MixedThe New York Times Book ReviewHilgers, a longtime China-based journalist who met Zhuang while reporting on the unrest in Wukan, is a gifted writer and reporter whose talent for observation shines through the book’s opening chapters ... Despite Hilgers’s intensive reporting among a handful of inhabitants in Flushing, she never delves deeply into the place itself. We never learn the geography of its avenues, the rhythm of its daily life, its sounds and smells at street level ... Like many journalists who write about this group, Hilgers avoids stating some uncomfortable truths ... The most compelling characters in Patriot Number One are the people on the margins of the story.
