01/02/2017
Ash (co-editor of While We’re Here), a British-born journalist living in Beijing, explores differences among China’s millennial generations in this fascinating book. The author follows six young Chinese from vastly different backgrounds and with even more diverse ambitions. Explaining his theme, he reports the Chinese observation that the country’s rapid changes in recent decades mean that a significant generation gap opens up every three to five years. Those born in 1980 remember a pre-prosperity China, those born in 1985 wouldn’t remember Tiananmen Square, and those born in 1990 take the Internet and China’s global status for granted. Ash profiles three 1985 babies: Dahai, from Huber province, a “self-styled loser” from a military family; Xiaoxiao, a small business owner from the Heilongjiang province; and Fred, a party member’s daughter and academic from Hainan province. He also includes Snail, born in 1987 in rural Anhui province and now addicted to online gaming; Lucifer, a pop star wannabe from Hebei province, born in 1989; and Mia, a rebellious fashion stylist born in 1990 in Xinjiang province. Ash’s deeply insightful exploration paints a vivid picture of growing up in China today, and, by implication, this powerful and ever-morphing nation’s future leaders. Agent: Rebecca Carter, Janklow & Nesbit. (Mar.)
Wish Lanterns: Young Lives in New China
Narrated by James Patrick Cronin
Alec AshUnabridged — 8 hours, 35 minutes
Wish Lanterns: Young Lives in New China
Narrated by James Patrick Cronin
Alec AshUnabridged — 8 hours, 35 minutes
Overview
There are more than 320 million Chinese between the ages of sixteen and thirty. Children of the one-child policy, born after Mao, with no memory of the Tiananmen Square massacre, they are the first net native generation to come of age in a market-driven, more international China. Their experiences and aspirations were formed in a radically different country from the one that shaped their elders, and their lives will decide the future of their nation and its place in the world.
Wish Lanterns offers a deep dive into the life stories of six young Chinese. Dahai is a military child, netizen, and self-styled loser. Xiaoxiao is a hipster from the freezing north. “Fred,” born on the tropical southern island of Hainan, is the daughter of a Party official, while Lucifer is a would-be international rock star. Snail is a country boy and Internet gaming addict, and Mia is a fashionista rebel from far west Xinjiang. Following them as they grow up, go to college, find work and love, all the while navigating the pressure of their parents and society, Wish Lanterns paints a vivid portrait of Chinese youth culture and of a millennial generation whose struggles and dreams reflect the larger issues confronting China today.
Editorial Reviews
"Ash effortlessly dissolves stereotypes with this refreshing and nuanced portrait of individuals who are shaping the China of tomorrow." —Rob Schmitz, Shanghai correspondent for NPR
“Lyrical, with its characters finely drawn, Ash’s book paints a telling portrait of this most restless generation raised in a system that has provided them with unprecedented personal opportunities while denying them political ones . . . A gifted observer.”—Washington Post
"Compelling and beautifully written." —Rana Mitter, Prospect
"Informative and often humorous . . . Through six individuals, Ash addresses topic such as recent Chinese politics, music, urbanization, internet addiction, and more. [Wish Lanterns] presents a refreshing range of perspectives about being twenty-something in China." —Marianna Cerini, Forbes
“Masterfully crafted . . . The richness of Ash’s book is in the character development, the details of everyday life, dreams, frustrations, and contradictions of these particular individuals. Ash enters their worlds as a peer (he is their same age) and he’s a sensitive listener, reporter, and storyteller. Through this particular constellation of players, we sense that the fact that China is gaining strength in the world complicates their instincts for rebellion and resistance.” —Los Angeles Review of Books
“A perceptive and quietly profound book.”—Booklist, starred review
"Novelistic anecdotes reveal Chinese young people struggling with universal themes of education, employment, and love. . . the author eloquently delineates the dreams and disappointments of young Chinese. Sensitive, fascinating reports." —Kirkus
"Fascinating . . . Ash’s deeply insightful exploration paints a vivid picture of growing up in China today, and, by implication, this powerful and ever-morphing nation’s future leaders.” —Publishers Weekly
"Alec Ash's book has opened a window in the wall between China and the west for us to see the hopes and fears of these young Chinese who are struggling to build their lives in a world that their parents could never dream of." —Xinran, author of The Good Women of China
"Wish Lanterns announces the arrival of a talented young observer of today’s China. Alec Ash documents the lives of Chinese millennials with detail, insight, and sympathy, and his book is an invaluable resource for anybody hoping to understand the country’s future possibilities.”—Peter Hessler, New York Times–bestselling author of Oracle Bones and Country Driving
"A gem of a book. Its brief chapters flow like a skillfully crafted set of interconnected short stories, yet all are rooted in the real life experiences of six individuals. An impressive debut book by a writer to watch.” —Jeffrey Wasserstrom, author of China in the 21st Century
"Alec Ash hangs out with China's ‘post-80s’ generations to give us a series of fascinating and insightful snapshots of where the country might be heading." —Paul French, author of Midnight in Peking
"A beautiful and thoughtful book about the life of young people in China. Alec Ash has succeeded in giving us an intimate and complex portrait of the one child policy generation. I enthusiastically recommend you to read it." —Xiaolu Guo, author of I Am China
“One of the best [books] I’ve read about the individuals who make up a country that is all too often regarded as a monolith.” —Jonathan Fenby, Financial Times
"Alec Ash has assembled a fascinating mosaic that gives us a wonderfully vivid sense of what it's like to grow up today in the People's Republic of China. Wish Lanterns enables a reader to get an immediate feel of how contradictory life in this dynamic but still unresolved country often is.” —Orville Schell, Director, Center on US-China Relations
"A wonderfully readable and engaging account of Chinese millennials. Alec Ash weaves the joy, heartbreak, drama and trauma of this group through disparate stories, making up a highly realistic, and at times poetic, portrait of the people who will likely have the greatest future impact in the world today.” —Kerry Brown, Professor of China Studies, King's College London
"Here is a completely novel take on contemporary China. Alec Ash embarks on a different sort of Chinese journey, following six millennials from the nation's far-flung corners as they make their way to university, on stage, deep underground, and even abroad. The result is a work of heart-felt reportage, and also great suspense, as we wait to learn each character's fate. I couldn't put it down." —Michael Meyer, author of The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed
03/01/2017
Following the lives of six Chinese Millennials (the people profiled were born between 1985 and 1990), this work by journalist Ash shows readers how these six individuals are coming of age in a world very different from their parents, and in a time of great transition in China. While they all end up with a university education and have common issues relating to their family, relationships, housing, and cultural traditions, each person is unique in their own way. Profiles span the gamut of patriots, rebels, a college instructor, small business owners, a singer, a fashionista, and even an Internet gamer. Readers can easily see how they are similar to other Millennials around the world, struggling to live their lives and work toward their goals and dreams. VERDICT This entertaining look into modern China that provides a glimpse into the experiences of its young citizens will be of interest to those seeking stories of the country and its culture.--Melissa Aho, Univ. of Minnesota Bio-Medical Lib., Minneapolis
2016-12-19
Novelistic anecdotes reveal Chinese young people struggling with universal themes of education, employment, and love.In alternating chapters, Beijing-based British journalist Ash (co-editor: While We're Here: China Stories from a Writers' Colony, 2016) pursues the mostly unglamorous, daily slogs of six young Chinese, born from 1985 to 1990, and how, as the single-child generation, they are making their ways in the new China. Initially, readers must work to remember which character is which, and some have English nicknames. There is art student Xiaoxiao, from the northernmost Heilongjiang province; academically gifted Fred, the daughter of Communist party apparatchiks in China's far south island, Hainan; gaming addict Snail, from Anhui province; Dahai, from Wuhan, who was forced to study computer science and settled for a stable team-leader position building a tunnel under Beijing; Mia, a rebel who scored a stylist job at the Chinese edition of Harper's Bazaar; and Lucifer, who scraped by at Peking University and only wanted to be a rock star. Each dreamed of the good life, undergoing the rigorous exams for university and attending college and then joining the massive work force as "just another worker ant." Some, like Snail and Dahai, discovered power in venting on the internet ("reposting is power"). Lucifer found gratification in joining bands and screaming English lyrics, and Mia delved into the fashionista club scene. Forced to live frugally, Snail inhabited one of the tiny spaces in the basements of cheap apartment blocks on the outskirts of the city, living with other members of the underclass called the "rat tribe." Fred, a graduate student in politics, did a year abroad at Cornell University; while she was intrigued by the American way, she was not tempted to stay. By their late 20s, all young people are expected to get married; a few of Ash's subjects obliged, to enormous cost and fanfare by their delighted parents. Ultimately, the author eloquently delineates the dreams and disappointments of young Chinese. Sensitive, fascinating reports.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940169808612 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Blackstone Audio, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 03/07/2017 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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