Joseph Y.-S. Cheng - Böcker

Authoritative and contemporary research on the economic expansion of Southern China is collected in this major new volume which explores models and patterns of development in Guangdong, with particular emphasis on the differences across this economically vibrant region. Economic and Social Development in South China brings together research by a pioneering team of academic researchers and includes statistical data on the Pearl River Delta as well as analysis of the metropolitan development in Guangzhou municipal city, civil service reform and social policy in Shenzhen, Guangzhou's municipal leadership and the basic level elections in the region since 1979. Other issues discussed include foreign outward direct investment from Guangdong, the creation of effective environmental law, foreign investment in Guangdong and the emergence of private education in the Pearl River Delta.Southern China's creative approaches to the difficulties and problems encountered since reforms began in the 1970s is rigorously analysed and explored by scholars with exceptional access to local sources and data. Economic and Social Development in South China shows how the use of competing models of economic development encouraged by the authorities will influence and shape the future of the country as a whole.

An internationally recognized authority on Chinese history and a leading innovator in its telling, Cho-yun Hsu constructs an original portrait of Chinese culture. Unlike most historians, Hsu resists centering his narrative on China's political evolution, focusing instead on the country's cultural sphere and its encounters with successive waves of globalization. Beginning long before China's written history and extending through the twentieth century, Hsu follows the content and expansion of Chinese culture, describing the daily lives of commoners, their spiritual beliefs and practices, the changing character of their social and popular thought, and their advances in material culture and technology. In addition to listing the achievements of emperors, generals, ministers, and sages, Hsu builds detailed accounts of these events and their everyday implications. Dynastic change, the rise and fall of national ambitions, and the growth and decline of institutional systems take on new significance through Hsu's careful research, which captures the multiple strands that gave rise to China's pluralistic society. Paying particular attention to influential relationships occurring outside of Chinese cultural boundaries, he demonstrates the impact of foreign influences on Chinese culture and identity and identifies similarities between China's cultural developments and those of other nations.

This book aims to help foreign contributors to China's continuing economic development to gain a basic knowledge of these matters by presenting a broad picture of building in China and the system within which they will operate.