Socialism is Great?

Last night I went to a book reading by Lijia Zhang, a former Nanjing rocket-factory worker who spent 10 years among 10,000 comrades effectively incarcerated in the "iron rice bowl" of the state employee. Zhang is in Shanghai in support of her memoir "Socialism is Great!"

Her story is very interesting, she grew in a poor family, went to work in a missile factory at the age of 16, learned English on her own and eventually lead the largest worker demonstration in support of Democracy which then landed her in jail. How she's a regular correspondent with the BBC and NPR. You'll have to read her book to get the entire story.

Also interesting is that the book is only published in English, and sold outside of China - so...how did I get a copy of it, you ask? Well...some things I can't reveal. ;-) She does live in Beijing, but from what I could gather, the government isn't fond of her writing and it could be more dangerous for her to publish this memoir in China, in Chinese.

If you're outside of China, try to get a hold of the book and check it out. It gives a different view of China right after the Cultural Revolution.