Street of Eternal Happiness

Big City Dreams Along a Shanghai Road

By: Rob Schmitz

Narrated by: Tim Flavin

Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

A timely and engaging look at the new China told through the stories of its ordinary people.

Shanghai: a global city in the midst of a renaissance, where dreamers arrive each day to partake in a mad torrent of capital, ideas and opportunity. Rob Schmitz is one of them. He immerses himself in his neighbourhood, forging relationships with ordinary people who see a brighter future in the city's sleek skyline.

There's Zhao, whose path from factory floor to shopkeeper is sidetracked by her desperate measures to ensure a better future for her sons. Down the street lives Auntie Fu, a fervent capitalist forever trying to improve herself while keeping her sceptical husband at bay. Up a flight of stairs, CK sets up shop to attract young dreamers like himself but learns he's searching for something more.

As Schmitz becomes increasingly involved in their lives, he makes surprising discoveries which untangle the complexities of modern China: a mysterious box of letters that serve as a portal to a family's - and country's - dark past, and an abandoned neighbourhood where fates have been violently altered by unchecked power and greed.

A tale of 21st-century China, Street of Eternal Happiness profiles China's distinct generations through multifaceted characters who illuminate an enlightening, humourous and, at times, heartrending journey along the winding road to the Chinese dream.

Each story adds another layer of humanity to modern China, a tapestry also woven with Schmitz's insight as a foreign correspondent. The result is an intimate and surprising portrait that dispenses with the tired stereotypes of a country we think we know, immersing us instead in the vivid stories of the people who make up one of the world's most captivating cities.

©2016 Rob Schmitz (P)2016 Hodder & Stoughton

Great book, poor narration

The mispronunciation of Chinese words is super distracting. The book is great. The narrator has no idea how to read pinyin. He misprounces the name of Xi Jinping. At times it is comical because the author tells the reader how to pronounce a name and the narrator changes his pronunciation mid-sentence. I'm also not a fan of how he reads the many quotes by the Chinese people interviewed for the book. It sounds stilted. It's a pity it wasn't narrated by the author.