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China Remembers
- ISBN-100195917367
- ISBN-13978-0195917369
- PublisherOxford University Press
- Publication dateDecember 30, 1999
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches
- Print length308 pages
Product details
- Publisher : Oxford University Press (December 30, 1999)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 308 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0195917367
- ISBN-13 : 978-0195917369
- Item Weight : 1.45 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #6,975,195 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4,534 in Asian History (Books)
- #13,060 in Chinese History (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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About the authors

Lijia Zhang is a rocket-factory-worker-turned writer and social commentator. At 16, she was put to work in Nanjing where she taught herself English. Now she is one of the few Chinese who write regularly in English for international publications, such as The New York Times. She is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir “Socialism Is Great!” and her debut novel Lotus, on prostitution in China, came out in 2017. She is a recipient of the prestigious fellowship for writers at the University of Iowa. She is a regular speaker on the BBC, Channel 4, CNN and NPR.

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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!
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.
