Zouping Revisited begins with an epigraph, a quote from Edmund Burke, which cannot escape the reader's attention: “A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.” In fact, this carefully selected quote sums up quite well the book's research theme: how has China managed to change the forms of governance while preserving formal organizational structures?

Notably, Zouping Revisited starts with an overview of how Zouping county in Shandong province became and continues to be a research site for American scholars. In doing so, it offers current students of China a historical perspective on US–China relations as well as on the development of US academic expertise on China's transformation. As Steven Goldstein in the preface and Jean Oi and Steven Goldstein in chapter one clearly show, one can talk neither about US–China relations nor about China studies in the US without talking about Michel Oksenberg. A professor at the University of Michigan and a staff member of the White House National Security Council during the period of US–China diplomatic normalization, Michel Oksenberg's role was of outmost importance for the establishment of Zouping county as an open field site for American scholars (p. 5). Since then, Zouping has hosted 200 foreign scholars and become an important case for studying post-Mao era transformations (p. 6). The overwhelming strength of the book's contribution to debates on authoritarian resilience and governance adaptability comes from this long-term scholarly engagement with post-Mao era transformations in Zouping. Not surprisingly, Zouping Revisited is dedicated to Michel Oksenberg and Shi Changxian, the head of Zouping Foreign Affairs Office at the time.

The key argument, underlying the book as a whole is put forward by Oi and Goldstein in the first chapter: “… China's economic reforms and growth have not only affected incomes and quality of life but have significantly changed ways of governance, despite the fact that institutional forms of governance often appear unchanged” (p. 4). In other words, governance in Zouping has taken flexible and creative forms (chapter three) or has been adaptively improvised (chapter four) in a way to respond to comprehensive economic changes despite the fact that formal organizations seem to remain intact from outside. Each chapter then skilfully lays the foundations of this general argument. Structurally, the book is organized around four parts. Besides the introductory chapter by Oi and Goldstein, part one comprises two other chapters focusing on the historical evaluation of the economic transformations in Zouping. Part two is composed of three chapters on bureaucratic adaptation while part three includes two articles on cadre selection and training. Finally, Oi and Goldstein provide concluding reflections in part four.

Economic transformation was in fact sweeping to the extent that Zouping, which was an “average North China county” during the 1980s, ranked 11th among the country's best performing medium- and small-size cities and counties in 2011 (p. 63). China's – and one of the world's – largest cotton textile company, Weiqiao Textile Company Limited, is located in Weiqiao township in Zouping (p. 74). Cotton business in Zouping's Mingji township and Duanqiao village has “gone west” by extending operations to Xinjiang (p. 77), while other Zouping enterprises, supported by a national fund promoting overseas production, have invested in Africa (p. 82). However, Kay Shimizu's discussion on economic governance (chapter three) highlights the diversified and uneven developmental trajectories among township and villages in Zouping. Shimizu allows the readers to think beyond conceptualizing even the county-level unit of analysis in China as a monolithic entity. By contrast, there is a variety of developmental paths in the Chinese countryside, and the county government plays a fundamental role in the management of contradictions. Shimizu writes, “Overall, while some localities have prospered, others have become increasingly dependent on state subsidies and assistance. More often than not, it is county governments that have been left with the task of corralling these widely divergent township and village economies toward prosperity and stability, and Zouping is no exception” (p. 66).

Looking deeper into what seems to be a monolithic success story, Yuen Yuen Ang in chapter four asserts that “[e]ven as a relatively prosperous locale that is ranked among China's top 100 economic performers, Zouping County is not spared from budgetary pressures” (p. 91). For Ang, what is key for Zouping governance's adaptive capacity is a “combination of top-down directions and bottom-up improvisation,” which appears most evidently in the realm of self-finance (p. 92). Ang addresses the discrepancy in terms of budgetary pressures between the education and health sectors on the one hand, and the construction sector in Zouping on the other. She finds that budgetary pressures are intense for the former two sectors despite the growing demand for public services. In response, public schools and hospitals aim for profit and develop a variety of self-financing tools to maximize their revenues.

Altogether Zouping Revisited accomplishes its promise to study change within conservation in China's post-Mao era. Yet, readers might ask why the well-studied governmental adaptations have taken place in Zouping, and may wish to learn more about societal conflicts and contradictions, and perhaps the failures of adaptation, if any. Still, with its unquestionably rich content, Zouping Revisited is essential reading for students of authoritarian resilience and governance adaptability in China.