Book review: the art and beauty of the everyday in contemporary Beijing: between philosophy and ethnography

Ten Thousand Things explores the many forms of life, or, in ancient Chinese parlance “the ten thousand things” that life is and is becoming, in contemporary Beijing and beyond. Coauthored by an American anthropologist and a Chinese philosopher, the book examines the myriad ways contemporary residents of Beijing understand and nurture the good life. Against the too common stories of factories, smog and overworked labour, Karl Baker finds that this study offers an intimate view of the remarkable vivacity of ordinary Chinese urban lives. Ten Thousand Things: Nurturing Life in Contemporary Beijing. Judith Farquhar and Qicheng Zhang. MIT Press. April 2012.