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China Road

A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power

By Rob Gifford

(13)

| Hardcover | 9781400064670

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Book Description

Route 312 is the Chinese Route 66. It flows three thousand miles from east to west, passing through the factory towns of the coastal areas, through the rural heart of China, then up into the Gobi Desert, where it merges with the Old Silk Road. The highway witnesses every part of the social and economic revolution that is turning China upside down.

In this utterly surprising and deeply personal book, acclaimed National Public Radio reporter Rob Gifford, a fluent Mandarin speaker, takes the dramatic journey along Route 312 from its start in the boomtown of Shanghai to its end on the border with Kazakhstan. Gifford reveals the rich mosaic of modern Chinese life in all its contradictions, as he poses the crucial questions that all of us are asking about China: Will it really be the next global superpower? Is it as solid and as powerful as it looks from the outside? And who are the ordinary Chinese people, to whom the twenty-first century is supposed to belong?

Gifford is not alone on his journey. The largest migration in human history is taking place along highways such as Route 312, as tens of millions of people leave their homes in search of work. He sees signs of the booming urban economy everywhere, but he also uncovers many of the country’s frailties, and some of the deep-seated problems that could derail China’s rise.

The whole compelling adventure is told through the cast of colorful characters Gifford meets: garrulous talk-show hosts and ambitious yuppies, impoverished peasants and tragic prostitutes, cell-phone salesmen, AIDS patients, and Tibetan monks. He rides with members of a Shanghai jeep club, hitchhikes across the Gobi desert, and sings karaoke with migrant workers at truck stops along the way.

As he recounts his travels along Route 312, Rob Gifford gives a face to what has historically, for Westerners, been a faceless country and breathes life into a nation that is so often reduced to economic statistics. Finally, he sounds a warning that all is not well in the Chinese heartlands, that serious problems lie ahead, and that the future of the West has become inextricably linked with the fate of 1.3 billion Chinese people.

“Informative, delightful, and powerfully moving . . . Rob Gifford’s acute powers of observation, his sense of humor and adventure, and his determination to explore the wrenching dilemmas of China’s explosive development open readers’ eyes and reward their minds.”
–Robert A. Kapp, president, U.S.-China Business Council, 1994-2004

Critics

China Road: A Journey Into the Future of a Rising Power

A few years back, when I was working in the British Embassy in Beijing, I remember that we had to put together a briefing for one of the endless stream of visitors from the UK coming over, to expose them to, and educate them about, China. At this par ... (read full critics)

asianreviewofbooks published on Thu, 2 Sep 2010

2 Reviews

4 people find this helpful

This book leaves me in a very complicated state-of-mind. You probably are yelling at me, 'what on earth are you reading China writen by a gweilo?' For my money, first, it's sometimes good and interesting to look at our own country from an outsider's eye; second, we Chinese media simply don't have th ... (continue)

This book leaves me in a very complicated state-of-mind. You probably are yelling at me, 'what on earth are you reading China writen by a gweilo?' For my money, first, it's sometimes good and interesting to look at our own country from an outsider's eye; second, we Chinese media simply don't have the capacity and guts to investigate 'China'. I really admire the author Rob Gifford, who has presented himself a respectable journalist. This project is probably a dream-comes-true to any journalist.
Amids the havoc caused by the olympics torch, I was one of the few Chinese who doesn't wanna be Chinese for the sake of all the embarassement, while others see it as an insult and the best opportunity to 'avenge the hundred years humiliation.'. I'm glad Rob has the same doubt in mind, "China is on the verge of greatness. And yet it still tneds to think and speak like a victim." The question was raised way before all the olympics mess. Luck to be a Hong Kong people, I had the privilege to be freed from the propaganda stuff. I see China differently, I prefer to state myself as a 'liberal', tho many would simply say I'm too westernized. (In China those who accuse others being too westernize are very likely the same people who adorn the western way the deepest at heart.) Right, I'm so 'westernized' to find I often have exactly the same view of Rob on China.
To grasp the real picture you have to talk to the real people, and that's what Rob's doing. And I'm so sad to read the stories of the ordinary peasants who sum up most of the population in China. They were once the hero of the communist party and now they were ditched again. They sold blood to live. Their lands were stolen by the local officials. Their well was sealed up by the official who coerece them to buy water from the local water company, that, obviously they had shares. And the minorities in XinChang, they were losing their culture to the Han people and they could do nothing about it. I am not a pessimist at all. I'm also impressed by the development of Shanghai and all the second-tier cities. But i simply don't understand why the urban patrioits simply ignore these facts matter-of-factly. How can you enjoy all the fruit and be blinded on the sufferings of your fellow countrymen? 'What are you gonna do?" Rob often asked his interviewees, or friends, and the answers often made me cry, 'Endure, there's nothing we can do.' 'We'll never become like your country (freedom and stuff).' And I just have this feelings that is it the fate imposed on the Chinese peasants still have to go for another century?
Rob pointed out the political system flaw of China for these 2000 years was, and is still be, the lack of check and balances. It's not necessarily democrazy but maybe a power alongside the central govenrment (emporer), like what happened in the old Europe (where there's church and feudal lords). I know China is geographically and populationally too huge for any regime or system to cope with, but I sincerely hope there will be a political reform in the near future. Not until that day it doens't call living with dignity. But with the growing number of Hong Kong people who welcome the brain-washing of the communists I know it'll be a tough road ahead. Maybe somebody should have this book translated in Chinese?

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fruit said on Sep 20, 2008 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

Sort of a travelogue across China along Route 312, from SE supermodern Shangai to NW remote Uzbekistan border. The author is a British journalist who spent several periods in China over the past two decades. An outsider's views on China, mainly targeted for an American audience - as one can tell fro ... (continue)

Sort of a travelogue across China along Route 312, from SE supermodern Shangai to NW remote Uzbekistan border. The author is a British journalist who spent several periods in China over the past two decades. An outsider's views on China, mainly targeted for an American audience - as one can tell from references and examples.

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ary29 said on Mar 23, 2010 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback