Chinese Lessons

Chinese Lessons PDF Author: John Pomfret
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0805076158
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 343

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Book Description
"As a twenty-two-year-old exchange student at Nanjing University in 1981, John Pomfret was one of the first American students to be admitted to China after the Communist Revolution of 1949. Living in a cramped dorm room, Pomfret was exposed to a country few outsiders had ever experienced, one fresh from the twin tragedies of Mao's rule - the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution." "Twenty years after first leaving China, Pomfret returned to the university for a class reunion. Once again, he immersed himself in the lives of his classmates, especially the one woman and four men whose stories make up Chinese Lessons, an intimate and revealing portrait of the Chinese people." "Beginning with Pomfret's first day in China, Chinese Lessons takes us back to the often torturous paths that brought together the Nanjing University History Class of 1982. We learn that Old Wu's father was killed during the Cultural Revolution for the crime of being an intellectual; Book Idiot Zhou labored in the fields for years rather than agree to a Party-arranged marriage; Little Guan was forced to publicly denounce and humiliate her father." "As we follow Pomfret's classmates from childhood to university and on to adulthood, we see the effect that the country's transition from near-feudal communism to First World capitalism has had on his classmates. This riveting portrait of the Chinese people will not only change your understanding of China but also challenge your perception of the way fate can shape the course of nations as surely as it has the extraordinary lives of these five classmates."--BOOK JACKET.

Chinese Lessons

Chinese Lessons PDF Author: John Pomfret
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0805076158
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 343

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Book Description
"As a twenty-two-year-old exchange student at Nanjing University in 1981, John Pomfret was one of the first American students to be admitted to China after the Communist Revolution of 1949. Living in a cramped dorm room, Pomfret was exposed to a country few outsiders had ever experienced, one fresh from the twin tragedies of Mao's rule - the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution." "Twenty years after first leaving China, Pomfret returned to the university for a class reunion. Once again, he immersed himself in the lives of his classmates, especially the one woman and four men whose stories make up Chinese Lessons, an intimate and revealing portrait of the Chinese people." "Beginning with Pomfret's first day in China, Chinese Lessons takes us back to the often torturous paths that brought together the Nanjing University History Class of 1982. We learn that Old Wu's father was killed during the Cultural Revolution for the crime of being an intellectual; Book Idiot Zhou labored in the fields for years rather than agree to a Party-arranged marriage; Little Guan was forced to publicly denounce and humiliate her father." "As we follow Pomfret's classmates from childhood to university and on to adulthood, we see the effect that the country's transition from near-feudal communism to First World capitalism has had on his classmates. This riveting portrait of the Chinese people will not only change your understanding of China but also challenge your perception of the way fate can shape the course of nations as surely as it has the extraordinary lives of these five classmates."--BOOK JACKET.

Lessons from China

Lessons from China PDF Author: Beau Sides
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780985993504
Category : Americans
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Jan Cross, a recent graduate from the University of Mississippi, is on a plane headed for Beijing, China to teach English at a Chinese university. Struggling to free herself of her ultra-independent behavior, she intentionally places herself in a situation that forces her to depend on others for help. Jan gets much more than she bargained for as she experiences a culture that is worlds apart from her beloved southern town of Jasper, Mississippi, USA. Jan quickly learns that as a visitor and an employee, you don t mess with the Chinese government or the University! The challenges of living and working abroad change her forever as she gives and receives lessons inside and outside of the classroom on life, social practices, politics, and the deep bond of friendship. Lessons from China is a heartwarming exploration of China that innocently, and often humorously, takes into account the many differences and similarities to US culture through the eyes of a young American and first-time traveler. Providing an inside view of Chinese culture, economic development, and bits of historical background, this story delivers the hope and beauty of diversity and cultural acceptance between East and West."

Economic Lessons from China’s Forty Years of Reform and Opening-up

Economic Lessons from China’s Forty Years of Reform and Opening-up PDF Author: David Daokui Li
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9813345209
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
This book first shows that the past 40 years of China's economic reform and opening up represents the greatest magnitude of economic growth in history. Based on field trips, extensive and intensive interviews and literature surveys, this book argues that there are five general lessons for a rapid growing economy from China's economic reform and opening up, all in the area of the relationship between the government and the economy. First, the local governments need to be incentivized to help rapid entry and development of enterprises. Second, local governments need to be incentivized to help rapid land conversion from agricultural to non-agricultural. Third, financial deepening is vital; that is, inducing households to hold more and more financial assets in local currency. Financial deepening is essential to convert savings into investments. This requires financial stability, which is crucial. Fourth, the learning through opening up is the key to endogenous economic growth. The fundamental benefit of opening up is learning rather than enjoying comparative advantage. The fifth and final lesson from China is that the central government must proactively manage the macroeconomy. The rationale is that enterprises compete with each other in games of industrial organization. In order to resolve this problem, proactive measures including market-oriented means, administrative orders and reform measures should be implemented. Overall, the main lesson from China's past 40 years of reform and opening up is that proper incentives and behavior of the government, local and central, are important for economic growth. China has been conducting reforms in this regard and as a result, the government more or less has been playing the role of a "helping hand" regarding economic growth, although China's economic system is far from perfect and many reforms are still needed.

Lessons in Being Chinese

Lessons in Being Chinese PDF Author: Mette Halskov Hansen
Publisher: University of Washington Press
ISBN: 0295978090
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
This comparative study of the Naxi and Tai minority groups in Southwestern China examines the implementation and reception of state minority education policy. Hansen (Center for Development and the Environment, U. of Oslo) argues that state policy is not uniformly successful among all minorities, no

Ten Lessons in Modern Chinese History

Ten Lessons in Modern Chinese History PDF Author: Zheng Yangwen
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526126974
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
This book is a timely and solid portrait of modern China from the First Opium War to the Xi Jinping era. Unlike the handful of existing textbooks that only provide narratives, this textbook fashions a new and practical way to study modern China. Written exclusively for university students, A-level or high school teachers and students, it uses primary sources to tell the story of China and introduces them to existing scholarship and academic debate so they can conduct independent research for their essays and dissertations. This book will be required reading for students who embark on the study of Chinese history, politics, economics, diaspora, sociology, literature, cultural, urban and women’s studies. It would be essential reading to journalists, NGO workers, diplomats, government officials, businessmen and travellers.

Dreaming in Chinese

Dreaming in Chinese PDF Author: Deborah Fallows
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0802779247
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
Deborah Fallows has spent much of her life learning languages and traveling around the world. But nothing prepared her for the surprises of learning Mandarin, China's most common language, or the intensity of living in Shanghai and Beijing. Over time, she realized that her struggles and triumphs in studying the language of her adopted home provided small clues to deciphering the behavior and habits of its people,and its culture's conundrums. As her skill with Mandarin increased, bits of the language-a word, a phrase, an oddity of grammar-became windows into understanding romance, humor, protocol, relationships, and the overflowing humanity of modern China. Fallows learned, for example, that the abrupt, blunt way of speaking that Chinese people sometimes use isn't rudeness, but is, in fact, a way to acknowledge and honor the closeness between two friends. She learned that English speakers' trouble with hearing or saying tones-the variations in inflection that can change a word's meaning-is matched by Chinese speakers' inability not to hear tones, or to even take a guess at understanding what might have been meant when foreigners misuse them. In sharing what she discovered about Mandarin, and how those discoveries helped her understand a culture that had at first seemed impenetrable, Deborah Fallows's Dreaming in Chinese opens up China to Westerners more completely, perhaps, than it has ever been before.

Pioneers, Hidden Champions, Changemakers, and Underdogs

Pioneers, Hidden Champions, Changemakers, and Underdogs PDF Author: Mark J. Greeven
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262547899
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
An insider's view of China's under-the-radar, globally competitive innovators. Chinese innovators are making their mark globally. Not only do such giants as Alibaba and Huawei continue to thrive and grow through innovation, thousands of younger Chinese entrepreneurs are poised to enter the global marketplace. In this book, Mark Greeven, George Yip, and Wei Wei offer an insider's view of China's under-the-radar, globally competitive innovators. The authors, all experts on Chinese innovation, distinguish four types of innovators in China: pioneers, large companies that are globally known; hidden champions, midsize enterprises that are market leaders in their niches; underdogs, technology-driven ventures with significant intellectual property; and changemakers, newer firms characterized by digital disruption, exponential growth, and cross-industry innovations. They investigate what kinds of innovations these companies develop (product, process, or business model), their competitive strategies, and key drivers of innovation. They identify six typical ways Chinese entrepreneurs innovate, including swarm innovation (collectively pursuing opportunities) and rapid centralized decision making. Finally, they look at how Chinese innovators are going global, whether building R&D networks internationally or exporting disruptive business models. The book includes many examples of Chinese innovators and innovations, drawn from a range of companies—from pioneers to changemakers—including Alibaba, Haier, Hikvision, Malong Technology, Weihua Solar, Mobike, and Cheetah Mobile. Greeven, Yip, and Wei offer an essential guide to what makes China a heavyweight competitor in the global marketplace.

Middle Class Shanghai

Middle Class Shanghai PDF Author: Cheng Li
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815739109
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 488

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Book Description
The United States may be headed toward a disastrous conflict with China unless Washington updates its understanding of contemporary Chinese society After four decades of engagement, the United States and China now appear to be locked on a collision course that has already fomented a trade war, seems likely to produce a new cold war, and could even result in dangerous military conflict. The current deterioration of the bilateral relationship is the culmination of years of disputes, disillusionment, disappointment, and distrust between the two countries. Washington has legitimate concerns about Beijing's excessive domestic political control and aggressive foreign policy stances, just as Chinese leaders believe the United States still has futile designs on blocking their country's inevitable rise to great-power status. Cheng Li's Middle Class Shanghai argues that American policymakers must not lose sight of the expansive dynamism and diversity in present-day China. The caricature of the PRC as a monolithic Communist apparatus set on exporting its ideology and development model is simplistic and misguided. Drawing on empirical research in the realms of higher education, avant-garde art, architecture, and law, this unique study highlights the strong, constructive impact of bilateral exchanges. Combining eclectic human stories with striking new data analysis, this book addresses the possibility that the development of China's class structure and cosmopolitan culture—exemplified and led by Shanghai—could provide a force for reshaping U.S.-China engagement. Both countries should build upon the deep cultural and educational exchanges that have bound them together for decades. The author concludes that U.S. policymakers should neither underestimate the role and strength of the Chinese middle class, nor ostracize or alienate this force with policies that push it toward jingoistic nationalism to the detriment of both countries and the global community. With its unique focus, this book will enlighten policymakers, scholars, business leaders, and anyone interested in China and its increasingly fraught relations with the United States.

One Billion Customers

One Billion Customers PDF Author: James McGregor
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 074325841X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
From one of the most successful journalist/businessmen ever to do business inChina comes a blueprint for succeeding in the worlds fastest-growing consumermarket.

China's Great Road

China's Great Road PDF Author: John Ross
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781899155118
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
The accumulated achievements of China since its revolution of 1949 are so great that they have now not only changed the world but must lead every socialist and progressive person to think about their relation to them. This is a situation only comparable to the way Russia's 1917 revolution transformed the world. China, after its revolution, has achieved the greatest improvement in life of by far the largest proportion of humanity of any country in human history. China's Great Road explains how China achieved this enormous step forward for humanity. The unequivocal answer the book gives is that socialism achieved this huge advance. It analyses this at numerous different levels. If the international left does not raise itself to understanding China's successful socialist development then it is lagging in understanding one of the most enormous facts in human history. China's Great Road both analyses China's reality and shows how socialists in other countries can and should learn from China.