Excellent book, raw and honest. It gives you an idea of life in China.
Well written. I have enjoyed reading it. Would recommend it.

Unforgettable book, gives glimpse to Chinese common man life. Books take us through Underground Churches, ponzy schemes, life of hotel owner, life of Immigrant labor and his kids not able to travel with him for education. Must read book if you like to travel or interested about different country people life.

An excellent analysis of the people's history of China over the last 50 years. China's mecurial growth since the 1990's has divided its people. There are those who can adapt and take advantage, and those left bewildered. Furthermore, many are still deeply affected by the actions of Communist China both past and present. Change is happening, but many of the old oppressive ways still exist.

While many of the current stories show a changing capitalist China, the back stories are still daunting. Whole lives are still destroyed by old ways. History takes its toll on those unfortunate to be chosen to help the people in The Great Leap Forward. In the end, the people featured here are still struggling with their new identity. They never really escape their country's past.

I would read this book with Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets by Svetlana Alexievich. Both books describe the impact of post-Communist Capitalism. Even though China is still a Communist government the impact is the same. A great deal of opportunity, but the past holds the people back.



NOTES FROM
Street of Eternal Happiness

Rob Schmitz

March 22, 2017
3. Hot and Noisy
The Chinese have a name for the warm bustle of a street corner like this: renao, literally “hot and noisy.” And for urban Chinese, life is an eternal quest for more hot and noisy.

March 29, 2017
9. Dreams, Seized
This type of determination was typical among petitioners. After years of reporting in China, I had interviewed several of them. When I mentioned their stories to my Chinese friends in Shanghai, they often shook their heads as if these people were an embarrassment to the whole nation. They saw petitioners as desperate, penniless, and uneducated commoners who were all slightly out of touch with reality. China’s state-run media had helped push this idea, and petitioners’ fearlessness—repeatedly getting beat up and thrown into prison—was baffling to many in a culture that emphasized a pragmatic approach to settling problems. It seemed like a harsh criticism of people whose lives had suffered terrible damage from people in power, but I sometimes found myself agreeing with the stereotype. Though their causes were usually just from a moral standpoint, many of the petitioners I knew seemed dysfunctional and unbalanced. Their quests to right society’s wrongs often seemed unreasonable given the harsh system they were up against. Fighting China’s system almost never produced good results. It was like trying to swim against a powerful rip current: You would likely drown. My neighbors along the street who successfully navigated this system—people like[…]

March 30, 2017
10. Escape
In the distance, a cacophony of Mandarin dialects from a group of smiling Chinese seniors emerged from the stairway from their English classrooms below. Wang and I watched in silence. “Just talk to any Chinese who lived through that time,” he said, motioning to them. “We all have the same stories.”

March 31, 2017
11. Zero Risk
The Chinese I know between the ages of fifty-five and seventy appear to be normal retirees, but there’s a thick layer of resentment just beneath that surface. All those years spent devoting themselves to the ideals of selflessness and egalitarianism have made them cynical about the rampant inequality plaguing China today. Their peers who have become rich and powerful are typically the most corrupt. They are those who had gotten to their positions of power through the same vicious and duplicitous tactics they had exercised as Red Guards in the 1960s: bullying their superiors and snitching on their friends. The generation’s majority, though, have remained frustrated and poor, and they aren’t afraid to speak out against the great injustice.

All Excerpts From

Schmitz, Rob. “Street of Eternal Happiness.” Crown Publishing, 2015-12-14. iBooks.
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