Shi cheng

Ding Liu, Carol Yinghua Lu, Ra Page

"To the West, China may appear an unstoppable economic unity, a single high-performing whole, but for the inhabitants of this vast, complex, and contradictory nation, it is the cities that hold the secret to such economic success. From the affluent, Westernized Hong Kong to the ice-cold Harbin in the north, from the Islamic quarters of Xi’an to the manufacturing powerhouse of Guangzhou—China’s cities thrum with promise and aspiration, playing host to the myriad hopes, frustrations, and tensions that define China today. The stories in this anthology offer snapshots of ten such cities, taking in as many different types of inhabitant. Here we meet the lowly Beijing mechanic lovingly piecing together his first car from scrap metal, somnambulant commuters at a Nanjing bus stop refusing to acknowledge the presence of a dead body just feet away, or Shenyang intellectuals conducting a...