The First Book from The Octagon's Zachary Mexico is China Underground. Out Now

Zachary Mexico from the Octagon has written a book about China. It is called China Underground, has been published by Soft Skull Press, and by now has enjoyed fond reviews and attention from The New Yorker and Newsweek. Buy it at your local book shop, Barnes and Noble or order it here at Amazon.

About the book: At the beginning of the 21st century, it is hard to imagine a place more exciting than China. Westerners hear much about China’s role as the next “global superpower,” but they know less about the young people who make up China’s varied and fascinating subcultures. Drawn by the streets humming with the energy of constant change, Zachary Mexico, who had spent two years in China, returned there in the summer of 2006 to conduct formal research on how the changing environment has affected the Chinese of his generation. Readers are introduced to a wannabe rock star from the desert of Xinjiang, trying to make it big in Shanghai; a disillusioned journalist; a budding screenwriter; a vagabond ladies’ man; a straight-A student at China’s best university; a Chinese mafia kingpin; a punk band trying their best to stay relevant; a prostitute; the world’s most polluted city; Beijing’s drug-fueled club scene; and many others. This is an engaging firsthand account of a young American writer’s encounter with the new China and the young people who are pursuing their future there. China Underground tells their stories, and some of Mexico’s own.

Read the following press on Zack's book:

-"Through encounters with sundry artists, musicians, students, bar owners, gangsters, prostitutes, and slackers, Mexico assembles a compelling portrait of China's contemporary youth culture and the limits of Communist control. The book's subjects include a twenty-seven-year-old self-taught disaster photographer from the coal country in Shenyang; a twenty-nine-year-old mobster in Qingdao; a twenty-two-year-old Hendrixian Uighur guitar player making a splash in Shanghai; a Beijing university student who wishes that the system encouraged less rote memorization and more original thought; and an investigative journalist who no longer publishes himself, instead leading Western reporters to controversial stories. Mexico, a musician and poet who was a student in Beijing and subsequently managed a night club, has assumed a pseudonym to avoid trouble with the Chinese authorities. While occasionally anxious about his youth and his lack of credentials, he is a good listener and knows how to tell a provocative and illuminating story."-THE NEW YORKER

-A report on new author Zack from Newsweek

-An interview with Zack courtesy of Shangaiist

-Excerpt, video interview here at Danwei

-An interview with Zack for Urbanatomy: Shanghai

-An interview with Zack from ChinaTravel.net

-Excerpts from PopMatters

There's a lot more good will out there.
Zachary Mexico, Author of China Underground, Singer/Guitarist/Songwriter for The Octagon


Zack's band the Octagon released Nothing But Change on Serious Business in 2007.
DOWNLOAD: "The Narrow Road to Oku" [MP3]

Their next album is called Warm Love and Cool Dreams Forever and is due before years' end. Expect vinyl.