CTn Interview: Zachary Mexico's China Underground – Arts & Entertainment

China Underground, Zachary Mexico's first book, is an edgy look at margins of modern China—and it's a real page-turner. Mexico mixes it up with the masses, returning with sixteen moving tales of unique individuals "trying to figure out what's going on, trying to carve a place out for themselves in the new China." There's a journalist, a "pink shop" prostitute and a closeted homosexual; an unhappy top university student and a happy pack of Wuhan punk rockers. There are peasants, filmmakers, photographers, "ethnic minorities," hustlers, bohemians and slackers. There's even a Nigerian drug dealer, a Uighur rock guitar whiz and a "killer." All of them tell their stories in their own words, with Mexico carefully observing, questioning, listening and narrating—but never judging.