Students and Teachers of the New China

In this collection of interviews with students and teachers in Hangzhou, China, the reader meets a student at Zhejiang university, majoring in English and studying Japanese and Italian; a teacher who spent his childhood as a “little Red Guard” of the Cultural Revolution and went on to study in England; a young girl who dreams of princesses and romance, and another who wants to be a backpacker when she grows up; and more. Ranging in age from 7 to 52, the thirteen interviewees represent a cross-section of Chinese culture and experience, with various levels of social status, education, and economic standing. Their words, supplemented by the author’s detailed descriptions of their surroundings and daily activities, offer a fresh perspective on life in present-day China.

Historian Madelyn Holmes has written for The Christian Science Monitor and The Geographical Magazine. A recent visiting professor of English at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China, she lives in Burlington, Vermont.

Madelyn Holmes
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 207
Bibliographic Info: 14 photos, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2008
pISBN: 978-0-7864-3288-2
eISBN: 978-0-7864-8371-6
Imprint: McFarland

Map      vi
Preface      1
Introduction      5

PART ONE: STUDENTS      29
1. Urban Undergraduates Born in the 1980s      33
2. Rural Students Born in the 1980s      57
3. An Xin, Born in the 1980s      83

PART TWO: TEACHERS      103
4. Born in the 1970s      107
5. Born in the 1960s and 1950s      130

PART THREE: FACES OF THE FUTURE      151
6. Born in the 1990s      155
7. Conclusion      174

Bibliography      197
Index      199

“eye-opening…important”—Diana Sun, Senior Lecturer of Chinese, University of Vermont.