The Gilded Cage - by Ya-Wen Lei

About the Book

"How China's economic development combines a veneer of unprecedented progress with the increasingly despotic rule of surveillance over all aspects of life. Since the mid-2000s, the Chinese state has increasingly shifted away from labor-intensive, export-oriented manufacturing to a process of socioeconomic development centered on science and technology. Ya-Wen Lei traces the contours of this techno-developmental regime and its resulting form of techno-state capitalism, telling the stories of those whose lives have been transformed-for better and worse-by China's rapid rise to economic and technological dominance. Drawing on groundbreaking fieldwork and a wealth of in-depth interviews with managers, business owners, workers, software engineers, and local government officials, Lei describes the vastly unequal values assigned to economic sectors deemed "high-end" versus "low-end," and the massive expansion of technical and legal instruments used to measure and control workers and capital within them. She shows how China's rise has been uniquely shaped by its time-compressed development, the complex relationship between the nation's authoritarian state and its increasingly powerful but unruly tech companies, and an ideology that fuses nationalism with high modernism, technological fetishism, and meritocracy. Some have compared China's extraordinary transformation to America's Gilded Age. This provocative book reveals how it is more like a gilded cage, one in which the Chinese state and tech capital are producing rising inequality and new forms of social exclusion"--

Book Synopsis

How China's economic development combines a veneer of unprecedented progress with the increasingly despotic rule of surveillance over all aspects of life

Since the mid-2000s, the Chinese state has increasingly shifted away from labor-intensive, export-oriented manufacturing to a process of socioeconomic development centered on science and technology. Ya-Wen Lei traces the contours of this techno-developmental regime and its resulting form of techno-state capitalism, telling the stories of those whose lives have been transformed--for better and worse--by China's rapid rise to economic and technological dominance.

Drawing on groundbreaking fieldwork and a wealth of in-depth interviews with managers, business owners, workers, software engineers, and local government officials, Lei describes the vastly unequal values assigned to economic sectors deemed "high-end" versus "low-end," and the massive expansion of technical and legal instruments used to measure and control workers and capital. She shows how China's rise has been uniquely shaped by its time-compressed development, the complex relationship between the nation's authoritarian state and its increasingly powerful but unruly tech companies, and an ideology that fuses nationalism with high modernism, technological fetishism, and meritocracy.

Some have compared China's extraordinary transformation to America's Gilded Age. This provocative book reveals how it is more like a gilded cage, one in which the Chinese state and tech capital are producing rising inequality and new forms of social exclusion.

Review Quotes

"

The Gilded Cage represents an exemplary integration of social science theories with China studies
and the ideas of Chinese politicians.

"---Yue Gong, Journal of Urban Affairs

"[The Gilded Cage] does a great job, not least with its remarkably rich, diverse, and substantive data. . . . Accessible and informative, the book is a must read for students and scholars from related disciplines, as well as members of the general public seeking for a critical and nuanced view of China affairs."---Yang Zhou, Political Science Quarterly

"A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year"

"The Gilded Cage is a compelling exploration of China's rapid ascent to technological and economic dominance, providing a nuanced view of the nation's shift toward state-led techno-development."---Dani Fadillah, China Information

"A timely book on how China's socioeconomic development is shaped by the advancement of science and technology (S&T), which is both promoted and controlled by the Chinese government."---Wei Wang & Shengjun Jin, Global Media and China

"An essential read, maintaining as it does a balance between scope and depth. . . . Lei's insights offer a deeper understanding of our era where states and markets are increasingly intertwined in sociotechnical development while the hype of science and technology is becoming dominant in public discourse globally."---Chuncheng Liu, East Asian Science, Technology and Society

"An important, sophisticated book. . . . The Gilded Cage is an essential read for those seeking to understand the drivers of China's technology model and how the CCP hopes to leverage it to maintain their economic growth and reinforce the Party's political legitimacy during an accelerating global innovation competition with the United States."---Brandon Kirk Williams, Journal of Cyber Policy

"Winner of the Robert K. Merton Book Award, SKAT Section of the American Sociological Association"

"Provocative."-- "Choice"

"Lei's important book works well in showing what happens when a major nation's raison d'être becomes science and technology rather than people's welfare. . . . Excellent and well-written."---James Flowers, H-Net Reviews

"Winner of the Asia/Transnational Book Award, American Sociological Association"

"Winner of the Best Book Award, Communication, Information Technology, and Media Section of the American Sociological Association"

"Honorable Mention for the Max Weber Book Award, Organizations, Occupations, and Work section of the American Sociological Association"

"[A] good guidebook for China's holistic development, not just within the last two decades but also in the decades to come"---George Hong Jiang, London School of Economics

"Winner of the Bronze Medal in International Business / Globalization, Axiom Business Book Awards"

About the Author

Ya-Wen Lei is professor of sociology at Harvard University, where she is affiliated with the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. She is the author of The Contentious Public Sphere: Law, Media, and Authoritarian Rule in China (Princeton).