China Wakes : The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power
Author:
Genres: History, Nonfiction
Book Type: Paperback
Author:
Genres: History, Nonfiction
Book Type: Paperback
Scribe reviewed on
Helpful Score: 1
From back cover:
"Gives us the rough and rich texture of a peasant empire now transforming itself. Kristof and WuDunn are passionate interpreters." -Washington Post Book World
"When China wakes, it will shake the world," Napoleon predicted, and at last China is waking. On the eve of the twenty-first century, its economy is rapidly outstripping those of the United States and Japan, and a baby born today in Shanghai is expected to live two years longer than one born in New York City. Yet China is a nation where women are sold on the open market, crooked factories peddle "antibiotics" made from talcum powder, and the Beijing police recently beat a retarded man to death lest he give foreigners a bad impression of the city.
In this heroically researched book, husband-and-wife reporters Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn illuminate both the Chinese boom-state and the tottering dictatorship. With the same vigor and empathy that won them the Pulitzer Prize for journalism, they travel from the highlands of Tibet to the bloody environs of Tiananmen Square and produce a canvas that takes in peasants and real estate speculators, dissidents and corrupt officials. Insightful, affecting, and bursting with color on every page, China Wakes is an exemplary work of reportage.
"Gives us the rough and rich texture of a peasant empire now transforming itself. Kristof and WuDunn are passionate interpreters." -Washington Post Book World
"When China wakes, it will shake the world," Napoleon predicted, and at last China is waking. On the eve of the twenty-first century, its economy is rapidly outstripping those of the United States and Japan, and a baby born today in Shanghai is expected to live two years longer than one born in New York City. Yet China is a nation where women are sold on the open market, crooked factories peddle "antibiotics" made from talcum powder, and the Beijing police recently beat a retarded man to death lest he give foreigners a bad impression of the city.
In this heroically researched book, husband-and-wife reporters Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn illuminate both the Chinese boom-state and the tottering dictatorship. With the same vigor and empathy that won them the Pulitzer Prize for journalism, they travel from the highlands of Tibet to the bloody environs of Tiananmen Square and produce a canvas that takes in peasants and real estate speculators, dissidents and corrupt officials. Insightful, affecting, and bursting with color on every page, China Wakes is an exemplary work of reportage.
