Book review: China Road by Rob Gifford

To teach is to learn--a paradoxal truth? :) In preparation for our courses to receive TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certification in Beijing, ELIC teachers stew over a series of texts that introduce us to Asian culture, history, and communication, TEFL methodologies, and how we can best fuse them to effectively teach our students. One such text is China Road: A Journey Into the Future of a Rising Power by Rob Gifford.

An NPR correspondent in China for 20-some years, Gifford chronicled his final 6-week journey across China along Route 312, from its start in Shanghai to its end on the border of Kazakhstan. Gifford's observations and encounters present a thoughtful portrayal of China's complexity, but what struck me the most--and what I am encouraged to share--is the commonality of hope. Below is the latter half of my thoughts on China Road:

"Regardless, for the Old Hundred Names, the ability to choose what one does—even a choice of exploitive labor in a factory—is considered progress; opportunities beyond the farm and western deserts are a blessing, a step up from 'kao tian sheng huo. Relying on heaven to survive' and a step towards pursuing the Chinese Dream (173-213).

Underlying this pursuit and the desires for greatness and change in China is an inherent and palpable hope. The Chinese people, through their country’s turmoil and transformations, maintain hope for the country they know and love in their own way: for a Communist soldier, it’s for his son to have many choices when he had few in his own youth; for a Shanghai radio host, it’s for a future less centered on money and refocused on Chinese identity and culture; for a Uighur mother, it’s for her Han-influenced teenager to recognize her roots and, in turn, empower their people; and for a salesman on business to Jiuquan, it’s as simple as respect—to be seen and treated as an equal (200-292). Spanning all backgrounds and corners of the country, the Chinese people long for restoration, prosperity, and happiness within a context they know, and they remain, for the most part, hopeful.

Even Gifford, who struggled with conflicting notions of China, couldn’t help but 'miss the hopefulness, the yearning for a better future' as he bade the country goodbye (294). The man who wasn’t supposed to care—who was just supposed to observe as a journalist—found that at the end of his emotional and troubling journey through China, he is still optimistic. For Gifford, China Road was a journey of hope: hope that China would meet its potential as a rising power—to save themselves as a culture and as a people—to rediscover themselves as a nation, but mostly hope that the country he has grown to love would change for the better—for the people—and live up to its slogan, 'Yi Ren Wei Ben. Put the People First' (96-293). It is this hope, embodied by an excerpt from Lu Xun’s 1921 short story, 'My Old Home,' that inspires Gifford—and me—to believe in China and its transformative future:

Hope cannot be said to exist, nor can it be said not to exist. It is just like roads across the earth. For actually the earth has no roads to begin with…but when many people pass one way, a road is made."

While I don't necessarily agree with Lu Xun's quote above, I am greatly encouraged by the underlying hope Gifford uncovers in a country about which we are still learning. Can one be without hope? With continued petition through our Father, we can work together to ensure that hope--True Hope--may be known in this Rising Power.