Word: schelle
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...Orville Schell's In the People's Republic: An American's Firsthand View of Living and Working in China follows in that tradition, with one major difference. Schell, 37, has studied China for years, with several scholarly works on the subject to his credit. He also speaks fluent Chinese. That background informs his tale, and it is much easier to accept his conclusions than those of most China visitors...
...Schell visited the people's republic early in 1976, in the last months before Mao Tse-tung's death. Since then, of course, there have been major changes: Mao's ideal of a permanent, dynamic revolution seems to have given way to a more bureaucratic regime, which seems to stress production, not producers. But--at least before Mao's death--China was unique in its emphasis on change rather than consolidation of power, and Schell was able to appreciate the subtleties of that approach more than most visitors...
...People's Republic is different from most travelers' tales about China in still another way. For some unexplained reason, Schell was able to spend several weeks working alongside the Chinese, in a factory and then on the legendary Tachai commune. While the first half of his book is devoted to the typical travelers' items (a visit to a school, a jail, a hospital), the rest is taken up by conversations with normal Chinese, instead of the official spokesmen who populate most works on China. Schell has a healthy bias against official statements, the "Brief Introductions" that are supposed to inform...
...factories and farms, Schell got to know Chinese citizens outside the bureaucracy, and he draws their portraits with a great deal of sensitivity. There is Hsaio Ti, whose dedication to building socialism will keep him from marrying, he says, until he is at least 30. There is Yu Shao-feng, a young woman working in the factory who grows uncomfortable around the strange American. There is Comerade Hung, an agricultural specialist who has been sent down from the universities to help Tachai build up its orchards, and who isn't completely happy in his exile to the countryside. And there...
...surprising that the individual portraits are the most memorable part of Schell's book. He makes his bias clear: "I begin to wish that the walls of these meeting halls could speak, letting me hear the real struggles and human drama which must have gone on within." But he is also aware of the difference between his outlook and that of the Chinese...