YCW LN: Book Club Series #1: Young China
with Zak Dychtwald, Founding CEO at Young China Global Group
Thursday, June 4, 2020, 19:00 (London) / 14:00 (New York)
Access via a virtual conference platform – details in an Eventbrite email shortly before the event
This event kicks off Young China Watchers London Chapter’s new virtual book club initiative. We plan to organize a monthly book club where members can read and discuss books related to China with like-minded readers. From time to time, we will invite the authors to join the book club discussion.
Introduction to Young China
When the world talks about China, the focus is usually on the past: old stereotypes, old politics, old traditions, and the older generations. But China’s future is being determined right now by their millennials.
In their lifetime, these young people have witnessed: the Internet open China up to the world, a massive longevity boom coupled with a baby bust creating a 4-2-1 demography, and surging capitalist success directed by their “Communist” government. While their parents were consumed with survival questions around food, housing, and subsistence, young China is asking: “Who do we want to be?” “How do we want to live?” “What should be the purpose of money?” “What will China’s role be in the 21st century?”
Zak covers this and much more in his first book, Young China: How the Restless Generation Will Change Their Country and the World, which received high praise in the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post and received a starred review in Publishers Weekly. He has been invited to speak on the subject on six continents, and Young China is soon to come out in German, Chinese, and Vietnamese.
YCW London is delighted to host Zak in conversation as part of YCW’s inaugural book club.
Format
A short introduction by the author, followed by break-out discussions (on select topics of interest) and an audience Q&A.
Instructions on downloading the book
Young China is not yet published in the UK. While some copies are available via Amazon, the publisher suggests readers obtain the book via https://bookshop.org/:
• Search the book “Young China” on the website;
• Obtain the e-book (payments can be done with a UK credit card, simply ignore the US address by putting your UK postcode);
• Download the app “My Must Reads” on your devices to view the e-book.
RSVP
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ycw-ln-book-club-series-1-young-china-tickets-104841351304
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Zak Dychtwald has spent most of the last decade – his 20’s – in China, spending most of his time in Chendu and other second-tier cities around the country. After graduating from Columbia University in 2012, he moved to China to explore the country and get to know China’s young people on their own turf. Over the next four years, through living in tenements, hostels, and high rises, traveling thousands of miles throughout both the Eastern megacities as well as China’s developing interior, interviewing locals from Guangzhou to Chengdu to Shangri-La, Zak realized that the China we talk about in the West is far different than the new futuristic China he saw emerging.
Recently he has started a series called Lessons from the Near Future: What We Can Learn from China about Life Post-Quarantine.
Through his writing, speaking, and consulting, Zak’s overarching goal is to enrich and advance the way the world understands China. He has recently relocated to Beijing where he is the Founding CEO of the Young China Global Group—a think tank and consultancy designed to create understanding about Eastern and Western millennials for individuals, companies, and governments. Zak is based in China, a fluent Mandarin speaker, and travels globally for his work.
