MCLC: Chinese Characters book announcement

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: Chinese Characters book announcement
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The University of California Press is proud to announce the publication of
Chinese Characters: Profiles of Fast-Changing Lives in a Fast-Changing
Land, which was co-edited by freelance journalist Angilee Shah and
historian Jeffery Wasserstrom.  Ordering information about the book, early
reviews, and a sample chapter (by Xujun Eberlein) can be found at the
following webpage that is part of UC Press' site:

http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520270275

Additional updates, as well as excerpts from or links to illuminating
additional material on
contemporary China, can be found at book's tumblr site:

http://chinesecharacters.tumblr.com/.

Chinese Characters may be of interest to many on this list, either to read
for pleasure or use in the classroom.  It is made up of pieces by various
kinds of writers (journalists, scholars writing in a way that leave
specialized language and footnotes behind, and two people who have written
fiction as well as non-fiction).  Most chapters were newly composed or
substantially revised for inclusion in the volume, but a few are reprints
of "instant classics" (such as New Yorker pieces by Peter Hessler and Evan
Osnos).  All chapters focus on individual life stories (in this it
parallels and pair well with works like the Sang Ye/Geremie Barme
collaboration China Candid).  Its goal is to underscore the diverse ways
that Chinese people of differing sorts are living through and shaping the
country¹s changes.  The contributors all know China well, but otherwise
are a varied group.  They come from different places (India, Europe, North
America, China), belong to different generations, and run the gamut from
very well known authors (Leslie T. Chang, Ian Johnson, Foreword-writer
Pankaj Mishra, etc.) to less well known writers to watch. Here¹s a
synopsis of its contents:

Foreword‹Pankaj Mishra
Introduction‹Jeffrey Wasserstrom

1. ³The North Peak,² an original piece of reportage by Ian Johnson
that focuses on Taoism.

2. ³The New Generation¹s Neo-Con Nationalism,² a reprint of Evan
Osnos¹s profile of surprisingly polite "angry youth."

3.     ³Out of Tibet,² an original piece by blogger and freelance writer
Alec Ash, a coming of age tale of an ethnic Tibetan

4. ³Belonging to Old Beijing,² an original piece by historian Harriet
Evans on an elderly resident of a hutong.

5. ³Another Swimmer,² Boston-based short story writer and blogger
Xujun Eberlein¹s look at how the Cultural Revolution is remembered and
forgotten in her native Chongqing.

6. ³Looking for Lok To,² by historian James Carter, it moves between
New York and China with a focus on a Buddhist.

7. ³The Ever-Floating Floater,² adapted from a chapter on the
recycling/scrap trade in Michelle Dammon Loyalka¹s recent book Eating
Bitterness, which profiles migrant workers in Xi¹an.

8. ³King of the Road,² an original piece of reportage by Megan Shank,
managing editor of Current Digest of the Chinese Press, on a car rental
entrepreneur.

9. ³Painting the Outside World,² a reprint of a piece by Peter Hessler
about a young woman who makes a living copying Western masterpieces but
doesn¹t care much about art.

10. ³The Road to a Better Life,² an original piece by the Hindu's Beijing
bureau chief Ananth Krishnan, which explores life at Minzu Daxue in
Beijing.

11. ³Yong Yang¹s Odyssey,² a piece by freelancer and Foreign Policy
contributing editor Christina Larson, which is an adapted and updated
version from one she wrote for Washington Monthly on a Chinese
environmentalist work and adventures.

12. ³The Court Jester,² an original piece of reportage by legal specialist
Jeffrey Prescott, which offers the most extended and personal look in
English to date of the crusading legal reformer He Weifang.

13. ³The Great Wall of Education,² an original piece by freelance writer
and scholar Anna Greenspan on the experience of being half of an expat
couple whose children are attending a Shanghai public school.

14. ³Gilded Age, Gilded Cage,² a reprint of a Leslie T. Chang National
Geographic piece on the life and anxieties of a teenager girl growing up
in a middle class Shanghai family.

15. ³Shredding for the Motherland,² an original essay by historian (and
musician) James Millward, which explores surprising parallels in the
motivations of China¹s best known classical guitar and rock guitar
teachers.

Afterword‹by journalist and former AsiaMedia editor Angilee Shah.