China: Alive in the Bitter Sea

by Fox Butterfield

Presents an incisive portrait of the people and culture of China as the Chinese emerge from the turmoil of Mao's Cultural Revolution

Genres: China, Nonfiction, History, Travel, Asia, Sociology

480 pages, Paperback

First published May 12, 1982

Reviews

[Philip]

This was written by a New York Times journalist, who was one of the first Western reporters to enter China when it started to open up in the late 70s and early 80s. Some of the book is now outdated. However, Butterfield offers many personal stories from Chinese who lived through the revolution, the "great leap forward" and the cultural revolution. He does a brilliant job of capturing the suffering endured by so many, and their magnificent resilience. Very good read from an outstanding journalist. I think it would be of interest to anyone interested in China's history during the late 20th century.

[Jalen Sowell]

I’m sure in 1981 this book would have been five stars. I’m only giving it four stars because of the dated information which felt redundant throughout the book given just how much information there is.

if I were to specifically be looking for a snapshot of what life is like in a specific place in a specific time, this is the way I would want that book to be written. Full of stories written through the lens of someone who shares a perspective similar to mine telling the stories of people who live lives and experience things I could never truly understand.

What I have taken from the book philosophically is just how different we might be culturally, but just how certain human characteristics transcend all culture. We all desire to be happy and free.

What I’m taking from it historically is why the Chinese rallied to try a new system, it led to the same problems as before, just under a different name now. There is still a consolidation of wealth and power at the top, people are not truly free, and there is still war being pulled over everyone’s eyes. China’s tendency to hide its failures and refuse to tell the whole story of their iniquities has led to mistrust not only from outsiders but from insiders as well. It’s not as simple as communism or no communism, many of China’s problems are cultural.

From the other perspective, the Chinese emphasis on family and their predictions about the trending of the American family were correct. They have very clear value systems that everyone understands which makes a police state of 1 billion people work because there is that common understanding. In the United States, our common understanding has been deteriorating for a long time.

[Karen]

In this non-fiction book, journalist Fox Butterfield describes living in China in the early 80s. It covers his own experiences as well as life stories gathered from his Chinese friends, acquaintances, and interviewees.
Pros:
-Rich detail
-Interesting stories
-Broad range of focus that gave a feel for life at many different levels of society, different locations, different ages, etc
-The book covered personal stories from The Chinese Revolution, The Great Leap Forward, and The Cultural Revolution which broadened my understanding of China's history in the 20th century

Cons:
-This is not really the book's fault, but reading it now when the information is more than 25 years old, it's hard to know how to process the information or what to do with it (I got this book for free because it is so out-of-date)
-I wasn't completely sure how much credence to give the overall picture that Butterfield painted
-The book felt a little too long and was dragging a little by the end

[Jennifer]

A chilling truthful account of life and the people in China. Much has changed in China over the past 30 years, but I wonder how much of the book still rings true today. Americans should be thankful for the Communism rule from the fifties in China. Without it, China would be without question the world leader. It probably would have done so decades ago. This book was a living account of 1984. I respect the Chinese people, but the suppression of free speech and individualism stifles a society. China is now a force to be reckoned with probably in part to our own capitalism and industrialization of their country in the quest for cheaper consumer goods.

[MKZ Beast]

Incredible book - such an erudite work on China - specifically on the popular sentiment of 1980 China. Author touches on the both the sanguine and depressed outlook of many Chinese people in the midst of the Kafkaesque ordeal in the aftermath of the Trial of the Gang of Four. 1980s China was truly spectacular time - a time in which many disillusioned Chinese were ready to move on to another political panacea after the terrors of the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. The CCP’s internecine feuding of the late 70s (Deng, Hua, Zhao, Zhou) led to many Chinese inveighing against communism and instead expressing desires to embrace democracy, or frankly any other panacea that could bring prosperity in China in line with neighbors, Taiwan and Japan. Mr Butterfield writes very eloquently and he opened my eyes to China of the late 1970s AND expanded my vocabulary. Will 100% continue to refer to this book throughout my life.


Butterfield is remarkable on the popular mood of 1980. He documents not optimism but a crisis of faith - Chinese who had survived the Cultural Revolution’s Kafkaesque logic and emerged unwilling to invest in any political creed, turning instead to guanxi, back doors, and private material security. The Party’s own internecine struggle after Mao’s death, between Deng’s rehabilitated cadres and Hua Guofeng’s “whateverists,” was less an invitation to democracy than a signal that ideology itself had become negotiable. Democracy Wall gave that mood a brief public voice before Wei Jingsheng’s 1979 sentencing closed it. What remained, and what Butterfield captures, was a quieter question: whether China could reach the prosperity of Taiwan and Japan by any route at all.

[Dietrich Rosiers]

Butterfield schrijft dit boek uit de ervaringen die hij had als journalist voor de New York Times, gedurende de jaren 1970-1980.

Het is dan ook geschreven vanuit een gekend Westers (Amerikaans) perspectief binnen een bepaald tijdskader, dat inmiddels al meer dan 40 jaar achter ons ligt.

Het boek is in die zin bijzonder interessant en ontluisterend. De parallelen en het contrast dat men kan trekken met het hedendaagse Communistische China, zijn menig. Butterfield slaagt er fantastisch in om zijn de verhalen van normale Chinezen uit alle lagen van de samenleving te vertolken. De absurditeit van de overdaad van regulering, top-down bestuur en overheidsmening zijn grotesk - en worden a.d.h.v. getuigenissen mooi aangehaald.

En alhoewel het boek zeker het politieke kader op scherp stelt, geeft het de lezer een inzicht in het alledaagse leven in het China van die tijd, waarbij de auteur zijn aangename en warme schrijfstijl alles tot leven laat komen. De getuigenissen van Weng, Dei en Xao zijn er die ook vandaag zullen voortleven en die als herinnering dienen dat China - 40 jaar verder - nog steeds gekneld gaat onder de absolutistische controlezucht van de Communistische Partij.

Laat ons hopen, dat op een welbepaalde dag, het Chinese volk de vrijheiden en rechten verwerven die ze verdienen. Laat ons hopen.

[Cindy Marsch]

I read this title decades ago, even before the 1982 update with Tiananmen Square, and I have been reminded of it as I've observed many current events and worked on editing a book about the China Butterfield describes. As we consider ways to improve our nation and rehabilitate our history, we should take caution from the experience of China. A powerful read, and much of it still applicable in one place or another, as I learned from the experiences a decade ago of academics teaching short-term in China with some limited access to North Korea. May we learn these lessons of history and not stumble our way into more problems than we have already.

[V. Subhash]

Butterfield was a New York Times correspondent in China for some time in the 70s.

[Gka]

Provides a background for those wishing to understand China's history. Entertaining stories about people he met while working there.

[Irene Pappas]

Boring!

[Virginia Welch]

NY Times reporter opens a window on Chinese culture. What makes the book interesting is the multiple anecdotes about life in China that he gleans from interviews with ordinary people; 1982. My husband I both read this book and we both were taken with it. He just makes daily life in China so interesting and colorful. It's all about the writing.

[Diane Wachter]

China: Alive In the Bitter Sea, Fox Butterfield, RDC-M #5, 1982, @ 1982, 6/86. Human suffering before and during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. This book preserves this record of human suffering and endurance. Okay.

[Marigold]

Interesting to read how China was in the past. The political and social ways were astounding. I looked up several of the central characters to see what they are doing today.

[Ris]

This is the book that started me on my quest to learn about China.