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Overview
“Americans need not be hostile toward China's rise, but they should be wary about its eventual effects. The United States is the only nation with the scale and power to try to set the terms of its interaction with China rather than just succumb. So starting now, Americans need to consider the economic, environmental, political, and social goals they care about defending as Chinese influence grows.”—from “China Makes, the World Takes”
Since December 2006, The Atlantic Magazine's James Fallows has been writing some of the most discerning accounts of the economic and political transformation occurring in China. The ten essays collected here cover a wide-range of topics: from visionary tycoons and TV-battling entrepreneurs, to environmental pollution and how China subsidizes our economy. Fallows expertly and lucidly explains the economic, political, social, and cultural forces at work turning China into a world superpower at breakneck speed. This eye-opening and cautionary account is essential reading for all concerned not only with China's but America's future role in the world.
Synopsis
“Americans need not be hostile toward China's rise, but they should be wary about its eventual effects. The United States is the only nation with the scale and power to try to set the terms of its interaction with China rather than just succumb. So starting now, Americans need to consider the economic, environmental, political, and social goals they care about defending as Chinese influence grows.”
—from “China Makes, the World Takes”
Since December 2006, The Atlantic Magazine's James Fallows has been writing some of the most discerning accounts of the economic and political transformation occurring in China. The ten essays collected here cover a wide-range of topics: from visionary tycoons and TV-battling entrepreneurs, to environmental pollution and how China subsidizes our economy. Fallows expertly and lucidly explains the economic, political, social, and cultural forces at work turning China into a world superpower at breakneck speed. This eye-opening and cautionary account is essential reading for all concerned not only with China's but America's future role in the world.
The New York Times - Jonathan Spence
By using the word "postcards" for the title of this lively collection of a dozen reports written between the summers of 2006 and 2008…he seems to be alerting readers to expect vignettes rather than extended essays. But readers shouldn't be put off by the word, because Fallows does manage to give us panoramic views of China that are both absorbing and illuminating. If these reports are "postcards," it is only in the Chinese sense—the three characters commonly used to translate "postcard" (ming xin pian) literally mean something more like "exposed letter card" or "open letter." That may not quite be an expose, but it's certainly more than a quick note.
Editorials
John Pomfret
Although no apologist for China, Fallows is convinced that it's "a better country than its leaders and spokesmen make it seem, and those same leaders look more impressive on their home territory." His tone—smooth, assiduously polite—softens his contrarian bent. But from the start, he takes aim at some of the shibboleths that Western writers have advanced in recent years about China.—The Washington Post
Jonathan Spence
By using the word "postcards" for the title of this lively collection of a dozen reports written between the summers of 2006 and 2008…he seems to be alerting readers to expect vignettes rather than extended essays. But readers shouldn't be put off by the word, because Fallows does manage to give us panoramic views of China that are both absorbing and illuminating. If these reports are "postcards," it is only in the Chinese sense—the three characters commonly used to translate "postcard" (ming xin pian) literally mean something more like "exposed letter card" or "open letter." That may not quite be an expose, but it's certainly more than a quick note.—The New York Times
Publishers Weekly
Fallows (Blind into Baghdad) offers a candid outsider's take on contemporary China in this entertaining and richly illustrated investigation of what distinguishes China from other Asian nations and what causes the dissonance between how China sees itself and how it is viewed by the rest of the world, particularly the U.S. The author's range is admirably broad-he takes on Chinese reality television, school systems, incisive economic analysis-and uncovers a raft of surprising similarities between the East and West. Fallows compares Shenzhen-the manufacturing and migration capital of southern China-to New York, where once you've left the airport and stashed your suitcase, it's difficult to tell if you're a tourist or a native. In the gambling mecca of Macau (whose revenues recently exceeded those of Las Vegas), the author finds strains of Atlantic City. What Fallows lacks in expertise, he makes up for in a truly global vision and a magician's chest of social, economic and political insight. (Jan.)
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