Author: Abrahm Lustgarten
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1429967188
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 342
Book Description
A vivid account of China's unstoppable quest to build a railway into Tibet, and its obsession to transform its land and its people In the summer of 2006, the Chinese government fulfilled a fifty-year plan to build a railway into Tibet. Since Mao Zedong first envisioned it, the line had grown into an imperative, a critical component of China's breakneck expansion and the final maneuver in strengthening China's grip over this remote and often mystical frontier, which promised rich resources and geographic supremacy over South Asia. Through the lives of the Chinese and Tibetans swept up in the project, Fortune magazine writer Abrahm Lustgarten explores the "Wild West" atmosphere of the Chinese economy today. He follows innovative Chinese engineer Zhang Luxin as he makes the train's route over the treacherous mountains and permafrost possible (for now), and the tenacious Tibetan shopkeeper Rinzen, who struggles to hold on to his business in a boomtown that increasingly favors the Han Chinese. As the railway—the highest and steepest in the world—extends to Lhasa, and China's "Go West" campaign delivers waves of rural poor eager to make their fortunes, their lives and communities fundamentally change, sometimes for good, sometimes not. Lustgarten's book is a timely, provocative, and absorbing first-hand account of the Chinese boom and the promise and costs of rapid development on the country's people.
China's Great Leap
Author: Minky Worden
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
ISBN: 1583229531
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 354
Book Description
With contributions from some of the most well respected and experienced Chinese writers, journalists, and organizers, China’s Great Leap examines the People’s Republic of China as its government and 1.3 billion people prepare for the 2008 Olympic Games. When Beijing first sought the Games, China was still recovering from the upheavals of Maoist rule and adapting to a market revolution. Today, China wants to engage with the outside world—while fully controlling the engagement. How will the new leaders in Beijing manage the Olympic process and the internal and external pressures for reform it creates? China’s Great Leap will illuminate China’s recent history and outline how domestic and international pressures in the context of the Olympics could achieve human rights change. Learn about key areas for human rights reform and how the Olympics could represent a possible great leap forward for the people of China and for the world.
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
ISBN: 1583229531
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 354
Book Description
With contributions from some of the most well respected and experienced Chinese writers, journalists, and organizers, China’s Great Leap examines the People’s Republic of China as its government and 1.3 billion people prepare for the 2008 Olympic Games. When Beijing first sought the Games, China was still recovering from the upheavals of Maoist rule and adapting to a market revolution. Today, China wants to engage with the outside world—while fully controlling the engagement. How will the new leaders in Beijing manage the Olympic process and the internal and external pressures for reform it creates? China’s Great Leap will illuminate China’s recent history and outline how domestic and international pressures in the context of the Olympics could achieve human rights change. Learn about key areas for human rights reform and how the Olympics could represent a possible great leap forward for the people of China and for the world.
Eating Bitterness
Author: Kimberley Ens Manning
Publisher: UBC Press
ISBN: 0774859555
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 338
Book Description
When the Chinese Communist Party came to power in 1949, Mao Zedong declared that "not even one person shall die of hunger." Yet some 30 million peasants died of starvation and exhaustion during the Great Leap Forward. Eating Bitterness reveals how men and women in rural and urban settings, from the provincial level to the grassroots, experienced the changes brought on by the party leaders' attempts to modernize China. This landmark volume lifts the curtain of party propaganda to expose the suffering of citizens and the deeply contested nature of state-society relations in Maoist China.
Publisher: UBC Press
ISBN: 0774859555
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 338
Book Description
When the Chinese Communist Party came to power in 1949, Mao Zedong declared that "not even one person shall die of hunger." Yet some 30 million peasants died of starvation and exhaustion during the Great Leap Forward. Eating Bitterness reveals how men and women in rural and urban settings, from the provincial level to the grassroots, experienced the changes brought on by the party leaders' attempts to modernize China. This landmark volume lifts the curtain of party propaganda to expose the suffering of citizens and the deeply contested nature of state-society relations in Maoist China.
Heroes of China's Great Leap Forward
Author: Richard King
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 082483402X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 146
Book Description
Heroes of China’s Great Leap Forward presents contrasting narratives of the most ambitious and disastrous mass movement in modern Chinese history. The objective of the Great Leap, when it was launched in the late 1950s, was to catapult China into the ranks of the great military and industrial powers with no assistance from the outside world; it resulted in a famine that killed tens of millions of the nation’s peasants. Li Zhun’s "A Brief Biography of Li Shuangshuang," written while the movement was underway, celebrates the Great Leap as it was supposed to be: a time of optimism, dynamism, and shared purpose. A spirited young peasant woman, freed from the restrictions of home life, launches a canteen and wins the recognition of authorities and the admiration of her husband. The story—and the film that followed it—made Li Shuangshuang the greatest fictional heroine of the Great Leap. In contrast, Zhang Yigong’s short novel The Story of the Criminal Li Tongzhong, written two decades later, was one of the first works published in China to suggest a much darker side to the Great Leap. A village official leads a raid on a state granary to feed starving peasants; he is later arrested and dies a criminal. Although Zhang stopped short of portraying the horrors of famine, his tone of moral outrage provides a rejoinder to the triumphalism of "Li Shuangshuang." The stories are accompanied by an introduction to the Great Leap and portraits of the two writers, including their recollections of that traumatic time and the creation of their very different heroes.
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 082483402X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 146
Book Description
Heroes of China’s Great Leap Forward presents contrasting narratives of the most ambitious and disastrous mass movement in modern Chinese history. The objective of the Great Leap, when it was launched in the late 1950s, was to catapult China into the ranks of the great military and industrial powers with no assistance from the outside world; it resulted in a famine that killed tens of millions of the nation’s peasants. Li Zhun’s "A Brief Biography of Li Shuangshuang," written while the movement was underway, celebrates the Great Leap as it was supposed to be: a time of optimism, dynamism, and shared purpose. A spirited young peasant woman, freed from the restrictions of home life, launches a canteen and wins the recognition of authorities and the admiration of her husband. The story—and the film that followed it—made Li Shuangshuang the greatest fictional heroine of the Great Leap. In contrast, Zhang Yigong’s short novel The Story of the Criminal Li Tongzhong, written two decades later, was one of the first works published in China to suggest a much darker side to the Great Leap. A village official leads a raid on a state granary to feed starving peasants; he is later arrested and dies a criminal. Although Zhang stopped short of portraying the horrors of famine, his tone of moral outrage provides a rejoinder to the triumphalism of "Li Shuangshuang." The stories are accompanied by an introduction to the Great Leap and portraits of the two writers, including their recollections of that traumatic time and the creation of their very different heroes.
Calamity and Reform in China
Author: Dali L. Yang
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804734704
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 375
Book Description
This is the first book-length treatment of the political causes and consequences of the Great Leap Famine (1959-61), one of the worst tragedies in human history.
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804734704
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 375
Book Description
This is the first book-length treatment of the political causes and consequences of the Great Leap Famine (1959-61), one of the worst tragedies in human history.
China's Great Leap Outward
Author: Andrew Scobell
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781884853104
Category : China
Languages : en
Pages : 200
Book Description
"Presents case studies of China's twenty-first century efforts to leverage hard and soft power in its foreign policy. Explores China's economic and military policy in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as core principles that guide China's influence in Latin America and Africa"--
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781884853104
Category : China
Languages : en
Pages : 200
Book Description
"Presents case studies of China's twenty-first century efforts to leverage hard and soft power in its foreign policy. Explores China's economic and military policy in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as core principles that guide China's influence in Latin America and Africa"--
China's Great Train
Author: Abrahm Lustgarten
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1429967188
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 342
Book Description
A vivid account of China's unstoppable quest to build a railway into Tibet, and its obsession to transform its land and its people In the summer of 2006, the Chinese government fulfilled a fifty-year plan to build a railway into Tibet. Since Mao Zedong first envisioned it, the line had grown into an imperative, a critical component of China's breakneck expansion and the final maneuver in strengthening China's grip over this remote and often mystical frontier, which promised rich resources and geographic supremacy over South Asia. Through the lives of the Chinese and Tibetans swept up in the project, Fortune magazine writer Abrahm Lustgarten explores the "Wild West" atmosphere of the Chinese economy today. He follows innovative Chinese engineer Zhang Luxin as he makes the train's route over the treacherous mountains and permafrost possible (for now), and the tenacious Tibetan shopkeeper Rinzen, who struggles to hold on to his business in a boomtown that increasingly favors the Han Chinese. As the railway—the highest and steepest in the world—extends to Lhasa, and China's "Go West" campaign delivers waves of rural poor eager to make their fortunes, their lives and communities fundamentally change, sometimes for good, sometimes not. Lustgarten's book is a timely, provocative, and absorbing first-hand account of the Chinese boom and the promise and costs of rapid development on the country's people.
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1429967188
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 342
Book Description
A vivid account of China's unstoppable quest to build a railway into Tibet, and its obsession to transform its land and its people In the summer of 2006, the Chinese government fulfilled a fifty-year plan to build a railway into Tibet. Since Mao Zedong first envisioned it, the line had grown into an imperative, a critical component of China's breakneck expansion and the final maneuver in strengthening China's grip over this remote and often mystical frontier, which promised rich resources and geographic supremacy over South Asia. Through the lives of the Chinese and Tibetans swept up in the project, Fortune magazine writer Abrahm Lustgarten explores the "Wild West" atmosphere of the Chinese economy today. He follows innovative Chinese engineer Zhang Luxin as he makes the train's route over the treacherous mountains and permafrost possible (for now), and the tenacious Tibetan shopkeeper Rinzen, who struggles to hold on to his business in a boomtown that increasingly favors the Han Chinese. As the railway—the highest and steepest in the world—extends to Lhasa, and China's "Go West" campaign delivers waves of rural poor eager to make their fortunes, their lives and communities fundamentally change, sometimes for good, sometimes not. Lustgarten's book is a timely, provocative, and absorbing first-hand account of the Chinese boom and the promise and costs of rapid development on the country's people.
The People's Republic of China
Author: Jeff Hay
Publisher: Greenhaven Publishing LLC
ISBN: 0737766727
Category : Young Adult Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 216
Book Description
This volume explores genocide and persecution in the People's Republic of China, including the historical and cultural background of events from the rise of the communist People's Republic of China in 1949 to the present. Issues surrounding events such as China's Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, the Tiananmen Square crackdown, and the treatment of minority groups and political dissidents in China are richly examined. Personal narratives from people touched by the events in China, including childhood memories of growing up during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution and the recent experiences of a Uighur activist.
Publisher: Greenhaven Publishing LLC
ISBN: 0737766727
Category : Young Adult Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 216
Book Description
This volume explores genocide and persecution in the People's Republic of China, including the historical and cultural background of events from the rise of the communist People's Republic of China in 1949 to the present. Issues surrounding events such as China's Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, the Tiananmen Square crackdown, and the treatment of minority groups and political dissidents in China are richly examined. Personal narratives from people touched by the events in China, including childhood memories of growing up during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution and the recent experiences of a Uighur activist.
Routledge Handbook of Revolutionary China
Author: Alan Baumler
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317235886
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 487
Book Description
The Routledge Handbook of Revolutionary China covers the evolution of Chinese society from the roots of the Republic of China in the early 1900s until the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976. The chapters in this volume explain aspects of the process of revolution and how people adapted to the demands of the revolutionary situation. Exploring changes in political leadership, as well as transformation in culture, it compares the differences in experiences in urban and rural areas and contrasts rapid changes, such as the war with Japan and Communist ‘liberation’ with evolutionary developments, such as the gradual redefinition of public space. Taking a comprehensive approach, the themes covered include: • War, occupation and liberation • Religion and gender • Education, cities and travel. This is an essential resource for students and scholars of Modern China, Republican China, Revolutionary China and Chinese Politics.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317235886
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 487
Book Description
The Routledge Handbook of Revolutionary China covers the evolution of Chinese society from the roots of the Republic of China in the early 1900s until the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976. The chapters in this volume explain aspects of the process of revolution and how people adapted to the demands of the revolutionary situation. Exploring changes in political leadership, as well as transformation in culture, it compares the differences in experiences in urban and rural areas and contrasts rapid changes, such as the war with Japan and Communist ‘liberation’ with evolutionary developments, such as the gradual redefinition of public space. Taking a comprehensive approach, the themes covered include: • War, occupation and liberation • Religion and gender • Education, cities and travel. This is an essential resource for students and scholars of Modern China, Republican China, Revolutionary China and Chinese Politics.
China's Longest Campaign
Author: Tyrene White
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501726587
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 316
Book Description
In the late 1970s, just as China was embarking on a sweeping program of post-Mao reforms, it also launched a one-child campaign. This campaign, which cut against the grain of rural reforms and childbearing preferences, was the culmination of a decade-long effort to subject reproduction to state planning. Tyrene White here analyzes this great social engineering experiment, drawing on more than twenty years of research, including fieldwork and interviews with a wide range of family-planning officials and rural cadres.White explores the origins of China's "birth-planning" approach to population control, the implementation of the campaign in rural China, strategies of resistance employed by villagers, and policy consequences (among them infanticide, infant abandonment, and sex-ratio imbalances). She also provides the first extensive political analysis of China's massive 1983 sterilization drive. The birth-planning project was the last and longest of the great mobilization campaigns, surviving long after the Deng regime had officially abandoned mass campaigns as instruments of political control.Arguing that the campaign had become an indispensable institution of rural governance, White shows how the one-child campaign mimicked the organizational style and rhythms both of political campaigns and economic production campaigns. Against the backdrop of unfolding rural reforms, only the campaign method could override obstacles to rural enforcement. As reform gradually eroded and transformed patterns of power and authority, however, even campaigns grew increasingly ineffective, paving the way for long-overdue reform of the birth-planning program.
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501726587
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 316
Book Description
In the late 1970s, just as China was embarking on a sweeping program of post-Mao reforms, it also launched a one-child campaign. This campaign, which cut against the grain of rural reforms and childbearing preferences, was the culmination of a decade-long effort to subject reproduction to state planning. Tyrene White here analyzes this great social engineering experiment, drawing on more than twenty years of research, including fieldwork and interviews with a wide range of family-planning officials and rural cadres.White explores the origins of China's "birth-planning" approach to population control, the implementation of the campaign in rural China, strategies of resistance employed by villagers, and policy consequences (among them infanticide, infant abandonment, and sex-ratio imbalances). She also provides the first extensive political analysis of China's massive 1983 sterilization drive. The birth-planning project was the last and longest of the great mobilization campaigns, surviving long after the Deng regime had officially abandoned mass campaigns as instruments of political control.Arguing that the campaign had become an indispensable institution of rural governance, White shows how the one-child campaign mimicked the organizational style and rhythms both of political campaigns and economic production campaigns. Against the backdrop of unfolding rural reforms, only the campaign method could override obstacles to rural enforcement. As reform gradually eroded and transformed patterns of power and authority, however, even campaigns grew increasingly ineffective, paving the way for long-overdue reform of the birth-planning program.
The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern China
Author: Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199683751
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 374
Book Description
This lavishly illustrated volume explores the history of China from the founding of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) through to the present day. Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand this rising superpower on the verge of what promises to be the 'Chinese century'.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199683751
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 374
Book Description
This lavishly illustrated volume explores the history of China from the founding of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) through to the present day. Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand this rising superpower on the verge of what promises to be the 'Chinese century'.