Wild Grass: Three Portraits of
Change in Modern China by Ian
Johnson
How To Make Reading A Pleasure!
In Wild Grass, Pulitzer Prize—winning journalist Ian Johnson tells the
stories of three ordinary Chinese citizens moved to extraordinary acts of
courage: a peasant legal clerk who filed a class-action suit on behalf of
overtaxed farmers, a young architect who defended the rights of
dispossessed homeowners, and a bereaved woman who tried to find out
why her elderly mother had been beaten to death in police custody.
Representing the first cracks in the otherwise seamless façade of
Communist Party control, these small acts of resistance demonstrate the
unconquerable power of the human conscience and prophesy an
increasingly open political future for China.
Personal Review: Wild Grass: Three Portraits of Change in
Modern China by Ian Johnson
I've lived in China since 1999, and I often read stories about
China in the Western media that I simply don't believe. Others
report on abuses that do occur here without giving a reader any
understanding of why. So, China remains "inscrutable." (I'm
rolling my eyes...)
China is a complex subject. How can a Westerner who has never
been here know what's happening? China is so far away and
shrouded in a bit of mystery, some due to the sheer length of
its history and some due to the power of the Party. In my
case, I don't speak Chinese, so getting past the public face is
impossible.
Ian Johnson of the Wall Street Journal won a Pulitzer Prize for
his reporting on China. He speaks the language. And, he's one
heck of a fine journalist. In WILD GRASS, he recounts the

stories of three ordinary Chinese citizens who find themselves
fighting the repression of the system, risking imprisonment
and even death.
Johnson understands "the big picture," and after reading this
book, so will you. A nation is not just a single entity. It's
made of people. All nations, not just the one you live in. So
what are the people in China like? Read this book, and you'll
feel like you've met some of them. A peasant lawyer, a young
architectural student, a bereaved daughter. Poor farmers in
Yulin and Party officials in Beijing.
Johnson also brings the scenery to life, makes the unfamiliar
familiar, and captures many little details and episodes and
ironies. A compelling subject in the hands of a masterful
author.
China is experiencing unprecented economic development. What
effect will this ultimately have on its social and political
system? I don't agree with all of the author's conclusions --
it surprises me how much I agree with the Party -- but it
doesn't matter. That's part of the beauty of this book. To
bandy about phrases like "evil empire" is the simplistic
idiocy that will (I hope) eventually doom morons like Dubya.
Can we please move past that and try to genuinely understand?
There can be no doubt that what Johnson reports in this book
is factually accurate. If you want to learn about China, this
is a good place to start. And then, form your own conclusions.
There's plenty of room for you to do that here. Which, in the
end, is what journalism is all about.
I'm quite glad that I read this book. This is literature, same
as George Orwell, who I also don't always agree with. And
agreement does not matter. Spurring a reader to think is what
matters. Johnson can do that with the best of them.
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