Chinese characters profiles of fast-changing lives in a fast-changing land (University of California Press, 2012)
Includes bibliographical references and index
Cover; Title Page; Copyright Page; Table of Contents; Foreword; Acknowledgments; Introduction: "Who are you this Time?"; Part One: Doubters and Believers; Chapter 1: The North Peak; Chapter 2: The New Generation's Neocon Nationalists; Chapter 3: Out of Tibet; Part Two. Past and Present; Chapter 4: Belonging to Old Beijing; Chapter 5: Another Swimmer; Chapter 6: Looking for Lok To; Part Three: Hustlers and Entrepreneurs; Chapter 7: The Ever-floating Floater; Chapter 8: King of the Road; Chapter 9: Painting the Outside World; Part Four: Rebels and Reformers
Chapter 10: The Road to a Better LifeChapter 11: Yong Yang's Odyssey; Chapter 12: The Court Jester; Part Five: Teachers and Pupils; Chapter 13: The Great Wall of Education; Chapter 14: Gilded Age, Gilded Cage; Chapter 15: Shredding for the Motherland; Afterword; Notes and Readings; List of Contributors; Credits
An artist paints landscapes of faraway places that she cannot identify in order to find her place in the global economy. A migrant worker sorts recyclables and thinks deeply about the soul of his country, while a Taoist mystic struggles to keep his traditions alive. An entrepreneur capitalizes on a growing car culture by trying to convince people not to buy cars. And a 90-year-old woman remembers how the oldest neighborhoods of her city used to be. These are the exciting and saddening, humorous and confusing stories of utterly ordinary people who are living through China's extraordinary transfo