Never read “The Ugly American”.
But I have read the Chinese version of “The Ugly C h i n a m a n and the Crisis of Chinese Culture” by Mr. Bo Yang.
Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: The Ugly ******** and the Crisis of Chinese Culture
Some of the customer reviews (especially the first one) on the amazon.com are excellent.
Overall, it is a very good book. I read it long time ago.
It focuses on the worst behaviors of Chinese people and the worst part of the Chinese culture. It is not intended to give a well balanced picture of the Chinese people and culture. But it is good to know how bad we and our culture are sometimes.
This book was a best seller in mainland China in 1980s or early 1990s. It is not censored in mainland China as one reviewer claimed.
There is also a book of “The Ugly Japanese or that sort” by a Japanese author who used to be the Japanese ambassador to Argentina. But I only read its brief introduction long time ago.
PS. The title of the book has a word "C h i n a m a n".
It is a degrading word calling Chinese. I am very glad to know that the WAB censored this word. Thanks. I really appreciate that.
But I don't feel insulted by this word in the situation of this book. Mr. Bo Yang is very respected in mainland China.