Karl Gert

Alpina Business Books

The book by an American economist who lived in China for 25 years is named after an article in the New York Times published in October 2008, the author of which called on China to consume more to save the global economy. Both European politicians and young Chinese effective managers say the same thing: by consuming, China can become the very locomotive that will pull the world out of the economic hole. According to Gert, the Chinese today are no less passionate consumers than the same Americans: in just the last 10 years they have learned to travel, dress in designer clothes, drive expensive cars and visit beauty salons. But what this Chinese consumption will lead to, whether it will save the world or completely destroy it - that’s what the book is about. The author is struck, first of all, by the scale and speed of the transformation: “China has generally rushed into consumer culture with a leap - what took shape in the West over decades, stretched out for a century, in China was formed in a matter of years.”

Lisa Birger

Magazine "Kommersant Weekend" No. 40 dated October 21, 2011, p. 58

Authors:

Elizaveta Birger

Where China goes, the world will go