Rachel (Life of a Female Bibliophile)'s Reviews > Street of Eternal Happiness: Big City Dreams Along a Shanghai Road

The Street of Eternal Happiness provides its readers of various snapshots in 21st China. The writer and the narrator of our novel tells the stories of different people from all walks of life while giving a detailed background of Chinese history and events.

To be honest, sometimes I felt a bit overwhelmed while reading this book. Far too much information, in too little time was being thrown at me. While I was trying to focus on the stories of the people Schmitz profiles in his book, I felt like all these events in Chinese history and etc. were being force-fed to me. This problem doesn’t occur in every single chapter of the book, but I still felt this caused the writing to feel a bit disjointed at times.

I appreciated that Schmitz puts a lot of effort in telling the “Street of Eternal Happiness” residents’ stories. He manages to translate their tales very well, especially since he speaks Chinese, and lets the readers hear their own voices. From the story of CK who overcomes many obstacles, to Old Chen’s constant fight for his home at Maggie Lane which has virtually been destroyed, and even Zhao who builds her own business to provide for her two sons, all of the people in the book manage to find some happiness in their life. The main theme that comes across is that you can find happiness in the smallest of places.

I also learned more about China through reading this book. It delves into the issue of China’s rigid structure and how that it’s a country that wants to advance, but doesn’t want to dispose of its old foundations. Some of the many things I thought that were interesting was the practice of “hukou” which ties Chinese families to their hometown, the concept of “gaokao” where if one studies hard enough they take control of their family’s destiny, and the history of migrant workers. The book manages to teach readers about many aspects of Chinese culture that they might be unfamiliar with.

Overall, this is quite a heavy book. I thought it would be a bit more lighthearted, but I guess I should have paid more attention its synopsis. I wasn’t in the reading mood for a heavy themed book so at the time I read this I think I couldn’t enjoy this book as much as I wanted to. But it is still was an intriguing and informative read.