《AgeofAmbition:ChasingFortune,TruthandFaithintheNewChina》ByEvanOsnos电子书

内容简介

“A vibrant, colorful, and revelatory inner history of China during a moment of profound transformation From abroad, we often see China as a caricature: a nation of pragmatic plutocrats and ruthlessly dedicated students destined to rule the global economy–or an addled Goliath, riddled with corruption and on the edge of stagnation. What we don’t see is how both powerful and ordinary people are remaking their lives as their country dramatically changes. As the Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, Evan Osnos was on the ground in China for years, witness to profound political, economic, and cultural upheaval. In Age of Ambition, he describes the greatest collision taking place in that country: the clash between the rise of the individual and the Communist Party’s struggle to retain control. He asks probing questions: Why does a government with more success lifting people from poverty than any civilization in history choose to put strict restraints on freedom of expression? Why do millions of young Chinese professionals–fluent in English and devoted to Western pop culture–consider themselves “angry youth,” dedicated to resisting the West’s influence? How are Chinese from all strata finding meaning after two decades of the relentless pursuit of wealth? Writing with great narrative verve and a keen sense of irony, Osnos follows the moving stories of everyday people and reveals life in the new China to be a battleground between aspiration and authoritarianism, in which only one can prevail”–

universities, or interview Chinese policy makers. Most scholars are therefore cautious not to cross the ‘invisible line.’ International correspondents who leave China after working there for years are, by contrast, in a privileged position; they no longer depend on the Chinese government’s goodwill and are in a position to write an honest account about their time in the world’s most populous nation. And indeed, Evan Osnos’ Age of Ambition is remarkably candid about corruption, oppression and struggle in China. Certainly, his chapters about systemic corruption on an absurd scale and waste of public resources are by far the most interesting part of the book. The main narrative in Osnos’ book is the transformation from collectivism to individualism in Chinese society. The swiftness of this change is dizzying and has made China, in many ways, far more individualistic and materialistic than many Western societies. Personal ambition is more explicit, and Osnos compares today’s China to late nineteenth century America, when robber barons ruled an increasingly unequal and exploitative economy. The sense of urgency seems omnipresent. The author cites a Chinese tourist in Europe who marvels at a car that stops at a crosswalk. Drivers in China think “I can’t pause. Otherwise, I’ll never get anywhere.” The Chinese word for ambition, ye xin, literally means “wild heart” and it has only recently shed its negative connotation. After all, open personal ambition, under the dark days of Mao, was considered undesirable. Yet while the examples the provided are colorful, the overall impression they create is somewhat caricaturesque and makes the Chinese seem almost mindlessly active, and almost nonhuman. For example, Osnos writes that sex was so taboo in the early 20th century that some couples struggled to have children “because they lacked a firm grasp of the mechanics.” That is hardly plausible and makes the uninformed reader think of the Chinese as easily controllable robotic creatures. There is plenty of evidence of liberal mores both before and during Mao’s rule. In the same way, the author seems to relish listing weird book titles that are popular in China — yet a reciting the titles of cheap books sold at gas stations in rural parts of the United States or Europe would sound equally bizarre. In that way, and many others, China is more like the rest of us than Age of Ambitions seems to suggest.

作者简介

Evan Osnos

下载地址

http://xz.tbookk.com/f/560517-461227629-421568

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