China Vignettes

Book excerpt: How to understand the changes sweeping China. The texture of life at a household level is captured in this new book, which seeks to understand lived experience in China, from coast to interior, city to countryside, and across the widening income divide. The book interviews 30 Chinese men and women from different walks of life, and from different regions. Interviewees provide their household budget, a typical daily chronology and they share a sense of each day's pressures and priorities. In addition, 13 well-known Chinese writers, commissioned by editors at Rongshu Publishing, have contributed short stories presenting daily life from the points of view of different ages, genders, professions, income levels and life situations. It contains essays by well-known Chinese sociologist Deng Weizhi and political scientist Cao Peilin which complete the book.