China's Brave New World: And Other Tales for Global Times (Encounters: Explorations in Folklore and Ethnomusicology)

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Synopsis
The author of Vigil: Hong Kong on the Brink delivers &“a must-read for anyone interested in the world&’s most rapidly changing society&” (James L. Watson, editor of Golden Arches East: McDonald&’s in East Asia). If Chairman Mao came back to life today, what would he think of Nanjing&’s bookstore, the Librairie Avant-Garde, where it is easier to find primers on Michel Foucault&’s philosophy than copies of the Little Red Book? What does it really mean to order a latte at Starbucks in Beijing? Is it possible that Aldous Huxley wrote a novel even more useful than Orwell&’s 1984 for making sense of post-Tiananmen China—or post-9/11 America? In these often playful, always enlightening &“tales,&” Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom poses these and other questions as he journeys from 19th-century China into the future, and from Shanghai to Chicago, St. Louis, and Budapest. He argues that simplistic views of China and Americanization found in most soundbite-driven media reports serve us poorly as we try to understand China&’s place in the current world order—or our own. &“Rather effortlessly brilliant . . . It penetrates with a lightly knowing eye and ear into the interior mind, heart and soul of giant China and the innumerable Chinese.&”—AsiaMedia &“This book provides a powerful lens for outsiders to understand a globalizing China and a unique mirror for the Chinese to reflect on their own society in a global context.&”—Yunxiang Yan, author of Private Life Under Socialism &“Readers will find themselves far more observant and attentive to local distinctions when they take their first or next trip to China.&”—Stanley Rosen, The China Journal No. 60
Copyright:
2007

Book Details

Book Quality:
Publisher Quality
Book Size:
237 Pages
ISBN-13:
9780253027764
Related ISBNs:
9780253219084
Publisher:
Indiana University Press
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
History, Nonfiction, Social Studies, Politics and Government
Reading Age:
18 and up
Submitted By:
Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.
Foreword by:
Vladimir Tismaneanu

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