Chasing the Chinese Dream: Stories from Modern China

by Nick Holdstock

China is undergoing the biggest and fastest societal and economic change in human history. Driving this dizzying transformation is the idea of the "Chinese Dream," the promise that in the new China, anyone can make it.



Journalist and writer Nick Holdstock has traveled the length of the expansive country that is China to find out the reality behind this rhetoric--from the factory-owner, to the noodle seller, from the karaoke maids to the hoteliers, and from the deserted, aging countryside to the young and overcrowded cities. Chasing the Chinese Dream follows a cast of extraordinary characters: the people getting rich; running factories and buying luxury cars and Louis Vuitton bags. But it also provides insight into those left behind, trapped by a system defined by long hours and no prospects.



A spell-binding and magical narrative, Chasing the Chinese Dream tells the story of modern China through the Chinese people living it.

Genres: China, Nonfiction

272 pages, Hardcover

Published January 9, 2018

Reviews

[Liu HK · Rating 4 out of 5]

more interesting as a first-hand account of a foreigner in china than anything else. quite similar in premise to Other Rivers by Peter Hessler, except that includes foreigners building a family in China + the pandemic too. i quite like these books, though i think the content somewhat blends into a rush -- the anecdotes are similar and the 'feel' remains constant despite the difference in experiences and locales; a telling sign of the urbanization project's 'success'.

[juicyD · Rating 4 out of 5]

i thought this book was enlightening because it explains a lot of china's cultural, housing, and employment atmosphere's but when i lent it to my chinese friend she said a lot of it was obvious. L

[Iván · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesante libro. Historias humanas para entender los cambios socio-económicos de China.