The end of the Chinese dream : why Chinese people fear the future / Gerard Lemos.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lemos, Gerard.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social stability.

Social change.

Chongqing (China)--Social conditions--21st century.

Chongqing (China).

Chongqing (China)--Social life and customs--21st century.

Social change--China--Chongqing.

Social stability--China--Chongqing.

National characteristics, Chinese.

China--Chongqing.

Physical Description:

ix, 301 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, [2012]

Summary:

"Glossy television images of happy, industrious, and increasingly prosperous workers show a bright view of life in twenty-first-century China. But behind the officially approved story is a different reality. Preparing this book Gerard Lemos asked hundreds of Chinese men and women living in Chongqing, an industrial mega-city, about their wishes and fears. The lives they describe expose the myth of China's harmonious society. Hundreds of millions of everyday people in China are beleaguered by immense social and health problems as well as personal, family, and financial anxieties--while they watch their communities and traditions being destroyed.Lemos investigates a China beyond the foreigners' beaten track. This is a revealing account of the thoughts and feelings of Chinese people regarding all facets of their lives, from education to health care, unemployment to old age, politics to wealth. Taken together, the stories of these men and women bring to light a broken society, one whose people are frustrated, angry, sad, and often fearful about the circumstances of their lives. The author considers the implications of these findings and analyzes how China's community and social problems threaten the ambitious nation's hopes for a prosperous and cohesive future. Lemos explains why protests will continue and a divided and self-serving leadership will not make people's dreams come true"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

1 Getting Nowhere in China 4

2 Chongqing 16

3 Chaos, Reform and Inequality 31

4 The Wish Tree 59

5 The Chinese Dream 82

6 Unhappy Families 104

7 Educational Pressure, Hope and Despair 129

8 Failing Health 151

9 Lifelong Financial Insecurity 170

10 Exodus from the Suffering Land 184

11 Losers and their Losses 196

12 Trauma without Recovery 220

13 The Power of the Powerless 233

14 Plutocrats in the Leviathan 252.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [286]-292) and index.

ISBN:

9780300169249

0300169248

OCLC:

711045655