Chinese Lessons

Five Classmates and the Story of the New China

Nonfiction, Travel, Asia, China, History, Asian
Cover of the book Chinese Lessons by John Pomfret, Henry Holt and Co.
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Author: John Pomfret ISBN: 9781429935180
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. Publication: August 8, 2006
Imprint: Henry Holt and Co. Language: English
Author: John Pomfret
ISBN: 9781429935180
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Publication: August 8, 2006
Imprint: Henry Holt and Co.
Language: English

"A highly personal, honest, funny and well-informed account of China's
hyperactive effort to forget its past and reinvent its future."—The New York Times Book Review

As one the first American students admitted to China after the communist revolution, John Pomfret was exposed to a country still emerging from the twin tragedies of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. Crammed into a dorm room with seven Chinese men, Pomfret contended with all manner of cultural differences, from too-short beds and roommates intent on glimpsing a white man naked, to the need for cloak-and-dagger efforts to conceal his relationships with Chinese women. Amidst all that, he immersed himself in the remarkable lives of his classmates.

Beginning with Pomfret's first day in China, Chinese Lessons takes us down the often torturous paths that brought together the Nanjing University History Class of 1982: Old Wu's father was killed during the Cultural Revolution for the crime of being an intellectual; Book Idiot Zhou labored in the fields for years rather than agree to a Party-arranged marriage; and Little Guan was forced to publicly denounce and humiliate her father. As Pomfret follows his classmates from childhood to adulthood, he examines the effect of China's transition from near-feudal communism to first-world capitalism. The result is an illuminating report from present-day China, and a moving portrait of its extraordinary people.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

"A highly personal, honest, funny and well-informed account of China's
hyperactive effort to forget its past and reinvent its future."—The New York Times Book Review

As one the first American students admitted to China after the communist revolution, John Pomfret was exposed to a country still emerging from the twin tragedies of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. Crammed into a dorm room with seven Chinese men, Pomfret contended with all manner of cultural differences, from too-short beds and roommates intent on glimpsing a white man naked, to the need for cloak-and-dagger efforts to conceal his relationships with Chinese women. Amidst all that, he immersed himself in the remarkable lives of his classmates.

Beginning with Pomfret's first day in China, Chinese Lessons takes us down the often torturous paths that brought together the Nanjing University History Class of 1982: Old Wu's father was killed during the Cultural Revolution for the crime of being an intellectual; Book Idiot Zhou labored in the fields for years rather than agree to a Party-arranged marriage; and Little Guan was forced to publicly denounce and humiliate her father. As Pomfret follows his classmates from childhood to adulthood, he examines the effect of China's transition from near-feudal communism to first-world capitalism. The result is an illuminating report from present-day China, and a moving portrait of its extraordinary people.

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