中国的时代节拍

Foreword by Zhu Ling

Chapter One: Its the Economy

1. Dont get carried away with GDP

2. Thou shalt not collude on pricing

3. Can you monopolize song selection？

4. Pork price swing can be minimized

5. Food safety officials must be on alert

6. Small things make up the big picture

7. Reverse brain drain a sign of the times

8. Urban village an eyesore in growth

Chapter Two: It Takes All Kinds

9. Names in stone mark much-deserved appreciation

10. Elevator ladies, checkout clerks and the human touch

11. Dont treat street vendors as the enemy

12. Schlepping for a little respect

13. Birth place no yardstick for place of death

14. News on the move

Chapter Three: Inside the Red Compound

15. Oath taken with a pinch of salt

16. Sadly, there is an Ah Q in all of us

17. Slap on the wrist not enough for lying officials

18. Shameful exhibition backfires

19. Unconscious reflections of official mind

20. The rats just keep nibbling

Chapter Four: Rebel without a Cause

21. Rebelliousness needs outlets

22. Youth facing dilemma of role models

23. Dont let gaokao seal your fate

24. If its honest work, what else matters？

25. In a hugging league of ones own

26. Better teen body image with privacy

Chapter Five: In the Wild World of the Web

27. Bloggers revolution is largely overrated

28. Lets stop lynching by public opinion

29. Cat killers could be given alternatives

30. Starbucks in the Forbidden City

31. Mr. Mayor, a netizen is calling

32. Netizens arguments do not sit

43. Maid in China

44. Sex sells, but tastefulness still vital

45. Adult humor has its place among mature

46. Hong Kong sex scandal

Chapter Eight: Highbrow and Lowbrow

47. Arts events for national holidays

48. Grand National Theater. Can you afford it？

49. Best comedy knows how to tickle audience

50. Festival gala as tasteless as chicken ribs

51. Too much TV not a good thing

52. Dont parade entertainers as role models

53. Dabbling in real politics

54. Rockers sad show a lesson to media hounds

Chapter Nine: Cherish Our Tradition, Sensibly

55. Appreciate Guoxue as it is

56. Kneeling is a thing of the past

57. Kowtowing not best show of gratitude

58. Is the dragon too fearsome a symbol for China？

59. Be sincere in preservation of cultural artifacts

60. No need to standardize a saints look

61. A memorial service, outsourced

62. Yes, Spring Festival is truly golden

63. Chunyun provides a glimpse of Chinas reality

Chapter Ten: Language Matters

64. Hyperbole in advertising

65. Hyperbole in advertising: redux

66. Platitude overload depreciates language

67. Cutting out the waffle in speeches

68. Taking pride in our accents

69. Variety in name not a bad thing

70. Those addresses, they keep changing

71. A learning fad thats truly crazy

72. Make English learning less agonizing

Chapter Eleven: When East and West interact

Chapter Thirteen: In the Mood for Humor

Afterword

Acknowledgments

X-Ray： Examining the China Enigma is a collection of 99 columns Raymond Zhou wrote for China Daily in the past few years. It is one mans adventure into the murky world of mostly mundane changes - progress and frustration that make up the tableau of a country in breakneck growth.
　　Zhou shies away from the big issues that everyone is familiar with; instead, he focuses on controversies that cannot be explained away with broad black-and-white strokes. His keen insight, sometimes infused with biting humor,adds a multi-dimensional hue to what would otherwise be regular issues of the week.
　　What makes Zhou stand out is his unique perspective and his acute rationality. He refuses to join in crowd-pleasing choruses, and he does not take any preconceived stands. He appreciates complexity and encourages the reader to do the same.
　　Vast and sweeping changes are made up of many smaller ones - some expected, others more difficult to digest. By dissecting some of the befuddling happenings of the past few years,Zhou has put a personal mark on cracking the codes - cultural and otherwise - that run the emerging power that is China.
　　Barely a contemporary subject is spared in this collection of commentaries written by Raymond Zhou over the past three years. From the weighty to the frothy, Zhou charts the dramatic changes taking place in China by striving to be a voice of reason. With each topic - Chinas youth, culture and the arts, the Intemet,morality and spirituality, the economy, and East-West relations - Zhou projects the same message： keep an open mind and exercise moderation.

Raymond Zhou
　　Raymond Zhou is a writer who is hard to define or categorize： He is prolific in English and Chinese; his topics and interests cover many areas,from culture to socia！ issues; he is comfortable with all media platforms,including print, online and television, or government-oriented, market-driven and grassroots; and he explores many genres, from journalistic reporting to commentary essays, to genre-busting experiments in fusing fiction and nonfiction.
　　Above all, Zhou is praised for his ability to cross the boundaries of languages and cultures. Immersed in both Chinese and Western (specially American) cultures, he often deciphers a Chinese controversy from a Western perspective and vice versa. The ease with which he shifts his viewpoint endows him with a rare openness and independence of thinking.
　　Zhou started writing in Californias Silicon Valley in the early days of the Internet boom. His focus has shifted from high tech and e-commerce, to business, movies, arts and culture in general, and from social issues to travel and humor. He began to blur the lines of some of these areas in recent years.