ABSTRACT
Coastal provinces have been the main players as well as the principal beneficiaries of the economic reform of the post-Mao era. It seems that there have been manifest differences and variations among the coastal provinces in terms of their pace, patterns and strategies of development. In the context of China where standardization and uniformity (yidaoqie) had so long dominated the process of decision making and policy implementation, regional variation was a rather unfamiliar territory. Given the limited coverage of post-Mao reform from a sub-national angle—most studies have employed either macro-national perspectives or microvillage/enterprise viewpoints—a comparative exploration of provincial reform strategies seems both timely and worthwhile. 1
