Hi to everyone interested in China / Chinese culture,
Introducing my new book, A Tale of Two Chinas, which could be succinctly summarised as "describing the modern People's Republic through my life in two halves". Specifically:
Part One (“Mainstream Urban China”) recounts my time as a language student and teacher in the three northern cities of Tianjin, Xining and Lanzhou. Through my experiences, interactions and reflections, I not only take the reader on my own journey, but also on a grand tour of mainstream Chinese society, covering many of the major political, economic and cultural topics of the Reform period, as well as of Xi Jinping’s New Era.
Part Two (“Minority Rural China”) goes one step deeper, documenting my time conducting ethnographic fieldwork among two marginalised minority communities in the rural northwest. Here again, through narrating my own experiences, I also paint a vivid picture of this second “China”, from thick descriptions of Islamic and Tibetan Buddhist festivals to portraits of village life still guided by the agricultural seasons.
In navigating both of the major fault lines of Chinese society – the city and the countryside, the Han mainstream and the minorities – the two parts combine to provide a fresh and unique perspective on the complexity that is the modern People’s Republic.
If anyone is interested in giving an honest review, free review copies available at StoryOrigin:
Introducing my new book, A Tale of Two Chinas, which could be succinctly summarised as "describing the modern People's Republic through my life in two halves". Specifically:
Part One (“Mainstream Urban China”) recounts my time as a language student and teacher in the three northern cities of Tianjin, Xining and Lanzhou. Through my experiences, interactions and reflections, I not only take the reader on my own journey, but also on a grand tour of mainstream Chinese society, covering many of the major political, economic and cultural topics of the Reform period, as well as of Xi Jinping’s New Era.
Part Two (“Minority Rural China”) goes one step deeper, documenting my time conducting ethnographic fieldwork among two marginalised minority communities in the rural northwest. Here again, through narrating my own experiences, I also paint a vivid picture of this second “China”, from thick descriptions of Islamic and Tibetan Buddhist festivals to portraits of village life still guided by the agricultural seasons.
In navigating both of the major fault lines of Chinese society – the city and the countryside, the Han mainstream and the minorities – the two parts combine to provide a fresh and unique perspective on the complexity that is the modern People’s Republic.
If anyone is interested in giving an honest review, free review copies available at StoryOrigin:
https://storyoriginapp.com/reviewcopi...
Thanks so much!
Hugh