China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power
- ISBN13: 9780679763932
- Condition: New
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The definitive book on China’s uneasy transformation into an economic and political superpower by two Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporters. An insightful and thought-provoking analysis of daily life in China, China Wakes is an exemplary work of reportage. 16 pages of photos.
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An informative but flawed “Modern China for Dummies”,
While there is much to criticize about China Wakes, there is also much to recommend it. There is ample reason that it has become one of the classic “must reads” China books: it is an easy, accessible read that assumes the audience knows little, if anything, about China, and it covers very attention getting “human interest” type stories.
The latter fact has drawn much fire in other reviews, that murders and scandals are hardly representative of any country. While I concur, it also reveals the major problem of Western journalism on China: ignoring the big picture in favor of the exciting story. I have enormous respect for Kristoff and Wudunn as professional journalists, and for their colleagues now working for the NY Times in China. The current Beijing correspondent has done amazing work on the cover-up of the AIDS epidemic in China, the Shanghai correspondent has broken ground with his coverage of organ harvesting in prisons, and another of their staff has done notable work on labor unrest. Those stories are important and provide insight into the larger workings of the machine that is China, but compiled together would create a rather skewered version of the very complicated entity that is China. Unfortunately, what the average American wants to read on China is such sound bytes.
I read this book five years ago for a college class, just after returning from my first trip to China. Even then, it was outdated. A deeper criticism, though, is the book’s Beijing bias. I, granted, have my own bias as a Shanghai-lander, but it’s frustrating reading books by Beijing-based expats. In Beijing, politics is everything and everything is politics, and foreigners, especially journalists, are sequestered into isolated compounds. After exposure to too much coal dust and so uptight an environment in Beijing, one starts to see conspiracy theories and political boogeymen under every bush. The rest of China is not like that.
Nonetheless, it is a good overview of China in the early 1990s, and if you’re a bit of a “China virgin”, China Wakes coupled with a few Jonathan Spence books should break you in.
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|Informative, Insightful, Vivid Descriptions,
Although I was skeptical at times of both of the authors’ views and sometimes found their views simplistic, I thought they offered an informative and insightful view of the different stories and themes we often hear about China from the news. The authors are obviously not scholars or academics, but journalists; there were times when I wished that the authors would have provided a little more “evidence” to support their contentions (which I thought were necessary for a book and that maybe weren’t as necessary for their NYT articles….) I also thought their use of numbers and statistics was a little too loose to be entirely relied upon. However, Kristoff and Wudunn acknowledge their own biases and their own limitations in understanding and reporting on China and they do an excellent job of giving context to the personal stories of various Chinese. They paint a vivid portrait of China as a nation – bringing color to the various provinces and the people dispersed across them – and as a member of the international community. An excellent job of transforming China from a gigantic unknown country populated by Mao suits to one teeming with ordinary and extraordinary people confronting life in modern China during the Deng years.
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|Riveting, Painful, Harsh,
The book was unique with the couple writing alternate chapters that give 2 views each, from a Caucasian and a third generation Chinese. This made a startling difference from other books. That perhaps was what made it such a riveting read, making it difficult to accuse the author of being biased. The contents painful for me to see the many wrong doings of people of my race, as well as the many innocent people who suffered for the wrong causes. Shattered idealism is perhaps the paramount reason for such a crumbling dynasty. The authors were a bit harsh with references to the system in certain parts but the depth of discussion balances in views made the book focused and objective. China’s history is fascinating and endless. Reading the book without prior knowledge about China’s history long before this modern era may do injustice to the Chinese people and their leaders. I loved the analysis and discussion, along with some strong insightful comments made by the very knowlegable authors. Nonetheless, people should not use this reportage to quickly make assumptions about China because every country, no matter how big, powerful and advanced, has skeletons in their closets.
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