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How China Escaped the Poverty Trap Yuen Yuen Ang Ithaca and London : Cornell University Press , 2016 xvi + 326 pp. £18.95 ISBN 978-1-5017-0020-0
Book Reviews
Two contrasting mistakes plague contemporary China studies as we try to fit China into social science theory. On the one hand, we tend to apply theories derived from the West, fitting China's square peg into theory's round hole. In the process, we miss something important about China, or conclude that China simply doesn't fit. Dissatisfied with this, we sometimes conclude that China is unique, studying it in a theoretical vacuum, or inventing China-specific theories and concepts that are difficult to apply elsewhere. In her comprehensive rethinking of how post-reform China developed, political scientist Yuen Yuen Ang masterfully avoids both these traps. Using her impressive evidence collected via hundreds of interviews throughout China, Ang's monograph, How China Escaped the Poverty Trap, brings insights to bear on theoretical debates in China studies, development studies and even social science methodology. The result is a sweeping account that does not shy away from going back into centuries of Chinese and Western history, into remote corners of the centre kingdom, and even a stopover in colonial America and Nollywood.
Quickly and convincingly dismissing Western theories of institutional development, Ang applies co-evolutionary analysis to make several arguments -...