Wild Grass: Three Stories of Change in Modern China

by Ian Johnson

Book Overview

In Wild Grass , Pulitzer Prize--winning journalist Ian Johnson tells the stories of three ordinary Chinese citizens moved to extraordinary acts of courage: a peasant legal clerk who filed a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375421866
• ISBN13: 9780375421860
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: Pantheon Books
• Length: 324 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.9" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

An excellent book about my homeland

I've lived in China since 1999, and I often read stories about China in the Western media that I simply don't believe. Others report on abuses that do occur here without giving a reader any understanding of why. So, China remains "inscrutable." (I'm rolling my eyes...) China is a complex subject. How can a Westerner who has never been here know what's happening? China is so far away and shrouded in a bit of mystery, some due to the sheer length of its history and some due to the power of the Party. In my case, I don't speak Chinese, so getting past the public face is impossible. Ian Johnson of the Wall Street Journal won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on China. He speaks the language. And, he's one heck of a fine journalist. In WILD GRASS, he recounts the stories of three ordinary Chinese citizens who find themselves fighting the repression of the system, risking imprisonment and even death. Johnson understands "the big picture," and after reading this book, so will you. A nation is not just a single entity. It's made of people. All nations, not just the one you live in. So what are the people in China like? Read this book, and you'll feel like you've met some of them. A peasant lawyer, a young architectural student, a bereaved daughter. Poor farmers in Yulin and Party officials in Beijing. Johnson also brings the scenery to life, makes the unfamiliar familiar, and captures many little details and episodes and ironies. A compelling subject in the hands of a masterful author. China is experiencing unprecented economic development. What effect will this ultimately have on its social and political system? I don't agree with all of the author's conclusions -- it surprises me how much I agree with the Party -- but it doesn't matter. That's part of the beauty of this book. To bandy about phrases like "evil empire" is the simplistic idiocy that will (I hope) eventually doom morons like Dubya. Can we please move past that and try to genuinely understand? There can be no doubt that what Johnson reports in this book is factually accurate. If you want to learn about China, this is a good place to start. And then, form your own conclusions. There's plenty of room for you to do that here. Which, in the end, is what journalism is all about. I'm quite glad that I read this book. This is literature, same as George Orwell, who I also don't always agree with. And agreement does not matter. Spurring a reader to think is what matters. Johnson can do that with the best of them.

Great Choice!

If you're looking for an inside look into China, this is your book! It's not often that one thinks of a non-fiction book as a "page turner," yet I found myself speeding through the book, disappointed when I came to the last page. Cheering for the many underdogs depicted, Mr. Johnson's light and lively writing style helps to paint a clear picture of the social inequities found in modern day China. I particularly enjoyed the second story about the demolition of the old hutongs to make way for new construction. Johnson's prose paints a vivid picture of the beauty that is now forever lost and the fight the long-time residents have sadly lost. I've travelled to China twice and never felt as connected to the people as I do now. China seems to be struggling with its identity, working on cleaning up its image as the 2008 Olympics approach. Wild Grass is an invaluable depiction of the fight that is carried on daily by ordinary people simply trying to live what we accept to be a normal life.

insightful and beautifully written

As a Chinese journalist, I've read several books on China by foreign correspondents. But this one, Ian Johnson's "Wild Grass" stands out exceptionally and inspirationally. It's based on solid reporting, which had to entail lots of courage, wisdom, patience and critical understanding of China's political system. Even I couln't have imagined to be able to do the same reporting--travel extensively in china's remote hinterland, most of which is unaccessable to foreigners, evade police tracing, more amazingly, track down those falungong practioners. But this book is not just a piece of serious journalistic work, it's also literary. I think the writing is beautiful and delicate. It's also well-researched. The narrative of current affairs is smoothly interwoven with the background of history and culture. I am very impressed by the author's wide and deep knowledge and his profound understanding of China. I also learned a lot from the book. I remember a former London Times China correspondent once wrote that a lot of western journalists in the past came to China for a sense of mission. I think it's also true with Ian Johnson. However, I think he came to China not only with a sense of mission, but also to understand the country and the people, to experience the history and culture that had already fascinated him. I think he is one of the few western journalists who don't have a prejudiced mind and have set their minds and hearts into the country's painful and unsetteling reality. And by focusing on three ordinary Chinese people and their seemingly futile struggle against the govertment, Johnson has gotten to the core of most paradoxes in china. Indeed, it's a very insightful book with beautiful language. It's worth reading.

Backroads China

This is an unusual book because it gives a picture of China that we rarely see--China off the beaten track. The author, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of China, tells the story of three people whose unusual stories show how change is coming to China at the grassroots level. I found this more useful than the run-of-the-mill generalizations that one reads about on China, about how it's the next superpower or the next enemy. Instead, we have an up-close look at China by looking at these three people. An added bonus is that the stories are cleverly told so you're wondering what's going to happen next. In a way, they're kind of like three suspenseful short stories, although they are true stories and the author gives references and endnotes explaining how he obtained the information. As someone who has been involved with China for several years, I also thought that the author shows a deep knowledge of China--his understanding of Chinese religions, traditions and literature shines through repeatedly. If there's one thing I'd quibble about it is that the author saved the best story for last. The story on the Falun Gong spiritual movement is clearly better than the other two stories: it's not only longer but also seems to have for my money more suspense. Personally, I believe in leading off with your strongest hitter so I think it would have been better to start with this story rather than holding it back. But the other two stories are good, too, and this way the reader finishes this quick-paced book with the feeling of having read something very special.

A Lyrical Delight!

Well cadanced and lyrical, the polished prose of Ian Johnson's Wild Grass propels the political non-fiction narrative genre to new heights. Each story's protagonists reflect Johnson's keen understanding of the human condition as well as his delicate sensitivity to the current political situation -- in the way one would expect of a Pulitzer Prize winning writer who was the Beijing Bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal. While one does not doubt for a second the material's authenticity, each story is beautifully crafted to better support the book's thesis concerning the changes in modern China that threaten Communist rule. Gripping honesty and raw emotion propel the reader forward and make learning more about courage, politics and China that much more delightful.