- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: Vintage; Reprint edition (Mar 8 2005)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0375719199
- ISBN-13: 978-0375719196
- Product Dimensions: 13.2 x 1.9 x 20.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 240 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #375,024 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
These three intimate case studies explore how China's recent reforms have opened avenues for dissent. Johnson portrays the upsurge of popular protests as the leading edge of an inchoate grassroots movement that will ultimately threaten Communist Party rule. He is skeptical about whether the Party can accommodate or co-opt expectations arising from a nascent legal system through which grievances are supposed to be channeled. The problem he illustrates is that petitioners too often lose, no matter the justice of their cause-the legal system is hopelessly skewed in favor of the rich and connected. The three cases studies are chosen to represent the variety of experiences of ordinary Chinese. The first involves a self-educated peasant lawyer who takes on the local political elite over the excessive and illegal taxation of impoverished farmers, and mobilizes thousands in the process. The petitioner is encouraged by a court victory in one village, but the demands are defeated and the protagonist jailed when higher authorities realize the danger of his appeals. The second case pits owners of homes in the historic heart of old Beijing against city planners who want to bulldoze nearly everything old to make way for high-rise developments. The third case exposes the persecution and determined persistence in her faith of one woman who joined Falun Gong protests. Johnson won a Pulitzer in 2001, as Beijing bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal, for his coverage of Falun Gong. While it offers insight into grassroots activity in China, this local focus makes the book less useful for understanding how factional fighting within the governing elite sometimes opens opportunities for successful dissent.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
From the reporter-returns-from-abroad genre comes Johnson's portrait of contemporary China. Writing for the Wall Street Journal in the late 1990s, he covered such news as the repression of Falun Gong, the spiritual and exercise movement. In this work, Johnson profiles three ordinary citizens whom the government treats as obstreperous nuisances, and whose fortunes from protesting injustice illustrate the government's nervousness at the least manifestation of opposition. Ma Wenlin, currently in prison, is a self-taught lawyer who represented farmers aggrieved by tax rake-offs; Zhang Xueling wants answers about the death of her mother, a Falun Gong adherent, while in police custody; and Fang Ke is an architectural student opposing the razing of historical Beijing. Johnson focuses each personal story on the courageous decision to oppose rather than acquiesce to the caprices of officialdom. A perceptive observer, Johnson ably depicts the personal cost borne by individuals subjected to the authoritarian policies of the communist regime. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
China's future through three people,
By Tom Kovalev (Chicago) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Wild Grass: Three Stories of Change in Modern China (Hardcover)
I just came back from a trip to China and was interested in learning more about the country but wasn't too interested in heavy academic writing. This book was good on both counts.The author uses the stories of three people to explain the problems facing China. His point is that China is developing quickly economically but its poliitcal system is stuck in the past. I thought this was a pretty good analysis of China and it was brought home by the three people's stories. My favorite was about a young guy trying to save the historic center of Bejiing. I had seen on my trip how the old city was being torn down and had assumed that there wasn't much opposition to this. But I was surprised to read about how thousands of people have tried to sue the government to stop the city's destruction. I was also impressed by the scope of the writer's knowledge. Even though he focuss just on three people, he really covers a lot of ground and you end up learning a lot about Chinese history and culture. If there's a reason I didn't give this five stars, it's that the book might be too pessimistic. The author says he isn't trying to predict China future but the picture he gives is of a society that's going to have inevitable conflicts with the government. When I was in China, people told me how their country had reformed its economy gradually. I wonder if this couldn't work for politics as well? Maybe the author underestimates this? Overall, however, this is a very nice book, well-written and full of interesting facts and description of famous and remote parts of the country. I could recommend it to anyone planning a trip there or just interested in this fascinating country.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage,
By Totally Anonymous (Private) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Wild Grass: Three Stories of Change in Modern China (Hardcover)
WILD GRASS contains three stories (they can't be termed novellas because they are true, although they are novella length) that show, quite poignantly, how change has, and has not, affected ordinary people in modern China.China today is the China created by Deng Xiaoping, not Chairman Mao, or at least it should be. Things, however, haven't changed as much as one might think. WILD GRASS shows us that China's "common man" is still struggling to claim the freedom, prosperity and happiness promised to him under the regime of Deng Xiaoping. All of the three stories in WILD GRASS center around ordinary people who exhibit extraordinary courage. The first is Ma Wenlin, a former Red Guard and former teacher who defies his village officials regarding illegal taxes levied on him and the other village peasants. In fact, he files a class action lawsuit on everyone's behalf. The village officials refuse to hear his case so he takes his cause to Beijing where the unbelievable happens. The second story actually takes place in Beijing, itself, as residents of that city's old town fight to keep their lovely and historic homes from being replaced by modern, gleaming skyscrapers that will accommodate the crowds of people that will arrive for the coming Olympics. Sometimes, where we live is just as important as how we live. The third story revolves around the rise of Falun Gong and Chen Zixiu, a mother and grandmother who embraces it. Unfortunately, Chen Zixiu isn't content to simply embrace the serenity and compassion of Falun Gong, she's determined to correct the Beijing officials misrepresentations of the movement as well. Chen Zixiu suffers the worst fate of any of the book's protagonists. WILD GRASS is an extremely well written book but one that is very sad and quite depressing. Many westerners, like me, think life in modern China is changing, albeit slowly, but, in WILD GRASS we learn that it's not changing as quickly as we might have thought it was and that all change is not for the good. WILD GRASS is definitely not a pessimistic book, however. While the author doesn't seem to place much hope in China's political leaders he does seem to have great faith in her ordinary, everyday people and this is what he showcases. WILD GRASS, while telling us a lot about the politics of modern China, is definitely not a political book. It is an extraordinarily human one. The true stories in WILD GRASS ultimately raise more questions about modern China than they answer, but this is, I think, how it should be. I liked this book because it focused more on people than on politics. I think WILD GRASS is a very important book and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone. It's beautifully written and it should be required reading for anyone interested in modern China.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
China at the grassroots,
By Tim Knuble (Seattle, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Wild Grass: Three Stories of Change in Modern China (Hardcover)
This book uses three people to tell the story of today's China. Through a lawyer, a student and a small-town worker we get inside the problems in China's cities, towns and villages. The author tells the three individuals' tales like short stories but adds in enough background and other material so you end up understanding a lot about contemporary China as well.The book was a real quick-read--I read through it in no time at all because I wanted to find out what happened to the three people. Would they succeed in challenging the government? Would they be defeated? The author should also be commended for taking some personal risks in telling these stories. They seem to have involved a lot of travel to remote parts of China. All in all, I can strongly recommend this for anyone who enjoys literary non-fiction in general and the topic of China more specifically.
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