By Hari Venkatesh
Evan Osnos
Thornton, John L. "Evan Osnos." The Brookings Institution. Brookings, 5 Oct. 2014. Web. 13 Apr. 2016. |
Evan Osnos joined The New Yorker as a staff writer in 2008, and covers politics and foreign affairs. His recent subjects include the reconstruction of a train crash that exposed the underside of China’s boom; a group of Chinese tourists on their first trip to Europe; and a barber who set out to beat the house in Macau. For four years, he wrote the Letter from China for newyorker.com. Parts of his book, “Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China,” based on eight years of living in Beijing, first appeared in the magazine. The book won the 2014 the National Book Award in nonfiction and was a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction.
|
Language:“Which Chinese Dialect Should I Learn?" Brainscape Blog Mandarin vs Cantonese Which Chinese Language Should I Learn Comments. Brainscape, 04 Aug. 2011. Web. 13 Apr. 2016.But the change that startled me most surrounded the word for “ambition,” ye xin—literally, “wild heart.” In Chinese, a wild heart had always carried the suggestion of savage abandon and absurd expectations—a toad who dreams of devouring a swan, as an old saying had it. More than two thousand years ago, a collection of political advice called the Huainanzi had warned rulers to “keep powerful positions out of the hands of the ambitious, just as one keeps sharp tools out of the hands of the foolish" (Osnos 34).
At the same meeting, the Party also made an important change to its constitution: it stopped calling itself a “revolutionary party” and started calling itself the “Party in Power.” China’s rulers had altered their reason for being; by becoming the Party in Power, the former rebels who’d spent decades lambasting their enemies as “counterrevolutionaries” turned themselves into such ardent defenders of the status quo that even the word revolution was now problematic. The Museum of Revolutionary History, beside Tiananmen Square, lost its name and was absorbed into the National Museum of China. In 2004, the prime minister, Wen Jiabao, said, “Unity and stability are really more important than anything else.” If the change struck ordinary Chinese as hypocritical, they didn’t have much choice but to accept it. What’s more, people had been so deprived for so long that they had little love for the old dogma. The Party and the people were now facing in opposite directions: Chinese society was becoming more diverse, raucous, and freewheeling, and the Party was becoming more homogenous, buttoned-down, and conservative (Osnos 74). In the Age of Ambition by Evan Osnos, language plays a b ig part of the story. Evan Osnos went to China. He learned Chinese in China. He stayed for along time in China. H essay some words that he studied have changed. He says "But the change that startled me most surrounded the word for “ambition,” ye xin—literally, “wild heart (Osnos 34).” This shows language has change. Also he says “Unity and stability are really more important than anything else (Osnos 74).” He says that Unity is a big thing. Unity could mean all speaking the same language. Values:"People and Culture in China." Retire in Asia. Ed. Admin Admin Admin. Retire in Asia, 11 June 2013. Web. 13 Apr. 2016.As a boy, Lin wondered why, despite China’s glorious history, his family could barely feed itself. His older brother did not ask their mother if they would have lunch, because it was an uncomfortable question, Lin recalled. “He would lean on the stove. If it was warm, that means we had lunch.” Otherwise, they went hungry. For Lin, the experience fostered a highly pragmatic streak. He came to view issues of human dignity primarily through the lenses of history and economics (Osnos 21).
The age of ambition sorted people not by their pasts, but by their futures. In the socialist era, the Chinese had evaluated the “political reliability” of parents and ancestors, but now men and women evaluated each other based on their potential, especially their earning potential (Osnos 68). In the story Age of Ambition by Evan Osnos, Value played a big role in the story. A value is something that you learned. It shows that Lin knew that he was poor and didn't have food. He would lean on the stove. If it was warm, that means we had lunch (Osnos 21).” Also people of China changed. "The age of ambition sorted people not by their pasts, but by their futures. In the socialist era, the Chinese had evaluated the “political reliability” of parents and ancestors, but now men and women evaluated each other based on their potential, especially their earning potential (Osnos 68)." So a value mean something that you learned so that mean these peoples and lin learned a value and stuck with it. |
Norms:Xiaodong, Wang X. "Most Viewed." New Filial Law Sparks Debate|China|chinadaily.com.cn. China Daily, 07 Feb. 2013. Web. 13 Apr. 2016.In 1979 the Party announced that it would no longer tag people as “landlords” and “rich peasants,” and later Deng Xiaoping removed the final stigma: “Let some people get rich first,” he said, “and gradually all the people should get rich together.” The Party extended the economic experiment. Officially, private businesses were permitted to hire no more than eight employees—Marx had believed that firms with more than eight workers were exploitative—but eventually small enterprises began popping up so fast that Deng Xiaoping told a Yugoslav delegation that it was “as if a strange army had appeared suddenly from nowhere.” He did not take credit. “This is not the achievement of our central government,” he said (Osnos 19-20).
This is a norm because this person is doing this everyday. Marx had believed only eight workers should be in a group. Marxism was a concept and that is why it can relate beck to culture and a Norm. A study of advertising found that the average person in Shanghai saw three times as many advertisements in a typical day as a consumer in London. The market was flooded with new brands seeking to distinguish themselves, and Chinese consumers were relatively comfortable with bold efforts to get their attention. Ads were so abundant that fashion magazines ran up against physical constraints: editors of the Chinese edition of Cosmopolitan once had to split an issue into two volumes because a single magazine was too thick to handle (Osnos 66). In the book Age of Ambition by Evan Osnos, Norm is a big part of the story. This a Norm because it uses the average person so it can mean the average person in Shanghai see many advertisements and it is also Norm because many people are only allowed to have 8 people per a business. Hey says "Officially, private businesses were permitted to hire no more than eight employees (Osnos 19-20)." Also he says "A study of advertising found that the average person in Shanghai saw three times as many advertisements in a typical day as a consumer in London (Osnos 66)." So this shows that these 2 are Norms. Symbols:Kane, Johnny X. "Chinese Symbols." Dreamstime. Dreamstime, 12 May 2013. Web. 13 Apr. 2016. He introduced our driver, Petr Pícha, a phlegmatic former trucker and hockey player from the Czech Republic, who waved wearily to us from the well of the driver’s seat. (“For six or seven years, I drove Japanese tourists all the time,” he told me later. “Now it’s all Chinese.”) Guide Li had something else to say about the schedule: “In China, we think of bus drivers as superhumans who can work twenty-four hours straight, no matter how late we want them to drive. But in Europe, unless there’s weather or traffic, they’re only allowed to drive for twelve hours (Osnos 121) !
Among themselves, they resolved to release it to the public that winter, on December 10, 2008—the sixtieth anniversary of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They called it Charter 08. They had 303 initial signers, but someone needed to be the primary sponsor, and Liu agreed to take that role. To most, it would have been an unappealing prospect. “The first bird that lifts its neck” the Chinese liked to say, “is the one that gets shot (Osnos 189) .” In the book Age of Ambition by Evan Osnos, Symbol is a big part of the story. A symbol a thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract. The author says some examples of Symbol. He said “In China, we think of bus drivers as superhumans who can work twenty-four hours straight, no matter how late we want them to drive. But in Europe, unless there’s weather or traffic, they’re only allowed to drive for twelve hours (Osnos 121)." This shows that they think Bus drivers are superhero's and it symbolizes that they do al to of stuff and without them we would be screwed and that is true. Also he says “The first bird that lifts its neck” the Chinese liked to say, “is the one that gets shot (Osnos 189) .” It symbolizes that he is willing to take one for the team no matter what even if it means death. So symbolize can be in any context but you just have to see it. |