Comment

Jun 06, 2017jimg2000 rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
Decided to give this book a go after watching the "All Eyes and Ears 2017" documentary which included a short bonus film "China in Three Words," that focused on the Chinese vernacular: "Leader, 領袖" "Revolution, 革命" and "Disparity, 差距," narrated by Author Yu Hua (余華) and based on this "China in Ten Words, 十個詞彙裡的中國." The author recalled Mao as "Supreme Leader," his childhood days in China during the Great Leap Forward (1958 to 1962,) Cultural Revolution (1966 to1976,) Gang of Four purge following Mao's death in 1976 and the social changes that arose from economic reforms under Deng Xiaoping's "Open Door" policy in the late 1970s and since. The book read more like a collection of essays under ten vernaculars: 人民 People - 領袖 Leader - 阅读 Reading - 写作 Writing - 鲁迅 Lu Xun - 革命 Revolution - 差距 Disparity - 草根 Grassroots - 山寨 Copycat and 忽悠 Bamboozle. As Hua was born in 1960, his personal stories as a primary school students, before he turned 12, were not substantiated (see "Quotes") while others, as the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 to the culture of official corruptions, economic inequality and the China miracle, are interesting perspectives worthy of note. (Understand that most of the author's books are available in Mainland China but not this one as of today.)