Rating: 
Summary: China beyond the modern face of the cities
Review: ...BR> There is one area where I disagree strongly with the author. He describes the political system of China and how the Chinese mentality is to be subservient to authority and concludes that revolt against the communist leadership is most unlikely. If there is one thing that the collapse of the Soviet Empire should teach us, it is that apparently stable communist political systems can fall apart in a matter of months. In place for over seven decades, and at the cost of millions of lives, the Soviet Union appeared so powerful in the middle of the 1980's. And yet, less than five years later, it no longer existed and all of Eastern Europe turned to democracy in less than a year.
This is the best description of the problems facing the Chinese state that I have ever read. It debunks some of the common myths about China and after reading it, you understand that quick judgments about the country, the leadership and the people are dangerous. After reading it, you also understand that it is very possible that the country could become unraveled very quickly, which would be a very dangerous situation.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Informative
Review: I found this book to be fascinating. Having lived and traveled some years in Asia and having been in China twice, I found that it shed some light on the current situation as well as recent history. One thing I would like to know is Jasper Becker's qualifications for writing the book. It does not say anything about his education or training and if he speaks/reads fluent Chinese or not. This would make a huge difference in the quality of his reporting. Also, he gives several quotes by Mao which show a complete disregard for the loss of life in the event of a nuclear war with the Soviet Union, but it is difficult to evaluate the credibility of his source. It is interesting how, as he points out, many overseas Chinese react negatively to any criticism of China. And some of the reviews here show that! Certaintly, his evaluation of the environmental problems facing the nation as perhaps the most important challenge is spot on. However, he definitely has a bias. It is a pro-human rights one. Not a bad thing to have!
Rating:
Summary: Interesting as a foundation to build upon.
Review: It seesm to be the rule with most books on China that if one reviewer gives a book a 5 star rating and thinks it's an earth shattering work of unheard of beauty, the next reviewer will give it 1 star and say that it's the biggest load of dross they've ever read and bears no relation to the reality of China and the Chinese. Well when reading tihs review, do bear in mind I'm no Old China Hand, but I rather enjoyed this book. The book takes the form of a series of largely unconnected chapters each of which deals with a different aspect of (largely contemporary or near contemporary) Chinese life. The book does not provide exhaustive coverage of all aspects of China, but for somebody new to the subject it is interesting enough (the author includes a few personal snippets and occassionally focuses on specific Chinese people he's met) and provides food for thought. The author sources some of his chapters and, especially in chapters dealing with business or demographics, litters the prose with figures and statistics. This is useful, but not THAT useful. The book is not ordered as an academic text and personally (maybe I'm just stupid, mind) having read it I couldn't quote the figures to you - they mostly gave a broad impression which was then washed away as I carried on through the book. It's an interesting book. I'd certainly recommend people read it if they are relatively new to the subject. But on the whole it's worth while not ONLY reading this book. China is such a complex (and controversial) subject that reading around fairly thoroughly is essential for any serious understanding. In truth, I get the impression that learning the language and visiting the country are probably essential too! If you want to whet your appetite with something fairly readable and reasonably broad brush, this is a pretty good starting point.
Rating:
Summary: A soy sauce vat full of putrescent brine?
Review: Jasper Becker brings the seasoned China-watcher's cynicism to this book. His comment that "anyone who spends time working in China eventually comes to doubt even basic facts," sums it up nicely. Ironically, though, his own book abounds with facts. Some of these should be taken with a generous pinch of salt (see the probing review by "Brian" dated March 10, 2002, for some examples). In China statistics are for the most part propaganda. Even if the newspapers "uncover" that huge amounts of money have been embezzled, these figures have a function as propaganda; the purpose is to remove certain people (who fell out of favor) from their office. Sadly, the result of the mismanagement of information is that nobody in China, and least of all the so-called planners, knows what is going on. The only way to find out what is "real" in China is to go there and see for oneself. Jasper Becker's book is a good place to start exploring because he has been a first-hand observer since 1985, when he went to Beijing as the China correspondent for Hong Kong's South China Morning Post (at that time still a reputable, sufficiently independent newspaper). Becker has been fired by the paper in 2001, and I tend to regard this as a sign of integrity. "The Chinese" is a valuable primer on the bureaucratic origins of the present People's Republic of China, the mandarins' (and Communist cadres') venerable tradition of living off taxes levied on the peasants, the charming ways how to please superiors by cooking the books, and the various instances in which the bureaucratic system failed to perform. Becker shows how the problems of the present originated in the history of China, and highlights the similarities between the Communist rule today and the feudal Emperors of the past. Becker does not go as far as one of the most infamous critics of Communist China, the Taiwanese writer Bo Yang. He wrote a bestseller entitled "The Ugly Chinaman" and thinks that there is something wrong in the Chinese national character and at the very heart of Chinese culture: "Chinese culture, he delighted in telling everyone who came to see him in Taipei, was nothing but a vat of putrefied soy sauce giving off a horrible stench: 'Even if one were to place a fresh peach in a soy sauce vat full of putrescent brine, it would eventually turn into a dry turd.'" But any reader will come away from Becker's book with the uncomfortable and disturbing feeling that much in China is rotten to the core, and the prosperity of the coastal cities - foremost Shanghai where I worked for three years - may be built on very shaky ground. "The Chinese" is comprehensive, informed, critical, and less polemic than "The Coming Collapse of China" (2001) by Gordon G. Chang, who worked as a lawyer in Shanghai. The book is arguably the best overview of the present state of China written by a journalist in recent years.
Rating:
Summary: A bit too long, but still full of excellent observations.
Review: Kudos to Becker for his placement of the Chinese in historical context. The book is worth its salt if for no other part than the 20 page introduction that gives a synopsis of the Chinese state. And this book could have been written by no one other than someone who had observed every day life in China for a period of ten years. Even after all this, he is still good about admitting that the place eludes generalization. I've just finished living in China and have found that many of the things that he says are correct. For example: He mentions that the cities are among the most prosperous places and that the rich people live there as they always have. The further one goes from the city centers, the more obvious the real picture is. He makes some very prescient observations about the affinity of the Chinese for tyrants and their love of all-controlling, authoritarian regimes. If the CCP collapsed tomorrow, the citizenry wouldn't know what to do with itself if history is any guide. Everyone also seems to think that China is going to take over the world in the near future. After reading the details of the book, one wonders: "Is this really consistent with what you would expect from such a situation as he describes?" One or two things that are missing that were covered in later publications--by different authors: What happens in the case where there is a large peasantry that feels that their taxes are being extracted to support the wealthy? What happens when there is a huge excess of men to women in a particular country? At the beginning of the book, he said that he was not going to offer a book about political ideology. But it would have been nice if he had drawn just a few more parallels between what happened in other places under similar circumstances. (This story has been told many times before; Only the players are different.) Actually, there are too many good observations to even address within the word limit of the reviews. One other that is too good to resist noting is the Chinese concept of "race," as it was taught many years ago by Sun Yat Sen (Chinese and White are superior and all others are inferior, thus the Chinese race must regenerate itself or risk extinction) that is still very much believed in Taiwan and colors certain notions/ statements that one hears in every day life there as well as in the Mainland. Lastly, he could have shaved about 75 pages off the book and it would not have been diminished in any way. When dealing with such large amounts of factual information as he put in the book, shorter is always better. In any case, there is very little that I disagree with in this book and most people (especially Sinophiles and other romantics) would do very well to read this book and understand what it demonstrates.
Rating:
Summary: A Gripping, In-Depth Study Which Lets Chinese People Speak
Review: This book, like Becker's previous 'Hungry Ghosts', contains a wealth of interesting information that sheds much light on China's politicized modernization process and its social effects. The writing is excellent as well. Unfortunately, also like 'Hungry Ghosts' (though less so this time), he's got an ax to grind that results in uncritical acceptance of many invalid charges made against the PRC. It also results in every negative trend and every rotten behavior of the government being exposed (as should be); but simultaneously existing positive trends and admirable actions by the government over the last 50 years are dutifully ignored. 1) Becker states (pg 4) that China "did not advance very far" under Mao. Agriculture grew faster than all but a couple of developing countries. Industrial growth was flawed (far too few consumer goods) but better than average. Life expectancy soared from 37-68, far faster than the norm. Primary and secondary school enrollment soared (especially in the long neglected countryside). These are the kind of things you won't read in this book. 2) Becker says 80 million were killed or died because Mao's policies. This is an outrageous fiction, that Becker cites no evidence for (for none exists). I welcome correction if someone is aware of any. 3) Becker says the success of Shanxi Province Mao era model farm Dazhai was a concocted myth, thus demonstrating a willingness to accept uncritically even communist propaganda when it's helpful, rather than asking the people of Dazhai themselves, or reading the many accounts of those who have, since Deng made this charge. 4) He says 1 million Chinese were killed in the Korean War, apparently so we can make inferences about how the then PRC leaders disregard human life. Never mind that this UN figure is citing killed AND wounded and that people who have studied the Chinese side of the war closely have determined even it is far too high. And never mind that Zhou Enlai tried desperately to avoid conflict with the US, and the PRC only entered the war when bombed and verbally threatened. 5) He suggests that cooperative land tenure is an unpopular imposition by the state bent on control. Yet Jonathan Unger's new book "The Transformation of Rural China" (based on extensive rural interviews) explains that this system is very popular, and it's the state that is pushing for privatization. 6) When Becker asks why so many Chinese still "retain faith" in the PRC (253), the answer he gives is propaganda and the fact that many Chinese adore tyrants. Yet the party has in fact lost a huge amount of popular support from the mid 1990s to the present. Has propaganda and authoritarianism ended? No. Thus, a reasonable conclusion (supported by interview evidence) is popular support existed before because of a higher degree of socio-economic justice than the typical developing country, and the growing perception that the government is purely self-serving and representative of the rich explains their large slide in the public's view. A fairer book of this type is "Rediscovering China" by Cheng Li. Of the 'bad side of the PRC' genre, Nicholas Kristoff and Sheryl Wudunn's book "China Wakes" is better, though less up to date. Another source for a "Chinese" view of China would be to read a village study like 'Gao Village'.
Rating:
Summary: A Gripping, In-Depth Study Which Lets Chinese People Speak
Review: This is a fascinating, hard-to-put down description of recent China which traces the roots of today's conditions into the past. Mr. Becker has visited many places in China which are off the beaten path, and he has talked to a wide array of people. He is also well-read in Chinese history and culture. The book is footnoted, making use of a variety of written sources in Chinese and English in addition to the author's own direct observations and interviews. A chapter which was especially interesting to me describes Chinese intellectuals of the present and past, their part in shaping 20th-century political developments, and ways in which intellectuals were affected by cataclysmic events such as the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution and the continuing roller-coaster ride of events since the 1970's. Some little-known intellectual and political movements of the first half of the 20th century are highlighted also. Another chapter shows the shocking effects of Maoist policies on education, and what happened to many teachers during the Cultural Revolution and afterwards. However, this is not a book which focusses just upon the elites. Also described, with substance and readability, are economic changes, minorities, health care, the environment, conditions among people in the countryside, the one-child policy, law, bureaucracy, access to information outlets, Chinese views on morality, and the role of the People's Liberation Army. There are some striking observations on the relationship between privatization and one-party rule, and resultant impacts on people's attitudes towards the state and the world in general. While the book focusses upon developments in the last few decades, it is one of the best, most balanced books I've read on China generally. It suggests to me that Mr. Becker has real understanding and compassion for individual Chinese people, and not just for cloudy concepts about Chinese people and culture. Based upon my own experiences in China, Mr. Becker's descriptions of places such as Shenzhen are right on target. Unlike many books by writers who attempt to explain current conditions in a particular country, and who, in the process, talk mostly to people who seem to be like themselves, this book is an in-depth, carefully researched study which lets Chinese people from many backgrounds speak for themselves.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent snapshot
Review: This is an excellent snapshot of a very important nation that is emerging on the world stage while most Americans are watching "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire." We ignore China at our peril, and are governed by ignoramuses who couldn't find China on a map. Becker has performed a valuable service here, and his research is excellent, his facts and figures are bankable. Becker has a very austere, clean style that imparts information and allows the reader to make up his own mind. Yet he is deeply engaged with his subject and obviously has China deep in his heart. I admire his dedication. He isn't doing this for the money, he's doing it out of sincere engagement and curiosity. This is an excellent book, and a worthy successor to Becker's first book, "Hungry Ghosts," a story of the famine that swept China during Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward. "Hungry Ghosts" is just about collectibly good, a superb piece of work that explains a great deal about Modern China. McarlosB
Rating:
Summary: Recent Detail
Review: Very detailed account of chinese recent history. Not a great book for learning the origins of deep chinese roots, but a great book for learning how those roots are playing out today. Good use of data for the numberically inclined. The author's perspective seems one sided (i.e. anti-regime), but that's a very informed decision.
Rating:
Summary: Recent Detail
Review: Very detailed account of chinese recent history. Not a great book for learning the origins of deep chinese roots, but a great book for learning how those roots are playing out today. Good use of data for the numberically inclined. The author's perspective seems one sided (i.e. anti-regime), but that's a very informed decision.
| 
