Route 312 is the Chinese Route 66. It flows three thousand miles from east to west, passing through the factory towns of the coastal areas, through the rural heart of China, then up into the Gobi Desert, where it merges with the Old Silk Road. The highway witnesses every part of the social and economic revolution that is turning China upside down.
In this utterly surprising and deeply personal book, acclaimed National Public Radio reporter Rob Gifford, a fluent Mandarin speaker, takes the dramatic journey along Route 312 from its start in the boomtown of Shanghai to its end on the border with Kazakhstan. Gifford reveals the rich mosaic of modern Chinese life in all its contradictions, as he poses the crucial questions that all of us are asking about China: Will it really be the next global superpower? Is it as solid and as powerful as it looks from the outside? And who are the ordinary Chinese people, to whom the twenty-first century is supposed to belong?
Gifford is not alone on his journey. The largest migration in human history is taking place along highways such as Route 312, as tens of millions of people leave their homes in search of work. He sees signs of the booming urban economy everywhere, but he also uncovers many of the country’s frailties, and some of the deep-seated problems that could derail China’s rise.
The whole compelling adventure is told through the cast of colorful characters Gifford meets: garrulous talk-show hosts and ambitious yuppies, impoverished peasants and tragic prostitutes, cell-phone salesmen, AIDS patients, and Tibetan monks. He rides with members of a Shanghai jeep club, hitchhikes across the Gobi desert, and sings karaoke with migrant workers at truck stops along the way.
As he recounts his travels along Route 312, Rob Gifford gives a face to what has historically, for Westerners, been a faceless country and breathes life into a nation that is so often reduced to economic statistics. Finally, he sounds a warning that all is not well in the Chinese heartlands, that serious problems lie ahead, and that the future of the West has become inextricably linked with the fate of 1.3 billion Chinese people.
“Informative, delightful, and powerfully moving . . . Rob Gifford’s acute powers of observation, his sense of humor and adventure, and his determination to explore the wrenching dilemmas of China’s explosive development open readers’ eyes and reward their minds.”
–Robert A. Kapp, president, U.S.-China Business Council, 1994-2004
發表於2025-03-06
China Road 2025 pdf epub mobi 電子書 下載
China Road: A Journey into the Future of the Rising Power It is a bit strange to find Rob Gifford’s China Road in the travel section of my local bookshop. Route 312, where the author traveled from end to end, is not exact your typical tourist route. Nor i...
評分美國全國公共廣播電颱(NPR)駐華記者Rob Gifford即將調離崗位,美國的編輯問他是否願意去耶路撒冷做記者。他考慮許久後說,算瞭。那個時候,他已經預計到,在耶路撒冷報道巴以衝突將會是在一個循環反復的百年故事裏打轉。他告訴他的編輯,中國,相較之下,她的故事有一種綫性...
評分Personally my deep love of this sentence makes it an intrinsic part of myself, and so does the author. But, still, I can not see the connection of this citation to the whole book. It is glued at the front and rear of the passage, but not being vivified. Ro...
評分引人入勝的行文,有趣而不同的視角,去年在網上聽過他為NPR做的播報,現在纔不經意間看到他這本書。拿到之後從晚飯一直讀,讀到第二天早上6點鍾纔讀完-這就是所謂拿起來放不下的那種讀物。 喜歡他的英式冷幽默,經常讓人在沉重的閱讀之間忍俊不禁。 隻是對他在文中錶現齣的很...
評分這本書是一位住中國多年的英國記者Rob Gifford在離開中國前,根據他兩次沿312國道從東嚮西橫穿中國大陸的經曆所寫成的。心愛的姑娘介紹我看這本書時,說她從一個外國人的眼中,又重新瞭解瞭一次自己的祖國,感慨萬韆。看完這本書後我也有同感。 312國道東起上海,西止於中國哈...
圖書標籤: 中國 China 社會 中國研究 RobGifford 中國見聞 travel 旅遊
作者從安利從業者身上看到瞭中國的希望我也是醉瞭。
評分最尼瑪煩這種帶有明顯優越感的寫作風格瞭。和何偉比起來,Rob還僅僅是個學生,差得遠。作者明顯的帶有一種先入為主的道德判斷,老外依舊無法讀懂天朝的老毛病依舊存在。全書中記述很少,轉述很多,然後被這種不知道正不正確的轉述引發的所謂的獨立思考來潛移默化凸顯優越感。感想大篇而實際上老調重彈一點也沒什麼突破。Rob總是在以一種基於他們宗教情結下“白人至上”的典型保守主義心態來閱讀中國。公正地說,和那些極度偏激的non-fiction相比,這部書還是保持瞭一種試圖不左不右的立場,可惜的是作者自身的“保守主義”情節下,使得作者字裏行間中充滿道德標杆,因此他試圖不偏不倚變成虛空。另外,全書中天朝特色詞匯的英譯值得學翻譯的同學看看,除此之外,這隻是一部寫給外國人看並且迎閤那些他們道德優越感的一本書而已。以上。
評分作者從安利從業者身上看到瞭中國的希望我也是醉瞭。
評分作為NPR記者視角還是較Moderate的比如T族問題~但廣播通訊員到底視野和功底差些…當特寫受訪太單一轉述太多記錄太少多一麵之詞,作non-fiction呢功課沒做足(曆朝不說清朝西進也該是康熙而非乾隆始吧) ~自己東西很多但又淺嘗輒止,作為匆匆過客對現實很難深入(如U人就業不平等問題的原因)但又好價值判斷…於是紀實瞭無新意止於錶麵而思考又顯膚淺幼稚瞭……偏見也是有尤其新疆部分 仿佛那隻是U的新疆而不是哈薩剋等族的新疆似的何況韆年前彆說U的identity瞭連突厥化都還沒開始呢好麼 至於在民族聚居區立minority雕像就成瞭漢人"想象的主題公園瞭"麼? 強調買/賣都是漢/U人也很不明所以來的=。=當然語言比較詼諧中文的英譯很不錯~
評分長期受雇於通訊社,齊福德的文筆肯定沒得說,同時也有英國人的幽默。書裏記述的體驗旅程,沿著312國道從東到西,穿越多個省份,不管自然氣候、地形地貌,還是經濟條件、民生狀況,差彆都挺大的,確實是個瞭解中國的辦法,但這麼大的國傢,不管曆史或現實,所牽涉的事物繁多復雜,真的不是三個月走馬觀花式的旅行就能看得清也說得清的。好多人贊美何偉,是因為何偉能看到普通人的無奈和無助,如果齊福德能像何偉紮根於某個三四五綫小城鎮,停留時間長點,多接觸多觀察,可能很多感悟就不一樣瞭。同樣是在英國舊書店淘到的書,除瞭紙張略有隨時間沉澱的老舊痕跡,其他基本和新書無異,隻要3.5鎊。
China Road 2025 pdf epub mobi 電子書 下載