《在满洲》记录变革中的中国农村

choi

Larry Rohter, 《在满洲》记录变革中的中国农村. 纽约时报中文网, Mar 12, 2015
cn.tmagazine.com/books/20150312/t12bookmeyer/

, which is translated from

Larry Rohter, A Vanishing Way of Life for Peasants in China. New York Times, Mar 12, 2015
www.nytimes.com/2015/03/09/books ... ng-rural-china.html
(book review on Michael Meyer 梅英东, In Manchuria; A village called wasteland and the transformation of rural China/ Bloomsbury, 2015)

Quote:

“'Since 2000, a quarter of China’s villages had died out, victims of migration or the redrawing of municipal borders,' as the country urbanizes, he notes early on, adding: 'Before it vanished I wanted to experience a life that tourists, foreign students, and journalists (I had been, in order, all three) only viewed in passing.'”

The book "is also a love offering to Mr Meyer’s wife, Frances [obviously Chinese] , who grew up in the unfortunately named Wasteland 大荒地, the village that Mr Meyer chooses as his base near the start of this decade, and to the unborn son she is carrying by the time 'In Manchuria' ends.

"And while it is true that Japan and Russia are central actors in the history of Manchuria, [for Meyer] to say that 'uniquely for a Chinese region, foreigners played a prominent role on its stage' plays down the experience of Xinjiang and Tibet.

Note:
(a) "Mr Meyer often strays from what is ostensibly his main subject, and sometimes it seems as if he is padding to compensate for the deficiencies that may be inherent in focusing on a tiny village. [eg] a  divagation about a lumberjack who claims to have been abducted by aliens"

For divagation (n), see divagate (vi; etymology)
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/divagate
(b) Meyer "notes that Harbin is a city with 'a Walmart bordering Stalin Park'”

Stalin Park 斯大林公园 is a park in Harbin.