CHASING THE CHINESE DREAM

An American who lives in China offers an insider’s perspective on that nation’s economic revolution in this nonfiction book.

A stint in the Air Force in the 1970s brought Brown to the Middle East and, ironically, led him to question the standard American narratives about the roots of and solutions to global poverty. After meeting his future wife, an American born in Taiwan, he discovered that they had a “mutual interest in China.” This curiosity led them to become the first Americans to receive permanent residence in Fujian province. By 1988, the couple and their children had moved to Xiamen, where Brown has taught MBA classes for decades. Having “explored every corner of the country by bicycle, boat, car, train, plane,” and foot, the author “realized that China was nothing like” the stereotypes and anti-Communist propaganda found in the Western media. Brown’s book is divided into three parts. The first section provides a Chinese version of Horatio Alger stories, spotlighting individuals who, through their own talents and helpful government programs, reflect the country’s unprecedented economic boom. Based on personal interviews conducted by the author, these men and women who achieved the “Chinese Dream” include a multimillionaire real estate mogul who initially worked as a maid and a renowned tunneling engineer who did not have a pair of shoes until he was a teenager. It was not uncommon in Brown’s travels throughout the nation to find Tibetan farmers who shopped online or Mongolian herdsmen who tracked their livestock by mobile phones connected to China’s comprehensive satellite network.

Unlike American success stories that emphasize individual entrepreneurship, Brown’s tales credit China’s perfection of the “Art of Government.” Convincingly arguing that it was China that introduced Europe to the idea of a bureaucratic, meritocracy-based government, the book sees continuity between the “New China” and its “Ancient Ways,” historically rooted in Confucian ideas of a “just and ethical government” that meets “the needs of the people.” Based largely on interviews with Dr. Huang Chengwei, the head of China’s anti-poverty program, the author supplies an in-depth look at the nation’s aggressive war on indigence in the volume’s second part. Concluding with a section detailing ways in which other countries should follow China’s example, the work contrasts the nation’s economic victories to the West’s failures to alleviate poverty in Africa. Yet while the book contends that “enablement, not aid, is the solution to poverty” around the globe, it disregards examples that reveal how recent Chinese expansions into Africa are as exploitative of the continent’s resources as Western neo-colonialism. Indeed, while presenting an important corrective to Western depictions of rural China and exaggerated tales of American international benevolence, the work lacks a critical appraisal of the Chinese failures to address human rights abuses against political dissidents, Tibetan Buddhists, and Uyghur Muslims. Additionally, though the volume persuasively connects contemporary China to its ancient cultural roots, more historical context and analysis addressing the country under Mao are needed. His Cultural Revolution in the mid-20th century directly targeted imperial traditions. These missteps notwithstanding, Brown delivers a well-researched, approachable book that is accompanied with ample color photographs by Zhu, Li, Pan, Jie, and Wu. That the work is an open access publication furthers its overall successful mission to challenge misguided Western tropes.

A well-written, if overly flattering, look at China’s effective anti-poverty endeavors.