China Remembers [Hardcover]

Zhang Lijia (Author), Calum MacLeod (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 30, 1999

On 1 October 1999, the People's Republic of China turns fifty. It has been a rocky ride, at times euphoric, at times tragic. In light of the place China now occupies on the world stage, this birthday will draw attention from around the world. This book commemorates the PRC's journey to date through thirty interviews, presenting one of the most honest and compelling accounts of the country ever compiled.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 308 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (December 30, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195917367
• ISBN-13: 978-0195917369
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,128,602 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 "China Remembers" - an unforgettable journey, December 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: China Remembers (Hardcover)

"China Remembers", a collection of individual eyewitness accounts from a wide variety of participants in the last 50 years of Chinese history, vividly and poignantly portrays the realities of those years.

Divided into five "periods" - from "Consolidating Power:1949-1956" right up to the present day with "Entering the World:1990-1999", each of the "periods"comes to life through the voices of such witnesses as diverse as an interpreter of Mao Zedong, a young woman's experience of the Cultural Revolution in the remote countryside,a student who participated in the 1989 "Beijing Spring", a legal expert who returned to her native China after 10 years in the US, and a rubbish collector...among the 33 different "voices" of this vivid volume. Each very personal account is preceded by the authors' introduction.

The voices from the heart recount the turmoil of recent Chinese history - of the often unspoken horrors and unfathomable personal tragedies. The recollections are told in the first person and dwell with courage upon the past experiences, struggles and success against all odds and the opportunities and hope for the future.

Authors Zhang Lijia - born and raised in China - and Calum Macleod have memorably captured the emotion, complexity and contradictions of China's recent history in a work that provides gripping reading.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Read!, March 10, 2000

By 

Sue Kay (Beijing) - See all my reviews

This review is from: China Remembers (Hardcover)

Have you ever wondered what life has been like since `the people of China stood up' in 1949? If so then ` China Remembers' is the book for you.

Cleverly constructed by husband and wife team it provides a highly readable personal account of the defining moments in the lives of a variety of people. By interviewing hundreds of people and eliciting their stories they have painted a rich and vivid picture of 50 years in China. The characters endear themselves to the reader as they tell their stories. People such as a Chinese soldier in the Korean War, a farmer who lost almost all her family in China's terrible famine, a red guard in Shanghai during the cultural revolution to a modern day self-made business tycoon and a village carpenter striving to win democratic election to his village committee.

But what adds immeasurably to the charm and interest of this book are the linking introductions to each section and chapter. Written in a different, more academic style, the authors have set the historical, political and economic scene so that the reader can more readily identify and empathise with the achievements and problems related by each storyteller.

This book entertains as it educates, makes you laugh as well as cry and as China continues to rejoin the world, it enlightens understanding of a mysterious, enigmatic yet wholly human people. A great read!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars China's rollercoaster Republic, January 19, 2000

By 

P. M. Dickie (Beijing, China) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: China Remembers (Hardcover)

`China Remembers' by Zhang Lijia and Calum MacLeod groups 33 contributions from Chinese and foreign residents in China, arranged to give insight into the history of the People's Republic and leavened with introductions to guide the reader through the complexities of its political campaigns.

It is hard to imagine an editorial team better equipped for the task. Zhang Lijia's metamorphosis from Nanjing factory worker to freelance writer itself reflects China's heady leap from planned economy to sink-or-swim capitalism. Calum MacLeod, who I have counted a friend since we shared a mouldy hotel room in Xi'an in 1989, earns his living bridging the gap between international investors and newly corporate China.

The testimonies this Anglo-Chinese joint venture couple have gathered come as an antidote to the efforts by Mao Zedong and his communist comrades to force the world's most populous nation to march to a single beat. China Remembers bursts with human contradictions and surprises a world away from the tyranny of Marxist class truths.