From abroad, we often see China as a caricature: a nation of pragmatic plutocrats and ruthlessly dedicated students destined to rule the global economy-or an addled Goliath, riddled with corruption and on the edge of stagnation. What we don't see is how both powerful and ordinary people are remaking their lives as their country dramatically changes. As the Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, Evan Osnos was on the ground in China for years, witness to profound political, economic, and cultural upheaval. In Age of Ambition, he describes the greatest collision taking place in that country: the clash between the rise of the individual and the Communist Party's struggle to retain control. He asks probing questions: Why does a government with more success lifting people from poverty than any civilization in history choose to put strict restraints on freedom of expression? Why do millions of young Chinese professionals-fluent in English and devoted to Western pop culture-consider themselves "angry youth," dedicated to resisting the West's influence? How are Chinese from all strata finding meaning after two decades of the relentless pursuit of wealth? Writing with great narrative verve and a keen sense of irony, Osnos follows the moving stories of everyday people and reveals life in the new China to be a battleground between aspiration and authoritarianism, in which only one can prevail.


外國人其實常偏頗地看待中國，總認為中國充滿現實的財閥，總以為中國學生埋頭苦讀，為的是將來能夠站到全球經濟的浪頭上。又或者他們看到的中國，是一個迷失方向的泱泱大國，充斥著貪污腐敗，且經濟即將面臨停滯。但大家其實都沒有注意到，中國社會變遷之快，不論權貴或一般老百姓的生活都在產生變化。本書作者歐逸文為《紐約客》雜誌北京特派記者，因長年身處中國，目睹了中國政局、經濟與文化的劇變。他在書中娓娓道來中國正面臨前所未有的衝突，在個人主義的崛起下，共產黨亟欲保有控制權。作者也探究了幾個問題：相較其他國家，中國政府讓人民脫離貧窮的成就有目共睹，但當局為何又要嚴格管控言論自由？中國幾百萬的年輕知識分子，說得一口流利英語，沉浸西方主流文化，自稱「憤青」，怎麼又會起而抵抗西方影響？過去二十年來，中國各階層的人瘋狂追求財富，在這樣的過程中他們又是如何追尋意義的？歐逸文透過他那充滿熱情的筆尖及強而有力的諷刺筆調，帶我們一窺中國市井小民觸動人心的生活故事，揭露了新中國將成為一個個人野心與政府威權對峙的戰場，最後只有一方能屹立。