‘South of the Clouds’ tells the story of an American man who ventures into the hidden realms of China – romance, politics, the criminal underworld, and Tibet. As he matures from a wide-eyed student into a journalist and writer, he develops a passion for uncovering secrets.
Seth Faison, former Shanghai Bureau Chief for the New York Times, navigates his way past forbidding walls to peek inside the dark corners of Chinese society, relying on a remarkable collection of friends and acquaintances who help guide the way: an embittered policeman in Xian; a gay professor in Shanghai; dancer and choreographer Jin Xing, China’s first open transsexual; and a Buddhist monk in Tibet.