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
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Personally my deep love of this sentence makes it an intrinsic part of myself, and so does the author. But, still, I can not see the connection of this citation to the whole book. It is glued at the front and rear of the passage, but not being vivified. Ro...
评分美国全国公共广播电台(NPR)驻华记者Rob Gifford即将调离岗位,美国的编辑问他是否愿意去耶路撒冷做记者。他考虑许久后说,算了。那个时候,他已经预计到,在耶路撒冷报道巴以冲突将会是在一个循环反复的百年故事里打转。他告诉他的编辑,中国,相较之下,她的故事有一种线性...
评分China Road: A Journey into the Future of the Rising Power It is a bit strange to find Rob Gifford’s China Road in the travel section of my local bookshop. Route 312, where the author traveled from end to end, is not exact your typical tourist route. Nor i...
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...
这本书给我的整体感受是:它拒绝被轻易定义。你试图把它归类为历史小说吧,它的虚构成分又过于大胆;你觉得它是严肃文学吧,它的情节张力又时不时地让你感到热血沸腾。它像是一件非常复杂的现代艺术装置,需要你不断地走动,从不同的角度去审视它,才能理解其整体的构造和意图。我尤其欣赏作者处理冲突的方式——那些最大的冲突往往不是发生在角色之间的激烈争吵,而是发生在角色内心深处,是关于“应该做什么”和“不得不做什么”之间的撕扯。这种内耗型的叙事,使得人物的每一次选择都显得尤为沉重和真实。读完之后,我并没有感到心满意足,反而感到一种被深深触动后的空虚——不是因为故事不够精彩,而是因为它揭示了生活的本质可能就是如此:充满了未竟的事业和永无止境的跋涉。它迫使你重新审视你自己的“路”在哪里,以及你为了走上这条路,究竟放弃了什么。
评分从文学技巧的角度来看,这本书的结构就像一个精巧的、多层的俄罗斯套娃,你以为你剥开了一层,看到了核心,结果里面还有一个更小、更晦涩的秘密。作者对语言的运用达到了令人发指的精确度,每一个词汇的选择似乎都经过了极其严苛的筛选,没有一个多余的音节,也没有一个可以被轻易替代的形容词。阅读的过程,与其说是“阅读”,不如说更像是一种“解码”或“考古发掘”。那些看似平淡无奇的对话,仔细推敲后会发现其下暗流涌动,充满了未说出口的潜台词和被时代压抑的情感。这种对语言的极致雕琢,使得这本书的密度极高,我发现自己不得不时常停下来,反复阅读同一段落,生怕错过作者精心布置的隐喻或典故。坦白说,这种阅读体验对体力要求很高,它不是让你放松的读物,而是需要你全神贯注、甚至要准备好笔和笔记本去标注重点的学术材料,但正因如此,它所提供的智力回报也是巨大的。
评分我个人阅读这类题材时,通常比较关注作品是否能捕捉到特定地域和时代那种独有的“气味”。而这本书,成功地将我从我所处的安逸环境中剥离出来,瞬间投射到了那个充满尘土飞扬的、关于“前行”的哲学思辨之中。它描绘的“路”并非仅仅是地理上的沥青或泥土,而是一种深刻的、贯穿数代人的精神轨迹。书中对“等待”和“错过”的描绘尤为触动人心。那种在漫长的时间跨度下,个体命运被历史车轮碾过的无力感,被作者描绘得淋漓尽致,却又保持了一种抽离的、近乎冷酷的客观性。它让你感觉到,无论你如何努力奔跑,总有一些东西是注定无法追赶的,而接受这种宿命本身,或许就是抵达“终点”的唯一方式。这本书的视角非常广阔,像是从卫星高空俯瞰大地,偶尔又会骤然聚焦到某一个微不足道的细节,这种焦距的快速切换,制造出一种强烈的时空错位感,非常引人入胜。
评分这本《China Road》的叙事节奏简直像是一场令人窒息的马拉松,作者似乎对时间的概念有着一种近乎偏执的掌控欲,每一个章节的推进都显得缓慢而审慎,仿佛作者本人正在那条“中国道路”上徒步前行,每一步都要细细打磨,生怕错过了路边一粒不起眼的石子。我必须承认,初读时我曾感到强烈的挫败感,那些冗长、近乎百科全书式的环境描写,以及对人物内心活动那近乎病态的剖析,让情节的推进像凝固的焦油。有那么一瞬间,我甚至怀疑自己是不是拿错了一本哲学论著的摘要。然而,当我放下急躁,开始沉浸其中时,那些看似无关紧要的细节,开始像散落在沙漠中的水晶碎片,逐渐汇集成壮阔的图景。那种感觉很奇特,就像透过一层厚厚的毛玻璃,终于看清了远方地平线上模糊的轮廓。它不是那种能让你一口气读完,拍案叫绝的通俗小说,它更像是一坛需要时间慢慢窖藏的陈酿,后劲十足,回味悠长,只是,对于追求即时满足感的现代读者来说,这需要极大的耐心和一种近乎朝圣的虔诚。
评分我一直认为,一部真正伟大的作品,必然是在某种程度上让你感到困惑和不安的。而这本书,它成功地做到了这一点。它没有提供任何简单的答案,更像是抛出了一系列令人脊背发凉的问题,然后将读者扔进了一个由迷雾、尘土和难以捉摸的道德灰色地带构筑的迷宫。角色的塑造尤其令人印象深刻,他们不是传统意义上的英雄或恶棍,更像是行走在时代洪流中的幽灵,带着各自沉重的包袱,在不可抗拒的历史惯性下挣扎。我尤其对那个总是出现在岔路口的老者印象深刻,他的每一句箴言都像一把生锈的钥匙,似乎能打开通往真相的门,但当你真的试图握紧它时,它又会从指缝间滑落,只留下指尖冰冷的触感。这本书的魅力就在于这种永恒的“未完成感”,它拒绝给你一个圆满的句号,而是让你带着满心的疑问和一丝隐秘的恐惧,自行去填补那些留白。这是一种高明的叙事策略,但也意味着,如果你期待一个清晰的道德指南,那你注定会失望。
评分With more than 1/3 of the book devoted to the less traveled west China, the author recorded intriguing observations on the political, social, economic and ethnic transitions spawning along the backbone Route 312. His non-condescending humor, pictorial narration and well-researched historical account made him not just another “ocean people” wondering around the places of interests, but a traveler with genuine interests in figuring out how China people could muddle through the journey of modernity with modest prosperity, harmonious diversity and, most importantly, long-lost cultural identity.
评分And whatever happens to China in the future, if I live long enough to have grandchildren and they ask me, “Were you there, Grandpa? Did you really see China rise?” I’ll tell them, “Yes. I saw it. I was there.”
评分相当有诚意的一本书,虽然一般老外写中国的三宝是人权,民主,艾未未,但本书作者并没有仅仅关注前两点,而是用中立和客观的态度诠释了自己的看法。比只会用微博热点写书的欧逸文强的不是一点半点,确实是被严重低估了。几十年过去了,中国经济确实更好了,但真的比以前生活的更幸福了吗?
评分Moderate tone and balanced opinions about China
评分题材很特别,是根据作者离开中国前沿着312国道从上海到新疆一路经历所写成的。里面很多的社会现实对我来说并不感到新奇,但是仍有很多作者的讨论和观点很深刻,能给人启发。对于第一次读这类外国人写的中国读物的人来说,的确是“从一个外国人眼里,又重新了解了一次自己的祖国”。
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