- Hardcover: 368 pages
- Publisher: Walker & Co; 1st U.S. Ed edition (21 July 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0802716520
- ISBN-13: 978-0802716521
- Product Dimensions: 23.9 x 16.4 x 3.1 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
75,442 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #35 in Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences > Sociology > Family & Social Groups > Urban Communities
- #36 in Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences > Urban & Rural Planning
- #64 in Books > History > Cultural History > Local & Urban History
The Last Days of Old Beijing
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Product Description
Synopsis
Journalist Michael Meyer has spent his adult life in China, first in a small village as a Peace Corps volunteer, the last decade in Beijing--where he has witnessed the extraordinary transformation the country has experienced in that time. For the past two years he has been completely immersed in the ancient city, living on one of its famed hutong in a century-old courtyard home he shares with several families, teaching English at a local elementary school--while all around him "progress" closes in as the neighborhood is methodically destroyed to make way for high-rise buildings, shopping malls, and other symbols of modern, urban life. The city, he shows, has been demolished many times before; however, he writes, "the epitaph for Beijing will read: born 1280, died 2008 what emperors, warlords, Japanese invaders, and Communist planners couldn't eradicate, the market economy can."The Last Days of Old Beijing tells the story of this historic city from the inside out through the eyes of those whose lives are in the balance: the Widow who takes care of Meyer; his students and fellow teachers, the first-ever description of what goes on in a Chinese public school; the local historian who rallies against the government.The tension of preservation vs. modernization--the question of what, in an ancient civilization, counts as heritage, and what happens when a billion people want to live the way Americans do--suffuse Meyer's story.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
If you want a tourist guide don't buy this book. This is probably one for people really interested in the Chinese people (every day folk)not China. The author's total immersion system gives him a genuine view and experience of what it is like to live in a Beijing Hutong, among the lower social classes who scrape a living but are full of life and character. It gives an insiders view of a community. Their fears for the future and their struggles with authority. The ever present threat of demolition and relocation. The efforts of individuals to record or stop the wholesale desecration of a city. Meyer writes with great sensitivity and insight. I hope he writes another. Having seen the interview on youtube it would be a real treat to meet him and have him guide you around Beijing.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
i first picked up this book for a leisure reading after dinner, but ended up with a pair of sore eyes at 2am!
this is an attractive well-written book, knitted by vivid personal stories and diligent documentory research, and none of its chapaters lacks humour
it opens a trusty window to see the ordinary Chinese life in the Hutong (alleyway) of beijing, their primary school education, concerns of heritage (or, to them, 'home and neighbourhood'), and how the neighbourhood was taken place by commercial districts... etc etc
good book for both leisure readers and academics in sociology and heritage studies.
this is an attractive well-written book, knitted by vivid personal stories and diligent documentory research, and none of its chapaters lacks humour
it opens a trusty window to see the ordinary Chinese life in the Hutong (alleyway) of beijing, their primary school education, concerns of heritage (or, to them, 'home and neighbourhood'), and how the neighbourhood was taken place by commercial districts... etc etc
good book for both leisure readers and academics in sociology and heritage studies.
Format:Hardcover
Journalist Michael Meyer intertwines his diary about living in China with a historical retrospective of Beijing's fast-disappearing "hutong" - ancient neighborhoods that are being destroyed so the Communist government can build skyscrapers.
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