The Early Arrival of Dreams: A Year in China

by Rosemary Mahoney

Book Overview

One year before the protests in Tiananmen Square, Rosemary Mahoney participated in a teaching exchange between Harvard and Hangzhou University. At Hangzhou she was able to overcome her students' usual rigidity and achieve a rare and intimate glimpse of their culture and their attitudes. This remarkable memoir captures both the dreams and the grim realities her Chinese students faced within the confines of an oppressive political regime.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0618035494
• ISBN13: 9780618035496
• Release Date: February 2003
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Best book about China I've ever read

I have read a number of books about China: modern tales of Americans living there, historic sagas of families complete with savagery and bound feet. However, it is this book which captured my heart. Rosemary Mahoney traveled to China as a young college graduate and taught at a college there. Her recounting of the sweetness, patience, goodness and humor of these young people is in stark contrast to the sometimes, entitled, demanding American student. The title comes from one young person's explanation that the Chinese do not expect "the early arrival" of their dreams and are willing to wait a very long time for them to come true. I especially remember the image of her leaving her classroom building on her first day of classes and looking back at the building to see her students leaning out the second story windows to watch her walk away. One young man smiled and yelled, "Do you like us?" This is one of many poignant and lovely moments. It is too bad that this book is no longer in print. It was one of my favorites.

Great Read-- Mahoney at her best!

After reading (skimming sometimes) through Mahoney's The Singular Pilgrim, A Likely Story, and Whoredom in Kimmage, I almost didn't pick this one up. Even though I enjoyed Mahoney's tales and writing style, I didn't feel like laboring through it all once again to read about China, a country that I had little interest in. Even while my general interest in Ireland and religion (topics of her other books) was higher, I found myself not able to stop reading The Early Arrival of Dreams. The perspective she has on Chinese youth and her year living there were wonderful and interesting. I devoured this book and was left wanting to read more about China. Definitely her best work!!!

Clairvoyant portrait of China

In my opinion this is the best sort of reporting: a personal experience filtered thorugh the lense of a an educated, intellecutal, and savvy writer. Rosemary Mahoney went to CHina to teach for a year and this is the result of the journals she kept while there. Essentially it's a collection of stories based on the events that happened and characters she met while in China. It reads like a novel, maily because Mahoney has such a phenomenally sharp eye for the way people move, talk, think, speak and act. At moments I felt I was reading--or watching--a play. The prose makes the action that clear. I think that fourteen years later this book is still relevant and current, especially now that China has burst for the conomically. l Much of what Mahoney wrote in this book forshadows the modern China we are facing now.

travel with me to China

The author paints a warm and intimate picture of living in China as a foreigner. Her chapter on being stranded in Guangzhou brought me back to my time in the city several years ago. I didn't want the book to end. The connection she makes with her students -- her triumphs with the Chinese language and the students' with the English language -- shorten the distance between the U.S. and China. I can't wait to get back to China.

Ordinary people in China - true love and saddness

I am a Chinese living in Hong Kong. I was so moved by this book when I read it 7 years ago. Its the extra-ordinary observation of the author that illustrated the ordinary life of Chinese People. It had special meaning during that particular moment of history. China is changing form a close society and are openning to the world. Its like birds flying out of the cage. They may forget to fly but they keep on trying. The author showed the spirit of Chinese People that are strugging to achieve their goals under difficult conditions.