Popular China: Unofficial Culture in a Globalizing Society - Softcover

Every chapter is well-written and accessible to a wide range of readers, providing a complex and multifaceted view of how social and economic changes have affected the lives of ordinary Chinese. Highly recommended for all levels. * CHOICE * This is a well-written, informative, and inspirational volume, highly recommended to students of contemporary Chinese history, politics, and cultural studies. * Journal of Asian Studies * Suitable for the graduate student but is also written in a style that would interest anyone with a serious interest in China. * Asian Affairs * Ought to be read by anyone interested in the evolution of Chinese society, and it is indispensable for students who want to understand the social changes wrought by the economic reforms. * The China Journal * It is creative, valuable scholarship that debunks stereotype and opens the way for further inquiry, which is precisely what we have come to expect from the editors. * China Quarterly * This is one of those rare books that will be of value both to beginning undergraduates and specialists on China. It provides an excellent corrective for those whose image of China remains fixated on the 'Beijing Spring' of 1989 or whose knowledge of China is limited to elite politics or the highly visible modernization of the largest coastal cities. In demonstrating how the impact of globalization has contributed to momentous cultural changes, the authors have given us a living, breathing China of real people, fashioning strategies to survive and prosper in a society that has become enormously diverse. -- Stanley Rosen, University of Southern California

Using ingenious research methods, the contributors to this book explore the search for meaning among ordinary people in China today. The subjects of these vivid essays span the social spectrum from hip young entrepreneurs to sweatshop workers and homeless beggars. The issues are equally diverse, ranging from domestic violence to homosexuality to political corruption. Throughout, the book shows how economic and social changes caused by globalization, in combination with the continuing Party dictatorship, have presented ordinary Chinese with a new array of moral and cultural challenges that have changed the face of China.