Author Of Book On Changes In China Making An Appearance In Iowa

The cover of the book shows the same place 24 years apart.

In The author of a new book that compiles first-hand accounts of China in the 1980s and today will be in downtown Iowa tonight for the event.

Patty Isaacs visited China for the first time in 2011.

"Where we went was to China, and it was slow, and our life was like the last days of real communism in China," Isaacs says. "People wear the same clothes and the government gives you housing, food stamps, childcare and jobs."

Twenty-four years later, Isaac was offered the opportunity to return to the same university to teach English and research his book The Second Long March, Memoirs of Witnesses to the Chinese Transformation. Between 1981 and 2005, he says, the changes were sharp and surprising.

"We landed at night and I didn't even know it was a city because the lights were off," Isaku says.

Patty Isaac. (photo provided)

Many books about China lack the human connection, Isaac said, which he tries to capture in his book. We think of aliens as fairy tales, she says, but memoirs tell stories of what she thinks are ordinary people.

"I hope this destroys our perception of China as a place where everyone agrees and obeys the government," Isaacs says. "When you get to know people one-on-one, the Chinese want the same things we do. They want to make good money so that their children can feel good and not worry about getting sick."

According to the lady, it is necessary to distinguish between the government's policy and the public's view of what is happening. In an interview more than two decades ago, some Chinese said they welcomed the new services and greater freedom of travel, but said it was only a matter of time.

"Many of them are ambivalent because China's modernization has made them lose their souls," says Isaac. "People feel more aggressive and inferior in social and family status, but on the other hand, they have real national pride in what China has done."

Isaac is originally from Beloit, Wisconsin and now lives in Stillwater, Minnesota. He'll be at Beaverdale Books in Des Moines for a book reading and Q&A tonight at 6:30 p.m.

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