China's Age of Abundance: Origins, Ascendance, and Aftermath

In four decades since the late 1970s, China has experienced one of the most consequential economic transformations in world history. One-fifth of the Earth’s population has left behind a life of scarcity and subsistence for one of abundance and material comfort. Has China’s rapid economic growth reached to an end? What lessons can one learn to appreciate China’s historical ascendance to material abundance? Based on his  newly published book, Professor Wang revisits common narratives accounting for China’s spectacular transformation in the last four decades. He traces the origins and the paths of China’s rise to material abundance, revisits its underlying driving forces, and discusses challenges China faces as it exits its era of abundance.

WANG Feng is a professor of sociology at the University of California, Irvine. He is a scholar with expertise in global demographic change, social inequality, public policy, and comparative population and social history. Wang Feng is the author of several award-winning books in these areas and has contributed to many other publications. His work and views have appeared in major global media outlets. His latest book, China’s Age of Abundance: Origins, Ascendance, and Aftermath, examines the underlying forces driving China’s four-decade-long historical transformations.