Mid-1970s Beijing was about as inscrutable as the world can get and China Then tells the story of that weird and momentous moment in history through the eyes of Italian correspondent Pier Luigi Zanatta, one of only a handful of foreign journalists living in China in those years. It was a time of great turbulence including the death of Mao, and Zanatta is a true witness to history. A talented Chinese-speaking journalist, he read the tea leaves, cycled the alleys and weighed up the rumors, trying every day to report to the world on the opaque and Byzantine doings at the heart of Communist China.

This memoir is filled with unique stories and invaluable eye-witness accounts of key moments in China's modern history. With pen and camera in hand, Zanatta made the most of a once-in-a lifetime assignment and with this memoir has created a highly readable record of it. Entertaining, insightful and entirely unexpected after so many years, China Then captures a moment in history perfectly.