This book is about the Shanghai stock market. It describes the market as it appeared at its earliest stage of development in 1992, a stage which the Shanghainese themselves characterized as “immature.” Since that time, significant changes have taken place in the size and complexity of this market. Some but not all of those changes have been documented in the final chapter to this book. If this account is centered on the market's first tentative steps, it is because the ethnographic material which I collected at that moment provides invaluable insights into the deep structure of this new institution and of the society in which it operates.

For Chinese government regulators and Western or Japanese securities firms with toeholds in this market, this is not the ideal public relations pamphlet. I cannot apologize for that fact, though I can say that a genuinely ethnographic account of the New York or Tokyo stock exchanges might not be more flattering. I do wish to emphasize, however, that none of the peculiarities or problems which I discuss can be laid at the doorstep of individuals or even of single institutions. Indeed, it is difficult to find a more savvy and interesting bunch of people than the Shanghainese – government officials and small-time investors alike – who gave so generously of their time to help me come to this understanding of their stock market.