China Candid: The People on the People's Republic

by Ye Sang, Miriam Lang (Contributor), Geremie Randall Barmé (Editor)

Leading Chinese journalist Sang Ye follows his successful book Chinese Lives with this collection of absorbing interviews with twenty-six men, women, and children taking the reader into the complex realities of the People's Republic of China today. Through intimate conversations conducted over many years, China Candid provides an alternative history of the nation from its founding as a socialist state in 1949 up to the present. The voices of people who have lived under―and often despite―the Communist Party's rule give a compelling account of life in the maelstrom of China's economic reforms―reforms that are being pursued by a system that remains politically rigid and authoritarian. Artists, politicians, businessmen and -women, former Red Guards, migrant workers, prostitutes, teachers, computer geeks, hustlers, and other citizens of contemporary China all speak with frankness and candor about the realities of the burgeoning power of East Asia, the China that will host the 2008 Olympics. Some discuss the corrosive changes that have been wrought on the professional ethics and attitudes of men and women long nurtured by the socialist state. Others recall chilling encounters with the police, the law courts, labor camps, and the army. Providing unique insight into the minds and hearts of people who have firsthand experience of China's tumultuous history, this book adds invaluable depth and dimension to our understanding of this rapidly changing country.

Genres: China, Asia, Nonfiction, History, School

363 pages, Paperback

First published December 5, 2005

Reviews

[Matteo Celeste · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5, in realtà.
Il testo di Sang Ye - "China Candid" - è parte di quelle opere di inchiesta sociale che hanno lo scopo - ancora più importante nel contesto della Cina - di raccontare una controstoria che attinge dall'esperienza di vita degli intervistati e delle intervistate; "China Candid", in effetti, è questo: una raccolta di «racconti-conversazione», come li definisce Barmé nella Postfazione, che mettono in risalto l'esperienza spesso violenta (assumendo il concetto, di volta in volta, connotati specifici) a cui costoro sono stati soggetti. Storie, dunque, che non sempre si allineano alla Storia, rispetto alla quale vale il principio, pubblicamente, per cui «a ciascuno era permesso di essere diverso, ma tutti dovevano esserlo esattamente nello stesso modo». Ogni testimonianza contraria, ogni esperienza di vita raccontata e condivisa tende a passare attraverso il filtro della macchina (censoria) statale per poterle "adeguare" col fine ultimo di plasmarle e conformarle «alla storia dominante del partito». Ebbene, in "China Candid" questo non avviene: l'autore mostra «poco riguardo per la versione ufficialmente approvata della Storia moderna cinese», lasciando che siano «le voci della gente che ha vissuto la Storia dominante sotto, ma spesso malgrado, il Partito comunista e il suo meccanismo di controllo» a raccontarsi.
Queste «voci», dal loro presente, si proiettano così al loro passato, di singolarità che hanno subito gli effetti di una Cina - e della sua Storia - in grande fermento ed evoluzione - parliamo dell'epoca Maoista sino a toccare il nuovo Millennio -, e ci fanno dono di una sorta di (altra) «biografia della Repubblica popolare cinese». Come scrive sempre nella Postfazione Barmé, «quando il passato viene attivamente manipolato da propagandisti e pubblicitari per legittimare le esigenze del presente, e usato per sostenere l'immagine del partito sempre vittorioso, la memoria privata e individuale è tanto più preziosa quanto fragile. Per capire sia il presente che il passato, è vitale prestare attenzione alla storia delle persone che, attraverso la loro esperienza vissuta e il modo in cui la descrivono, recuperano sia per se stesse che per gli altri la comprensione di un passato collettivo troppo spesso distorto dai media»; "China Candid" è dunque un'opera che va proprio in questa direzione, custodendo e diffondendo quelle memorie "tanto più preziose quanto fragili" che altrimenti si perderebbero nella Storia (livellatrice) raccontata dal Partito comunista cinese. E di questo non si può non esserle grati.

[Allie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I lied - I didn't finish this. I needed much more context than the book ever provided, and so it felt very thick and confusing. If you're hoping to learn more about China, read something else as background before picking this up!

[H]

This is simply incredible.

From the last page, an undertaker in a Beijing crematorium:

"You shouldn't make too much of yourself, that's what I say. Don't think you're such a big deal when you're alive, and don't expect people to make a fuss over you when you're dead.
. . .
"When I returned to Beijing after having been in the countryside in 1977, I was an angry young man. But a job like this slowly wears you down; it leaches all the anger out of you. You learn that sooner or later we all go up in smoke, so why even bother saying 'Fuck you, asshole!' out loud?
"Just before they take receipts of the ashes, I have to ask the mourners whether the deceased was a Communist Party member or not. We have a regulation that says party members get a red flag ont heir urns, whiel non-party people get a piece of yellow cloth. If the family says the deceased was in the party, I'll take them art their word. By now they've gone up in smoke, after all, so who cares if they're only a pretend party member? The colors may be different, but they cost the same."

[Jenny Brochu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Candid indeed. This book certainly will take you to the heart of China with its diverse interviews. It gives a compeling, yet sad outlook on life in other countries. we here complain and think we have it hard. With all of it's flaws, I am beyond thankful I get to wake up in a country so great as the United States. We have it great here. This book was great for learning the hisotry of China, the average people behind the history, but most of all a new reverence for my life and its conditions. This book made me very thanful for what I have and how wealthy we really are in our society, and how we so take it for granted.

[Mimonni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ho avuto il libro tramite bookcrossing e devo ammettere che se non l’avessi avuto tra le mani forse non l’avrei scelto come lettura. Si tratta di una serie di interviste scritte come monologhi. Alcune interessanti altre un po’ meno. Per me è abbastanza difficile entrare nel modo di pensare cinese, nel modo di porsi alla collettività, al personale ( in realtà poco o nullo l’individualismo) e a tutte le altre sfaccettature della vita. A volte queste persone mi sono sembrate arrivare da un altro pianeta. Lettura un po’ lunga ma utile per tentare di abbattere il nostro (mio) modo occidentale di considerare il mondo.

[Erik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aaaaaamazing. A penetrating look into the lives of a variety of, typically marginal, citizens living in the modern China (which has a lot of people; interesting people): an executioner, a sex doctor, a self-made black market millionaire, a streetwalker in Shenzhen, an Olympic athlete talking about forced doping, a young girl born without arms--all primary source material gained from a series of interviews conducted with primarily chance encounters between 1994-1999.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

A series of conversations (written in narrative rather than interview form) with a variety of Chinese citizens, "China Candid" provides an fascinating glimpse at modern China. Interview subjects include businessmen, a soldier, teachers, a prostitute, an executioner, a mistress, and even a child piano prodigy (among others).

I was completely caught up in their stories, and am really looking forward to reading the interviewer's first book, "Chinese Lives".

[Reid · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's as if Studs Terkel's Chinese counterpart did a bunch of interviews. There are wry pieces of irony where, for instance, a guy maintains that his business did so well because of his ethics but then is revealed to have family connections to the State-run business that supplies him with raw materials. There's also a chilling chapter on the business of judicial executions told by one of the executioners.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sang Ye is the pre-eminent oral historian working in China today. This is a great selection of his work. (Disclosure: I translated several of them.) There is a range here that you won't find anywhere else. And yet this book (and Sang Ye's work in general) has never achieved the attention it really deserves.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book rocked. First-hand accounts by people living in China in the mid-to-late 1990's. The interviewees are from all walks of life. It's a real picture of what's going on over there from the perspective of the individual. Excellent book.