Age of Ambition review – an intimate portrait of China

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jul/31/age-of-ambition-evan-osnos-review-china

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Of the many detailed portraits of politicians, dissidents and strivers that make up Evan Osnos's lively panorama of evolving contemporary China, perhaps the most intriguing is that of Tang Jie, the young Fudan University scholar whose six-minute YouTube video entitled "China Stand Up!" drew more than a million hits and tens of thousands of positive comments in little more than a week. Deeply hurt by international criticism of China and incensed by images of western pro-Tibet protesters trying to douse the Olympic flame as it made its way through Europe, Tang was motivated to act by what he, like many of his generation, saw as deep-seated and unfair suspicion of China, and by America's "strategic containment" of its rising enemy. His patriotism was not just a sign of an incipient superpower beginning to flex its muscles and define its cultural identity, but a glimpse into the clash of competing influences in the swirling changes in contemporary China: the battleground of the internet, the changing priorities of the educated urban middle class and the uneasy way in which China is positioning itself in the world. "Because we are in such a system, we are always asking ourselves whether we are brainwashed," he tells Osnos in conversations that stretch over several years. "But when you are in a so-called free system you never think whether you are brainwashed." Tang Jie went on to live in Beijing and Berlin, and runs a successful startup generating online material to combat the western media. But when, idealistically, he began to take on official Chinese media, his site was blocked by censors.

How does one criticise China without appearing to have a liberal pro-western agenda, and how does one write positively about China without sounding like a naive apologist? Is it even possible to write convincingly about a country of China's size and history without condensing its complexities into a single version of the truth? These are questions faced by the many journalists, writers and artists whom Osnos profiles, but they are also questions that Osnos himself has to confront from the outset of his project. He negotiates these issues by employing the techniques of the assiduous reporter, meticulously following leads and allowing subjects and situations to speak for themselves. It's notable, too, that he deliberately chooses to avoid the traditional means of understanding the effects of power in China – there is relatively little material on the workings of the Communist party and its structure – in favour of more intimate portraits of ordinary people trying to carve out their place in contemporary culture. Drawn from material accumulated during his eight years as the China correspondent for the New Yorker, the book nestles midway between a patchwork of extracts from a reporter's notebook and an academic study of social changes in China.

Osnos's focus is the collision between aspiration and authoritarianism, a conundrum caused by the Communist party's dedication to the twin pillars of freewheeling capitalism and minute control over every aspect of society (Osnos traces the formulation and championing of these policies to Lin Yifu, the Taiwanese army hero who defected to the mainland in 1979 and rose to become an influential policy-maker within the party as well as chief economist to the World Bank). It is a dichotomy that belies an underlying tension – that of the individual v the collective in a culture where notions of individuality still contain negative connotations. Knowing how to gauge the constantly shifting mood of the authorities at any given moment, judging how far to push the boundaries – "working the angles", as Osnos calls it – is therefore key to surviving in the system. It explains the rise of superstar journalists such as Hu Shuli, who ran the hugely influential magazine Caijing, which made its name uncovering governmental scandals, yet also raked in millions of dollars a year taking advertisements from the very companies its reports accused of corruption and mismanagement. It is also part of the daily life of any artist or writer, including the most famous, whom Osnos profiles at length: Ai Weiwei, Han Han and Liu Xiaobo. Some, such as the decorated film-maker Feng Xiaogang and the writer Murong Xuecun, appear more successful than others at working the angles, but eventually they too miscalculate.

Any study of China, no matter how personal or intimate, cannot resist the impressive weight of statistics, and the book is full of them. ("China was building the square-foot equivalent of Rome every two weeks"; "In 1949 the average life expectancy was 36; the literacy rate was 20%. By 2012 life expectancy was 75, and the literacy rate was above 90%.") Yet throughout the book, Osnos has a gift for capturing touchingly comic elements in situations that might otherwise seem overly earnest. In one memorable passage, he accompanies a group of Chinese tourists on a whistlestop tour of Europe and lovingly captures their reactions to unfamiliar cultures; in another, he witnesses the fervour with which devotees of the Crazy English language-learning method scream "I want to take your temperature" in order to practise pronunciation.

Only rarely, when confronted by instances of extreme conflict such as the arrest of Ai Weiwei or the national scandal of the hit-and-run death of Yue Yue, does Osnos permit himself to step beyond the boundaries of his carefully constructed neutrality. He struggles to decide how much to write about Ai Weiwei and other famous dissidents, wondering how representative of China their predicaments are. "If the average new consumer in the west read … no more than one China story a week, should it be about people with dramatic lives or typical lives?" he interrogates himself. These moments leave us wanting more by way of personal involvement in the narrative from this acute observer of the nation, especially towards the end of the book when we sense that eight years in Beijing are beginning, physically and mentally, to take their toll. In under 400 pages, however, this volume provides a highly readable, colourful introduction to the complexities of modern China.

• Tash Aw's Five Star Billionaire is published by 4th Estate. To order Age of Ambition for £16 with free UK p&p call Guardian book service on 0330 333 6846 or go to guardianbookshop.co.uk.