China: Alive in the Bitter Sea [Hardcover]

Fox Butterfield (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 468 pages
• Publisher: Times Books; First Edition edition (May 12, 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812909275
• ISBN-13: 978-0812909272
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.5 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #623,484 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Valuable oral history of the Cultural Revolution, April 30, 2001

By 

nonamespecified - See all my reviews

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This review is from: China: Alive in the Bitter Sea (Paperback)

The magnitude of suffering that the Chinese have endured this century is truly inconceivable. This book helps one to relate to it through the stories of those Chinese that Mr. Butterfield was able to talk to, not too long after the Cultural Revolution ended. It really makes one think: How does such a period of mass cultural insanity happen? Is it just a result of economics and youthful demographics? Could it happen anywhere? Was it no different than the nazis or the Khmer Rouge or the Inquisition? Are we even in such a period now, and dont know it? Mr. Butterfield does a valuable service in preserving this record of human suffering and endurance.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Old, but insightful, May 11, 2005

By 

Jonny Harman "dreamconsciousness.com" (Moscow, Russia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: China: Alive in the Bitter Sea (Hardcover)

Around twenty-three years old, and therefore completely out of date, 'China: Alive in the Bitter Sea' is nevertheless an amazing read and it is invaluable as an historical document. It's not China today; it's China yesterday. It's a great book to read in order to understand China's more recent modern history, as it affected those Chinese who make China today.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional Insight That Helps Explain China Today, June 30, 2007

By 

John N. Doggett (Austin, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: China: Alive in the Bitter Sea (Hardcover)

This is an exceptional book about what China was like as it emerged from the insanity of the Cultural Revolution. Fox Butterfield tells a compelling story about a China looking at the abyss. He helps you appreciate how amazing China's economic growth has been given where she was in 1980. His insight into the massive disillusionment that was born out of the Cultural Revolution also helps one understand why there are so many "quality" problems with food and products today.

Fox Butterfield has an exceptional eye for the little details that give you a sense of what is important to Chinese people in the 1980s. As you read his book, you not only learn about Chinese history, you also learn about Chinese cultural values. If you want to understand China today, you must read China: Alive in the Bitter Sea. It will move you, it will sadden you and it will teach you. What it won't do is bore you.