Book Review Zhiqun Zhu. Understanding East Asia’s Economic “Miracles” Ann Arbor Association for Asian Studies, 2009..docx

Zhiqun Zhu Understanding East Asia Economic aMiraclesAnn Arbor: Association for Asian Studies, 2009.Following Japan,s economic take-off in the 1960s, East Asia has become the mostvibrant region in the world today. One by one, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, andHong Kong have impressed the world with phenomenal economic growth. The development ofthis region within the relatively short span of the six decades after World War II is "unparalleledin human history/5 as Zhiqun Zhu puts it (p. 1). Transnational capital flows have fueled theaccelerating marketization and globalization of these East Asian economies.Most recently, the People's Republic of China, a former socialist country, appears to havemorphed into a People,s Republic of Capitalism “with Chinese characteristics." Since theuRefonn and Opening Up” (gaige kaifang) launched by Deng Xiaoping in 1978, China haswitnessed rapid economic liberalization. Three decades of exponential economic growth havemade China the world's second largest economy, with its gross domestic product (GDP)surpassing Japan,s in 2009.China's seemingly overnight change has drawn the world's attention and caused a sort of“China fever on American campuses. Having taught an introductory course to contemporaryChina within a larger context of transnational capital and cultural flows in East Asia, I havefound that it is rather difficult to select a level-appropriate textbook for freshmen or sophomoreswith little or no previous knowledge about China or East Asia in general.In recent years, a series of scholarly works have analyzed the economic, political, andcultural transformations that radical marketization and globalization have engendered incontemporary East Asian societies. However, these books tend to be thick, costly, and highlytheoretical, and, as such, are completely beyond the students who sit in entry-level courses,without any training in the field of East Asian studies. Furthermore, often missing from thesescholarly works is a comparative perspective. In them, not much elaboration can be found ontransnational interaction, competition, integration, or contestation, each of which constitutes animportant part of East Asia's regional economic activities and everyday social life.The release of Understanding East Asia 's Economic "Miracles" fills these curriculargaps. It is the first booklet in the Association fbr Asian Studies' new series, 4Kcy Issues in AsianStudies/' which aims to create academic sources that 4servc as vital educational materials thatare both accessible and affordable fbr classroom use.： This booklet provides a comprehensiveanalysis of East Asia,s economic “miracles.” (Zhu puts “miracle" in quotation marks because theword seems to imply supernatural power and divine intervention, which, Zhu believes, does notsufficiently credit the nations themselves fbr the role they have played in their own economicdevelopment.) Seeking to examine the transformations the East Asian nations have undergone,he offers a comparative lens through which various cultural, historical, and political aspects ofEast Asian countries, development can be compared, contrasted, and better understood.Following a brief introduction, the booklet can be divided into roughly into two parts.The first part follows chronological order to draw a picture of each East Asian country,seconomic take-off and maturation. Chapter Two traces the trajectory of Japan rising from theashes of World War II and examines various international and domestic factors that have playedsignificant roles in Japan's post-war economic perfbnance. Zhu particularly highlights the term"developmental state,“ which refers to a model of ustate-led macroeconomic planning in post-World War II East Asia" (. 12). Confirming the positive impact of the "developmental state”125Journal of International and Global Studiesmodel on Japan,s economy, Zhu also points out the problems and challenges that this modelmight have brought about in the twenty-first century.Chapter Three discusses South Korea's remarkable growth from former colony (1910-1945) of the Japanese Empire to current economic power. From the 1960s to the 1980s, SouthKorea saw rapid economic development, as well as political democratization. What isparticularly useful for classroom reference is a chart that clearly lists the similarities anddifferences between Japanese Keiretsu and Korean Chaebol. Both terms refer to forms of"'business conglomerates that have played critical roles in the economic development of Japanand South Korea, respectively.Chapter Four puts Taiwan and China together fbr comparison and contrast, surprisinglyleaving Hong Kong out of the big picture. Zhu first studies how Taiwan, with America'sgenerous financial and military assistance, started a wide range of economic reforms. In the1960s, Taiwan was ushered into its "industrial er