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  • Published: 1 December 2010
  • ISBN: 9781407073460
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 480

Getting Rich First

Life in a Changing China




'A gripping account of modern China's transformation: Duncan Hewitt introduces us to the new Chinese - the entrepreneurs and the migrant workers, the ambitious students and the young lovers, the real estate agents and restaurant owners, the performance artists and those who search for new faiths. This is living history written from the inside' - John Gittings, author of The Changing Face of China.

Welcome to the new China, a nation in perpetual fast forward - where cities rebuild themselves in double quick time, peasants leave the land in their millions, and parents scratch their heads as the young generation embraces pop culture, the internet and the sexual revolution, while the new middle-classes rush to enjoy previously unimaginable lifestyles, the ruling Communist Party struggles to keep up with shifting values among calls for a more open media and society and an ever-growing wealth gap.

Through individual stories, former BBC correspondent Duncan Hewitt paints a memorable picture of China in all its complex, contradictory, often startling reality.

  • Published: 1 December 2010
  • ISBN: 9781407073460
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 480

About the author

Duncan Hewitt

Born in 1966, Duncan Hewitt spent his first year in China from 1986-7, while studying Chinese at Edinburgh University.He went on to work as the BBC's China correspondent as well as writing for the Guardian, Observer and The Far Eastern Economic Review. He currently writes for Newsweek and divides his time between England and Shanghai.

Praise for Getting Rich First

A brilliant insider's account of life in the new China... tender and often shocking

Sunday Times

A lively and human portrait of a society living in extraordinarily interesting times

Scotsman

A perceptive, detailed and entertaining exploration of the tumult that is modern china

Times Literary Supplement

Captivating... A remarkable guide to the faultlines in China today

Asian Review of Books