Description
John Gittings has been reporting on China for the last thirty years, a period that has seen its remarkable transformation from Maoist communism to a market led economy. In this journalistic anthology he conveys both the magnitude of this change and its incompleteness- particularly in political life which is only just beginning to escape the shadow of the 1989 Beijing Massacre.
Travelling extensively within China, Gittings has witnessed all the great upheavals - the Cultural Revolution, the rejection of Maoism, the growth of consumer society, the repression of dissidents, the inequalities between rich and poor, the struggle in Tibet and the Hong Kong handover. He paints a vivid picture of life across China, from the booming coast and Westernized cities to the less well-known central provinces.
China Through the Sliding Door offers a different insight into this most complex and unpredictable society. Understanding its recent history, John Gittings sheds light on its present and its probable future. And by highlighting China's transition from something which called itself socialism, to something which does not yet call itself capitalism, he raises issues of public versus private, idealism against materialism, which have relevance to all Western societies.
ISBN: 9780684851815
