Ebook: China: [the essential guide to customs & culture]

For thousands of years, the Chinese believed that they had created a perfect social system. Dynasties came and went, but the essence of being Chinese remained more or less unchanged until the twentieth century. Following invasion by the Japanese, civil war, and revolution, in 1949 Mao Zedong and the Communists took power. China was largely closed off from the rest of the world, undergoing almost constant revolution at an often terrible price. After Mao s death in 1976 the country opened its doors to the West and introduced a nascent market economy, called socialism with Chinese characteristics. China became the workshop of the world. Low wages and a low yuan boosted exports and created jobs for millions.