In an interview on China in the World Economy

And Pomeranz’s The Great Divergence: China, Europe and the Making of the Modern World Economy?

Professor Kenneth Pomeranz’s book is more or less a synthesis of Jones and Wong. What he achieves in the book is to show the reader that Europe (Western) and Asia (China) departed from each other in terms of quality of life (everyday consumption) only after 1750. Before that date, Europe was not superior to Asia in those terms.

The significance of Pomeranz’s findings is twofold: firstly, he created a universally homogenous gauge for all societies in the form of material life, living standards, instead of inputs and outputs in the production system; secondly, given that China remained stable in living standards, it was Europe that changed beyond recognition. In his own phrase, China was normal but Europe was a freak. His eye-opening comparison of living standards between China and Western Europe bins the old cliché that China was desperately poor and rapidly declining.

In contrast to early thinkers like Hegel and Marx who view Europe as the mainstream of world history and the rest of the world as less important, Pomeranz’s new approach puts China back in the mainstream of world history. This has huge implications as to how we view China in the 21st century.