TORONTO – While Alexandre Trudeau’s new book is devoted to travels through China, there was little discussion with elder brother Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about his recent diplomatic trip to the country.
“I don’t push him around too much — or him, me — about his work. He’s doing that almost 24-7,” said the Montreal-based filmmaker and journalist in an interview for his debut Barbarian Lost.
“Even though I could get in his face about China and try to get some information, I think that would be wrong. So I offer him a space outside of politics, outside of his work.”
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The younger Trudeau didn’t tune in to coverage of the prime minister’s weeklong visit to the superpower aimed at strengthening economic and cultural ties with Canada’s second-largest trading partner.
“No, I don’t follow that stuff. Not really,” he admitted. “We’re going to know if his trip was a success over time.”
“Those are stodgy trips where people are speaking in codes. I could follow it very closely and interpret — ‘OK, I know what that means.’ But that doesn’t interest me that much. I’ll watch over time to see what the Chinese-Canadian relationship is about.”
While Trudeau was born into one of Canada’s pre-eminent political families, he has steered clear of the path paved by his late father Pierre and followed by Justin into elected office.
“People think they might know who I am because they’ve watched me grow up, but this book will actually give them a sense of who I am,” said Trudeau.
“The person I’m here now in this comfortable world with some notoriety is not the person I cherish. The person I cherish is the little guy out there waking up in a strange place and encountering things that are bewildering and difficult to understand, with no one who knows me and no expectation of anything from me.
“The traveller is my real self. He’s a better person than the man I am here: more open, more humble, more empathetic. I miss him when I’m here.”
Trudeau first visited China with his father and elder brother in 1990, the year after the Tiananmen Square protests. As a result, the desire for a more laid-back journey involving backpacking, riding local trains and staying in country inns was curtailed by the Chinese, he recalled.
“It became as if it were this kind of state visit. It was stodgy in that way. That’s not my favourite kind of travel,” Trudeau said.
“There’s something interesting in it, but it just gets so repetitive. Constantly talk diplomatic speak, these banquets with officials, have security around so the real, normal people are far away…. It’s what I got away from as soon as I could when I started travelling independently.”
In 2006, with the aid of Vivien, a young Chinese journalist, as translator, Trudeau embarked on an extensive journey through China, meeting residents in bustling urban centres and remote rural outposts.
“What we’re dealing with is a dynasty with absolute power — like all the previous dynasties — heavily involved in the economy, but there’s a lot of free economic activity as well,” Trudeau said of China’s evolution.
“Maybe 10 years ago, you still got the sense that people remembered what life was before. Now, no. Less and less, especially among young people.”
Trudeau is also candid in “Barbarian Lost” about some of the more arduous segments of the journey. One chapter documents a lengthy river cruise that stretched over days, leaving him holed up in his cabin and feeling depressed.
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“This is not just a portrait of China. It’s a portrait of travel,” he said.
“Travel has its ups and its downs and the downs are sometimes kind of important to shake you and change your feelings about something. And the environment in China has something that’s melancholy about it….
“My brother who read the book said: ‘That’s my favourite chapter because you feel closest to the traveller and the challenges of travel.'”
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