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emiged's review
3.0
This past century has been a tumultuous one for China. Until 1912, China was still ruled by the Qing Dynasty, which gave way after the Xinhai Revolution to a series of regional warlords vying for supremacy. Nationalists were finally able to consolidate power by 1928, but then war, first with Japan and then civil war within China, was followed by the Communist revolution in 1949. The “Time of the Leadership of the Party” and the Cultural Revolution caused untold suffering, including millions of deaths from starvation during the Great Leap Forward. In China Witness, Xinran undertook an prodigious, almost Herculean, project. This amazing woman, a journalist in China for over two decades, set out to record the experiences of ordinary Chinese people, particularly those of her parents' generation, before they were lost and forgotten.
Few historical records have survived the chaos of these “cataclysmic changes” in China. Many people were understandably reticent to commit anything to paper due to fear of reprisals; the winds of fortune could change very swiftly and an innocuous comment one day could be seen as dangerous proof of disloyalty or insufficient zeal for the motherland the next day. During the Cultural Revolution, many precious traditional landmarks and practices were systematically and intentionally wiped out by those in power in an attempt to “modernize” or simply remove other focuses that might draw loyalty or attention away from the Party; even family genealogical records had to be hidden or they would be destroyed. The lack of written documentation and the aging of the population who had lived through this time period gave Xinran's project a strong sense of urgency. She spent years laying the groundwork and then traveling all over China interviewing people about life during this period.
Her interviewees include a shoe-mender who has fixed footwear on the same back street in Zhengzhou on the Yellow River for 28 years; a husband and wife pair who were two of the founders of China's oil industry; and lantern makers in Nanjing in eastern China desperately trying to keep their ancient cultural tradition alive, but resigned to its eventual demise. Xinran traveled to the desert in the extreme northwest corner of China to an isolated city called Shihezi. Located on the ancient Silk Road, Shihezi is a modern city that was built by hundreds of thousands of political prisoners in the 1950s. She visited big cities like Beijing and Shanghai and small villages all over the country. The result is a broadly painted, but deeply intimate, portrait of a Chinese generation.
Common themes crop up again and again: national pride and self-respect, resilience and persistence in the face of incredible hardship, forgiveness and a willingness to move forward despite the pain of the past. One frequent sadness expressed by those Xinran interviewed involved lost time with family. Children were often raised by grandparents while the parents devoted themselves to the aims of the Communist Party in far-flung places, sometimes able to visit only a few times a year. Xinran mentions during one interview: “Almost all the parents have shared that pain – that is, they didn't give their children the family and the love that they should have done, or fulfilled their needs, and it's the biggest regret of their lives.”
Xinran invites her Western readers to learn about her homeland. “Knowledge about China is so small,” she laments, “it is a decimal fraction many positions after the decimal point.” In her afterword she relates her disappointment in the Western media coverage leading up to the Beijing Olympics, her sorrow at the devastating 7.8 earthquake that hit north Sichuan on 12 May 2008, and her devout hope that more individuals in the West will make a sincere effort to understand China and her people. “As a Chinese media person I struggled with Chinese censorship for a long time before I moved to London in 1997. Now, I feel the same sense of struggle again, but in the West, not with censorship, but with ignorance about my motherland.” Reading China Witness is a solid first step towards diminishing that ignorance and increasing understanding.
For more book reviews, come visit my blog, Build Enough Bookshelves.
Few historical records have survived the chaos of these “cataclysmic changes” in China. Many people were understandably reticent to commit anything to paper due to fear of reprisals; the winds of fortune could change very swiftly and an innocuous comment one day could be seen as dangerous proof of disloyalty or insufficient zeal for the motherland the next day. During the Cultural Revolution, many precious traditional landmarks and practices were systematically and intentionally wiped out by those in power in an attempt to “modernize” or simply remove other focuses that might draw loyalty or attention away from the Party; even family genealogical records had to be hidden or they would be destroyed. The lack of written documentation and the aging of the population who had lived through this time period gave Xinran's project a strong sense of urgency. She spent years laying the groundwork and then traveling all over China interviewing people about life during this period.
Her interviewees include a shoe-mender who has fixed footwear on the same back street in Zhengzhou on the Yellow River for 28 years; a husband and wife pair who were two of the founders of China's oil industry; and lantern makers in Nanjing in eastern China desperately trying to keep their ancient cultural tradition alive, but resigned to its eventual demise. Xinran traveled to the desert in the extreme northwest corner of China to an isolated city called Shihezi. Located on the ancient Silk Road, Shihezi is a modern city that was built by hundreds of thousands of political prisoners in the 1950s. She visited big cities like Beijing and Shanghai and small villages all over the country. The result is a broadly painted, but deeply intimate, portrait of a Chinese generation.
Common themes crop up again and again: national pride and self-respect, resilience and persistence in the face of incredible hardship, forgiveness and a willingness to move forward despite the pain of the past. One frequent sadness expressed by those Xinran interviewed involved lost time with family. Children were often raised by grandparents while the parents devoted themselves to the aims of the Communist Party in far-flung places, sometimes able to visit only a few times a year. Xinran mentions during one interview: “Almost all the parents have shared that pain – that is, they didn't give their children the family and the love that they should have done, or fulfilled their needs, and it's the biggest regret of their lives.”
Xinran invites her Western readers to learn about her homeland. “Knowledge about China is so small,” she laments, “it is a decimal fraction many positions after the decimal point.” In her afterword she relates her disappointment in the Western media coverage leading up to the Beijing Olympics, her sorrow at the devastating 7.8 earthquake that hit north Sichuan on 12 May 2008, and her devout hope that more individuals in the West will make a sincere effort to understand China and her people. “As a Chinese media person I struggled with Chinese censorship for a long time before I moved to London in 1997. Now, I feel the same sense of struggle again, but in the West, not with censorship, but with ignorance about my motherland.” Reading China Witness is a solid first step towards diminishing that ignorance and increasing understanding.
For more book reviews, come visit my blog, Build Enough Bookshelves.
mybookworldtour's review against another edition
3.0
'China Witness' is my second book by Xinran, the first being 'The Good Women of China,' which I highly recommend. 'China Witness' is a personal quest to safeguard memory and heritage by collecting information from the generation of today's grandparents and great-grandparents who lived through a century of change in China. But some things bothered me about the author's questioning style - like she wanted people to say what she wanted to hear. The stories were fascinating, though.
bookwormmichelle's review
3.0
I liked this book when it was the actual stories of the people Xinran interviewed. I liked a little less all the portions when she was continually talking. I've never read an oral history project with quite so much input from the interviewer--it got rather on my nerves at times.
agadbois's review
5.0
I love this woman and the stories she has captured. A radio show host during some of China's most tumultuous years, Xinran has worked to record the stories of ordinary people who lived through extraordinary times, before they are lost forever
gannent's review
3.0
This book is an interesting look at the lives of the older generation in China. Each chapter starts off describing the person or persons that the author is interviewing, followed by a transcript of the interview. I personally was not a huge fan of the straight transcript format, but that's just a personal preference. The people she interviewed were extraordinary, and their stories were fascinating. Sometimes I wished for more analysis to go with the interviews. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the more "human" side of history, that is, day to day experiences of the average person rather than those at the top. I would also recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about recent China, with the caveat that you would want a solid background in the history of China in the 20th century, since the author discusses important events without giving much background.
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