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China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power
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First published January 1, 1994
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About the author
Nicholas D. Kristof
19 books1,041 followersNicholas Donabet Kristof is an American journalist, author, op-ed columnist, and a winner of two Pulitzer Prizes. He has written an op-ed column for The New York Times since November 2001 and is widely known for bringing to light human rights abuses in Asia and Africa, such as human trafficking and the Darfur conflict. He has lived on four continents, reported on six, and traveled to 160 countries and all 50 states. According to his blog, during his travels he has had "unpleasant experiences with malaria, wars, an Indonesian mob carrying heads on pikes, and an African airplane crash".
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 95 reviews
July 18, 2013
Now extremely dated, this text demands more scrutiny than it receives, and should be understood for what it is: a flawed and ultimately culturally-biased look at a country that Westerners (and particularly liberally-minded Westerners, I say this with no rancor towards liberalism) have difficulty understanding. This is a work of editorial journalism. It is not a work of academic rigor, and students reading it would do well to keep that fact in mind.
We must acknowledge that China has demons: vicious, petty, and corrupt entities plague its government and bureaucracy, and its history is littered with the bodies of countless innocents. Yet the authors (Kristof in particular) approach China with a limited view. It is rare to find a nod toward the exploitation of China by foreign powers during the pre-communist era, nor is there any analysis of how this exploitation contributed to the rise of the Maoist regime.
There's a great deal of discussion about how Confucianism lends itself to the 'uniquely Chinese' brand of government and viewpoint on business, about how the Chinese individual is culturally suited toward obedience. At several points this analysis veers toward racism, as when Kristof asserts that "corruption is one of the oldest problems in China" - corruption is one of the oldest problems in any nation on Earth. Word choice like this is discursively counterproductive and serves to leave the critical reader with a lingering sense that objectivity isn't paramount in the mind of the author.
And this is the fundamental problem with China wakes: throughout the book the authors highlight problems that are nearly universal and imply or directly state that they are uniquely Chinese. Even during the Tiananmen Era, only the most naive American could have thought that a woman being coerced into sleeping with her boss was a singular event, one which could have only taken place in East Asia.
And if these problems are so characteristic of China and Chinese culture, one wonders at the always-implicit assertion that things would be better if the pro-democracy movement were to take control of the government. Failures in education and public health systems are nothing new to democratic nations, and as our own recent history with real estate points out, corruption in the financial sector is by no means alien either.
At the end of the day, China Wakes sets out to paint a picture: China is a weak, failing empire, and its only hope is the free-market zeitgeist and the clearly superior morality of its liberal intellectuals. The authors seek to convince the reader that China's communist-era art and culture are worthless and falling apart, providing nothing more than the broken soil in which the seed of democracy might take root.
Obviously, the objective China watcher of today will find much to disagree with in the authors' arguments.
We must acknowledge that China has demons: vicious, petty, and corrupt entities plague its government and bureaucracy, and its history is littered with the bodies of countless innocents. Yet the authors (Kristof in particular) approach China with a limited view. It is rare to find a nod toward the exploitation of China by foreign powers during the pre-communist era, nor is there any analysis of how this exploitation contributed to the rise of the Maoist regime.
There's a great deal of discussion about how Confucianism lends itself to the 'uniquely Chinese' brand of government and viewpoint on business, about how the Chinese individual is culturally suited toward obedience. At several points this analysis veers toward racism, as when Kristof asserts that "corruption is one of the oldest problems in China" - corruption is one of the oldest problems in any nation on Earth. Word choice like this is discursively counterproductive and serves to leave the critical reader with a lingering sense that objectivity isn't paramount in the mind of the author.
And this is the fundamental problem with China wakes: throughout the book the authors highlight problems that are nearly universal and imply or directly state that they are uniquely Chinese. Even during the Tiananmen Era, only the most naive American could have thought that a woman being coerced into sleeping with her boss was a singular event, one which could have only taken place in East Asia.
And if these problems are so characteristic of China and Chinese culture, one wonders at the always-implicit assertion that things would be better if the pro-democracy movement were to take control of the government. Failures in education and public health systems are nothing new to democratic nations, and as our own recent history with real estate points out, corruption in the financial sector is by no means alien either.
At the end of the day, China Wakes sets out to paint a picture: China is a weak, failing empire, and its only hope is the free-market zeitgeist and the clearly superior morality of its liberal intellectuals. The authors seek to convince the reader that China's communist-era art and culture are worthless and falling apart, providing nothing more than the broken soil in which the seed of democracy might take root.
Obviously, the objective China watcher of today will find much to disagree with in the authors' arguments.
December 22, 2017
This is not a good book. I don't know very much about China at all, but it was hard to trust these writers because the claims they made about the West were so off-base that I couldn't imagine that their grand and weirdly reductive claims about China were any more perceptive. This book was recommended to me by a friend and my favorite part of reading it was taking photos of insane passages and sending them to him as punishment.
July 1, 2021
If one works for the NYT, one is sent to China solely for the purpose of invention and demonization of an enemy of the elites for which one works.
January 7, 2013
The authors, married Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalists, write about the emergence of capitalist China in the mid-1990s. Alternating authorship of the chapters, they analyze China in terms of its progress in the areas of civil rights and business in the face of government repression. The authors argue that the communist government is remarkably similar to those of past dynasties but that, given their entrepreneurial energy, Chinese people are living better now than ever before. At the time of the writing, the authors seemed unsure whether the communist government would last much longer, but their observations lead them to conclude that rotten as the whole system is, with its routine bribery and brutality, the slow change of Chinese culture indicates that the “dynasty” was not yet moribund. On a positive note, they see China as a nation that is beginning to appreciate the benefits of law, as well as material wealth, over imperial rule.
A well written, perspicacious, trenchant series of observations, the book is an easy, accessible read that covers several issues of major interest to Western observers (human rights, pollution, energy production, women’s rights, modernization), relying heavily on "human interest" type stories; in this case, these are vignettes such as a retarded man who is beaten to death by police to clean up the streets of Beijing before the Olympics, a girl who is kidnapped and sold into slavery, a journalist friend who is jailed for criticizing the government, a political refugee turned smuggler, and so on. Their emphasis on the rotten aspects of the communist dynasty has drawn criticism from other reviewers, who say that a particular brand of corruption and specific scandals are hardly representative of any country, especially one as large and heterogeneous as China. However, the authors themselves note the limitations of their “human interest” approach; in one memorable passage they imagine that the tables are turned, and a Chinese journalist who covered an American beat strictly in terms of its horrifyingly violent street crime would be scandalized that despite the high murder rate, most Americans simply go about their everyday lives not thinking much about it, and the journalist would go away with a very skewed understanding of America. The book is also, inevitably, outdated, but remains a fascinating time capsule of the state of China watching post-Tiananmen Square.
A well written, perspicacious, trenchant series of observations, the book is an easy, accessible read that covers several issues of major interest to Western observers (human rights, pollution, energy production, women’s rights, modernization), relying heavily on "human interest" type stories; in this case, these are vignettes such as a retarded man who is beaten to death by police to clean up the streets of Beijing before the Olympics, a girl who is kidnapped and sold into slavery, a journalist friend who is jailed for criticizing the government, a political refugee turned smuggler, and so on. Their emphasis on the rotten aspects of the communist dynasty has drawn criticism from other reviewers, who say that a particular brand of corruption and specific scandals are hardly representative of any country, especially one as large and heterogeneous as China. However, the authors themselves note the limitations of their “human interest” approach; in one memorable passage they imagine that the tables are turned, and a Chinese journalist who covered an American beat strictly in terms of its horrifyingly violent street crime would be scandalized that despite the high murder rate, most Americans simply go about their everyday lives not thinking much about it, and the journalist would go away with a very skewed understanding of America. The book is also, inevitably, outdated, but remains a fascinating time capsule of the state of China watching post-Tiananmen Square.
February 23, 2009
Have you been bored and/or patronized by Kristof's self-satisfaction and preaching in the New York Times? Take that vague feeling of being insulted home with you in book form!
July 19, 2020
Čína se probouzí není úplně samostatně stojící kniha. Spíše jde o tematicky shrnuté "hluboké lidské příběhy", které autorská dvojice - zdejší zahraniční zpravodajové na přelomu 90. let - během své práce posbírala a které slouží k ilustraci jednotlivých tváří Číny. Tomu odpovídá i úvod, který je taktéž velice osobní ("hluboce lidský") a představuje především samotné autory v kontextu tehdejší Číny.
V části knihy, kterou jsem zatím měl možnost přečíst*, jsem mimo novinářský styl nenalezl nějaký jednotící prvek. Kapitoly na sebe chronologicky nenavazují, jde spíše o náhodné seskupení příběhů okolo klíčových témat - jak následky komunistické diktatury doléhají na Čínu (včetně náměstí Nebeského klidu), a jak je tehdejší vedení možno bez problémů srovnat s císařstvím (na celostátní i místní úrovni). Ano, najde se v ní pár zajímavých rozšíření dříve načerpaných znalostí - například o čínských Slušovicích jménem Ta-Čchiou-čchuang jsem dodnes neslyšel a dle nulových výsledků vyhledávače se o nich ani jinde dozvědět nemohu - svým stylem to ale nedosahuje kvalit knihy Kulky a opium, či podobně vyznívajících knih Světlany Alexejevičové (která má ale velice rozdílný koncept vyprávění).
Jedním z charakteristických rysů žen-č' je to, že nemá žádnou logiku znamená to vládnout podle chvilkového rozmaru. Někdy to značilo vládu podle pověrčivých představ, když si například Mao vybral úředníka jménem Wan Li jako svého ministra dopravy. Wanovo jméno znělo podobně jako "tisíc mil" a Mao se domníval, že je to pro ministra dopravy šťastné jméno.
V Tibetu se najdou místa, kde ještě dávají dětem taková jména jako Psí trus, aby nepřitahovala pozornost zlých duchů.
V pátém století před Kristem v severní dynastii Wej čínští císaři vypracovali důkladný poa-ťia systém, v něm se sousedi špehovali navzájem, milice také, aby zajistila, že budou placeny daně. Všichni se zodpovídali centru. Pozdější dynastie tento systém zdědily a modifikovaly. Ještě v roce 1990 byl tento systém patrný ve formě občanských komisí a stranických buněk, každá je řízena drobným tyranem.
V roce 1992 jsem získal velké množství tajných materiálů komunistické strany svědčících o široké škále kanibalismu během kulturní revoluce v kraji Kuang-si v jižní Číně. Doklady mi předal Čeng I, čínský spisovatel a disident, který se dlouhodobě zabýval výzkumem kanibalismu. Nejprve jsem byl skeptický, ale čím víc jsem je pročítal a mluvil s Číňany, tím více jsem byl přesvědčen, že doklady jsou pravé. Byly natištěny na hlavičkovém papíře a opatřeny úředními razítky s uvedeným počtem kopií, které byly od každého pořízeny – třicet devět jednoho, osmnáct dalšího atd.
Dokumenty dosvědčující, že nejméně sto třicet sedm lidí a pravděpodobně o stovky více, bylo snědeno ve městech a vesnicích provincie Kuang-si koncem šedesátých let. Ve většině případů se na pojídání jednoho těla podílelo mnoho lidí, takže počet kanibalů může jít do tisícovek. I když to zjevně byl jeden z nejrozsáhlejších případů kanibalismu na světě v minulém století i dříve, je odlišný od většiny ostatních případů tím, že ti, co jedli lidské maso, nebyli motivováni hladem nebo psychickým onemocněním.
Zde byly pohnutky ideologické. Kanibalismus se odehrával na veřejných místech, často byl organizován funkcionáři komunistické strany a lidé si dopřávali společně, aby prokázali své revoluční nadšení. První osoba, která stahovala maso z těla jednoho ředitele školy byla dřívější přítelkyně jeho syna. Chtěla dokázat, že s ním nemá slitování a že je právě tak „rudá“ jako každý jiný. Na některých středních školách si studenti porcovali a opékali své učitele a ředitele na školních dvorech a hodovali, aby oslavili vítězství nad „kontrarevolucionáři“. Samoobslužné restaurace provozované vládou prý vystavovaly těla houpající se na hácích na maso a servírovaly lidské maso vládním zaměstnancům.
Snad nejvýraznějším rysem dnešní Číny je asi společenská kontrola, kterou provádí. Komunistická strana se opírá o prostý "železný trojúhelník" - povolení k pobytu, které omezuje místo vašeho bydliště, tajné osobní spisy, do nichž jsou zaznamenávány vaše hříchy a politická spolehlivost, a pracovní jednotka, která dohlíží na všechny aspekty vašeho života. Tento trojúhelník řídí váš život.
Chu-kchou neboli povolení k pobytu je malá knížečka, která potvrzuje, kde bydlíte, uvádí seznam členů vaší rodiny. Předpokládá se, že máte pekingské chu-kchou předtím, než se stěhujete do Pekingu, nebo sianské předtím než je vám povoleno přestěhovat se do Si-anu. Problém je, že vláda chu-kchou nedává snadno. Ve skutečnosti je prakticky nemožné, aby ho rolník dostal ve velkém městě. (...)
Tan-kan, což je tajný spis, visí nad každým Číňanem jako hrozba. Všichni čínští obyvatelé měst mají dva tan-kan, jeden vede místní policejní stanice a další pracovní jednotka. Na žádný z nich se nesmíte podívat. Existuje speciální poštovní systém, kterým se zasílají po celé zemi. Pokud uděláte závažnou politickou chybu (...) bude vás pronásledovat, kdykoli se v budoucnu budete pokoušet změnit zaměstnání, jet do ciziny nebo čekat na povýšení.
Klíčovým místem železného trojúhelníku je tan-wej, neboli pracovní jednotka, která poskytuje bydlení, lékařskou péči a politická školení. Její povolení je nezbytné v případě, že se chcete oženit či vdát, mít dítě, jet do ciziny, vyměnit byt...
Poznámka 1: Rád bych si přečetl nějakou současnou knihu, která by vysvětlila, jak se ke komunismu a komunistické straně staví dnešní čínské kádry. Protože 90. léta byla dle autorů něco jako ta 80. v Československu, kdy už téměř nikdo idejím nevěřil, ale stále se udržovala normalizační moc a s ní spojený klientelismus a nepotismus, soudružské vztahy a osobní styky, šmelení... Tak jak to, že se čínský komunismus nezhroutil podobně?
Poznámka 2: Český překlad knihy je v některých konkrétních příkladech (například caucasian) docela rušivý.
* Knihu jsem prozatím odložil někde v její třetině, při další návštěvě příslušné domácí knihovny se k ní rád vrátím.
V části knihy, kterou jsem zatím měl možnost přečíst*, jsem mimo novinářský styl nenalezl nějaký jednotící prvek. Kapitoly na sebe chronologicky nenavazují, jde spíše o náhodné seskupení příběhů okolo klíčových témat - jak následky komunistické diktatury doléhají na Čínu (včetně náměstí Nebeského klidu), a jak je tehdejší vedení možno bez problémů srovnat s císařstvím (na celostátní i místní úrovni). Ano, najde se v ní pár zajímavých rozšíření dříve načerpaných znalostí - například o čínských Slušovicích jménem Ta-Čchiou-čchuang jsem dodnes neslyšel a dle nulových výsledků vyhledávače se o nich ani jinde dozvědět nemohu - svým stylem to ale nedosahuje kvalit knihy Kulky a opium, či podobně vyznívajících knih Světlany Alexejevičové (která má ale velice rozdílný koncept vyprávění).
Jedním z charakteristických rysů žen-č' je to, že nemá žádnou logiku znamená to vládnout podle chvilkového rozmaru. Někdy to značilo vládu podle pověrčivých představ, když si například Mao vybral úředníka jménem Wan Li jako svého ministra dopravy. Wanovo jméno znělo podobně jako "tisíc mil" a Mao se domníval, že je to pro ministra dopravy šťastné jméno.
V Tibetu se najdou místa, kde ještě dávají dětem taková jména jako Psí trus, aby nepřitahovala pozornost zlých duchů.
V pátém století před Kristem v severní dynastii Wej čínští císaři vypracovali důkladný poa-ťia systém, v něm se sousedi špehovali navzájem, milice také, aby zajistila, že budou placeny daně. Všichni se zodpovídali centru. Pozdější dynastie tento systém zdědily a modifikovaly. Ještě v roce 1990 byl tento systém patrný ve formě občanských komisí a stranických buněk, každá je řízena drobným tyranem.
V roce 1992 jsem získal velké množství tajných materiálů komunistické strany svědčících o široké škále kanibalismu během kulturní revoluce v kraji Kuang-si v jižní Číně. Doklady mi předal Čeng I, čínský spisovatel a disident, který se dlouhodobě zabýval výzkumem kanibalismu. Nejprve jsem byl skeptický, ale čím víc jsem je pročítal a mluvil s Číňany, tím více jsem byl přesvědčen, že doklady jsou pravé. Byly natištěny na hlavičkovém papíře a opatřeny úředními razítky s uvedeným počtem kopií, které byly od každého pořízeny – třicet devět jednoho, osmnáct dalšího atd.
Dokumenty dosvědčující, že nejméně sto třicet sedm lidí a pravděpodobně o stovky více, bylo snědeno ve městech a vesnicích provincie Kuang-si koncem šedesátých let. Ve většině případů se na pojídání jednoho těla podílelo mnoho lidí, takže počet kanibalů může jít do tisícovek. I když to zjevně byl jeden z nejrozsáhlejších případů kanibalismu na světě v minulém století i dříve, je odlišný od většiny ostatních případů tím, že ti, co jedli lidské maso, nebyli motivováni hladem nebo psychickým onemocněním.
Zde byly pohnutky ideologické. Kanibalismus se odehrával na veřejných místech, často byl organizován funkcionáři komunistické strany a lidé si dopřávali společně, aby prokázali své revoluční nadšení. První osoba, která stahovala maso z těla jednoho ředitele školy byla dřívější přítelkyně jeho syna. Chtěla dokázat, že s ním nemá slitování a že je právě tak „rudá“ jako každý jiný. Na některých středních školách si studenti porcovali a opékali své učitele a ředitele na školních dvorech a hodovali, aby oslavili vítězství nad „kontrarevolucionáři“. Samoobslužné restaurace provozované vládou prý vystavovaly těla houpající se na hácích na maso a servírovaly lidské maso vládním zaměstnancům.
Snad nejvýraznějším rysem dnešní Číny je asi společenská kontrola, kterou provádí. Komunistická strana se opírá o prostý "železný trojúhelník" - povolení k pobytu, které omezuje místo vašeho bydliště, tajné osobní spisy, do nichž jsou zaznamenávány vaše hříchy a politická spolehlivost, a pracovní jednotka, která dohlíží na všechny aspekty vašeho života. Tento trojúhelník řídí váš život.
Chu-kchou neboli povolení k pobytu je malá knížečka, která potvrzuje, kde bydlíte, uvádí seznam členů vaší rodiny. Předpokládá se, že máte pekingské chu-kchou předtím, než se stěhujete do Pekingu, nebo sianské předtím než je vám povoleno přestěhovat se do Si-anu. Problém je, že vláda chu-kchou nedává snadno. Ve skutečnosti je prakticky nemožné, aby ho rolník dostal ve velkém městě. (...)
Tan-kan, což je tajný spis, visí nad každým Číňanem jako hrozba. Všichni čínští obyvatelé měst mají dva tan-kan, jeden vede místní policejní stanice a další pracovní jednotka. Na žádný z nich se nesmíte podívat. Existuje speciální poštovní systém, kterým se zasílají po celé zemi. Pokud uděláte závažnou politickou chybu (...) bude vás pronásledovat, kdykoli se v budoucnu budete pokoušet změnit zaměstnání, jet do ciziny nebo čekat na povýšení.
Klíčovým místem železného trojúhelníku je tan-wej, neboli pracovní jednotka, která poskytuje bydlení, lékařskou péči a politická školení. Její povolení je nezbytné v případě, že se chcete oženit či vdát, mít dítě, jet do ciziny, vyměnit byt...
Poznámka 1: Rád bych si přečetl nějakou současnou knihu, která by vysvětlila, jak se ke komunismu a komunistické straně staví dnešní čínské kádry. Protože 90. léta byla dle autorů něco jako ta 80. v Československu, kdy už téměř nikdo idejím nevěřil, ale stále se udržovala normalizační moc a s ní spojený klientelismus a nepotismus, soudružské vztahy a osobní styky, šmelení... Tak jak to, že se čínský komunismus nezhroutil podobně?
Poznámka 2: Český překlad knihy je v některých konkrétních příkladech (například caucasian) docela rušivý.
* Knihu jsem prozatím odložil někde v její třetině, při další návštěvě příslušné domácí knihovny se k ní rád vrátím.
January 16, 2020
This was a nice break from my usual reading matter. Although it's somewhat dated (having been written a quarter of a century ago), this book came as an excellent chaser to WILD SWANS, since it dissects post-Mao China with particular focus on the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989 and the aftermath in the following years. Kristof and Wudunn conclude that a) under Deng Xiaoping China moved from a totalitarian Communist state to an authoritarian fascist state; and b) while the Chinese Communist Party appears to be in its death throes (I suspect that recent repression of Christians, Uighurs, and Hong Kong could be an additional symptom of this), the most likely result is a gradual liberalisation and democratisation akin to Taiwan's.
November 19, 2010
I read this book in preparation for my trip to China. It was a fascinating book! My experience in China, and the little exposure I had to its people and government, confirmed the truth of the book for me. I found the book shocking, and subsequent personal experiences shared with me have again confirmed its veracity. In the end, I am so grateful I do not live there and government policies or otherwise have significantly affected the character, compassion, and morals of the Chinese citizens themselves.
February 19, 2013
From someone who knows very little about China, I think this book gave me a very good starting point. I believe Nick Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, provided a relatively balanced view about China- they are both critical and yet optimistic about China. Although this book was written almost 20 years ago, I feel that it is still relevant, and a lot of the issues discussed in the book are still evident in China today. I look forward to reading about books about China and compare it to this one.
September 8, 2007
I don't know why people keep reading this book. It's out of date, not very interesting, and misses most of the big picture. All of which is amazing, since Kristof wrote some of his best stuff in China before he became a predictable and annoying NYT columnist.
September 28, 2025
the last chapter in some sense should have been put before the first 450 pages of China watching that border on racism at times. There is still much to be appreciated from the book, in the forms of interviews and anecdotes, but the reader should be cautious of taking anything meaningful/profound from the reporting.
Unfortunately, the Orientalist frame of writing (Especially Nicks) led to some of the most absurd paragraphs I’ve read and some annoying writing choices. The choice of the writers to sometimes fill in Chinese words (for example they often say 关系 guanxi, instead of simply saying they had connections) for their English equivalents is particularly annoying. They similarly do this with other Chinese words or phrases for no other reason than to mystify China and make it seem that these words hold some special power. It would make sense to have these substitutions for propaganda statements or movements associated phrases, but to use them for things such as “sugar daddy” is just.. weird.
In the later chapters, the obsession with describing Communist China as a falling dynasty that can only be saved by democracy and a market economy is somewhat similar. A lot of the anecdotes and interpretations simply ignore the previous involvement of the West prior to 1912 and are ignorant of the fact that all societies are plagued by corruption and graft. Of course, this is not to diminish what ACTUALLY happened in China during this time. I just noticed that they had moved away from the citing of actually reporting they had in the earlier chapters and moved to a much more speculative a position.
Overall, if the reader can separate the authors’ unrelenting interpretations, it’s an informative read.
Unfortunately, the Orientalist frame of writing (Especially Nicks) led to some of the most absurd paragraphs I’ve read and some annoying writing choices. The choice of the writers to sometimes fill in Chinese words (for example they often say 关系 guanxi, instead of simply saying they had connections) for their English equivalents is particularly annoying. They similarly do this with other Chinese words or phrases for no other reason than to mystify China and make it seem that these words hold some special power. It would make sense to have these substitutions for propaganda statements or movements associated phrases, but to use them for things such as “sugar daddy” is just.. weird.
In the later chapters, the obsession with describing Communist China as a falling dynasty that can only be saved by democracy and a market economy is somewhat similar. A lot of the anecdotes and interpretations simply ignore the previous involvement of the West prior to 1912 and are ignorant of the fact that all societies are plagued by corruption and graft. Of course, this is not to diminish what ACTUALLY happened in China during this time. I just noticed that they had moved away from the citing of actually reporting they had in the earlier chapters and moved to a much more speculative a position.
Overall, if the reader can separate the authors’ unrelenting interpretations, it’s an informative read.
January 24, 2020
A book I would highly recommend for anyone following China's trajectory from its tumultuous Maoist era to the present. Simultaneously, I can't stress enough how important it is to keep in mind this book's publication date. China changes so fast many of the statistics are no longer accurate, but the stories still ring true. What surprised me most about China Wakes was how many similar conclusions I had drawn independently, or conversations I had with Chinese and other foreigners, only see reappear in this book twenty years prior to my own time in China. Maybe that's a testament to a westerners interpretation of China. Maybe it is a coincidence. Either way, I could not help but feel like they wrote a rough draft for the Chinese government to reference when addressing their own problems. It's apparent the authors felt or hoped, rather, corruption would be the downfall of the party. Thus, allowing a new wave of democracy to sweep through the country. Upon observing how President Xi has systematically implemented his anti-corruption campaign since his rise to power, it's hard not to believe the leaders of China also recognized the dangers noted in this book. China Wakes is also a great reference to compare China from where it was in the early 90's to where it is now in 2020; economically superior, ideologically retreating back to old dynastic ways and marxism of the Maoist era with a touch of Xi Jinping thought. This book will surely go down as one of the great works to be studied while observing China during this period of it's growth.
September 12, 2020
I have been always interested in reading Foreigners' works on China. As Nick has pointed out in later chapter of this book, most foreigners' opinions on this country were colossally wrong, but it was interesting to see their logics and why they came to their conclusions.
This book was published in 1994, one year before I was born. And a quarter of century has past, and China still remains on the "cautiously optimistic" track. There are still abundant problems at this point of time: SOE reform staggers, china-us decoupling, bubbles in real estate market, aging society etc, each of which can lead China watchers to point to a dire future.
Yet, there are reasons to be optimistic: there are still abundant room for economic growth in vast central/western areas of China, a lot of Chinese students are coming back to China (me being one of them) and taking up various positions, and more and more technocrats are climbing up the ladder.
I have not much comments on China Wakes per se, as I am familiar with most of topic (and in my opinion, for any of you who are interested to learn about today's China, maybe age of ambitions can be a better choice). The only new thing I picked up from this book is Free Market-Leninism, an interesting annotation.
This book was published in 1994, one year before I was born. And a quarter of century has past, and China still remains on the "cautiously optimistic" track. There are still abundant problems at this point of time: SOE reform staggers, china-us decoupling, bubbles in real estate market, aging society etc, each of which can lead China watchers to point to a dire future.
Yet, there are reasons to be optimistic: there are still abundant room for economic growth in vast central/western areas of China, a lot of Chinese students are coming back to China (me being one of them) and taking up various positions, and more and more technocrats are climbing up the ladder.
I have not much comments on China Wakes per se, as I am familiar with most of topic (and in my opinion, for any of you who are interested to learn about today's China, maybe age of ambitions can be a better choice). The only new thing I picked up from this book is Free Market-Leninism, an interesting annotation.
September 12, 2020
A fascinating glimpse into how two American NYT journalists perceived and experienced China in the late-80s/early-90s. Despite its density, I was impressed by how accessible this book was. It is at its best when it reaches across scales, using vignettes of everyday life in China to illustrate larger political and cultural trends; it drags in later chapters when macroeconomics and global diplomacy become too abstract to be pulled back down to earth through narrative.
A few of Kristof and WuDunn's qualifications from the final chapter are worth quoting and considering before and/or after reading this text: "Our aim is not really to portray daily life, for a typical slice of a typical peasant's life would be an uneventful morning wading barefoot in the muck of the rice paddy. Rather, our aim is to employ the most striking stories we know of as a way of underscoring and clarifying the principal themes of life in China in the 1990s. A second concern is that readers may leave with the impression that we're absolutely confident that we know what we're talking about. On the contrary, China is such a vast and confusing subject that it is difficult to be sure of either the facts of the conclusions." (451)
A few of Kristof and WuDunn's qualifications from the final chapter are worth quoting and considering before and/or after reading this text: "Our aim is not really to portray daily life, for a typical slice of a typical peasant's life would be an uneventful morning wading barefoot in the muck of the rice paddy. Rather, our aim is to employ the most striking stories we know of as a way of underscoring and clarifying the principal themes of life in China in the 1990s. A second concern is that readers may leave with the impression that we're absolutely confident that we know what we're talking about. On the contrary, China is such a vast and confusing subject that it is difficult to be sure of either the facts of the conclusions." (451)
February 7, 2021
Super interesting to read about China in the early 90s right after Tiananmen square. I looked up a lot of the people who were mentioned, dissidents, millionaires, politicians, etc. I liked the humility of the authors when talking about how hard it is to make predictions and the challenge of understanding each other, like in the part where they talked about Americans maybe not focusing on the violence and poverty and awful stuff done in our own country, differently evil than torturing dissidents maybe, and not that attention shouldn't be on stuff like that, but we aren't so great either. Making comments from the same level rather than some high horse. I also found in it a photocopy of its review in the NYT and a postit stating that my dad had requested the copy. I was really interested in China but never read this - and it was really engaging and easy to read now that I have finally read it, 25 yrs later.
January 17, 2020
Really interesting book written in the mid 90s about China's future. I had to keep reminding myself that the information is a quarter-century old at this point, and China has changed dramatically in the time since, but it was kind of like a moment of the country's history preserved in a time capsule. I kept googling different predictions that arose in the book to see if they ended up being true, which was fun. The authors' premise was the question of if China's communist structure was on the way out, but mostly the book was illustrations of all the messed up things that happen in an autocratic fascist state.
August 16, 2017
Informative. Kind of dated. Biased too for America over China in multiple ways that are constantly reiterated through the book. Doesn't really address neoliberal-economic policies such as low-wage, poor conditioned. factory jobs, and the role America plays in it.
August 17, 2020
Although dated and with a somewhat lofty tone (some corruption issues are looked at as if they are unique to china) this book takes a detailed look at a nation on the rise. Easy to read, it's clear they embarked on a lofty cause which sometimes has amazing insights, and sometimes falls short.
March 31, 2021
A thoroughly informative and attention grabbing look at China through the late 80s and early 90s. While it's now a couple of decades out of date, the observations, predictions and musings from the wife and husband journalist team are still eye-opening for the modern reader.
September 15, 2021
This book was written by two very well educated journalists back in 1994 and the social concerns still remain in China. The political arena has changed over but remnants remain.. I liked the way she wrote her chapters - flowed like a story not historical non fiction with facts upon facts.
November 6, 2017
a real china in the other side
December 28, 2018
I read Half the Sky by the same authors in 2010 and China Wakes has long been on my reading list. The book provides a snapshot of China and its relationship with the wider world in the 1990s, placing the status of women, economy, culture, foreign affairs and politics within a broad historical context. There are some sections of the book that are a little dated because some of the laws discussed in the book, such as the one child policy, have since changed and new issues have emerged but the subjects addressed remain topical. China Wakes was more of a memoir than I expected as Kristof and WuDunn frequently discuss their conflicts with local authorities and the difficulties of gathering information in their roles as foreign correspondents in China. China Wakes is informative and engaging and I would be interested to read an updated edition.
August 31, 2020
Interesting to read a book today written about China 30 years ago. Much of it still holds true. Enjoyed it immensely...only wish I would have read it when I first moved to China 8 years ago.
December 7, 2020
Really liked it. Only wish it was more recent.
August 3, 2021
Great intro to modern China, some chuckles too.
December 17, 2022
This was a really good book. I’ve been ready a fair amount about Chinese history since the fall of the Qing dynasty. This book was a good segue to the modern era.
May 7, 2024
DNF for now, as this book is so outdated as to be semi-useless to my research on China today.
August 31, 2024
Really interesting and good
December 20, 2024
Little outdated but an interesting new perspective
March 20, 2025
One of the best books I’ve read so far this year. Well worth anyone’s time if they want a closer look inside what makes China tick.
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