ABSTRACT

China is no longer a Third World country. It is now the world's fastest growing economy. Even after the 2008 Olympics, this fact may come as a shock to many Americans, who continue to think that the Chinese still march around in brown uniforms with red stars on their caps arresting dissidents for wearing capitalist Levis. China has at last count, more than half a billion cell phone users. Indeed, the Chinese are not only the world's leading users of mobile phones, but also the leading suppliers. No Chinese student goes without one and even a donkey cart driver chatting away on a mobile is not an uncommon sight.China's educated New Generation is possibly the most highly motivated force since the post-World War II generation in America. The young people of China are the next wave of a flourishing Chinese middle class now estimated as 13.5 % of the population, and expected to be 600 million strong by 2015, according toBusiness Week. These young people want to drive cars like ours, live in houses like ours, own condos near the beach, wear designer clothes, and carry cell phones, iPods, camcorders, digital cameras, and MP3 players, just like Americans. Tens of millions already do.During a thirty-month stay in Chinabetween 2004 and 2007, Ayres was presented to soldiers straight out of boot camp, toasted by military generals and governors, invited to parties with local leaders as a ""foreign expert and dignitary,"" and begged to counsel dissidents and the lovelorn. He rode buses jammed with peasants hoping that they would actually be paid at the end of the month. He dickered with farmers in open markets and street vendors desperate to make ends meet. He dealt with smooth, savvy merchants in upscale department stores; and debated policy with Communist Party bosses. This revised paperback edition of the author's earlier work, A Billion to One, is a vivid, intimate account of China as it is today.

chapter 1|7 pages

The Offer

chapter 2|9 pages

Sports Day in China (Part I) 1

chapter 3|4 pages

The Governor’s Banquet

chapter 4|6 pages

The Young Soldiers or the Freshman Army

chapter 5|6 pages

The Joke’s on Wu (Gu sher)

chapter 6|6 pages

Rush Hour, China Style

chapter 7|8 pages

The Best Medicine

chapter 8|8 pages

Starving in China? Get Real

chapter 9|4 pages

The Junk Food Invasion

chapter 10|6 pages

Things You Won’t Find in China

chapter 12|4 pages

Music to Their Ears (If Not Ours)

chapter 13|6 pages

Cuowu: The Mistake

chapter 15|6 pages

The Christmas Crusaders

chapter 16|6 pages

A Love Story

chapter 17|8 pages

The New Year Explodes

chapter 18|8 pages

Shanghai’d in Beijing

chapter 19|10 pages

A Hainan Fish Tale

chapter 20|6 pages

Dragon Festival Day

chapter 22|10 pages

The Chinese Information Deficit Disorder

chapter 23|6 pages

The Children, the Children

chapter 24|6 pages

Thanksgiving in Purgatory

chapter 25|8 pages

No Sex Please, We’re Chinese

chapter 27|10 pages

The Two-Star Two-Step

chapter 28|4 pages

The Play’s the Thing

chapter 29|6 pages

Media Savvy

chapter 30|8 pages

Mr. Wei and the Chinese Teamsters

chapter 31|6 pages

The Author Breaks a Taboo

chapter 32|6 pages

The Korean Connection

chapter 33|8 pages

The Russian Connection

chapter 35|12 pages

The Guangzhou Shuffle

chapter 36|6 pages

Harbin, Fall, 2006

chapter 37|8 pages

Look Homeward, Angel

chapter Epilogue|4 pages

Airports, Baggage, and People in High Places