From Mao to Market: China Reconfigured

Over the past thirty years, China has been entering inexorably onto the world stage, and into the world’s imagination. From now on, there will be a ‘China dimension’ to almost everything we do. From Mao to Market is intended for those who wish to engage with China, and as a supporting text for undergraduates who seek a nuanced overview of modern China, grounded in an appreciation of the country’s history. It draws both on the author’s long academic career researching and teaching about the country, and substantial practical experience of involvement with China going back to a first visit in 1972 during the Cultural Revolution, and a first period of work there, as a sub-editor at Xinhua News Agency in Beijing in the late 1970s. The first third of the book is a narrative summary of China’s history, and political and social development, focusing especially on the modern period up to the present day. In the remaining two-thirds the author examines in some detail areas of particular interest, and seeks to explain why China has developed as it has, emphasizing the role played by politics and culture in conditioning all aspects of Chinese life. These chapters look at the Confucian heritage, orthodoxy ideology and law, technology policy, political command structures, enterprise management, public policies and private goals, and the prospects for democracy. The issues which China faces in its transition ‘from Mao to market’ have a long pedigree. This book begins to explain their complexity.