Reinventing China is the first book-length study of China's most influential generation of returnees from abroad. It features case studies of global citizens who were undergraduates in China at the very dawn of post-Mao reform, earned graduate degrees in the United States after the 1989 Tiananmen upheaval, returned to the Reform Era of the 1990s with entrepreneurial vision and zest, and exerted outsized influence on China's emergence as a global powerhouse. Why did these talented people return to China instead of "living happily ever after" in the West? Which aspects of life abroad did they carry back? How do they contribute to changes in China today? Herself a member of this influential generation, author Zhuqing Li presents in-depth interviews with change makers at the heart of China's current developments. Readers become familiar with Liao Xiaoyi's pioneering environmental advocacy; Li Yinhe's campaign for sexual liberation and gender identity; Wu Zhendong's push to open up China's civilian aviation sector; Chen Datong's achievements in high tech entrepreneurship; and the tireless efforts of a group of Beijing-based women in the sciences and engineering to introduce Western-style children's libraries. These personal stones behind China's transformation demonstrate how creativity, flexibility, and a passion for knowledge inspires profound social change in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Book jacket.