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Age Of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, And Faith In The New China (2014)

by Evan Osnos(Favorite Author)

4.23 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0374280746 (ISBN13: 9780374280741)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

review 1: I've read other books on China that held a more critical view and weren't as balanced as Osnos' story. Furthermore, he story in my view adds legitimacy and credibility given he lived in the country for five years and spoke the language, giving him more insight into the Chinese psyche and thinking. He does well to review his encounters with Chinese of different walks of life, be they cultural/artistic icons, government representatives, aspiring middle-class youth from the countryside, etc. He refrains from criticizing or making judgments based on his experience, leaving it to the reader to draw their own conclusions. Excellent book.
review 2: I learned a lot about China from this book myself, even though I am from China. It has been over 16 years since I left an... mored so much has changed. China is such a big country and it is a daunting task to understand it, from inside or out. There are three points I think that made this book work. First, Mr. Osnos has an inquisitive and compassionate mind. As a foreign journalist he was able to interview many people who would never appear in press in China. Secondly, when one writes about China, it is very easy to take sides, either praising the government to get published in China or condemning it to sell outside of China. I feel Mr. Osnos has taken a more or less neutral ground and truly wanted to recognize the achievement of the government while explores the problems it is facing. The solution is hard to come by so we don't really expect that of the author. Lastly Mr. Osnos is a good writer and I recognized his story about traveling with the oversea Chinese tourist group published in the New York Times. His style is very accessible and has a touch of humor. To understand China, you have to understand the people. To understand the people, you need literature. Unfortunately great literature appears to be an impossibility in China (two recent Nobel Prize winners notwithstanding, neither is Tolstoy or Balzac or Mark Twain). This book helps a little. Highly recommended. less

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