Having spent much of my own early career in Beijing, Osnos’ writing captures the emotional essence of what made the place so intoxicating: an environment of striving, for wealth, for advancement, for meaning, or for connection with the broader world.Ĭentral to the book is the looming conflict between the flourishing of individual aspirations and the heavy hand of the Party-state.

Writing with great narrative verve and a keen sense of irony, Osnos follows the moving stories of everyday people and reveals life in the new China to be a battleground between aspiration and authoritarianism, in which only one can prevail.Of the many great books that have been written on contemporary China, there are few that I can recommend more highly than Evan Osnos’ Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China.

He asks probing questions: Why does a government with more success lifting people from poverty than any civilization in history choose to put strict restraints on freedom of expression? Why do millions of young Chinese professionals-fluent in English and devoted to Western pop culture-consider themselves angry youth, dedicated to resisting the West's influence? How are Chinese from all strata finding meaning after two decades of the relentless pursuit of wealth? 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. What we don't see is how both powerful and ordinary people are remaking their lives as their country dramatically changes.Īs 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.

Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction finalist Winner of the 2014 National Book Award in nonfictionĪn Economist Best Book of 2014 Winner of the bronze medal for the Council on Foreign Relations' 2015 Arthur Ross Book Award A vibrant, colorful, and revelatory inner history of China during a moment of profound transformation 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.

Age of ambition