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Five Classmates and the Story of the New China
Henry Holt
August 2006
On Sale: August 14, 2006
336 pages
ISBN: 0805076158
EAN: 9780805076158
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
A first-hand account of the remarkable transformation of China over the past forty years as seen through the life of an award-winning journalist and his four Chinese classmates
As a twenty-year-old exchange student from Stanford University, John Pomfret spent a year at Nanjing University in China. His fellow classmates were among those who survived the twin tragedies of MaoΓ―ΒΏΒ½s ruleΓ―ΒΏΒ½the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural RevolutionΓ―ΒΏΒ½and whose success in government and private industry today are shaping ChinaΓ―ΒΏΒ½s future. Pomfret went on to a career in journalism, spending the bulk of his time in China. After attending the twentieth reunion of his class, he decided to reacquaint himself with some of his classmates. Chinese Lessons is their story and his own. Beginning with PomfretΓ―ΒΏΒ½s first days in China, Chinese Lessons takes us back to the often torturous paths that brought together the Nanjing University History Class of 1982. One classmateΓ―ΒΏΒ½s father was killed during the Cultural Revolution for the crime of being an intellectual; another classmate labored in the fields for years rather than agree to a Party-arranged marriage; a third was forced to publicly denounce and humiliate her father. As we watch Pomfret and his classmates begin to make their lives as adults, we see as never before the human cost and triumph of ChinaΓ―ΒΏΒ½s transition from near-feudal communism to first-world capitalism.
 Media BuzzDiane Rehm Show - NPR - November 17, 2009
Diane Rehm Show - NPR - October 6, 2006
Weekend Edition Saturday - August 12, 2006
All Things Considered - May 17, 2006
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