Former BBC correspondent Duncan Hewitt lives and works in China. He has witnessed first hand the impact and speed of China’s recent vast social and economic upheavals. His book Getting Rich First - Life in a Changing China speaks with the voices of everyday people as they learn to adapt to one of the most rapid transformations in history.

The peasant turned lifestyle guru, the former monk working on a Shanghai building site and the once-conservative father running a gay hotline: this is the new China, a nation in motion, where whole streets are rebuilt in a week, car ownership is soaring, education goes private and rural workers migrate to the cities in search of a better life. It is a transformation that has swept through the country since the first economic reforms of the 1980s, when Deng Xiaoping announced that China would have to 'let some of the people get rich first'. While many have benefited, others are struggling to keep up in what is now one of the most divided societies on earth.

A gripping account of the transformation of modern China.

Presented by City Books at The Old Market