The memory of a brief visit to Burma had haunted Rory MacLean for years.
A decade after the violent suppression of an unarmed national uprising,
which cost thousands of lives and all hopes for democracy, he seized the
chance to return. Travelling from Rangoon to Mandalay and Pagan, into
the heart of the Golden Triangle, he hears stories of freedom fighters,
government censors, basket weavers, farmers and lovers -- ordinary
people struggling to survive under one of the most brutal and repressive
regimes in the world. Under the Dragon is a perceptive and
heartbreaking portrayal of contemporary Burma, a country that is shot
through with desperation and fear, but also blessed - even in the
darkest places -- with beauty and courage.