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鈥攆or better and worse鈥攂y China鈥檚 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 鈥渉igh-end鈥� versus 鈥渓ow-end,鈥� and the massive expansion of technical and legal instruments used to measure and control workers and capital. She shows how China鈥檚 rise has been uniquely shaped by its time-compressed development, the complex relationship between the nation鈥檚 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鈥檚 extraordinary transformation to America鈥檚 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.
Awards and Recognition
- Winner of the Robert K. Merton Book Award, SKAT Section of the American Sociological Association
- Winner of the Bronze Medal in International Business / Globalization, Axiom Business Book Awards
- Honorable Mention for the Max Weber Book Award, Organizations, Occupations, and Work section of the American Sociological Association
- 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
- A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year
"[A] good guidebook for China’s holistic development, not just within the last two decades but also in the decades to come"鈥擥eorge Hong Jiang, London School of Economics
"Lei’s important book works well in showing what happens when a major nation’s raison d’锚tre becomes science and technology rather than people’s welfare. . . . Excellent and well-written."鈥擩ames Flowers, H-Net Reviews
"笔谤辞惫辞肠补迟颈惫别."鈥�Choice
"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."鈥擝randon Kirk Williams, Journal of Cyber Policy
"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."鈥擟huncheng Liu, East Asian Science, Technology and Society
"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."鈥擶ei Wang & Shengjun Jin, Global Media and China
"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."鈥擠ani Fadillah, China Information
"The Gilded Cage represents an exemplary integration of social science theories with China studies
and the ideas of Chinese politicians."鈥擸ue Gong, Journal of Urban Affairs
“Wondering why Montana is banning TikTok, what happened to Jack Ma, or how platform laborers fare in Beijing? Lei’s magisterial analysis of how the Chinese development model has turned away from labor-intensive manufacturing to embrace tech is a definitive account. Based on an impressive volume of interviews, data and archival research, as well as careful engagement with the literature, The Gilded Cage shows the logic as well as the dark side of Chinese development. A major contribution to the field and a must-read.”—Juliet Schor, Boston College
“The Gilded Cage is a compelling and masterfully researched account of the Chinese state’s embrace of science and technology as a path of development, the impact of the resulting policies, and their effect on a wide range of occupational groups. This is a theoretically and intellectually powerful work that serves as a cautionary warning about the dangers of fetishizing science and technology and of valuing instruments over humans.”—Patrick Heller, Brown University
“A significant contribution. Lei traces how China saw the rise of a techno-developmental regime in response to the 2008 financial crisis, and how this new economy has created anxiety and instability among workers, who toil long hours under draconian control by companies employing new digital technologies of surveillance.”—Ho-fung Hung, Johns Hopkins University
