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More copies of this ISBNThis title in other editionseBook editionsWill the Boat Sink the Water?: The Life of Chinas Peasantsby Guidi Chen
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:A prize-winning investigative expose of the poverty and injustice experienced by China's 900 million peasants, told through a series of dramatic personal narratives. The Chinese economic miracle is happening despite, not because of, China's 900 million peasants. They are missing from the portraits of booming Shanghai, or Beijing. Many of China's underclass live under a feudalistic system unchanged since the fifteenth century. They are truly the voiceless in modern China. They are also, perhaps, the reason that China will not be able to make the great social and economic leap forward, because if it is to leap it must carry the 900 million with it. Chinese journalists Wu Chuntao and Chen Guidi returned to Wu's home province of Anhui, one of China's poorest, to undertake a three-year survey of what had happened to the peasants there, asking the question: Have the peasants been betrayed by the revolution undertaken in their name by Mao and his successors? The result is a brilliant narrative of life among the 900 million, and a vivid portrait of the petty dictators that run China's villages and counties and the consequences of their bullying despotism on the people they administer. Told principally through four dramatic narratives of paricular Anhui people, Will the Boat Sink the Water? gives voice to the unheard masses and looks beneath the gloss of the new China to find the truth of daily life for its vast population of rural poor. Review:"What's most surprising about this expos of the Chinese government's brutal treatment of the peasantry is not that it was banned in China, but that it got past the censors in the first place. The authors — a husband and wife team who have received major awards — recount how, in the poor province of Anhui, greedy local officials impose illegal taxes on the already impoverished peasantry and cover their tracks through double-bookkeeping. Outraged peasants risk their freedom and sometimes their lives by complaining up the command chain or making the long and costly trip to Beijing, but for the most part the central government's proclamations against excessive taxation don't effectively filter back to the local level. The authors criticize the central government for its own heavy taxation and underrepresentation of the peasantry, though in much more measured tones than they fault the local officials. 'Could it be that our system itself is a toxic pool and whoever enters is poisoned by it?' they ask. As Westerners look toward China as the world's next superpower, this book is a reminder that the country's 900 million peasants often get lost in the glitter of Shanghai's Tiffany's. (June)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Review:"[A] dramatic sketch of a huge problem." Library Journal Review:"Readers interested in the unseen and unreported lives of Chinese peasants will appreciate this revealing book." Booklist Review:"A banned book whose publication is compared to a clap of thunder."
New York Times Synopsis:A prize-winning investigative exposé of the poverty and injustice experienced by China's 900 million peasants, told through a series of dramatic personal narratives. About the AuthorWu Chuntao was born in the Hunan province of China in 1963. Her husband, Chen Guidi, was born in 1943 in the Chinese province of Anhui. Both come from peasant families. Wu and Chen are members and respected writers of the Hefei Literature Association. Mr. Chen received the Lu Xun Literature Achievement Award-one of the most important literary prizes in China. Both authors have received awards from the journal Contemporary Age for groundbreaking reportage. What Our Readers Are SayingAdd a comment for a chance to win!Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
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