Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China
Evan Osnos
From abroad, we often see China as a caricature: a nation of pragmatic plutocrats and ruthlessly dedicated students destined to rule the global economy-or an addled Goliath, riddled with corruption and on the edge of stagnation. What we don't see is how both powerful and ordinary people are remaking their lives as their country dramatically changes. As the Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker , Evan Osnos was on the ground in China for years, witness to profound political, economic, and cultural upheaval. In Age of Ambition , he describes the greatest collision taking place in that country: the clash between the rise of the individual and the Communist Party's struggle to retain control. He asks probing questions: Why does a government with more success lifting people from poverty than any civilization in history choose to put strict restraints on freedom of expression? Why do millions of young Chinese professionals-fluent in English and devoted to Western pop culture-consider themselves "angry youth," dedicated to resisting the West's influence? How are Chinese from all strata finding meaning after two decades of the relentless pursuit of wealth? Writing with great narrative verve and a keen sense of irony, Osnos follows the moving stories of everyday people and reveals life in the new China to be a battleground between aspiration and authoritarianism, in which only one can prevail.
- Author
- Evan Osnos
- Edition published
- May 13, 2014
- Publication year
- 2014
- Goodreads rating
- 4.24/5 from 8,964 ratings and 911 reviews
- Purchased
- September 21, 2015 · kindle
- Publisher
- Farrar, Straus and Giroux
- Edition
- Kindle Edition · 403 pages
- Language
- English
- Genres
- China, Nonfiction, History, Politics, Asia, Economics, Business, Travel, Audiobook, Sociology
- Awards
- Pulitzer Prize · General Nonfiction · nominee · 2015; National Book Award · Nonfiction · winner · 2014; Guardian First Book Award · nominee · 2014; Lionel Gelber Prize · nominee · 2015; Helen Bernstein Book Award · Excellence in Journalism · nominee · 2015; Arthur Ross Book Award · Honorable Mention · winner · 2015; Cornelius Ryan Award · winner · 2014
- ISBN
- 9780374280741
- Added
- September 21, 2015
- Times read
- 1
- Owned copies
- 1
- Goodreads
- Book record