Route 312 is the Chinese Route 66. It flows three thousand miles from east to west, passing through the factory towns of the coastal areas, through the rural heart of China, then up into the Gobi Desert, where it merges with the Old Silk Road. The highway witnesses every part of the social and economic revolution that is turning China upside down.
In this utterly surprising and deeply personal book, acclaimed National Public Radio reporter Rob Gifford, a fluent Mandarin speaker, takes the dramatic journey along Route 312 from its start in the boomtown of Shanghai to its end on the border with Kazakhstan. Gifford reveals the rich mosaic of modern Chinese life in all its contradictions, as he poses the crucial questions that all of us are asking about China: Will it really be the next global superpower? Is it as solid and as powerful as it looks from the outside? And who are the ordinary Chinese people, to whom the twenty-first century is supposed to belong?
Gifford is not alone on his journey. The largest migration in human history is taking place along highways such as Route 312, as tens of millions of people leave their homes in search of work. He sees signs of the booming urban economy everywhere, but he also uncovers many of the country’s frailties, and some of the deep-seated problems that could derail China’s rise.
The whole compelling adventure is told through the cast of colorful characters Gifford meets: garrulous talk-show hosts and ambitious yuppies, impoverished peasants and tragic prostitutes, cell-phone salesmen, AIDS patients, and Tibetan monks. He rides with members of a Shanghai jeep club, hitchhikes across the Gobi desert, and sings karaoke with migrant workers at truck stops along the way.
As he recounts his travels along Route 312, Rob Gifford gives a face to what has historically, for Westerners, been a faceless country and breathes life into a nation that is so often reduced to economic statistics. Finally, he sounds a warning that all is not well in the Chinese heartlands, that serious problems lie ahead, and that the future of the West has become inextricably linked with the fate of 1.3 billion Chinese people.
“Informative, delightful, and powerfully moving . . . Rob Gifford’s acute powers of observation, his sense of humor and adventure, and his determination to explore the wrenching dilemmas of China’s explosive development open readers’ eyes and reward their minds.”
–Robert A. Kapp, president, U.S.-China Business Council, 1994-2004
与照片上相比,Rob Gifford留着大胡子,看上去有些老,让人疑心是他的哥哥来了。跟几个月前贝淡宁(Daniel A. Bell)的号召力差不多,他昨晚在北京书虫的见面会吸引了众多读者,好些人是站着听完的。作为美国NPR电台的英国记者,Gifford不像贝淡宁那样文弱的书生,声音大,也更...
评分I've been reading quite a lot of books on China, not simply because I love this country, but I've never had a unified opinion about China. My own attitude towards China has always been self-contradictory. This travelogue just echoes my confusion with lively...
评分我觉得齐福德同学的这本书是一本很有意思的反应中国社会现实的社普类读物,最大的亮点就是里面有很多中文词汇及成语的英文翻译。 单凭他在中国20年的经历,就能想象他中文英文的功力之强。远至孔孟老庄,近至鲁迅老毛,对他们的经典语录真是顺手拈来,着实佩服。此书开头的一...
评分我觉得齐福德同学的这本书是一本很有意思的反应中国社会现实的社普类读物,最大的亮点就是里面有很多中文词汇及成语的英文翻译。 单凭他在中国20年的经历,就能想象他中文英文的功力之强。远至孔孟老庄,近至鲁迅老毛,对他们的经典语录真是顺手拈来,着实佩服。此书开头的一...
评分引人入胜的行文,有趣而不同的视角,去年在网上听过他为NPR做的播报,现在才不经意间看到他这本书。拿到之后从晚饭一直读,读到第二天早上6点钟才读完-这就是所谓拿起来放不下的那种读物。 喜欢他的英式冷幽默,经常让人在沉重的阅读之间忍俊不禁。 只是对他在文中表现出的很...
Moderate tone and balanced opinions about China
评分留日后拍马屁用
评分还行,给外国人还看比较合适,我觉得nothing much new.
评分长期受雇于通讯社,齐福德的文笔肯定没得说,同时也有英国人的幽默。书里记述的体验旅程,沿着312国道从东到西,穿越多个省份,不管自然气候、地形地貌,还是经济条件、民生状况,差别都挺大的,确实是个了解中国的办法,但这么大的国家,不管历史或现实,所牵涉的事物繁多复杂,真的不是三个月走马观花式的旅行就能看得清也说得清的。好多人赞美何伟,是因为何伟能看到普通人的无奈和无助,如果齐福德能像何伟扎根于某个三四五线小城镇,停留时间长点,多接触多观察,可能很多感悟就不一样了。同样是在英国旧书店淘到的书,除了纸张略有随时间沉淀的老旧痕迹,其他基本和新书无异,只要3.5镑。
评分China Road,China Reality
本站所有内容均为互联网搜索引擎提供的公开搜索信息,本站不存储任何数据与内容,任何内容与数据均与本站无关,如有需要请联系相关搜索引擎包括但不限于百度,google,bing,sogou 等
© 2025 book.wenda123.org All Rights Reserved. 图书目录大全 版权所有