An elusive China dream
594197
He spent 10 years in Beijing but now has left for Europe. I wonder if his name is a pseudonym.
When you read his book, appearing to be well documented from a financial journalist's point of view, you get that sense of futility for multinationals ever being successful in China. Perhaps this is because this is the beginning of a new era, Reform and Opening. However, I find that he really doesn't delve beneath the gloss, bright lights, and high expectations of multinational mgmt. He inundates the reader with all the financial minuate, but in my mind he doesn't impact the reader with the most important conclusions. This book misses the mark.
He fails to conclude, write or understand that multinationals will not make it in China (other than the cellular telecom co). That this feeding frenzy of the 1990s is just a sham, like taking candy from a baby. He doesn't say it, but the rise and foundation of the new mainland China will be from the "renegade" Taiwanese companies. He also forgets history of the Opium Wars, where the imperialistic UK and other Europeans forcibly opened China. He doesn't say that this has indelibly embarrassed the Chinese and will not happen again. He doesn't present the conclusion that the new China economics is Socialism with Chinese characteristics done by the Chinese themselves.
...
Notes, bibliography, and index total about 1/5 the book. No pictures or maps.
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665287
Two years in a small city accessible only by ships running on the Yangtze river is a long time.  Limited communications due to the language barrier, constant source of curiosity while circulating in the city, political pressure to follow the government line on the population might make you a complete outsider.  It takes the incredible motivation and sensibility of the author to overcome these difficulties to succeed.  The result is a fascinating book which describes life and attitudes toward life in the China interior at the beginning of the opening of the country to the world.
And not an easy life it is.  Poverty is the rule.  With a constant threat of being accused of criticisomg the system (which, for the students, would mean immediate stop on their hopes to get a higher education), or to show interest for other ways of doing things, discussions are difficult.  But changes in the attitudes of the students and their teachers come with time - it is a tribute to the author with his subtle observations to note them - but stay limited to a small number of exceptional colleagues and students.  There is no doubt that, at the end of the two years, fatigue sets in - there is so much you can bear.
Many changes have occurred in China since this book.  Reading it more almost 15 years since its initial publication in 2001 gives a perspective on the rapid and incredible economic and social changes and achievements realised by China in the last decade.
3015079
"The River Runs Black" by Elizabeth C. Economy is an intelligent analysis of contemporary China and its burgeoning environmental crisis. This engaging book helps us understand how globalization is reshaping China and issues an urgent plea for international cooperation to help monitor and rectify an increasingly worrysome situation.

Ms. Economy tells us how China's environment has been steadily deteriorating over the past centuries due to wars, political power struggles and overpopulation. However, today's problems

are attributable to specific policy decisions by China's government that has favored rapid economic development through engagement with the international business community. Unfortunately, the particular kinds of economic development favored by China's rulers has led to myriad environmental problems including deforestation, desertification, and air and water pollution. The collusion of local government and business interests has made it difficult to obtain reliable data or to implement solutions where it is feared that plant shutdowns might

result in mass unemployment and social unrest, making difficult problems seem untractable.

Environmental consciousness in China has increased as the problems have become more visible and as the country has engaged with the world economy. Ms. Economy profiles some of the courageous and inspirational individuals who have struggled for conservation, urban renewal and grass-roots democracy such as Tang Xiyang, He Bochuan, Dai Qing and others. While environmentalists have achieved some successes (such as protecting endangered species of monkeys and antelopes), the author believes that the government's championing of highly destructive projects such as the Three Gorges Dam proves that much more needs to be done.

Ms. Economy recounts the experiences of the former Communist nations of Eastern Europe to gain insight into how China might resolve its environmental problems. The Chernobyl disaster catalyzed local environmental groups into pushing for political reforms that brought down the Communists in the USSR and elsewhere. Recognizing that China's Communist Party is a "patronage machine committed to rapid economic development" and devoid of any ideological purpose other than self-perpetuation, Ms. Economy believes that increasing democratization in China could easily undermine the country's single Party system. Of course, China's leaders are keenly aware of this threat and consequently have tightly circumscribed the activities of environmental organizations, but the author is hopeful that the contradictions between increasing environmental degradation and the lack of a meaningful democracy will eventually force China's political system to change.

In the last section, Ms. Economy speculates about the manner in which China may develop in the future. The author envisions three possible scenarios: China goes green; inertia sets in; and environmental meltdown. Ms. Economy thinks that the U.S. should take the lead in encouraging China to develop its regulatory system and implement green technologies so that the country can embark on an environmentally sustainable path. Indeed, the unpredictable consequences of a Chinese environmental meltdown should give the international community pause to consider how it might help China -- and by extension all of us -- to avoid a worse case scenario.

I highly recommend this superbly written book to everyone.
2724067
Among Western historical works on Christianity in China, there are few that sufficiently address the perspective and experience of Chinese Christians and their role in the emergence of modern China. Dunch's book (a revised and expanded version of his dissertation) is a remarkable exception. Having marshaled an impressive body of research, Dunch sets out to account for the curious role of Chinese Protestants in the making of modern of China. From their disproportionate numbers among political and social elites during the late Qing and Republican Era to the part they played in many of the social reform movements of the first half of the twentieth century as well as the careful balancing act that many of them had to perform as they walked a precarious line between the too often paternalistic missionary and denominational foreign leadership and the Chinese populace whom they served. Dunch's grass roots social history brings out life in Republican China in vivid color. With this work, Dunch has made a strong claim as the rightful successor to Daniel Bays as the preeminent Western scholar of Christianity in China.
2698834
I am no China scholar. However, this is one odd book. The author traveled to China in 1971, on the heels of the Cultural Revolution, and appears to have been totally oblivious to the effects still present in society. The praise for the progress the country was making at that point seems especially silly today. Everything is clean, tidy, orderly, well-organized. Health care and education are excellent, the people are all happy, honest and striving to perfect communism.

Certainly this was the view presented to the author, but to relate it unquestioningly to Western readers seems naive at best. Unless his visit was 100% orchestrated, he should have seen some traces of the chaos China had just been through. Not to say that there is some ulterior motive behind the book.

But, it is an interesting product of the times. Implicitly critical of the US role in SE Asia. Optimistic about the rise of China.

Worth a read if you can get a copy for a few cents. Or get it in the library if possible.
1324294
The book is thought-provoking and well-articulated. However, I wasn't convinced on Russia, and authors fail to explain rise of China.
3366391
In Age of Ambition, Evan Osnos makes the story of Chinas explosive growth personal. He traces the lives of people he interacted with while on assignment in China as they made their way through life, trying to find their place in the new China. Evan starts out by telling the tale of Lin Yifus escape from Taiwan to be a part of the explosive growth that China was on the cusp of in the late 70s. He goes on to tell of several ambitious Chinese who are swept up in the rapid development, some making their fortunes, others less successful. With the economic changes came changes in the way people interacted with eachother. Evan writes of higher expectations among Chinese women as personal wealth increased and the challenges that it created for many young Chinese men. He goes on to tell about the dissidents who battled issues with censorship. The new China was giving birth to a wide variety of different opinions, creating nationalist fervor in some and cynicism in others. The book closes with how people coped with the spiritual gap left by the Cultural Revolution that remained unfilled as China was swept away in the rapid development of Dengs reforms. The book is very approachable and provides valuable insights into what it is like to live in modern day China.
388964
China to Me opens a fascinating window into China during the most turbulent era in its modern history. Emily Hahn, a correspondent for the New Yorker, arrived in Shanghai in 1935, looking for fun, adventure, and the subject of her next book. She wound up staying in China until 1943. This autobiographical narrative of her Chinese sojourn falls into three parts: her five years in Shanghai from 1935 to 1939; a year of writing in Chungking (Chongqing) in 1940; and three years in Hong Kong from 1940 to 1943.

Hahn's stayed in Shanghai the longest, although her narration of her time there constitutes the shortest portion of the book. She reveled in the comparatively free and open social atmosphere of the European concessions. She conducted a celebrated affair with a Chinese poet, Sinmay Zau (Shao Xunmei), with whom she also ran a left-wing English-language newspaper; she even became his official concubine. She also purchased a Gibbon ape whom she named "Mr. Mills" and who accompanied her to society parties.

Hahn was not a political writer. Or, perhaps better, her politics were refracted through her personal relations. She visited Nanking (Nanjing) a year prior to the Nanking Massacre. She remarks in passing on the Marco Polo Bridge incident, but assumes that her readers will already know all about it. (This may not be true of contemporary readers, for whom these events have become distant history.) Hahn excelled at describing her conversations with Japanese spies, British officers' wives, and Chinese volunteers. At a time when classes, genders, and races were still socially stratified, Hahn delighted in breaking with convention.

She traveled to Hong Kong and then to Chungking after receiving permission to write an authorized biography of the famous Soong sisters. Chungking had become the capital of Free China after the fall of Nanking and was under nearly constant Japanese bombardment. She spent lots of time underground in crowded cave shelters and was rendered homeless after her hotel was destroyed. Hahn still managed to meet regularly with the sisters and to finish her biography, published in 1942.

The greatest part of her narrative is given over to describing her experiences before and after the fall of Hong Kong. Hahn was basically just casting about for her next assignment in Hong Kong when events overtook her. She entered into a romance with Charles Boxer, the (married) head of British intelligence, and had a daughter by him just prior to Hong Kong's fall. The Japanese invasion forced her to live hand-to-mouth under increasingly difficult and perilous circumstances. Hahn provides valuable historical insight into everyday life in Hong Kong under Japanese occupation. She avoided being sent to Stanley Internment Camp by claiming Chinese citizenship as a consequence of her concubine marriage to Zau. Hahn nursed a wounded Boxer back to health and later provided food for him and other interned soldiers at Stanley Camp. She finally left Hong Kong with her daughter, Carola, in 1943 with other repatriated Americans.

China to Me was published in 1944 before the Second World War had come to an end. Hahn's recollections, particularly of Chungking and Hong Kong, are strikingly fresh. She has not had time to process her experiences and sometimes her anger boils over on the pages. But this is autobiography, not history. China to Me deserves--as many others have said--to be rediscovered as a classic first-hand account of life in wartime China.
4342313
As in so many countries around the world, China's landlords of the early and mid-20th century---a small minority---owned most of their country's land while the majority held little or none.  Taking advantage of the wealth and power land ownership gave them, the rich landowners exploited the villagers in their grasp in every conceivable way, while sometimes living a life of luxury and cultured ease behind the walls of their extensive compounds.  Even in dirt poor, remote areas, far inland, the landlords' life bore no resemblance to the life of the mass of peasants.  In some countries with such unequal distributions of wealth or land, change came gradually (western Europe)or with a foreign occupation (Japan), but in China change was suddenly imposed after the victory of the Chinese Communist Party in 1949.  This process has been described very vividly by William Hinton in "Fanshen" and "Iron Oxen", as well as by Jan Myrdal in "Report from a Chinese Village".  Almost overnight (historically speaking), land was confiscated from landlords and redistributed among the destitute, often-starved peasants and laborers.  Clothes, food supplies, and other property were also shared out.  Violence, petty local politics, and injustices  inevitably played a role in such a vast, far-reaching transformation for alas, people are always people, no matter what color flag they wave.  Still, without the destruction of the conservative class of landlords that sat atop the country like vultures, the modern China we see flowering (or moving, at least) in a million directions today would probably never have appeared.  China might now resemble more an enormous Philippines or Egypt.

THE DRAGON'S VILLAGE provides an ant's eye view of this major event in human history, an event seldom thought about outside China now.  It is the semi-autobiographical tale of one bourgeois girl's journey to a poor, remote village in Gansu province to assist in the land reform.  While lyrically descriptive at times, the girl's own lack of understanding or perspective prevents us from thinking in a wide fashion about the whole process.  We read and perhaps realize in a very concrete way what individual cadres might have gone through at the time.  The story struck me as extremely honest with little attempt to write about anything not personally experienced.  While interesting from a social, historical, or political point of view, I would not call THE DRAGON'S VILLAGE great literature.  Anti-climax follows anti-climax, the end is disappointingly flat.  I believe that such an ending reflects reality, but art forms need not imitate life so exactly.  The author does not explore her personal trials and tribulations in a reflective manner, leaving us wondering what she felt ultimately.  In sum, for a historical moment of such excitement and importance, the novel is amazingly mild.  We appreciate the barren landscapes of northwestern China in winter, the descriptions of poverty and suspicion of the peasants.  However, the transformation process and meaning of the resistance to it are seriously underplayed.  I would recommend this book for university (or even high school) classes on the Chinese Revolution.
1390497
Upon reading and viewing the images of Tiziana & Gianni Baldizzone's "Esprit Nomad" on Le Figaro, a photo exhibition in Jardin du Luxembourg earlier this year in Paris, one name came immediately to my mind--Tom Carter.

It's neither your highly publicized new Modern China of concrete jungle, the new wave of gold (money) rush and the 2nd world economic power, nor it is your romanticized China in Zhang-yimou's  gold-glazing extravaganza  and seductive women loosely wrapped in lavishing and silky dresses. This is the other side of the China story, the story that you've not yet been told.

Tom Carter takes you to the alley of Beijing Hutong  to meet the young women working in the pre-Beijing Olympic pink-light district; the high-rise building (completely beyond the realm of aestheticism) juxtaposed to the ravished old lanes houses of shattered beauty and buried stories; the daily Salah prayer in a 15th century Id Kah Mosque, a Tibetan Buddhist embarking on a long and painstaking journey to the holy capital Lhasa with nothing but a leap of faith.

It's the portrait of a rapidly developing China, the fragility of a new-born national and cultural identity in the making, the colorful and vibrant landscape of multiculturalism, the shocking contrast of old and new, modernization and the remains of their past, ancient wisdom and certain painful memories. It is a portrait of a people in all its complicity and simplicity.

Tom is very proud of his book. When I spoke to Tom 2 years ago, he told me that his book could be used as educational material, even for school kids. Carter opens your eyes and invites you to witness, even just in a few glimpse of the modern China and its minority cultures from its everyday life to hidden and unusual scenes, from the modernization of Shanghai, Beijing to the remotest corners of Yunn, Kashgar and Qinghai, untainted and still seem to be frozen in time.

Indeed, it's the smile of a Al Ha minority woman (a smile not yet "contaminated" by modernization, materialism and economic growth?), the luminous eyes of a Uyghur girl that made us realize that it's a culture not lost but found and thanks to Carter, captured by his lenses in this two-year journey across 33 provinces and +800 images.

Under the immense sky, there lies the jaded-green Yamdrok-tso Lake, if you are willing to stay still for a while, maybe you will also hear the rest of the China story and the Portrait of a People.
2426403
For decades the U.S. and China relied on a 'marriage of convenience' that guaranteed China a huge market for exports, while American consumers received a cornucopia of inexpensive products and a buyer of its debt. Roach basically contends that it's time for the two nations to switch identities - more savings and less consumption in the U.S., less savings and more consumptionin China.

The new China is here, yet we're fixated on the old China. China is now moving to a more balanced consumer-led growth model via services-led job growth (China's services sector overtook the combined shares of manufacturing and construction as the economy's largest segment in 2013), urbanization-driven income leveraging, and a stronger social-safety net. Services generate about 30% more jobs/output unit than do manufacturing and construction, allowing China to meet its labor absorption and social stability goals with economic growth of only 7-8%.

China now has the smallest services sector of any major economy, and Roach sees it possibly increasing by about $12 trillion by 2015, providing an opportunity for the U.S. Roach suggests pursuing that opportunity rather than continued Chinese currency bashing - reality is we had deficits with 102 nations in 2012 which Roach contends is the result of a U.S. savings gap. Besides, the renminbi has risen 35% since 7/2005 and its current account surplus is less than 3% of GDP. Roach would also like to see cyberattack issues raised to high-priority status.

As for rebalancing - China needs to save less and consume more, and the U.S. the opposite. Phasing out the one-child policy and reforming the residential permit system (hukou) are early steps; another is earmarking 30% of China's SOE profits for funding its safety net programs. While both nations have a surplus labor problem, China has a strategy and the commitment of its new leadership, the U.S. has neither - still stuck in our commitment to the Invisible Hand, an increasingly questionable direction. Regardless, Roach also points out that China's shift will drawn down its surplus saving and further reduce its current-account surplus - thus, who will fund chronic U.S. savings shortfalls, how will Americans hold down inflation in the future?

Another conflict - the imbalance between our projections of vast military power and the erosion of our domestic economic base, vs. China's rising nationalism. A major power realignment, first economic, eventually military as well, may follow. Skills on both sides will determine whether this transition is stable and peaceful; however, a special need is for the U.S. to defuse hostility towards China - often incorrectly blaming China for its enormous trade deficit when China was just the final link in a long supply chain with much of financed by American firms, assembling parts made elsewhere. We also need to stop predicting China's collapse - economically and politically.
850597
What would happen if China's Asian neighbors were able to set aside their ancient and pernicious differences and band together to oppose an aggressive China?  That is the theme of this interesting "Jerry Mitchell" novel.  In this one, a new Asian alliance emerges, independent of the US, which seeks to prevent China from achieving dominance in the South China Sea.  A short, sharp limited war begins, and as usual Commander Jerry Mitchell is a key player.

I enjoyed this novel immensely, but I do find it to be improbable.  Korea hates Japan as much as it fears and hates China, and the Philippines also seems an unlikely player here.  But I could be wrong.  There are other credibility issues with this novel, but I will not go into them here as my policy is to eschew spoilers in reviews.

Overall this is a thoughtful and interesting novel which achieves its objective: it entertains.  RJB.
1123075
This episodic history features extensive documentation research and a geography lesson on central Asia. It pricks the myth of extensive trade. Consisting mostly of local products, there was a lot besides silk through the different eras and locals.
Currency of trade consisted of coins and grain as well as bolts of silk. Hansen is realistically incomplete. Despite extensive documentation, tax rolls of the Tang era don't tell us who was traveling. Much of the research is based on the travel records of Ariel Stein from around 1900. The book is more of a study program than a popularization. While the episodic history takes us up to Deng Xiaoping, it doesn't connect to Xi Jinping's 'One Belt, One Road' (OBOR) vision referred to as 'The New Silk Road.'
3484593
This is an intellectually interesting book, I must say. There is a wealth of material, about the various facets of China's religious beliefs, going back into the deep and distant past. The author also has, undoubtedly, visited many places as well. Yet, for me, the book was a bit unsatisfactory. In searching through many reference books for the seat of China's soul, she has produced a book that is informative but, a bit pedantic. Now, maybe this is what she intended and, if so, more power to her.

Yet, for me, the soul of a country is a living, breathing thing. It lives in the lives of the people who are living now, in their hearts and desires. This, to me, is missing.
172632
In China, duty has long trumped feelings, and happiness as a concept typically does not register as it does in America where people prize their right to the pursuit of happiness.  The West has become accustomed to a society infused and perfused with notions of romance and sex continually streaming from the media and entertainment industry.  So presentism can make it nearly impossible to conceive of living in a culture devoid of talk, literature, and images about dating, finding soul mates, and forming fulfilling marital bonds.

In this gem of a first book by Melissa Margaret Schneider, these vast differences come alive through 27 fascinating, very personal and sometimes raw stories.  Based on one-on-one interviews during Schneiders recent years of living in Shenzhen, these vignettes allow both men and women to describe their individual path to meeting, dating, having sex with, marrying, and sometimes divorcing their significant other or spouse.  They not only reveal much about familial and societal constraints, but also share many aspects of Chinas all-pervasive government directives and pressures.

The stories are arranged by decades, and each section opens with an overview that includes both a historical backdrop and cultural setting.  In this way, each generation, from those born in the 1950s through those entering the world in the 1990s, tells love and marriage stories in the context of its coming-of-age years.

Perhaps many readers will learn the difference between baby-managed marriages and baby-raise wives as well as what an Iron rice bowl job is and how parents use public marriage boards to this day.  People from the West might be most struck by the freedoms they enjoy and even more, the opportunities they have experienced to think and dream about love.  On the other hand, many Chinese men and women might well see themselves in one or more of these stories where marriage was viewed through the years as a necessity for procreation, and in-laws were to be revered over the spouse.

This book contains a timeline of Chinas recent history, which provides a handy reference.  It is an enlightening read on the evolution of love and marriage in China and will undoubtedly stimulate a great deal of comparisons and soul-searching about how cultures allow people to make life choices.
4550052
I have read this book on my way back from China. This book explores the changes affecting China and the Chinese people as a whole. Cleverly written, it describes the  period that encompassed the change in political structure of China from a communist country to a market-economy country. The stories of the Chinese people included serves well in explaining the Chinese mentality as the quest for the new Chinese dream , money ( getting rich ) began. Interesting read for all those who plan to travel to China or deal with Chinese people.
676685
"The China Threat" is another in a series of books attempting to get Americans to look past their expectations for financial gain from trade with China -- to confront the reality of China's empty promises on missile proliferation, to understand their hostile intentions towards America, and to realize Beijing's utter lack of interest in democratic reform and human rights.

In the 1970s through the fall of the Berlin Wall, China and America enjoyed a marriage of convenience as they confronted the Soviet threat.  Sadly, American foreign policy vis a vis China did not adjust to the end of the Cold War -- and Beijing naturally took advantage of this.

Gertz carefully chronicles how China has managed to buy or steal our most critical national security secrets.  He documents how China views missile and nuclear proliferation as a way to threaten the United States (the enemy of my enemy is my friend).  He sets out some sobering scenarios for Chinese aggression in Asia -- and even in our own backyard.

No one should doubt the seriousness of the China threat after reading this book.  Clearly China will present as great a threat to our safety and freedom as did Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union.

Reviewer: Chuck DeVore is a Vice President at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. He served in the California State Assemblyman from 2004 to 2010. Before his election, he was an executive in the aerospace industry. He was a Special Assistant for Foreign Affairs in the Department of Defense from 1986 to 1988. He is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army (retired) Reserve. DeVore is the author of "The Texas Model: Prosperity in the Lone Star State and Lessons for America" and the co-author of "China Attacks."