Wild Ride: A Short History of the Opening and Closing of the Chinese Economy
Anne Stevenson-Yang
Bui Jones: 2024
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In the 150 or so pages of Wild Ride: A Short History of the Opening and Closing of the Chinese Economy, Anne Stevenson-Yang, who has spent more than twenty-five years in Beijing, looks back at the recent economic history of China. She covers developments from 1979 to 2023, recounting both the heady giddiness of it all while concluding that what had once seemed to be able to last forever has turned out to be little more than an illusion.

Stevenson-Yang analyses this recent history decade by decade (except for the last one, which goes from 2019 to 2023)—a somewhat arbitrary unit of measurement that proves very useful in presenting a coherent narrative of what has sometimes been an incoherent economical landscape. A major focus of the book is the trajectory from China’s early tentative gestures towards opening up, through the development of a seemingly full-blown desire to become part of the wider world, to the current withdrawal, as China makes it less easy and appealing for foreign industries and individuals to work in the country.

• Tags: Anne Stevenson-Yang, China, Ilaria Maria Sala, Issue 35