Brent

4.5

Required reading for anyone interested in charitable giving.

3.5

Relatively easy to read and enjoy, the comparisons I'd heard of the author to David Sedaris seem pretty on-point.

The concept of this book is through ten words (characters) and how they have evolved political and cultural meaning, using the lens of personal anecdotes as microcosms, Hua gives us a look into the everyday social changes and surprising parallels from Mao to Jinping. These stories are sometimes funny and sometimes awful but to read them feels like listening to an old friend.

For anyone interested in how basic Chinese culture has changed over the last several decades as told through the eyes of a man who's formative years came during the Cultural Revolution without getting a dense history lesson, this is certainly recommended.

Of note: I have never had to read the word “bamboozle” so many times in one chapter.

Nearly every page is an inspiration. King's presence as a man of conscience and moral insight, of intellectual integrity, and of unmoving commitment to non-violent resistance should be required reading for anyone with a passing interest in one of the most important figures in all of history.

King's focus of winning empathy, friendship, love, and understanding from his enemies to enact real and lasting change over aimless anger, destruction, vilification, division, and becoming like those who oppress you feels even more moving relative to today's activism climate, which often brands King's core messages of color-blindness, non-violence, and seeking union with whites for the greater cause of shared humanity as troublingly naive at best and an oppressive right-wing racist delusion at worst.

For the record, King makes it abundantly, passionately, and lucidly clear that he whole-heartedly rejects violence in all forms. Those who would cherry-pick quotes out of context to convince people he supports violent riots and zero-sum strategies need just read his actual words for more than five minutes, where it cannot be mistaken how fundamentally against violence he was with every fiber of his being. To King, violence does nothing to increase empathy and support for a cause - it just begets more violence and results in even deeper resistance from the opposition. This is what King believed, and his tactics were directly responsible for the biggest lasting gains of the Civil Rights Movement.

This book brought me to wet eyes on several occasions due to the man's profound integrity and vision. He was a man for all people. It's truly a shame that he died just when he begun his Poor People's Movement, to promote eradicating poverty for every single human being on the planet, who would then know dignity, liberty, and true personhood.