Listen Now
Loading audio... Please wait for the audio to load before using controls.
0:0026:09
100%
Chapter Overview
Chapter 1: AudiobookHub Recommendation
Chapter 2: "The people" was central to modern China up to the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.
Chapter 3: Mao personified the ideal of a leader, and the term lost much of its meaning after his death.
Chapter 4: The significance of the term “reading” reflects how books’ roles shifted in China after the Cultural Revolution.
Chapter 5: Writing was central during the Cultural Revolution, and it eventually became part of Yu’s identity too.
Chapter 6: Lu Xun was one of the few authors Yu encountered in his youth, but he only truly came to appreciate him much later.
Chapter 7: Revolution has shaped modern Chinese history from the mid-twentieth century up to today.
Chapter 8: The idea of the gap between the rich and the poor is central to understanding modern China.
Chapter 9: The capacity of so-called “grassroots” to climb the social ladder echoes the Cultural Revolution’s ideology in China.
Chapter 10: “Copycat” is a buzzword in China today, yet it still has deeper roots.
Chapter 11: “Bamboozle” is the trendiest verb in contemporary China, and it’s making deception respectable.
Description
China in Ten Words (2012) explores the way modern China talks about itself and probes what that tells us about its past, present and likely future. Honing in on ten common concepts, author Yu Huan tells the story of a nation that has seemingly changed beyond recognition, yet in many ways remains closer to its revolutionary origins than one might believe.
Who Should Listen
- Students of the history of Communist China
- Linguists curious about how language shapes cultural concepts
- Those who are fascinated by the modern “Chinese Miracle”