If You're Curious About These Questions...
You should listen to this audiobook
- Have you ever wondered how just ten everyday words can reveal the hidden soul and turbulent history of modern China?
- Did you know that beneath China’s sleek, modern exterior lies a society much closer to its revolutionary roots than the world realizes?
- Are you curious about the secret cultural contradictions that fueled the 'Chinese Miracle' and what they tell us about the nation's future?
Listen to China In Ten Words — Free Audiobook
Key Takeaways from China In Ten Words
- Understand how analyzing ten seemingly simple Chinese words provides a profound window into the country's rapid transformation from the Cultural Revolution to today's economic boom.
- Discover why the powerful, unifying concept of 'the people' vanished from Chinese society after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, leaving citizens to define themselves by fractured modern identities.
- Learn how the Chinese concept of a 'leader' shifted from Mao's intimate, populist rule to modern committee governance, fundamentally altering the nation's political dynamic.
- Find out why a staggering 85 percent of the Chinese public still feels a sense of nostalgia for Mao Zedong and believes his return would help combat modern corruption.
- Explore how severe censorship during the Cultural Revolution forced citizens to creatively satisfy their desire for reading by decoding political posters and frantically hand-copying banned books.
China In Ten Words — Full Chapter Overview
Chapter 1: 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.
China In Ten Words Summary & Overview
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 to China In Ten Words?
- Students of the history of Communist China
- Linguists curious about how language shapes cultural concepts
- Those who are fascinated by the modern “Chinese Miracle”
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