In Age of Ambition, The New Yorker's longtime China Correspondent Evan Osnos describes the greatest collision in China today: the clash between the rise of the individual and the Communist Party’s struggle to retain control.
“A riveting and troubling portrait of a people in a state of extreme anxiety about their identity, values and future.”
“In the pages of the New Yorker, Evan Osnos has portrayed, explained and poked fun at this new China better than any other writer from the West or the East. In “Age of Ambition,” Osnos takes his reporting a step further, illuminating what he calls China’s Gilded Age, its appetites, challenges and dilemmas, in a way few have done.”
“Osnos has adeptly chronicled the remarkable changes in the personal lives of the Chinese populace over the last 35 years, the tension that now animates the public-state relationship and the ideological stalemate bogging society down.”
Age of Ambition: University of Chicago Talk (July 1st, 2014)
Evan Osnos speaks about the rise of the individual and the clash between aspiration and authoritarianism in China at The Paulson Institute China Speakers Series.
About Age of Ambition
From abroad, we often see China as a caricature: a nation of pragmatic plutocrats and ruthlessly dedicated students destined to rule the global economy—or an addled Goliath, riddled with corruption and on the edge of stagnation. What we don’t see is how both powerful and ordinary people are remaking their lives as their country dramatically changes. As the Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, Evan Osnos was on the ground in China for years, witness to profound political, economic, and cultural upheaval. In Age of Ambition, he describes the greatest collision taking place in that country: the clash between the rise of the individual and the Communist Party’s struggle to retain control.