Chinese characters : profiles of fast-changing lives in a fast-changing land / edited by Angilee Shah and Jeffrey Wasserstrom ; foreword by Pankaj Mishra.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: "Who are you this time?" / Jeffrey Wasserstrom -- Doubters and believers. The north peak / Ian Johnson ; The new generation's neocon nationalists / Evan Osnos ; Out of Tibet / Alec Ash -- Past and present. Belonging to Old Beijing / Harriet Evans ; Another swimmers ; Xujun Eberlein ; Looking for Lok To / James Carter -- Hustlers and entrepreneurs. The ever-floating floater / Michelle Dammon Loyalka ; King of the road / Megan Shank ; Painting the outside world / Peter Hessler -- Rebels and reformers. The road to a better life / Ananth Krishnan ; Yong Yank's odyssey / Christina Larson ; The court jester / Jeffrey Prescott -- The great wall of education / Anna Greenspan ; Gilded age, gilded cage / Leslie T. Chang ; Shredding for the Motherland / James Millward -- Afterword / Angilee Shah.

Poignant, humorous and confusing stories of utterly ordinary people living through China's extraordinary transformations. The collection of essays creates a multifaceted portrait of a country in motion, and is an introduction to some of the best writing on China today.