In the beginning of the twenty-first century, it is hard to imagine a place more exciting than China. The country's economy is growing by more than ten percent per year. The lives of Chinese citizens in every stratum of society are changing--indeed, the very rules that define the parameters of their lives are changing. Over a billion people are simultaneously hustling, trying to decipher the rules, carving a place out for themselves in the new China. Predictably, the result is a glorious mess.
Westerners are fascinated with news coming out of China, but in general, most such reporting focuses on the country's economy (growth rates, infrastructure, trade deficits, currency valuation, globalization, etc.), social issues (human rights, income inequality, diseases such as avian flu, SARS, and HIV/Aids, etc.), and the current government (the workings of the CCP, its response to social unrest, etc.). Westerners hear much about China's booming economy and its role as the next global superpower from the mainstream media, but they know less about the young people who make up China's varied and fascinating subcultures.
American writer Zachary Mexico spent two years absorbing information about these subcultures, living in China from 2002-2004. Fascinated with the streets humming with the energy of constant change, he determined to return as soon as possible for the purpose of formal research on the subject of how the changing environment has affected the Chinese of his generation. This he accomplished in the summer of 2006, traveling around the country during an intensive three months of research into the lifestyles of his Chinese peers.
In China Underground, Mexico introduces young western readers to their Chinese counterparts, highlighting an unfamiliar side of China: today's varied youth cultures, which are both fascinating and under-exposed. Readers are introduced to a wannabe rock star from the desert of Xinjiang, trying to make it big in Shanghai; a disillusioned journalist; a budding screenwriter; a vagabond ladies' man; a straight-A student at China's best university; a Chinese mafia kingpin; a punk band trying their best to stay relevant; a prostitute; the world's most polluted city; Beijing's drug-fueled club scene, and many others.
This is an engaging firsthand account of a young American writer's encounter with the new China and the young people who are pursuing their future there. China Underground tells their stories, and some of Mexico's own.
About the author:
Zachary Mexico started studying Chinese at age fifteen, and traveled to China for the first time at age sixteen. He has studied at Columbia University in New York and Qinghua University in Beijing. He plays in the rock group The Octagon (www.theoctagonrock.com) and the electronic duo Gates of Heaven (www.gatesofheaven.net.) He lives in New York City's Chinatown.
Through encounters with sundry artists, musicians, students, bar owners, gangsters, prostitutes, and slackers, Mexico assembles a compelling portrait of China�s contemporary youth culture and the limits of Communist control. The book�s subjects include a twenty-seven-year-old self-taught disaster photographer from the coal country in Shenyang; a twenty-nine-year-old mobster in Qingdao; a twenty-two-year-old Hendrixian Uighur guitar player making a splash in Shanghai; a Beijing university student who wishes that the system encouraged less rote memorization and more original thought; and an investigative journalist who no longer publishes himself, instead leading Western reporters to controversial stories. Mexico, a musician and poet who was a student in Beijing and subsequently managed a night club, has assumed a pseudonym to avoid trouble with the Chinese authorities. While occasionally anxious about his youth and his lack of credentials, he is a good listener and knows how to tell a provocative and illuminating story.
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發表於2024-12-23
China Underground 2024 pdf epub mobi 電子書 下載
Hardly a book with refined research in putting together a face to the contemporary China, more the impression of a traveler from the West. Not as in depth as an episode taken from the Lonely Planet show on particular local cultures, not as insightful as an ...
評分全書沒啥新觀點,基本上就是一個故弄玄虛加“**真相”式的快餐文學大拼盤。忽悠忽悠沒齣過國的老美還可以,對生長在天朝的咱們來講,實在沒啥新意
評分Hardly a book with refined research in putting together a face to the contemporary China, more the impression of a traveler from the West. Not as in depth as an episode taken from the Lonely Planet show on particular local cultures, not as insightful as an ...
評分well, nothing huge, but you do get some unusual insights from an outsider's point of view for China. it's kind interesting to know something you don't know but a foreigner does. P/S. bought this book when I was in Hong Kong, don't think it is allowed in ma...
評分Hardly a book with refined research in putting together a face to the contemporary China, more the impression of a traveler from the West. Not as in depth as an episode taken from the Lonely Planet show on particular local cultures, not as insightful as an ...
圖書標籤: China 2009 Uderground 社會 文化 人文 英文版 英文原版
My friend was not so confident in giving me this book to read, because they thought that this kind of book was forbidden in China.
評分Through the eye of the Westerner: My life in China had been colorful, unpredictable, and spontaneous; comparatively, New York seemed humdrum, boring, played out.
評分read most of it at bookstore, cute but didn't pay for it
評分算是給外國人一份簡單的中國地下文化介紹。
評分算是給外國人一份簡單的中國地下文化介紹。
China Underground 2024 pdf epub mobi 電子書 下載