- ISBN13: 9780618919062
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
“Let China sleep, for when she wakes, she will shake the world.” Napoleon’s words seem eerily prescient today, as the shock waves from China’s awakening reverberate around the globe. Award-winning journalist James Kynge takes measure of the tremors made as China’s ravenous hunger for jobs, raw materials, energy, and food — and its export of goods, workers, and investments — drastically reshapes world trade and politics. Through dramatic stories of the people who are driving China’s transformation — entrepreneurs and visionaries, factory workers and store clerks — Kynge describes the breakneck rise of China, the extraordinary problems the country now faces, and the consequences of both.
China Shakes the World: A Titan’s Rise and Troubled Future — and the Challenge for America
If you read only one book in 2009, James Kynge’s China Shakes the World is the one to read. This is so first of all because the impact of China on the world and your life is something you need to understand, no matter who you are. Secondly, Kynge has lived in China since 1982, is fluent in Mandarin and thus has both a deep understanding of the country and the ability to communicate with people there. Finally, as the former bureau chief of the Financial Times in Beijing, Kynge has the knowledge to write about this topic.
What was remarkable to me as I started to read the book is Kynge’s attention to small details that tell a major story. For example he tells about the disappearance of large numbers of manhole covers from many parts of the world starting in mid-February, 2004. The reason, Kynge points out, is that they were stolen and shipped to China to help sate China’s voracious appetite for iron. It is this eye for detail and its larger meaning that gives the book much of its value. Furthermore, my initial expectation was that the book would be dry and statistically oriented given the writer’s background. But Kynge is really an excellent writer who uses words much as a world-class novelist might.
While clearly delineating the upside of China’s economic miracle, Kynge also demonstrates the downside: the displacement of people and disruption of social values, the enormous destruction to the environment, the tension between an authoritarian political system and a capitalist economy, etc. He does this effectively with stories about people, not just by listing facts. For example on page 83 he describes the success story of Wang Yihua, a young woman who left China to find success as a fashion designer in Italy. Many of the examples come from his ability to communicate in Mandarin and his tenacity as a reporter, such as his description of the life of Shen Wenrong and his efforts, finally successful, to obtain an interview with him.
There are some minor flaws in the book. One is that it is now five years old and some of the information is out of date. Given the rapid pace of change in China an updated edition would not be out of the question. Another, in my view, is his use of the word “value” when he really means “price.”
But all in all reading this book will open your eyes on the development of China and its real and potential impact on the world.
Rating: 5 / 5
Good stories that give an understanding of what’s been happening in China since the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989.
Rating: 4 / 5
I can’t understand the high ratings for this book, unless it is from people who know absolutely NOTHING about China and so are willing to think this is a good book.
It is a quick read that touches on several issues, does not develop them, and focuses largely on the negative.
It feeds right into the American penchant for sound bites and oversimplification.
Rating: 1 / 5
James Kynge’s work just won the 2006 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year. One of the jury members said the book “revealed the complexity and scale of what’s happening [in China] in a way that is gripping.”
In short, it’s an outstanding read.
Rating: 5 / 5
Must-read if you want to learn more about China’s recent economic growth. Kynge’s anecdotal style really brings home the reality of China’s economic boom that you only hear in the abstract in the US media.
Rating: 5 / 5