This book focuses on the production of low-quality goods, the rise of markets for imitations and shoddy goods, and dishonest trading practices which developed along with the expansion of global trade in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in East Asia.

This compelling book analyzes the dramatic changes in rural Chinese society as a result of rapid urbanization. Building on eight decades of studies of the village of Lengshuigou, Chinese sociologists examine the fundamental changes over the last century that have radically transformed centuries-old systems of patriarchy and generational order.