Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Henery Holt and company
DDC/MDS
| 951 |
Description
A first-hand account of the remarkable transformation of China over the past forty years. As a 20-year-old exchange student from Stanford in 1981, Pomfret spent a year at Nanjing University in China. His classmates were among those who survived the twin tragedies of Mao's rule--the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution--and whose success in government and private industry today are shaping China's future. Pomfret went on to a career in journalism, spending the bulk of his time in China. After attending the twentieth reunion of his class, he decided to reacquaint himself with some of his classmates. This book is their story and his own. As we watch Pomfret and his classmates begin to make their lives as adults, we see the human cost and triumph of China's transition from near-feudal communism to first-world capitalism.--From publisher description.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member kokipy
I found this book very disturbing. The author follows five classmates from his class at Nanjing University in the early 1980s through their childhood during the Cultural Revolution, their college years in the early 80s', the flowering of Chinese independent thinking in the mid to late 80s followed
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by the horrors of Tianamen Square, and then the developments since. His thesis seems to be that the Chinese as a people are cut off from all of their ancient civilization by the depredations of the Communist party over the last 60 years, and are largely without any moral compass. Those who thrive in the new China do so because they put themselves first, without reference to any ethical or moral groundings, which have never been taught to them and which have been suppressed by the governing party for the last two generations. This is depressing, and frightening, and I do so hope it isn't true. Show Less
LibraryThing member ejjokers
Interesting anecdotes on life in China in the early 80's written by news journalist John Pomfret. The stories come from his roommates while he was in Nanjing. While intriguing, I never get the feeling of author's relationship with these people, he sounds very much like a news reporter. As far as my
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feelings for China goes....I am glad I never lived through those times. Most of the Chinese interviewed are around my age and I shudder to think of my life even remotely like any of theirs. I have great admiration for the survivors but no wish to be part of that culture. It will be interesting to see how the Chinese government will deal with the upper mobile burgeoning middle class. Show Less
LibraryThing member edwinbcn
Chinese lessons. Five classmates and the story of the New China is yet another book about the disaster known as modern Chinese history. In just over 300 pages, John Pomfret tells the story of modern China, basically from the late 1950s up till the present. Journalists are not historians, and
Both historians and journalists may make use of eyewitness accounts. Chinese lessons. Five classmates and the story of the New China is largely based on the stories told by Pomfret's former classmates, five Chinese students he befriended while Pomfret studied at Nanjing University. This also gives the book a fairly unique perspective, namely that from the city of Nanjng, while most other books tend to focus on either having a very general scope, collecting stories from all over China or being very focused on Beijing.
Nonetheless, the stories of each of these classmates are as shocking as any. They may have a somewhat more rural base, but the quintessential horror of the Cultural Revolution in present in each. Part 2 of the book tells the life experience of Pomfret's classmates during the 1970s and early 80s, the period when the author witnessed their lives as he studied in China.
In Part 3 of the book, Pomfret himself is the eye witness of the events in the capital in 1989. The narrative focuses on proximity and on-the-ground perspective, the author running through the hutongs to reach the square before the armoured vehicles, the author among the students, the author with his face pressed against the tarmac taking cover. What follows is interrogation, and eventually, expulsion.
The next part of the book is called "Into the Sea", a typical phrase for Chinese to have left the motherland. It shows once more how the author identifies with the Chinese. During the following years, Pomfret worked in Hong Kong, and a decade later he is enabled, with special permission to re-enter China and resume reporting on conditions in China. The final two parts of the book are about the 1990s and the early first decade of the new century, a time of economic development, but no less hardship and political repression.
Part memoir, part observation, but lacking distance, Chinese lessons. Five classmates and the story of the New China is a book that throws three parts of Chinese history together, that would heve been better presented if dealt with apart. For all of the author's closeness to China, the book lacks true sympathy. It is much more a harsh reckoning, than a warm memoir. The book would be of interest to people who are interested in Nanjing, and the history of the Cultural Revolution at Nanjing University, Chinese education and Chinese universities. The rest of the book is barely worth attention, as it is too distanced and too superficial.
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typically, they lack distance to the object of their study, and with it any form of objectivity. As many long-term residents, Pomfret has a strong tendency to identify with the Chinese, and hence, the book seems a feeble attempt to write himself into Chinese history. The author's longing to be part of Chinese history seems more strongly so since he was evicted from the country, in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Incident.Both historians and journalists may make use of eyewitness accounts. Chinese lessons. Five classmates and the story of the New China is largely based on the stories told by Pomfret's former classmates, five Chinese students he befriended while Pomfret studied at Nanjing University. This also gives the book a fairly unique perspective, namely that from the city of Nanjng, while most other books tend to focus on either having a very general scope, collecting stories from all over China or being very focused on Beijing.
Nonetheless, the stories of each of these classmates are as shocking as any. They may have a somewhat more rural base, but the quintessential horror of the Cultural Revolution in present in each. Part 2 of the book tells the life experience of Pomfret's classmates during the 1970s and early 80s, the period when the author witnessed their lives as he studied in China.
In Part 3 of the book, Pomfret himself is the eye witness of the events in the capital in 1989. The narrative focuses on proximity and on-the-ground perspective, the author running through the hutongs to reach the square before the armoured vehicles, the author among the students, the author with his face pressed against the tarmac taking cover. What follows is interrogation, and eventually, expulsion.
The next part of the book is called "Into the Sea", a typical phrase for Chinese to have left the motherland. It shows once more how the author identifies with the Chinese. During the following years, Pomfret worked in Hong Kong, and a decade later he is enabled, with special permission to re-enter China and resume reporting on conditions in China. The final two parts of the book are about the 1990s and the early first decade of the new century, a time of economic development, but no less hardship and political repression.
Part memoir, part observation, but lacking distance, Chinese lessons. Five classmates and the story of the New China is a book that throws three parts of Chinese history together, that would heve been better presented if dealt with apart. For all of the author's closeness to China, the book lacks true sympathy. It is much more a harsh reckoning, than a warm memoir. The book would be of interest to people who are interested in Nanjing, and the history of the Cultural Revolution at Nanjing University, Chinese education and Chinese universities. The rest of the book is barely worth attention, as it is too distanced and too superficial.
Show Less
Subjects
ISBN
0805076158 / 9780805076158