Age of Ambition (59 page)

For more on Chinese risk behavior, and money in Macau, see Desmond Lam,
The World of Chinese Gambling
(Adelaide: Peacock Publications, 2009); and Elke U. Weber and Christopher Hsee, “Cross-National Differences in Risk Preference and Lay Predictions,”
Journal of Behavioral Decision Making
12 (1999): 165–79.

For U.S. State Department analysis of corruption and money laundering in Macau, see the 2011
International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, Volume II: Money Laundering and Financial Crime.
I am grateful to Sam M. Ditzion, CEO of the Tremont Capital Group, for his analysis of ATM usage in the United States. Other information related to the nature of organized crime in Macau is found in Roderic Broadhurst and Lee King Wa, “The Transformation of Triad ‘Dark Societies' in Hong Kong: The Impact of Law Enforcement, Socio-Economic and Political Change,” in
Security Challenges
(Summer 2009); Angela Veng Mei Leong, “Macau Casinos and Organised Crime,” in
Journal of Money Laundering Control
7, no. 4 (Spring 2004); and Zhonglu Zeng and David Forrest, “High Rollers from Mainland China: A Profile Based on 99 Cases,” in
UNLV Gaming Research and Review Journal
13, no. 1 (2009).

7. ACQUIRED TASTE

Mao laid out his vision for art and culture in May 1942 at his “Talks at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art.” This reference is from section 111. For more on socialist realism and the rise of contemporary art, see Schell and Delury
Wealth and Power
; Walter J. Meserve and Ruth I. Meserve, “Evolutionary Realism: China's Path to the Future,” in
Journal of South Asian Literature
27, no. 2 (Summer/Fall 1992): 29–39; and Barbara Pollack,
The Wild, Wild East: An American Art Critic's Adventures in China
(Beijing: Timezone 8, 2010).

For background on Yan Fu's visit to the United Kingdom, the impact of his translations, and China's conflicted relationship with the West, I relied on Schell and Delury,
Wealth and Power.

The Chinese soap opera
Into Europe
is described in Pál Nyíri,
Scenic Spots: Chinese Tourism, the State, and Cultural Authority
(Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2011).

The survey of high school students is described in Yali Zhao, Xiaoguang Zhou, and Lihong Huang, “Chinese Students' Knowledge and Thinking about America and China,” in
Social Studies
99, no. 1 (2008): 13–22.

8. DANCING IN SHACKLES

For the history, structure, and evolution of the Central Propaganda Department, I depended most heavily on two books by Anne-Marie Brady,
Marketing Dictatorship
and
China's
Thought Management
. Orwell's comments on political prose are in his essay “Politics and the English Language,” 1946.

Hu Shuli was generous with her time and reflections. To understand her career, I benefited from conversations with dozens of other journalists, but especially with Wang Shuo, Qian Gang, David Bandurski, Wu Si, and Li Datong.

For background on the press and freedom of expression China, I consulted He Qinglian,
The Fog of Censorship: Media Control in China
(New York: Human Rights in China, 2008); and Philip P. Pan,
Out of Mao's Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of a New China
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008).

9. LIBERTY LEADING THE PEOPLE

I am indebted to Tang Jie for his willingness to meet repeatedly from 2008 through 2013. His video is available at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSTYhYkASsA
. I was fortunate to interview his wife, Wan Manlu, and friends, including Zeng Kewei and Liu Chengguang, who answered hours of questions. For background on official support of Chinese nationalism and the revision of textbooks, see William A. Callahan,
China: The Pessoptimist Nation
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010); Hongping Annie Nie, “Gaming, Nationalism, and Ideological Work in Contemporary China: Online Games Based on the War of Resistance Against Japan,”
Journal of Contemporary China
22, no. 81 (January 2013): 499–517; and Zheng Wang,
Never Forget National Humiliation: Historical Memory in Chinese Politics and Foreign Relations
(New York: Columbia University Press, 2012).

Fang Kecheng reported his findings on the expression “hurt the feelings of the Chinese people” on his blog,
www.fangkc.com
.

10. MIRACLES AND MAGIC ENGINES

In the narrative, I quote from a range of Lin Yifu's papers and books, including Lin Yifu, Fang Cai, and Zhou Li,
The China Miracle: Development Strategy and Economic Reform
(Hong Kong: Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, 2003);
Economic Development and Transition: Thought, Strategy, and Viability
(Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009); Lin Yifu and Célestin Monga, “Growth Identification and Facilitation: The Role of the State in the Dynamics of Structural Change,” Policy Research Working Paper 5313, World Bank, May 2010;
New Structural Economics: A Framework for Rethinking Development and Policy
(Washington, D..C.: World Bank Publications, 2012); and
The Quest for Prosperity: How Developing Economies Can Take Off
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2012).

For details about China's economic think tanks, see Barry Naughton, “China's Economic Think Tanks: Their Changing Role in the 1990s,”
China Quarterly
(2002).

My account of Liu Xiaobo's writing, use of the Web, and activism draws on my interactions with him and his work. He writes in Chinese, but parts of his work—books, poems, essays, reviews—have been translated. I relied most on several works by Liu and others, including Geremie Barmé, “Confession, Redemption, and Death: Liu Xiaobo and the Protest Movement of 1989,” in
The Broken Mirror: China After Tiananmen
, reprinted in
China Heritage Quarterly,
March 2009; Perry Link,
Liu Xiaobo's Empty Chair: Chronicling the Reform Movement Beijing Fears Most
(New York: New York Review of Books, 2011); Liu Xiaobo, Perry Link, and Tienchi Martin-Liao,
No Enemies, No Hatred
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012); and Liu Xiaobo,
June Fourth Elegies: Poems,
trans. Jeffrey Yang (Minneapolis, MN: Graywolf Press, 2012).

11. A CHORUS OF SOLOISTS

To keep up with developments in China's Internet culture, I relied on a range of sites, none more so than China Digital Times. Han Han wrote his blog and books in Chinese. His first and most successful book was
San Chong Men
(Beijing: Zuojia Chubanshe, 2000). In writing about the different ways Michael and Han Han's generation described themselves compared to the way their parents described themselves I benefited from Gish Jen's book
Tiger Writing
, which explores generational differences in the styles of Chinese memoir. For history of the efforts to reform and regulate humor, I benefited from David Moser, “No Laughing Matter: A Hilarious Investigation into the Destruction of Modern Chinese Humor,” posted to Danwei, November 16, 2004, online at
www.danwei.org/tv/stifled_laughter_how_the_commu.php
.

12. THE ART OF RESISTANCE

Ai Weiwei is prolific; in addition to his films, artwork, architecture, and books are collections of analysis and translation that scholars and critics have produced. One that covers the period in question is Lee Ambrozy, ed. and trans.,
Ai Weiwei's Blog: Writings, Interviews, and Digital Rants, 2006–2009
(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2011).

For background on Ai and the birth of the Chinese avant-garde, I consulted Karen Smith,
Ai Weiwei
(London: Phaidon Press, 2009); Karen Smith,
Nine Lives
(Beijing: Timezone 8 Limited, 2008); Philip Tinari, “A True Kind of Living,”
ArtForum
Summer 2007; and Wu Hung,
Making History
(Beijing: Timezone 8, 2008).

Several works in Chinese are invaluable to understanding Ai's family and background, including a candid memoir by his mother: Gao Ying,
Wo he Ai Qing
(Beijing: Renmin Wenxue Chubanshe, 2012); his brother's semifictional take on the family's time in New York: Ai Dan,
Niuyue Zhaji
(Hebei: Huashan Wenyi Chubanshe, 1999); and a detailed biography of his father, Ai Qing: Luo Hanchao and Luo Man,
Shidai de Chui Hao Zhe—Ai Qing Zhuan
(Zhejiang: Hangzhou Chubanshe, 2005).

13. SEVEN SENTENCES

Liu Xiabo's courtroom statement was translated by Perry Link and published in Lu, Link, and Martin-Liao,
No Enemies, No Hatred
. The book also contains the story of Wen Kejian's interactions with police. Gao Zhisheng described the conditions of his detention in “Dark Night, Dark Hood and Kidnapping by Dark Mafia: My Account of More Than 50 days of Torture in 2007.” He reported his decision to give up activism in an interview with the Associated Press in April 2010.

For details on the evolution of Internet censorship, I relied on a range of sources, including Yang's
The Power of the Internet in China
, and Gady Epstein, “Special Report: China and the Internet,”
The Economist
, April 6, 2013; Gary King, Jennifer Pan, and Margaret E. Roberts, “How Censorship in China Allows Government Criticism but Silences Collective Expression,”
American Political Science Review
107, no. 2 (May 2013): 1–18; Evgeny Morozov,
The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom
(New York: PublicAffairs, 2012); and David Bandurski, “China's Guerrilla War for the Web,”
Far Eastern Economic Review
(July 2008).

For discussion of China's “Nobel complex,” I benefited from conversations with Julia Lovell, and from her book on the subject,
The Politics of Cultural Capital: China's Quest for a Nobel Prize in Literature
(Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2006).

14. THE GERM IN THE HENHOUSE

Chen's recollections of the meeting with Deputy Mayor Liu Jie are contained in Zhang's article “Chen Guangcheng and Wen Jiaobo: Power vs. Human Rights.” The study of the Bureau of Letters and Visits was described by Professor Yu Jianrong. For background on traditions of protest in China, I am grateful to Professor Qiang Fang of the University of Minnesota. I also relied on Xi Chen,
Social Protest and Contentious Authoritarianism in China
(Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2011); Ho-fung Hung,
Protest with Chinese Characteristics: Demonstrations, Riots, and Petitions in the Mid-Qing Dynasty
(New York: Columbia University Press, 2013); and Qiang Fang,
Chinese Complaint Systems: Natural Resistance
, Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Asia, vol. 80 (New York: Routledge, 2013).

15. SANDSTORM

In addition to my interviews and experiences, there are many published accounts of the events of the abortive “Jasmine Revolution.” Details of physical attacks on reporters are contained in accounts by
The Wall Street Journal
, CNN, and the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China. For analysis and chronology, I benefited especially from Scott J. Henderson, “Wither the Jasmine: China's Two-Phase Operation for Cyber Control-in-Depth,”
Air and Space Power Chronicles
, Maxwell Air Force Base, AL (First Quarter 2012): 35–47; Dale Swartz, “Jasmine in the Middle Kingdom: Autopsy of China's (Failed) Revolution,” American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, no. 1 (April 2011): 1–5.

In our interviews, Ai Weiwei described the conditions of his arrest. I also benefited from Barnaby Martin,
Hanging Man: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei
(New York: Macmillan, 2013).

16. LIGHTNING STORM

To reconstruct the train crash of July 23, 2011, I interviewed scores of people, including railway officials, engineers, passengers, investigators, contractors, and local journalists. Most of them must remain anonymous because of the threat of retribution. Among the documents that were most valuable was the official State Council report on the crash investigation, available online as “723 Yongwen Xian Tebic Zhongda Tielu Jialong Shigu Diaocha Baogao,” available at
www.chinasafety.gov.cn/newpage/contents/Channel_5498/2011/1228/160577/content_160577.htm
.

For background on the growth of the Chinese high-speed rail, see Paul Amos, Dick Bullock, and Jitendra Sondhi, “High-Speed Rail: The Fast Track to Economic Development?” World Bank, July 2010; Richard Bullock, Andrew Salzberg, and Ying Jin, “High-Speed Rail—The First Three Years: Taking the Pulse of China's Emerging Program,”
China Transport Topics
, no. 4, World Bank Office, Beijing, February 2012; James McGregor, “China's Drive for ‘Indigenous Innovation': A Web of Industrial Policies,” report commissioned by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, July 2010.

Details on the life and crimes of Liu Zhijun and his brother, Liu Zhixiang, were gathered from interviews, their trials, and those of other railway figures. I am also indebted to investigative reports by
Caixin
and other Chinese media. Liu Zhixiang's scheme for generating cash and his involvement in the death of a contractor were reported in an official legal journal by Rui Jiyun, “Wuhan Tielu Liu Zhixiang Fubai Da An Jubao Shimo,”
Jiancha Fengyun
10 (2006), at
www.360doc.com/content/06/0612/08/142_133043.shtml
.

17. ALL THAT GLITTERS

Several of Hu Gang's novels and how-to guides draw upon his expertise in the art of bribery, including Fu Shi,
Qing Ci
(Hunan: Hunan Wenyi Chubanshe, 2006); and Fu Shi,
Zhongguo Shi Guanxi
(Beijing: Jincheng Chubanshe, 2011).