Strangers Across the Border: Indian Encounters in Boomtown China by Reshma Patil [Book Review]

strangers across the border

Few things seem to cut off communication more than the virtual line that separates two countries; never more so, perhaps, than in the relationship between India and China,arguably the two most important countries in Asia. Despite their close proximity, or perhaps due to it, the two countries’ relations can be described as strained at best, rarely progressing past mere cross-border trade. Investment, while growing, is still much lower than the size of their economies would suggest it ought to be. Both countries tend to follow their respective goals alone, despite several areas of potential cooperation (such as climate change and intellectual property).

Strangers Across the Border by Reshma Patil, is motivated by this division. The book is less an in-depth analysis of the China-India relationship than a recollection of Patil’s time in China as a reporter for the Hindustan Times: one of a very small contingent of Indian reporters in China. This is primarily a book about China and Chinese attitudes (as opposed to one examining Indian attitudes to China), as Patil recounts her meetings with several Chinese and China-based Indians.

This is an except from a review of Strangers Across the Border: Indian Encounters in Boomtown China by Reshma Patil, originally published in the Asian Review of Books on September 14th, 2014. The full review can be accessed here.