Street of Eternal Happiness

by Rob Schmitz

  “First Batch of Shanghai Youth Embark on Trip to Xinjiang—Devoting Youth to the Construction of the Country’s Remote Frontiers,” Wenhui Daily, June 20, 1965.

  “Listen to the Party and Work for Revolution in the Countryside and Remote Frontiers—Mobilizing 10,000 Youth from Shanghai to Go to the Countryside and Join the Construction of Remote Areas; Comrade Yang Xiguang on Behalf of Shanghai Municipal Government Committee Wished Youth Can Thrive in the Revolutionary Struggles,” Jiefang Daily, May 26, 1965.

  “50,000 Shanghai Youth Display Dedication to the Full Construction of Xinjiang—Two Years’ Labor Cultivated Massive Pieces of Wasteland, and Resulted in the Emergence of Large Amount of ‘Five-Good’ Workers and Skilled Production Workers,” Jiefang Daily, May 26, 1965.

  “Four Letters Penned by Shanghai Youth from the Farms in Xinjiang,” Jiefang Daily, May 26, 1965.

  “Alongside Old Soldiers—Shanghai Youth Active in Tianshan,” Jiefang Daily, December 7, 1963.

  “Shanghai Youth’s ‘Flower Farm’ in Xinjiang,” Jiefang Daily, August 22, 1961.

  “Passing on Advanced Technology and Advanced Thoughts—Shanghai’s Skilled Textile Workers Teach Advanced Experience in Xinjiang,” Worker’s Daily, December 19, 1964.

  “The Shanghai Youth I Saw in Xinjiang,” Wenhui Daily, April 16, 1964.

  “Joining the Construction of China’s Remote Frontiers Is a Bright Future for Sons and Daughters—A Summary of the Speech Given by Hu Juewen at a Seminar on Shanghai’s Industry and Commercial Sector’s Support of Xinjiang’s Construction,” Shanghai Industry and Commerce Journal, no. 8, 1963.

  “Where Lives Were Changed,” Global Times, October 13, 2013.

  Robyn Iredale, Naran Bilik, and Guo Fei (eds.), China’s Minorities on the Move: Selected Case Studies, Armonk, New York, London: M. E. Sharpe, 2003.

  “Survey of Shanghai Youths in Xinjiang,” China Daily, November 11, 1986.

  Liu Xiaomeng and Ding Yizhuang, The History of Chinese Sent-Down Youth, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 1998.

  For background on religion in China, I recommend the nonfiction and journalistic work of author Ian Johnson (Wild Grass, New York: Vintage, 2005). For background on house churches and the rise of Christianity in China:

  “How China Plans to Wipe Out House Churches,” Christianity Today, February 2013.

  “China’s Way to Happiness,” The New York Review of Books, February 4, 2014.

  Katharina Wenzel-Teuber and David Streit, People’s Republic of China: Religions and Churches Statistical Overview 2011, Religions and Christianity in Today’s China, Vol. II, 2012.

  “Global Christianity: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Christian Population,” Pew Research Center, December 19, 2011.

  “Christians in Wenzhou Fight to Keep Church’s Cross,” The New York Times, July 7, 2014.

  “China’s Christians Fear New Persecution After Latest Wave of Church Demolitions,” The Guardian, July 5, 2014.

  Xi Lian, Redeemed by Fire: The Rise of Popular Christianity in Modern China, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010.

  For background on the Cultural Revolution, few sources compare to the depth and breadth of Roderick MacFarquhar and Michael Schoenhals’s groundbreaking work Mao’s Last Revolution, from Belknap Press, Cambridge, Mass., 2008.

  Chapter 5: Box of Letters

  For background on the early Mao years:

  Jonathan D. Spence, The Search for Modern China (Third Edition), New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012.

  John King Fairbank and Merle Goldman, China: A New History, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 2006.

  For background on the Anti-Rightist campaign and its impact on Shanghai:

  Frederick C. Teiwes, Politics and Purges in China: Rectification and the Decline of Party Norms, London: Routledge, 1993.

  Peter T. Y. Cheung, Jae Ho Chung, and Lin Zhimin (eds.), Provincial Strategies of Economic Reform in Post-Mao China, London: Routledge, 1998.

  “The Issue of Taking Sides for Middle-ground Capitalist Intellectuals,” The Shanghai News Daily, December 6, 1957.

  “Anti-Rightist Movement Among Commerce and Industry Sectors Proves to Be a Sweeping Victory: Over 200 Rightists Uncovered,” The Shanghai News Daily, December 9, 1957.

  “Rightist Intellectuals from the Commerce and Industry Sectors Gradually Reveal True Colors,” The Shanghai News Daily, December 11, 1957.

  “Obliterating Great Achievements in the Construction of Socialism: Wei Zongqi Willfully Spread Rumors and Smeared Others,” The Shanghai News Daily, December 11, 1957.

  “The Grand Victory of the Anti-Rightist Struggle Among the Political Schools for Commerce and Industry,” The Shanghai News Daily, December 12, 1957.

  For background on the Great Leap Famine:

  Yang Jisheng, Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine, New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, October 30, 2012.

  Frank Dikotter, Mao’s Great Famine: The History of China’s Most Devastating Catastrophe, New York: Walker Books, September 28, 2010.

  For background on life at Chinese labor camps during the Mao years:

  Yang Xianhui, Woman from Shanghai: Tales of Survival from a Chinese Labor Camp, New York: Anchor, August 24, 2010.

  Harry Wu and Carolyn Wakeman, Bitter Winds: A Memoir of My Years in China’s Gulag, New York: John Wiley & Sons, April 3, 1995.

  For background on Xi Jinping’s “Chinese Dream” guiding principle:

  “Chinese Dream Is Xi’s Vision,” China Daily, March 18, 2013.

  Chapter 6: Auntie Fu’s Get-Rich-Quick Plan

  For background on Wenzhou’s history of underground lending:

  Hein Mallee and Frank N. Pieke, Internal and International Migration: Chinese Perspectives, London: Routledge, 1999.

  “Shadow Banks on Trial as China’s Rich Sister Faces Death,” Bloomberg, April 11, 2012.

  “Underground Lender Gets Death Sentence in China,” The Associated Press, May 20, 2013.

  For background on the Jade Rabbit mission:

  “China Launches Lunar Probe Carrying ‘Jade Rabbit’ Buggy,” Reuters, December 1, 2013.

  Chapter 7: Bride Price

  For background on typical prices for brides throughout China:

  “Forget Dowries: Chinese Men Have to Pay up to $24,000 to Get a Bride,” Quartz, June 9, 2013.

  For background on Chinese president Xi Jinping, I recommend the excellent reporting of Evan Osnos, Michael Forsythe, and Chris Buckley, whose work is included below:

  “Born Red,” The New Yorker, April 6, 2015.

  “Xi Jinping Millionaire Relations Reveal Fortunes of Elite,” Bloomberg, June 29, 2012.

  “Cultural Revolution Shaped Xi Jinping, from Schoolboy to Survivor,” The New York Times, September 24, 2015.

  “Portrait of Vice-President Xi Jinping,” WikiLeaks, November 16, 2009.

  Chapter 9: Dreams, Seized

  For background on the closing ceremony of the Shanghai world’s fair:

  “China Holds Closing Ceremony for Shanghai Expo,” Xinhua, October 31, 2010.

  For background on urban land reform in China:

  “Land Reform Efforts in China,” China Business Review, October 1, 2012.

  Interim Regulations of the People’s Republic of China Concerning the Assignment and Transfer of the Right to the Use of the State-Owned Land in the Urban Areas, State Council of the People’s Republic of China, May 19, 1990.

  Property Rights Law of the People’s Republic of China, National People’s Congress, October 1, 2007.

  “China’s Next Revolution,” The Economist, March 8, 2007.

  Annual Statistical Yearbook 2004–2014, Shanghai Bureau of Statistics, 2014.

  For background on Xi Jinping’s “Chinese Dream” guiding principle:

  “Chinese Dreams,” The​China​Story.​org, March, 2013.

  I am grateful to Chen Zhongdao for sharing dozens of police reports and court documents related to incidents at Maggie Lane from 2001 to 2013.
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  Chapter 10: Escape

  For background on Mao’s Cultural Revolution:

  MacFarquhar and Schoenhals, Mao’s Last Revolution.

  Mao Tse-Tung, Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung, BN Publishing, 2008.

  Chapter 11: Zero Risk

  For background on China’s Lost Generation:

  “China’s Lost Generation Coddles Its Young,” The Washington Post, November 24, 2004.

  “China’s Lost Generation,” Time, July 7, 2008.

  “Chinese Police Take On ‘Lost Generation’ Grandparents,” The Daily Telegraph, November 1, 2011.

  For background on Liaoning Dingxu:

  “157 Seniors in Ningbo Have Their Investment Dreams Smashed, Over RMB 12 Million in Pensions Poured Down the Drain,” Southeastern Business Report, May 15, 2014.

  “Illegally Absorbing Over 12 Million in Investments, Two People in Charge of Liaoning Dingxu’s Ningbo Branch Sentenced,” Modern Gold Express, May 15, 2014.

  “Liaoning Publishes 9 Cases of Economic Crimes,” China News Service, July 17, 2012.

  “Court Verdict of Defendant Zhang Xiuying,” Anyang City Beiguan District Court, August 20, 2014.

  “Return on Investments in Liaoning Dingxu Never Come—Official: ‘We’ve All Been Harmed,’ ”Liaoning Evening News, September 23, 2012.

  Chapter 12: Country Wedding

  For background on the water wars of Weishan Lake:

  Guo Rongxing, Understanding the Chinese Economies, Waltham, Mass.: Academic Press, August 29, 2012.

  Chapter 13: CK’s Pilgrimage

  For background on the resurgence of Buddhism in China:

  China Academy of Social Sciences, Buddhism in China, 2010.

  André Laliberté, “Buddhist Revival Under State Watch,” Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, February 2011.

  “30-Year Renaissance: The Revival of Buddhism in China,” Buddha Eye, July 2009.

  Though state statistics estimate China has had 100 million Buddhists since 1978, Liu Zhongyuou of the Research Center for Religious Culture at East China Normal University estimated there were 300 million Buddhists in China in 2005.

  Chapter 14: Home

  For background on the case of Xu Zhiyong:

  “New Citizens: The Trial of Xu Zhiyong,” The Economist, January 25, 2014.

  “A Leading Chinese Human Rights Advocate Is Detained in Beijing,” The New York Times, July 17, 2013.

  “China Sentences Xu Zhiyong, Legal Activist, to 4 Years in Prison,” The New York Times, January 26, 2014.

  “The Trial of the Chinese Dream,” The New Yorker, January 17, 2014.

  Chapter 15: Chinese Dreams

  For background on Gatewang:

  “A Look at Some of the Rascals Involved in the Gate Concert Party,” Share​Prophets.​com, April 10, 2015.

  “Gatewang and Gate Ventures and Chinese Whispers,” Share​Prophets.​com, April 18, 2015.

  INDEX

  advertising

  air quality, 6.1, 7.1

  Aksu (Xingjiang town)

  Angry Youth (Fenqing), 8.1

  Barmé, Geremie R.

  Battle of Shanghai

  Beijing, 2.1, 3.1, 4.1

  Beishang Electronics, 3.1, 3.2

  “Better City, Better Life,” 2.1, 2.2, 9.1

  bingtuan (Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps),

  “black society” (hei shehui)

  bodhisattva

  bride price, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3

  Buddhism

  ceremony description

  practices, 1.1, 13.1, 13.2, 13.3

  qi (energy), 1.1, 13.1

  revival of, 13.1, 13.2

  Tibetan Buddhism, 13.1, 13.2

  bullet trains, 2.1, 12.1

  Bureau of Industry and Commerce

  capitalism

  Cultural Revolution on, 5.1, 5.2, 10.1, 10.2

  modern-day, 10.1, 13.1

  Chengkai Group, 2.1, 2.2, 9.1

  Chinese Dream, 5.1, 8.1, 9.1, 13.1, 14.1

  Chinese New Year

  lunar calendar

  traditions, 5.1, 5.2, 7.1, 11.1, 11.2

  Christianity

  dixia jiaohui (underground churches), 4.1, 4.2

  jiating jiaohui (house churches),

  Three-Self Patriotic Movement

  tithing

  coal industry, 1.1, 3.1, 3.2, 7.1

  Communist Party

  arrests of capitalists (1950s), 5.1, 5.2

  Buddhist revival and

  Bureau of Industry and Commerce

  Chinese Dream campaign, 8.1, 9.1, 13.1

  corruption among government employees, 7.1, 7.2, 9.1, 14.1

  Dong Zhujun and

  inception of, 1.1, 1.2

  on investment schemes

  on property rights

  State Council property rights ruling (2011)

  state employment under, 1.1, 1.2

  state health system

  Three-Self Patriotic Movement

  Confucianism

  fengjian

  modern-day

  on respect for elders, 7.1, 10.1, 10.2, 15.1

  suzhi (“educated and civil”),

  corruption

  among government employees, 7.1, 7.2, 9.1, 14.1

  bribes, 13.1, 13.2

  Cultural Revolution. See also Lost Generation

  on capitalism, 5.1, 5.2, 10.1, 10.2

  employment during, 1.1, 1.2, 3.1, 3.2, 5.1, 5.2, 7.1, 10.1, 10.2

  Great Famine during, 3.1, 5.1, 14.1

  Kuomintang resistance to

  on property rights, 9.1, 14.1

  Red Guards, 4.1, 9.1, 15.1

  Dalai Lama

  Dali, migration to

  death rites

  Delingha Farm, 5.1, 5.2, 10.1, 10.2

  Deng Xiaoping, 1.1, 3.1, 3.2, 6.1, 9.1, 10.1

  dixia jiaohui (underground churches), 4.1, 4.2

  domestic violence, 7.1, 10.1, 12.1

  Dong Zhujun

  education

  employment of graduates

  English language and

  gaokao (college entrance exam),

  hukou (household registration) and, 3.1, 15.1

  suzhi (“educated and civil”),

  elderly, care of, 7.1, 10.1, 10.2, 15.1

  eminent domain. See property rights

  employment

  in coal industry, 1.1, 3.1, 3.2

  during Cultural Revolution, 1.1, 1.2, 3.1, 3.2, 5.1, 5.2, 7.1, 10.1, 10.2

  factory jobs in cities

  hukou (household registration) and, 3.1, 15.1

  income, late twentieth century

  income and religious tithing

  income of rural workers

  of Millennials

  farming collectives, of Great Leap Forward

  fengjian (Confucian tradition),

  Fenqing (Angry Youth),

  Four Modernizations, 1.1, 9.1, 10.1

  Four Olds

  French Concession, establishment of (1849)

  Gaige Kaifang (Reform and Opening), 3.1, 3.2

  Gaozong (Tang emperor)

  Gatewang, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 11.1, 11.2, 11.3, 15.1, 15.2

  Great Famine, 3.1, 5.1, 14.1

  Great Leap Forward, 2.1, 4.1, 9.1

  Han Han

  Harmonious Socialist Society

  Haussmann, Baron Georges-Eugène

  hei shehui (“black society,” “Triads”),

  Hengyang

  How to Be a Lovely Shanghainese (etiquette book), 2.1, 2.2, 2.3

  Hu Jintao, 3.1, 7.1, 9.1

  hukou (household registration), 3.1, 10.1, 13.1, 15.1

  income. See also employment.

  in late twentieth century

  religious tithing and

  of rural workers

  individualism

  infanticide

  infrastructure, 2.1, 10.1, 12.1

  Internet use, 7.1, 8.1, 9.1, 12.1

  investment schemes

  Gatewang, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 11.1, 11.2, 11.3, 15.1, 15.2r />
  Liaoning Dingxu, 11.1, 11.2

  Lost Generation and, 11.1, 11.2, 11.3, 15.1

  Nurturing Lotus, 11.1, 11.2

  religion and, 4.1, 6.1

  Wenzhou and

  Japan

  Sino-Japanese War (second)

  SoftBank

  Jiang Zemin, 1.1, 9.1

  jiating jiaohui (house churches),

  Jing’an District (Shanghai)

  Jinjiang Hotel, 3.1, 4.1

  Jin Mao Tower

  J. Walter Thompson

  Kuomintang

  Landesa

  laobaixing (common people), 9.1, 13.1

  Laozi

  libraries

  Li Ka-shing

  Li Keqiang

  Lin Haiyin

  Li Ping

  Little Red Book (Mao),

  liushou ertong (“left-behind children”),

  Li Xingzhi, 2.1, 9.1

  Lost Generation

  defined

  fears of

  investment schemes targeted to, 11.1, 11.2, 11.3, 15.1

  luohou (“backwards”),

  Lu Peide, 2.1, 9.1

  Ma, Jack

  Maggie Lane. See property rights

  Mao Zedong. See also Communist Party, Cultural Revolution.

  Great Famine and

  Great Leap Forward, 2.1, 4.1, 4.2

  hukou (household registration),

  labor camps of, 5.1, 5.2

  Little Red Book,

  political rallies of

  on state employment

  Marketplace (NPR),

  marriage, . See also one-child policy

  arranged, 3.1, 3.2, 14.1

  bride price, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3

  dating and courtship, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3

  domestic violence and, 7.1, 10.1, 12.1

  mistresses and multiple wives, 7.1, 12.1, 12.2

  online dating, 7.1, 8.1

  weddings, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3

  women’s roles and

  media

  foreign, 2.1, 9.1

  Internet use, 7.1, 8.1, 9.1, 12.1

  local censorship

  migrant workers

  chi ku (first wave),

  hukou (household registration) and,

  liushou ertong (“left-behind children”) of,

  migration patterns

  caring for elderly and

  chuqu (“to go out”),

  emigration to U.S., 10.1, 14.1

  moving away from cities

  Millennials, 7.1, 8.1

  elder care by, 7.1, 15.1

  employment of