Stolen China

Maria Hrycaiko Zaputovich lectures in Chinese, Russian, and Japanese
history at the universities of Guelph and Toronto.

In this novel, John Fraser, former China correspondent for The Globe and
Mail, demonstrates a flair for satire. The plot, in brief, is this:
Jamie Halpert, a Canadian investigative journalist, stumbles onto a
conspiracy involving the illegal export of rare Chinese porcelain and is
swept into a maelstrom of corruption.

While the secondary characters are effectively drawn, the central
character, Halpert, is too naive and trusting to be convincing as a
journalist; moreover, his relationship with his wife, Sui-san, seems
devoid of real intimacy.

Finally, while Fraser may be knowledgeable about Chinese porcelains and
pressroom politics, he commits a gaffe when he calls the Cantonese
language a “dialect.”