Street of Eternal Happiness: Big City Dreams Along a Shanghai Road

Structuring the narrative around the lives of everyday people in his neighborhood in Shanghai, Marketplace correspondent Schmitz offers a snapshot of rampant modernization in China. His web of characters speaks to his time in the country and his exemplary journalistic abilities as he introduces a wealthy businessman who is contemplating Buddhism; a rural woman who settled in Shanghai, opening a successful flower shop to provide for her sons; and a Shanghainese man now living in New York, whose family lost their money after Mao's revolution. Through these individual stories, Schmitz creates a mosaic of the modern Chinese experience, hitting on issues as varied as the filial duties, the one-child policy, bride prices, copyright polices, widespread development, and get-rich-quick schemes. Weaving a gripping narrative peppered with historical facts, he leaves readers with an intimate glimpse into a culture undergoing a complex transformation. (May)