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Beijing Bastard: Into the Wilds of a Changing China
Beijing Bastard Into the Wilds of a Changing China Author:Val Wang A humorous and moving coming-of-age story that brings a unique, not-quite-outsider?s perspective to China?s shift from ancient empire to modern superpower — � — Raised in a strict Chinese-American household in the suburbs, Val Wang dutifully got good grades, took piano lessons, and performed in a Chinese dance troupe�until she shaved her head and ... more »became a leftist, the stuff of many teenage rebellions. But Val?s true mutiny was when she moved to�China, the land her parents had fled before the Communist takeover in 1949.
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Val arrives in�Beijing�in 1998 expecting to find freedom but instead lives in the old city with her traditional relatives, who wake her at dawn with the sound of a state-run television program playing next to her cot, make a running joke of how much she eats, and monitor her every move. But outside, she soon discovers a city rebelling against its roots just as she is, struggling too to find a new, modern identity. Rickshaws make way for taxicabs, skyscrapers replace�hutong courtyard houses,�and�Beijing�prepares to make its debut on the world stage with the 2008 Olympics.�And in the gritty outskirts of the city where she moves,�a�thriving avant-garde subculture is making art out of the chaos. Val plunges into the city?s dizzying culture and nightlife and begins shooting a documentary, about a Peking Opera family who is witnessing the death of their traditional art.
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Brilliantly observed and winningly told,�Beijing Bastard�is a compelling story of a young woman finding her place in the world and of�China, as its ancient past gives way to a dazzling but uncertain future.« less
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