About the autor:
Xu Jian is the author of several fictional works, among them Oriental Hada, as well as essays and TV drama. He has also penned a number of works of reportage, including McMahon Line and The Oriental Express. Swords of a Rising Power won the first Lu Xun Literature Prize in 1998.

About the book:
Until the 1990s, Northeast China was the cradle of the new China's industrial base that made the most historic contribution to China's reform-and-open-ing-up program. However, as China's modernizing reforms deepened, the Northeast's economic devel-opment gradually began to lag behind China's eastern seaboard. This is a story of decline and rejuvenation: after the slow disaster witnessed and endured in the lonely silence of years, the people of the Northeast ultimately once again discovered the belief and confidence that their great region would rise again from the ashes.

Contents:
Preface - As the Northeast "Red Double" Fades out of Sight 7
CHAPTER 1 Tiexi: the Ruhr of China 13
1.The Ruhr: an Important Manufacturing Base in 20th
Century Germany 13
2. Father and Son in Tiexi 16
3. A Forgotten Story from the Manchukuo 26
4. Tiexi: the Eldest Son of the PRC and the Task of Industrialization 37
5. Landmark of Tiexi: the ree Chimneys 43
CHAPTER 2 Dreams and Honors 50
1. The Female Model Worker of Hao Jianxiu's Generation 50
2. The Various "Firsts" of the PRC 59
3. Traveling Up North and Down South for the Sake
of Industrialization 63
4. Six Members of the Standing Committee of the CPC