Showing results by author "Kathy Flower" in All Categories

The spectacular Beijing Olympics of 2008 signaled China's arrival as a superpower on the world stage. The global economic crisis that followed in 2008-2009 saw it become banker to the West, poised to eclipse the United States. This new edition of Kathy Flower's best-selling Culture Smart! China has been revised and updated by the author to take on board the transformation in China's fortunes and the changing face of Chinese society.

For thousands of years, the Chinese believed that they had created a perfect social system based on Confucian values and tempered by the Mandate of Heaven. Dynasties came and went, but the essence of being Chinese remained essentially unchanged until the 20th century. Since then, change has taken place in Chinese society at an unprecedented speed: the country experienced the turmoil of civil war and revolution and then emerged on to the world stage as a global superpower.