I don’t know a lot about Chinese culture. I’ve been brought up in a generation in which the communist government has indeed been the “dragon” of many sermons and Sunday School lessons throughout my lifetime. Now, after reading Richard Ireton’s novel Awaken the Dragon I feel like I have gained an entirely new understanding of the Asian culture. Truly, David Aikman’s years as a reporter are brilliantly reflected in this unusual tale.
In many ways, this novel was very different from what I was expecting. With the sinister looking knife on the cover, I was expecting a fast-paced, action-thriller type book. Instead, I was immersed in the daily life of a foreign correspondent - Richard Ireton. The action was slower and more sinister, because you were exploring a very deliberate, very otherworldly way of thinking. I appreciated David Aikman clarifying (at the end of course) the fact from fiction in the book, but as I suspected, a lot of the book is simply an accurate portrayal of what life is like when you are a reporter pursuing a story with dangerous world-wide ramifications. I especially enjoyed learning how a reporter must be constantly aware of the people in his environment and respect cultural nuances without offending anyone in order to gain the trust needed to ultimately get the story. It is a very dangerous game indeed!
America has always been the polar opposite of China. Many believe that China represents a very grave danger to our country as we approach the end-times before Christ’s return. Understanding what I do now, after reading this book, about Daoism, I have a better grasp of the danger that China represents – especially to the Christian faith. In this tale, Richard Ireton is a avowed skeptic. He lives his life in the moment and in hot pursuit of a breaking story. When he comes face to face with a sinister power not of this world, wielded by those who wish to overtake the Chinese government and vent their wrath upon Americans, he faces his own mortality in a new and deeper way. The fact that it is the Christian underground church members that come to his aide shows him that there is much beyond the realm of present reality which he must consider. Aikman does an excellent job of painting vivid word pictures of China, its people, and its culture.
The story draws you in, moment by moment and the danger mounts as Ireton reaches the pinnacle of the story he is pursuing. He makes it through only with the gracious help from some unexpected Christian sources, and along the way learns that there is more to life - including romance – that he has been missing. The ending leaves the door wide open for Ireton’s reporting to continue in a new and even more dangerous environment. I hope it won’t be long before we can enjoy another adventure alongside this intelligent, thoughtful reporter.- Kim Ford, WINDOW TO MY WORLD (berlysue.blogspot.com)
In author David Aikman's, Awaken the Dragon, Richard Ireton is a Hong Kong-based foreign correspondent for an American weekly news magazine. When he is sent to Guangdong, the Chinese province adjacent to Hong Kong, to investigate the disappearance of Chuck Mchale, a missing American, he discovers there are dangerous new political currents flowing through South China.
In the middle of these developments are practitioners of Qigong, a Taoist meditation and martial arts movement, who are rallying around their Great Master Wu. These fiercely anti-foreign Qigong adherents have allied with renegade forces of the Chinese army, and Ireton learns that together they pose a dangerous new threat to peace in Asia and relations with the United States. Ireton's hunt for McHale, who has run afoul of these Qigong army elements, brings him into the heart of China's underground "house church" movement, where McHale has sought refuge.
Dr. David Aikman is an award-winning print and broadcast journalist, a best selling author, and a foreign policy consultant based in the Washington, D.C.- area. His wide-ranging professional achievements include a 23-year career at TIME magazine. More recently, he authored two ground-breaking books, A MAN OF FAITH: THE SPIRITUAL JOURNEY OF GEORGE W. BUSH, a best-seller published in April 2004, and JESUS IN BEIJING: HOW CHRISTIANITY IS TRANSFORMING CHINA AND CHANGING THE WORLD BALANCE OF POWER.
With special expertise in China, Russia, the Middle East, Mongolia and religious freedom issues worldwide, Dr. Aikman is frequently invited to deliver expert testimony at Congressional hearings and is a popular speaker at conferences, seminars, panels and to academic, church and professional groups at events all over the world.- hytp://www.thegreatseparation.com/newsfront/2008/09/book-review-awa.html
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