Sunday, June 5, Glam, 4:00 PM

75 RMB, includes a drink

For the second instalment of M Talks China, join us on Sunday, June 5th at 4:00 pm at Glam for Rob Schmitz's book launch of Street of Eternal Happiness: Big City Dreams Along a Shanghai Road.  

Modern Shanghai: A global city in the midst of a renaissance, where dreamers arrive each day to partake in a mad torrent of capital, ideas, and opportunity. American radio correspondent Rob Schmitz is one of them. He immerses himself in his neighborhood, forging deep relationships with ordinary Chinese who see in the city’s sleek skyline a chance to rewrite their destinies. As Schmitz becomes more involved in their lives, he makes surprising discoveries which untangle the complexities of modern China: A mysterious box of letters that serve as a portal to a family’s – and country’s – dark past, and an abandoned neighborhood where fates have been violently altered by unchecked power and greed.

A tale of 21st century China, Street of Eternal Happiness is a nonfiction narrative that dispenses with the tired stereotypes of a country we think we know, presenting us instead with the vivid stories of the people who make up one of the world’s most captivating cities. 

Praise for Street of Eternal Happiness

“A marvel of place-based reporting" Peter Hessler
“A poignant microcosm” The Economist 
“Schmitz’s eye for scenes and ear for dialogue give an immediacy to his stories...” The New York Times Book Review
“No one will talk about 'China's rise' or 'the China model' in the same way after reading it, and years from now people will turn to this book to understand the China of this era.” James Fallows 

Q&A to follow.

ROB SCHMITZ is an author and award-winning China correspondent for American Public Media's Marketplace, the largest business news program in the U.S. with more than 12 million listeners a week. He has reported on a range of topics illustrating China's role in the global economy, including trade, politics, the environment, education, and labor. In 2012, Schmitz exposed fabrications in Mike Daisey's account of Apple's Chinese supply chain on This American Life, and his report headlined that show's much-discussed "Retraction" episode. Mr. Schmitz has won two national Edward R. Murrow Awards and an award from the Education Writers Association for his reporting on China. Schmitz first arrived to the country in 1996 as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Sichuan province. Street of Eternal Happiness (Crown/Random House, May 2016) is his first book.