China's spectacular rise challenges established economic moulds, but both Chinese and Western observers ask whether China's reform process is really a fast catch-up process led by transitional reforms, with ultimate convergence to global standards, or something different. This book, by a leading economist and sinologist, argues that "culture" is an exceptionally useful tool to help understand fully the current picture of the Chinese economy. The book examines long-run path dependencies and cultural legacies, showing how these contribute to the current cultural construction of economic systems, businesses and patterns of embedding the economy into society and politics.