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Blockchain Chicken Farm
- And Other Stories of Tech in China's Countryside
- Narrated by: Greta Jung
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
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Publisher's summary
From FSGO x Logic: stories about rural China, food, and tech that reveal new truths about the globalized world
In Blockchain Chicken Farm, the technologist and writer Xiaowei Wang explores the political and social entanglements of technology in rural China. Their discoveries force them to challenge the standard idea that rural culture and people are backward, conservative, and intolerant. Instead, they find that rural China has not only adapted to rapid globalization but has actually innovated the technology we all use today. From pork farmers using AI to produce the perfect pig, to disruptive luxury counterfeits and the political intersections of e-commerce villages, Wang unravels the ties between globalization, technology, agriculture, and commerce in unprecedented fashion. Accompanied by humorous "Sinofuturist" recipes that frame meals as they transform under new technology, Blockchain Chicken Farm is an original and probing look into innovation, connectivity, and collaboration in the digitized rural world.
FSG Originals × Logic dissects the way technology functions in everyday lives. The titans of Silicon Valley, for all their utopian imaginings, never really had our best interests at heart: Recent threats to democracy, truth, privacy, and safety, as a result of tech's reckless pursuit of progress, have shown as much. We present an alternate story, one that delights in capturing technology in all its contradictions and innovation, across borders and socioeconomic divisions, from history through the future, beyond platitudes and PR hype, and past doom and gloom. Our collaboration features four brief but provocative forays into the tech industry's many worlds, and aspires to incite fresh conversations about technology focused on nuanced and accessible explorations of the emerging tools that reorganize and redefine life today.
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-
Story4 out of 5 stars 78
China today is visible everywhere: In the news, in the economic pressures battering America, in the workplace, and in every trip to the store. Provocative, timely, and essential, this dramatic account of China's growing dominance as an industrial super-power by journalist Ted C. Fishman explains how the profound shift in the global economic order has occurred, and why it already affects us all.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Just read the Amazon reviews befor buying it ...
- By Dan on 08-10-05
By: Ted C. Fishman
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Living in the Long Emergency
- Global Crisis, the Failure of the Futurists, and the Early Adapters Who Are Showing Us the Way Forward
- By: James Howard Kunstler
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 94
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 89
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 89
In his 2005 book, The Long Emergency, James Howard Kunstler described the global predicaments that would pitch the USA into political and economic turmoil in the 21st century - the end of affordable oil, climate irregularities, and flagging economic growth, to name a few. Now, he returns with a book that takes an up-close-and-personal approach to how real people are living now - surviving The Long Emergency as it happens.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Please Read Before Buying
- By K. Skoog on 05-12-20
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Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy
- By: Tim Harford
- Narrated by: Roger Davis
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 356
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 305
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 303
Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy paints an epic picture of change in an intimate way by telling the stories of the tools, people, and ideas that had far-reaching consequences for all of us. From the plough to artificial intelligence, from Gillette's disposable razor to IKEA's Billy bookcase, best-selling author and Financial Times columnist Tim Harford recounts each invention's own curious, surprising, and memorable story.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Thought provoking
- By Paul Norris on 09-10-17
By: Tim Harford
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Empire of Things
- How We Became a World of Consumers, from the Fifteenth Century to the Twenty-First
- By: Frank Trentmann
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows
- Length: 33 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 93
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 77
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Story4 out of 5 stars 77
What we consume has become the defining feature of our lives: our economies live or die by spending, we are treated more as consumers than workers and even public services are presented to us as products in a supermarket. In this monumental study, acclaimed historian Frank Trentmann unfolds the extraordinary history that has shaped our material world, from late Ming China, Renaissance Italy and the British Empire to the present.
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4 out of 5 stars
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An exhaustive attempt to get the story right
- By John on 03-09-16
By: Frank Trentmann
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Little Rice
- Smartphones, Xiaomi, and the Chinese Dream
- By: Clay Shirky
- Narrated by: George Backman
- Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 42
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 34
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 35
Since the 1990s China has been climbing up the ladder of quality, from doing knockoffs to designing its own high-end goods. Xiaomi - its name literally means "little rice" - is landing squarely in this shift in China's economy. But the remarkable rise of Xiaomi from startup to colossus is more than a business story because mobile phones are special. The common desiderata of the global population, mobile phones offer the kind of freedom and connectedness that autocratic countries are terrified of.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Informative and up to date.
- By Kevin on 01-10-16
By: Clay Shirky
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Flash Foresight
- How to See the Invisible and Do the Impossible
- By: Daniel Burrus, John David Mann
- Narrated by: William Dufris
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 230
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 139
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 139
Today we all face more impossible challenges than ever before. But flash foresight lets you transform the impossible into the possible, revealing hidden opportunities and allowing you to solve your biggest problems before they happen.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Time Sensitive
- By Roy on 01-30-11
By: Daniel Burrus, and others
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The World Is Flat
- Further Updated and Expanded
- By: Thomas L. Friedman
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 27 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 977
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 543
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Story4 out of 5 stars 541
When scholars write the history of the world twenty years from now, what will they say was the most crucial development in the first few years of the twenty-first century? The attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11 and the Iraq war? Or the convergence of technology and events that allowed India, China, and so many other countries to become part of the global supply chain for services and manufacturing, creating an explosion of wealth in the middle classes of the world's two biggest nations?
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1 out of 5 stars
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If you like cliches...
- By Jonathan Shultz on 09-08-07
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AI Superpowers
- China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order
- By: Kai-Fu Lee
- Narrated by: Mikael Naramore
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4,304
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,640
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,638
In AI Superpowers, Kai-fu Lee argues powerfully that because of these unprecedented developments in AI, dramatic changes will be happening much sooner than many of us expected. Indeed, as the US-Sino AI competition begins to heat up, Lee urges the US and China to both accept and to embrace the great responsibilities that come with significant technological power.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Compelled to listen at 2x speed
- By LEE on 09-26-18
By: Kai-Fu Lee
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Cheap
- The High Cost of Discount Culture
- By: Ellen Ruppel Shell
- Narrated by: Lorna Raver
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 94
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 49
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Story4 out of 5 stars 47
From the shuttered factories of the rust belt to the look-alike strip malls of the sun belt---and almost everywhere in between---America has been transformed by its relentless fixation on low price. This pervasive yet little examined obsession is arguably the most powerful and devastating market force of our time---the engine of globalization, outsourcing, planned obsolescence, and economic instability in an increasingly unsettled world.
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4 out of 5 stars
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You Get What You Pay For?
- By Roy on 07-26-09
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Abundance
- The Future Is Better Than You Think
- By: Steven Kotler, Peter H. Diamandis
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 181
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 143
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 142
Space entrepreneur turned innovation pioneer Peter H. Diamandis and award-winning science writer Steven Kotler document how progress in artificial intelligence, robotics, digital manufacturing synthetic biology, and other exponentially growing technologies will enable us to make greater gains in the next two decades than we have in the previous 200 years.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Perhaps multiply his time estimates by 10
- By Rick on 11-06-21
By: Steven Kotler, and others
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What's Mine Is Yours
- The Rise of Collaborative Consumption
- By: Roo Rogers, Rachel Botsman
- Narrated by: Kevin Foley
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 89
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 71
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 69
The recent changes in our economic landscape have only exposed and intensified a phenomenon: an explosion in sharing, bartering, lending, trading, renting, gifting, and swapping. From enormous marketplaces such as eBay and Craigslist to emerging sectors such as peer-to-peer lending (Zopa), "swap trading" (Swaptree), and car sharing (Zipcar), Collaborative Consumption is disrupting outdated modes of business and reinventing not only what we consume but how we consume.
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4 out of 5 stars
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An Important Topic
- By Roy on 11-06-10
By: Roo Rogers, and others
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Socialism Sucks
- Two Economists Drink Their Way Through the Unfree World
- By: Robert Lawson, Benjamin Powell
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 4 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 431
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 376
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 375
The bastard step-child of Milton Friedman and Anthony Bourdain, Socialism Sucks is a bar crawl through former, current, and wannabe socialist countries around the world. Free-market economists Robert Lawson and Benjamin Powell travel to countries like Venezuela, Cuba, Russia, and Sweden to investigate the dangers and idiocies of socialism - while drinking a lot of beer.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I learned more than I anticipated in a 4 + hr book
- By J D Rossi on 08-06-19
By: Robert Lawson, and others
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Boom, Bust, Exodus
- The Rust Belt, the Maquilas, and a Tale of Two Cities
- By: Chad Broughton
- Narrated by: Stephen McLaughlin
- Length: 15 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 27
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 24
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 24
In 2002, the town of Galesburg, a slowly declining Rustbelt city of 33,000 in western Illinois, learned that it would soon lose its largest factory, a Maytag refrigerator plant that had anchored Galesburg's social and economic life for decades. Workers at the plant earned $15.14 an hour, had good insurance, and were assured a solid retirement. In 2004, the plant was relocated to Reynosa, Mexico, where workers sometimes spent 13-hour days assembling refrigerators for $1.10 an hour.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A Story I thought I Knew
- By Meek84 on 07-08-18
By: Chad Broughton
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The Shanghai Free Taxi
- Journeys with the Hustlers and Rebels of the New China
- By: Frank Langfitt
- Narrated by: Frank Langfitt
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 134
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 119
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 120
In this adventurous, original book, NPR correspondent Frank Langfitt describes how he created a free taxi service - offering rides in exchange for illuminating conversation - to go beyond the headlines and get to know a wide range of colorful, compelling characters representative of the new China. They include folks like "Beer", a slippery salesman who tries to sell Langfitt a used car; Rocky, a farm boy turned Shanghai lawyer; and Chen, who runs an underground Christian church and moves his family to America in search of a better, freer life.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Too political
- By dah551 on 06-26-19
By: Frank Langfitt
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Vanishing Frontiers
- The Forces Driving Mexico and the United States Together
- By: Andrew Selee
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 34
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 34
There may be no story today with a wider gap between fact and fiction than the relationship between the United States and Mexico. Through portraits of business leaders, migrants, chefs, movie directors, police officers, and media and sports executives, Andrew Selee looks at this emerging Mexico, showing how it increasingly influences our daily lives in the United States in surprising ways - the jobs we do, the goods we consume, and even the new technology and entertainment we enjoy.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A mandatory read, now more than ever
- By Haydon Hill on 08-04-19
By: Andrew Selee
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Coffeeland
- One Man's Dark Empire and the Making of Our Favorite Drug
- By: Augustine Sedgewick
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 14 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 123
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 103
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Story4 out of 5 stars 101
Coffee is an indispensable part of daily life for billions of people around the world - one of the most valuable commodities in the history of global capitalism, the leading source of the world's most popular drug, and perhaps the most widespread word on the planet. Augustine Sedgewick's Coffeeland tells the hidden and surprising story of how this came to be, tracing coffee's 500-year transformation from a mysterious Muslim ritual into an everyday necessity.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Unfortunately
- By Brian on 06-06-20
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Young China
- How the Restless Generation Will Change Their Country and the World
- By: Zak Dychtwald
- Narrated by: Zak Dychtwald
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 133
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 120
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 118
A close-up look at the Chinese generation born after 1990, exploring through personal encounters how young Chinese feel about everything from money and sex to their government, the West, and China’s shifting role in the world - not to mention their love affair with food, karaoke, and travel. Set primarily in the Eastern 2nd tier city of Suzhou and the budding Western metropolis of Chengdu, the book charts the touchstone issues this young generation faces.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Erudite, enthralling, and engaging!
- By Anonymous User on 03-22-19
By: Zak Dychtwald
What listeners say about Blockchain Chicken Farm
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sky m
- 03-24-21
Great story. Not so good moderator
To The moderatorYou are a great speaker and you’re very talented. With that said I think your tone has much to be desired. I love your Chinese pronunciation. It’s remarkable but you have to work on the rest of your delivery. No disrespect. I wish you the best and your very successful successful.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Average White Guy
- 06-10-21
Informative look of quotidian China
Interesting subject matter. Came for the blockchain chicken farm, and that was indeed interesting. The other stories were a good way to paint a broader picture without any dominant narrative outside of the rural empowerment.
Recommend.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Huoguo Fengzi
- 09-16-21
Mispronunciations distracting
Audiobook publishers: For books with this many Chinese terms, place names, and personal names, please, please use a narrator who knows the language or at least follows phonetic instructions.
Although the narration is otherwise good, it sounds like the narrator is making random guesses (albeit with effort) at how to pronounce Chinese words and place/person names. This shouldn’t be a difficult problem to correct.
Examples include “jiu shehui” (old society) which is dramatically mispronounced. Even the westernized old name of Beijing (Peking) somehow gets pronounced “pecking” (?!).
Distracting and unnecessary, detracts from bring able to get into the book. Not the narrator’s fault - come on publisher!
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Arnab Roy Choudhury
- 12-08-22
social and cultural context to tech adoption in China
Makes the subject more accessible for non-techies overlaying it with the social and cultural context to tech adoption/ proliferation in China.
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