Yasheng Huang on the Development of the Chinese State
Conversations with Tyler
Conversations with Tyler
4.8 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 8 March 2023
⏱️ 54 minutes
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Summary
Yasheng Huang has written two of Tyler’s favorite books on China: Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics, which contrasts an entrepreneurial rural China and a state-controlled urban China, and The Rise and Fall of the EAST, which argues that Keju—China’s civil service exam system—played a key role in the growth and expanding power of the Chinese state.
Yasheng joined Tyler to discuss China’s lackluster technological innovation, why declining foreign investment is more of a concern than a declining population, why Chinese literacy stagnated in the 19th century, how he believes the imperial exam system deprived China of a thriving civil society, why Chinese succession has been so stable, why the Six Dynasties is his favorite period in Chinese history, why there were so few female emperors, why Chinese and Chinese Americans have done less well becoming top CEOs of American companies compared to Indians and Indian Americans, where he’d send someone on a two week trip to China, what he learned from János Kornai, and more.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.
Recorded January 17th, 2023
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Conversations with Tyler is produced by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, |
| 0:09.4 | bridging the gap between academic ideas and real world problems. |
| 0:13.5 | Learn more at mercatis.org. |
| 0:16.2 | For full transcript of every conversation, enhanced with helpful links, visit |
| 0:21.1 | ConversationsWithT Tyler.com. |
| 0:27.2 | Hello everyone and welcome back to ConversationsWithT Tyler. |
| 0:30.8 | Today I am here with Yasheng Wang, who is professor of management at the MIT Sloan School. |
| 0:37.1 | He has written the famous book Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics |
| 0:41.2 | on the history of Chinese economic reforms, and he has a forthcoming book coming out, |
| 0:46.0 | which I found fascinating. |
| 0:47.6 | It is called The Rise and Fall of the East. |
| 0:50.6 | Examination, autocracy, stability, and technology do out this summer. |
| 0:55.6 | Yasheng, welcome. |
| 0:57.0 | Thank you Tyler, so good to be with you on the podcast. |
| 1:00.4 | I have so many questions about China. |
| 1:02.9 | Let's start with one. |
| 1:04.1 | Why did the Chinese state physically centralize so late in its development? |
| 1:09.0 | Well, so you could say that it depends on your definition of development. |
| 1:13.4 | In one definition, you can say it was overdeveloped in a sense that you essentially only have this state |
| 1:22.4 | and you don't really have private economy, you didn't have a real meaningful society, |
| 1:27.9 | you didn't have independent intellectual class, |
| 1:32.1 | intellectual gansia in Russian word, |
... |
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