contemporary China, but also attempted to throw light on some trends common to all societies and form the basis for this book.

The author, who also translates classical Chinese poetry, has written this book under the pseudonym Edel Secondat, primary because he chose to depict Chinese society as he saw it, without fear or embellishment. He chose to call a cat a cat, but such a course can invite negative consequences in a country where curiosity, as the author states, can kill more than the proverbial cat. Hence the pseudonym!