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Tide Players: The Movers and Shakers of a Rising China Hardcover – March 29, 2011

by Jianying Zha (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 19 ratings
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In Tide Players, acclaimed New Yorker contributor and author Jianying Zha depicts a new generation of movers and shakers who are transforming modern China. Through half a dozen sharply etched and nuanced profiles, Tide Players captures both the concrete detail and the epic dimension of life in the world's fastest-growing economy.

Zha's vivid cast of characters includes an unlikely couple who teamed up to become the country's leading real-estate moguls; a gifted chameleon who transformed himself from Mao's favorite “barefoot doctor” during the Cultural Revolution to a publishing maverick; and a tycoon of home-electronic chain stores who insisted on avenging his mother, who had been executed as “a counter-revolutionary criminal.” Alongside these entrepreneurs, Zha also brings us the intellectuals: a cantankerous professor at China's top university; a former cultural minister turned prolific writer; and Zha's own brother, a dissident who served a nine-year prison term for helping to found the China Democracy Party.

Deeply engaging, lucid, and poignant, Zha's insightful “insider-outsider” portraits offer a picture of a China that few Western readers have seen before. Tide Players is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand today's China.
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  1. Print length
    224 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    The New Press
  4. Publication date
    March 29, 2011
  5. Dimensions
    5.75 x 1 x 8.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1595586202
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1595586209
  8. See all details
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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
19 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Doc Lover
5.0 out of 5 stars A truly insightful book and highly recommend it!
Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2013
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I've read many books on modern China, and this book is definitely among the best. The author gives candid yet nuanced accounts of several representative characters who have been shaped by and are also shaping China's recent development. The narrative goes much deeper than your average newspaper reporting to reveal the complex baggage and measured optimism of China and the Chinese people. A truly insightful book and highly recommend it!
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Juliette Mondot
4.0 out of 5 stars Tide Players:The Movers and Shakers of a Rising China
Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2011
Verified Purchase
Tide Players is a good introduction to the rising new class of entrepeneurs in China and the rapidly evolving Chinese economic and social culture. Author Jianying Zha is well versed in both eastern and western cultures. She is a good writer with the background and experience to explain and frame China's issues to a western reader. She not only writes about the new Chinese economic stars, but provides a philosophical context for beginning to understand the changes and amazing economic growth of the new China.

This is a good book for any English speaking reader who wants to know more about modern China.
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Juan Pablo Errazuriz
5.0 out of 5 stars En lighting of China late history
Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2012
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Never have hear or seen more claryfiing insight view of modern China I really would encourage all readers to look inside this magnificent book
One person found this helpful
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John Feng
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2016
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Like new, great!!!
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Eileen Eastman
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting
Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2013
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It was fascinating reading how the various people covered were propelled to start on their path to success: the methods they used and the areas chosen. In a way their success is an illustration of how hard work, determination, perseverance and luck all played their part in their success.
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Leona Chen
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2015
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Really good writing!
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Peter M. Herford
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2014
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Useful for those interested in China, but already outdated by new generations of movers and shakers.
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nuffsaid
2.0 out of 5 stars A timorous, labored look at contemporary China
Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2016
Why are Northern Chinese so infatuated with academic degrees and professional standing? In the introduction to this book (which is the only original content) the author devotes almost all of her time relating in tiresome detail, her academic achievements and meager publishing history.
The main part of the book consists of a reader's digest sort of sketch of several rich people in China. The author seems to share the contemporary chinese obsession with great wealth. Where each fatcat stands on the national tote board seems to be a matter of some interest to the author.
The author relates the amazing fact that these successful people started out poor. Given that pretty much everyone in China 50 years ago was struggling, the astonishment with which that relevation is received is bound to be somewhat muted.
The prose of the book is competent but lifeless. It feels like the purpose of the book was more the sheer fact of its publication than a desire to say anything new or interesting.
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Urbanist Vancouver
5.0 out of 5 stars nice book
Reviewed in Canada on June 11, 2013
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it's in excellent condition. I am happy of my choice. this is one of the best books I have read this year.
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Denis Urval
5.0 out of 5 stars Derrière la muraille, des hommes
Reviewed in France on June 10, 2011
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Les livres sur la Chine d'aujourd'hui, son économie, ses ambitions réelles ou supposées, sont toujours plus nombreux. Il est plus rare qu'un auteur s'intéresse aux chinois. C'est vrai, ceux-là, on allait presque les oublier derrière les réserves de devises, le calcul du PIB et les piles de jouets. Il faut bien pourtant des gens qui travaillent et élèvent leurs enfants pour faire un pays si vaste et si peuplé. Tous ne sont pas de hauts cadres du parti, des policiers ou des dissidents enfermés dans une geôle. Les chinois, que font-ils, et comment en sont-ils arrivés là où ils sont?

L'écrivain Jianying Zha est née à Pékin et elle a vécu aux USA une bonne partie de sa vie d'adulte (elle a publié dans le prestigieux New Yorker). Familière de la Chine urbaine, elle a décidé de dédier ce livre aux trajectoires de ceux qui sont au coeur du changement économique et social, ceux qui font ce changement et le subissent. En une première partie, les entrepreneurs; en une seconde, les intellectuels. A chaque fois, trois portraits nourris de sa propre histoire et de contacts personnels. Ainsi, elle évite la recherche de l'impossible exhaustivité, les fausses généralités. On entre, tout bonnement, dans le concret de la vie.

Son premier exemple, le magnat Zhang Dazhong (« A good tycoon »), en dit long sur ses choix : celui-ci, roi des débrouillards, est passé de la pauvreté à la fortune en fondant une chaîne de magasins à la Darty, mettant à profit les réformes introduites par Deng Xiaoping ; mais l'autre affaire de sa vie est la réhabilitation posthume de sa mère, victime du maoisme. Celui qui lit le livre découvrira l'histoire horrible et poignante de l'origine du premier petit capital du futur multi-millionnaire. Il découvrira aussi cette phrase, que Zhang avait lue dans sa période la moins faste, et qui l'a frappé à jamais : « le degré de son malheur est déterminé par la compréhension qu'on en a ». Astuce, sens des opportunités, conviction partagée que chacun peut désormais faire sa vie, que la misère n'est pas inéluctable et que le champ des possibles est immense : avec Jianying Zha, on voit vite l'essentiel.

Son second portrait est consacré à un célèbre couple de promoteurs immobiliers.

Le troisième portrait est celui d'un ancien « médecin aux pieds nus » (selon l'appellation de l'ère maoiste, où de jeunes diplômés partaient faire profiter de leur savoir les habitants des régions les plus défavorisées). Adulé, puis honni, il s'est réinventé et est devenu un éditeur connu et prospère, en perpétuel déplacement, qui n'a pas renoncé à sa première vocation, soigner. On note, dans tout le livre, l'incidence de la découverte des pays étrangers, de la nouvelle liberté de voyager.

Le passionnant quatrième chapitre est consacré à la très controversée réforme de l'Université Beida (souvent considérée comme la première de Chine) et il est précieux, aussi bien pour la connaissance de la Chine contemporaine que pour celle des tensions qui habitent le monde académique d'aujourd'hui dans le contexte de sa transformation universelle.

Le cinquième portrait (« Ennemi de l'état ») est celui du propre frère de l'auteur, condamné à neuf ans de prison pour avoir participé en 1998 à la fondation d'un parti démocratique. Geste d'un inadapté qui n'a rien à perdre, échec retentissant d'un piètre tacticien politique, ou sublime sacrifice? Jianying Zha consacre de magnifiques pages, émues et lucides, non pas simplement à la narration (comment on passe de garde rouge exalté à dissident résolu) mais à la réflexion morale et à l'analyse, aussi douloureuse qu'intelligente, de la radicalité politique dans l'impasse.

Le dernier portrait est celui d'un écrivain très officiel, Wang Meng.

Couvrant un champ qui risque d'être abandonné aux dogmatiques et aux propagandistes de tous bords, Jianying Zha est aussi précise dans le détail et nuancée dans l'analyse qu'elle est prudente dans ses conclusions et prévisions.
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