The End of the Chinese Dream: Why Chinese People Fear the FutureGlossy 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. |
Contents
The Wish Tree | |
The Chinese Dream | |
Unhappy Families | |
Exodus from the Suffering Land | |
Losers and their Losses | |
Trauma without Recovery | |
The Power of the Powerless | |
What next for China? | |
Notes | |
Bibliography | |
Other editions - View all
The End of the Chinese Dream: Why Chinese People Fear the Future Gerard Lemos No preview available - 2012 |
The End of the Chinese Dream: Why Chinese People Fear the Future Gerard Lemos No preview available - 2013 |
Common terms and phrases
afford ambitions anxieties areas authorities Bank Banshanercun become Beijing Bo Xilai buildings cards cent centre child China Policy Institute Chinese Chongqing Ciqikou collapse Communist Party concerns Confucian Confucius costs countryside Cultural Revolution democracy Deng Xiaoping drug economic education fee employment exams expenses factory Falun Gong farmers future Girl greatest worry harmonious society health access fee health insurance healthcare Hemu Lu hope Hu Jintao income Jiang job changed land leaders leadership London Losing my job Mao's migrants million municipal neighbourhood one-child policy parents people's political pollution poor population problems protests Qing Qing dynasty Reform and Opening residents responses rural Shanghai Sichuan sick social welfare state-owned enterprises Tiananmen traditional UNDP urban wanted Wen Jiabao Wish Tree Woman women workers young Zhao Ziyang Zhou Enlai