WRITER

Ian Buruma

1951 - Today

Ian Buruma

Ian Buruma (born 28 December 1951) is a Dutch writer and editor who lives and works in the United States. In 2017, he became editor of The New York Review of Books, but left the position in September 2018. Much of his writing has focused on the culture of Asia, particularly that of China and 20th-century Japan. He was the Paul W. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Ian Buruma has received more than 300,039 page views. His biography is available in 19 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 18 in 2019). Ian Buruma is the 5,936th most popular writer (down from 5,486th in 2019), the 930th most popular biography from Netherlands (down from 829th in 2019) and the 57th most popular Dutch Writer.

Memorability Metrics

300k
Page Views (PV)
44.25
Historical Popularity Index (HPI)
19
Languages Editions (L)
3.31
Effective Languages (L*)
2.72
Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

God's Dust

Description and travel, Travel, Journeys

1989

Bad Elements

Public opinion, Politics and government, Dissenters

"Strange things happen when Chinese dynasties near their end. Dams break, earthquakes hit, clouds appear in the shape of weird beasts, rain falls in odd colors, and insects infest the countryside. These are the ill omens of moral turpitude and political collapse. While greed and cynicism poison the society from within, barbarians stir restlessly at the gates. Corrupt officials, whose authority can no longer rely on the assumption of superior virtue, exercise their power with anxious and arbitrary brutality. When people, even those who live far from the centers of power, begin to sense that the Mandate of Heaven is slipping away from their corrupted rulers, rebellious spirits press their claims as the saviors of China, with promises of moral restoration and national unity. Millenarian cults and secret societies proliferate and sometimes explode in massive violence."What does it mean to be Chinese? Few questions in history have been as fateful. Bad Elements is the result of Ian Buruma's five years of travels throughout the Chinese-speaking world observing the varying groups competing for a right to define its answer. From the diaspora of exiles in the West, to Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, to factions within the People's Republic itself, Buruma comes to terms with the range of dissident communities competing to shape China's future in their own image.A brave and illuminating reckoning with the groups fighting for the Mandate of Heaven, Bad Elements is also a profound meditation on the universal themes of national identity and political struggle.From the Hardcover edition.

2001

Wages of Guilt

Ethnopsychology, Moral and ethical aspects, Moral and ethical aspects of World War, 1939-1945

1994

The missionary and the libertine

East and West, International relations and culture, Cross-cultural studies

1996

Japanese mirror

Popular culture, Japanese National characteristics, Motion pictures

1984

Occidentalism

Civilization, Western influences, Western Civilization