This is a close study of Gao Village twenty years after the author, an anthropologist and native of the village, wrote his original ethnography, Gao Village. It combines ethnographic analysis, personal vignettes, and a number of fascinating stories, which present a convincing yet complex picture of how Gao villagers interact with the outside world. With his sympathetic and insider’s approach, the author argues that rural Chinese display great entrepreneurship and inner strength of self-improvement; they are active contributors to China’s economic boom.