A Francophone and Francophile, Bo XU is a career diplomat. After serving in Lebanon and Brussels, he is posted in France where he has lived for eight years. In 2010, he was director of international relations of the organizing committee of the Expo 2010 Shanghai China. For many years he has contributed to improving relations between China and France.
Bo Xu was six years old when Mao’s Cultural Revolution was launched, 18 when Deng Xiaoping opened China to the winds of globalization. From a family of “bad elements,” it seemed he would not have a future. And yet, a measure by Deng Xiaoping would change his life completely by allowing him access to a university education and pursue a diplomatic career. A fate that his former classmates, who were less lucky than he, would not share …

Bo Xu begins his story with their reunion in Shanghai, where they all born. Forty years later, thanks to WeChat, the former students were able to meet again: a unique occasion to haphazardly recall the vicissitudes of the Cultural Revolution and their personal journeys, the nostalgia for a traditional China that has disappeared today, their former, “so peaceful” town, the unbelievable, and for them, disturbing metamorphosis of Shanghai into a glittering megalopolis…

With personal anecdotes, family memories and reflections on China today, this book paints the portrait of a generation, the one that is in power today, and of a country whose dazzling advancement is both worrisome and stunning at the same time.