About Time I Read It: Street of Eternal Happiness by Rob Schmitz

As much as I enjoy books about China’s history and politics I think my favorites are those that serve up an intimate look at everyday life in that country. The first of these books I ever read was Seth Faison’s 2004 South of the Clouds: Exploring the Hidden Realms of China, which also happened to be one of the first books I ever featured on this blog. Back in 2018 I featured Michael Levy’s 2011 Kosher Chinese: Living, Teaching, and Eating with China’s Other Billion and Evan Osnos’s 2014 multiple award-winning Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China. I even made a pair of forays into nearby Hong Kong with Jonathan Fenby’s 2001 Dealing with the Dragon: A Year in the New Hong Kong and Paul Hanstedt’s 2012 Hong Konged: One Modern American Family’s (Mis)adventures in the Gateway to China.

The latest these books I’ve read is Rob Schmitz’s 2016 Street of Eternal Happiness: Big City Dreams Along a Shanghai Road. Since I’m already a sucker for this subject matter, the fact it was a staff recommendation at my small town library made it truly hard to resist. After reading just a few pages I knew my good people at the library had not steered my wrong. Not only is Street of Eternal Happiness one of this year’s pleasant surprises there’s a strong likelihood it will make my year-end list of Favorite Nonfiction.

If you wanted someone to write an insightful, intelligent and intimate look into everyday life in urban China Rob Schmitz is your author. He speaks the language, is ready and able to embed himself inside China’s largest and most fast-paced city, and as the former China correspondent for American Public Media’s Marketplace possesses a talented journalist’s ear and voice.

The neighborhood where  he chose to live for this project is a kind of microcosm of modern China. All around him old buildings are rapidly being torn down or radically transformed into something new, all in keeping step with China’s breakneck economy. China being an authoritarian one-party state without an independent judiciary the wealthy and powerful, frequently working hand in hand with corrupt local officials reign over Schmitz’s neighbors like feudal lords. Residents are evicted on a whim while others have seen their modest dwellings demolished while they’ve  watched. Knowing the deck is so heavily stacked against them when it comes to fighting injustices of any kind, the general consensus is to go with the flow while trying to make a buck or two without antagonizing those in power.

Probably no country in history has changed economical and societally change like China has in the last 40 years. Untold millions of mostly rural Chinese have migrated to cities like Shanghai transforming them into massive engines of economic growth impacting markets around the globe. But for every hyper successful entrepreneur and CEO there are countless upon countless of anonymous Chinese who struggle to make it big. These are Schmitz’s neighbors.

Frequently they’re middle aged Chinese who came of age during the last years of the chaotic Cultural Revolution or the stagnant period following it. Denied the opportunity to pursue higher eduction, they lack the skills to compete in the new global economy. Armed only with their ambitions, they frequently fall victim to pyramid schemes, fly by night business ventures and Prosperity Gospel hucksters. Others like Schmitz’s accordion musician and café owner neighbor CK might roll out a legitimate business only to later repeatedly reinvent it and fail each time.

Like I said earlier Street of Eternal Happiness is not only one of 2023’s pleasant surprises but also a likely candidate for this year’s list of Favorite Nonfiction. If you’re trying to understand the ins and outs of today’s China add this book to your reading list.