Age of Ambition Book Summary - Age of Ambition Book explained in key points

Age of Ambition summary

Name: Age of Ambition
Rating: 3.6 (16 reviews)
Author: Evan Osnos

Evan Osnos

Chasing Fortune, Truth and Faith in the New China

3.6 (16 ratings)

19 mins

Brief summary

Age of Ambition by Evan Osnos examines the rise of China's middle class and their desire for freedom, success, and individualism in a country ruled by the Communist Party. It explores the collision between modern aspirations and traditional values in contemporary China.

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Culture

Table of Contents

Age of Ambition
Summary of 11 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 11

What’s in it for me? Learn what’s behind China’s recent rise and what it’s doing to Chinese society.

In recent decades one country has outstripped all others. China – once seen as a rural, poverty-stricken and paranoid nation – has become the world’s largest exporter and one of its biggest industrial nations. Its population is becoming richer by the year. What’s behind this rapid turn around?

These blinks show you just how China has managed to become one of the world’s leading economies. They also show you how this growth is having huge knock-on effects for Chinese society as a whole. Perhaps most importantly, the nation is moving from its traditionally centralized and autocratic roots to a more individualist and open society.

In these blinks you’ll discover

why the Chinese department which controls media doesn’t officially exist;
why the Chinese Communist Party employ professional internet trolls; and
how Chinese officials use gift shops to funnel their bribes.

Since the 1980s China’s economy has been growing spectacularly – and continues to expand today.

The Chinese economy has become an incredible success story: over the course of only a few decades, the country has leapt from poverty to economic domination, and become one of the biggest players in the world – its rapid growth continues to this day.

In fact, over the last 30 years China’s economy has grown at a rate of approximately eight percent per year in terms of GDP. In other words, it has doubled in size every seven to eight years!

That makes China the fastest-growing economy worldwide. Between 1989 and 2014, China’s annual GDP growth rate averaged an astonishing nine percent, while the United States’ grew only three percent during the same period.

Coupled with China’s amazing GDP growth is an equally impressive rise in income – one that continues to soar today.

Consider, for example, that in 1978 the average Chinese per capita income was a meager $200 per year. In contrast, the average Chinese citizen today brings home 30 times that amount – around $6,000. What’s more, wages, just like China’s overall economic conditions, continue to improve.

In addition, China has become increasingly important as an exporter over the years.

Back in 1999, China’s exports amounted to less than a third of those of the world’s largest exporter, the United States, placing it at number nine on the list of top global exporters. However, a mere decade later China had launched itself into first place.

Clearly, China’s economy is booming. That only leaves us asking: Why?

China’s economic jump-start came from its peasants – not from some clever political plan.

In the 1950s China was still a very poor country. Even as late as 1979, the People’s Republic of China’s per capita income was still a mere third of those in sub-Saharan Africa. So what changed? What triggered this enormous growth?

Let’s start with what didn’t work: when Mao Zedong tried to lift China out of poverty in the late 1950s, he was far from successful.

The Chinese people are hungry for success.

In 1966 Mao Zedong initiated a radical sociopolitical movement, the Cultural Revolution, which aimed to create a state based on total equality. The military, for example, eliminated rank, and the Party banned competitive sports in order to imbue their culture with greater solidarity.

However, once the Chinese were allowed to start their own businesses, their ambitions became more apparent. This drive to achieve success is still a characteristic of many Chinese people.

China’s wealth is distributed very unevenly, leading to increasing public discontent.

Many Chinese biographies read like incarnations of the American dream: with increasing privatization and a booming market, it seems as if everyone could “make it,” provided they are willing to put in the hard work.

As it turned out, however, that pervasive sense of endless possibility was overly optimistic.

Dissidents and protesters face harsh sanctions.

China’s constitution, like most in the modern world, guarantees its citizens freedom of speech and of the press. Yet the constitution has no legal authority over the Party, which has led to massive civil rights abuses. Here are only a few examples.

Writer and civil rights activist Liu Xiaobo, for instance, was arrested simply for launching a civil rights initiative that aimed to collect signatures for Charter 08, a declaration on civil rights signed by thousands of Chinese intellectuals.

The Central Publicity Department strives for maximum control of public life in China.

Many people know that the Chinese media isn’t exactly free. But few know about a specific department that heads China’s media control system: the Central Publicity Department.

This is partly because the Department operates in the background, thus evading public scrutiny.

The government tries to control the internet, but users nonetheless find ways to exchange ideas.

The Central Publicity Department gives the Chinese government considerable influence over traditional media, but the internet does not lend itself to such clumsy controls.

Nevertheless, the Party tries to restrict the information and ideas that are exchanged over the internet. Censors block influential international news sources such as the New York Times and Facebook, while the Chinese version of Google, “Baidu,” automatically blocks search results that include politically sensitive words.

Today, many Chinese people disclose and discuss government censorship and manipulation.

With the rise and spread of the internet, ordinary people are turning into media experts who have the tools to identify and expose the Party’s propaganda ploys.

For example, whenever photos have been doctored by Party propagandists, bloggers are likely to notice – and to point it out. They’re sure to comment on images that have been altered in such a way as to make officials look more physically imposing, for example, or make a crowd appear larger.

Corruption is flourishing in China.

The juxtaposition between a modern, booming economy and a repressive government is striking. The reality is, however, that the boom and the authoritarian nature of governance are interrelated: the more the economy grows, the more public servants strive (successfully) to get rich through bribery.

Indeed, corruption began to mushroom as soon as the government began allowing private ownership of land and factories, and opened up the distribution of capital to investors in 1992.

In modern China, people are increasingly individualistic.

Until very recently, the Chinese defined themselves above all else in terms of the groups they belonged to – families, work collectives, etc. We even find this reflected in the lyrics of older popular songs: very rarely would you find the word “I” in place of “we.”

But times have changed. China’s younger generation is very individualistic. The Chinese call the generations born since the 1980s the “Me” generation.

Communism’s destruction of belief systems left a spiritual void that the Chinese are still trying to fill.

For some Chinese today, a weasel in the house is nothing to fret about. In fact, it’s an omen of imminent wealth! For decades, however, admitting to such a belief would have been ill-advised.

This is because, in the past, Chinese communists actively fought religious belief systems.

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What is Age of Ambition about?

Age of Ambition offers an insightful look into the many changes that have taken place in China over the past 30 years, transforming the country from a destitute, developing nation into the economic powerhouse it is today. Evan Osnos examines the day-to-day lives of Chinese citizens as they navigate a new social and economic reality.

Best quote from Age of Ambition

In my years in China . . . airline passengers doubled; cell phone sales tripled; the length of the Beijing subway quadrupled.

—Evan Osnos

Who should read Age of Ambition?

Anyone who wants to understand China today
Anyone who wants to learn about China’s rise to economic power
Anyone curious about the balance between individualism and state domination in China

About the Author

Evan Osnos is an American journalist who has worked both as bureau chief of the Chicago Tribune and as the New Yorker’s China correspondent. In addition, he contributed to a series on government safety standards that won a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting, and has been awarded two Overseas Press Club prizes. His first book, Age of Ambition, won the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 2014.

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