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Blow Memorial Hall, Room 333
262 Richmond Rd
Williamsburg, VA 23185Map this location

At the Shanghai Expo 2010, the Chinese Private Enterprise Pavilion succeeded in attracting 16 top Chinese enterprises to jointly create a stunning structure showcasing for the world how China's private sector will influence the global economy in the future.

The pavilion highlighted the nation's tremendous economic accomplishments of the last three decades and illustrated how China's private sector is shifting from exclusively pursuing profitability to a focus that also includes the pursuit of innovation, technological advancement and sustainability. The theme was "Infinite Vitality."

According to China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), China saw an 81.4 percent rise in the number of private enterprises from 2004 to 2008. By the end of 2008, China had 3.596 million privately-owned enterprises, 1.614 million more than four years ago. Over the past 10 years, the wealth growth rate of China's private enterprises was higher than that of both state-owned and foreign-funded enterprises.

According to Rupert Hoogewerf's rich list, there were 60,000 Chinese with a personal wealth exceeding 100 million yuan and 200 Chinese with a personal wealth exceeding 10 billion yuan in 2010. Of the top 200 richest people, private enterprise owners accounted for 95 percent.

This lecture is partly sponsored by the Reves Center for International Studies. Zhang is a Professor at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Chinese Academy of Social Science (CASS), and Chair of the Commission on Enterprise Anthropology, International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES). The invited talk will be followed by a reception.