In Manchuria : a village called Wasteland and the transformation of rural China / Michael Meyer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Meyer, Michael, 1972-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Rice farming.

Rice farmers.

Farm life.

Manchuria (China)--Description and travel.

Meyer, Michael, 1972---Travel--China--Manchuria.

Farm life--China--Manchuria.

Rice farmers--China--Manchuria.

Rice farming--China--Manchuria.

Manchuria (China)--Social life and customs.

Manchuria (China)--Rural conditions.

China--Manchuria.

Physical Description:

346 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Bloomsbury Press, 2015.

Summary:

Not since Pearl Buck wrote The Good Earth has anyone brought rural China to life as Michael Meyer has here. This combination of memoir, contemporary reporting, and historical research presents a unique profile of China's legendary northeast. For three years, Meyer rented a home in the rice-farming community of Wasteland, hometown to his wife's family, and their personal saga mirrors the tremendous change most of rural China is undergoing, in the form of a privately held rice company that has built new roads, introduced organic farming, and constructed high-rise apartments into which farmers can move in exchange for their land rights. Once a commune, Wasteland is now a company town, a phenomenon happening across China that Meyer documents for the first time. Amplifying the story of family and Wasteland, Meyer takes us on a journey across Manchuria's past, a history that explains much about contemporary China, from the fall of the last emperor to Japanese occupation and Communist victory. Through vivid local characters, Meyer illuminates the remnants of the imperial Willow Palisade, Russian and Japanese colonial cities and railways, and the POW camp into which a young American sergeant parachuted to free survivors of the Bataan Death March.--From publisher description.

Contents:

Winter solstice

Quid pro quo

Lineages

Ruins and remains

The waking of insects

Grain rain

The pilgrims' progress

To the Manchuria station!

Tunnels in time, sidings to space

Summer solstice

The ballad of Auntie Yi

Puppets of Manchukuo

Occupation's aftermath

Great heat

The half-bombed bridge to Worker's Village

Beginning of autumn

Dalian's display cases

Frost's descent

Major snow.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [283]-346) and index.

ISBN:

9781620402863

1620402866

9781620402887

1620402882

9781632860569

1632860562

OCLC:

880349831