George Dziuk's Reviews > Street of Eternal Happiness: The Winding Road to the Chinese Dream

Another one that I picked up on a whim after listening to a summary by the author on a Marketplace segment. I'm glad that I did. The book is a peek at the individual lives of certain folks living along one road in Shanghai. The author uses this as a backdrop to greater discussions about the changing nature of China's economy and how everyday Chinese have adjusted to greater capitalistic/free market enterprises. One of the themes that I found most interesting was the significant difference in how people have responded to these new economic opportunities that depended on whether or not you survived through the chaotic times of the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. For older Chinese, this was an extremely difficult time of endurance that younger Chinese simply aren't aware of or don't take into consideration.

While China has made strides towards more freedom for its citizens, the fact remains that parts of its government are still notoriously repressive and, quite frankly, backwards. The state still owns all property and is basically the largest landlord in the world. People in old neighborhoods are still kicked out of homes that they and their families have lived in for generations. Most rural Chinese still live in the technological equivalent of the 1960s (if they are that lucky). At the same time, urban China is very modern and technologically on par with most of the other great cities of the world. It's a different portrait of China that I was expecting.

I recommend this book. It's a good, contemporary view of a China still very much in flux and adjusting to being in the world market, but the picture is provided through a filter of the lives of those people the author profiles and follows through the narrative.