Dan Wang, "Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future" (Norton, 2025)

Aug 26, 2025

Dan Wang, a research fellow at Stanford's Hoover History Lab, shares insights from his debut book, Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future. He contrasts China’s engineering-driven society with the U.S.'s lawyerly framework, discussing how these models affect governance and infrastructure. Delving into lesser-known Chinese cities, he highlights their complex political dynamics. Additionally, Dan addresses the impact of censorship on East Asian cinema, illustrating evolving narratives and the changing landscape of storytelling amidst governmental influences.

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ANECDOTE

From Niche Tech To Broad Essays

Wang chose to widen his book's scope from chips to essays blending travel, analysis, and opinion.
He aimed for longer essays rather than short, disposable chapters to address big questions about China.

INSIGHT

Trade vs Academic Publishing Tradeoffs

Trade and academic presses have different incentives: trade books aim for broader readership but risk shallow packaging; academic books can be narrow and defensive.
Wang balanced these pitfalls when choosing Norton to reach more readers.

ANECDOTE

Writers Who Thread The Needle

Wang cites Simon Leys, Peter Hessler, and Fuchsia Dunlop as models who blend formal research with lived experience.
He aspires to their balance of erudition and on-the-ground texture in China writing.

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Dan Wang is a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover History Lab, and previously a fellow at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center. Before that, he was an analyst focused on China’s technology capabilities at Gavekal Dragonomics, based across Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai. Dan is perhaps best known for a series of annual letters, published between 2017-2023, which encapsulate his reflections on Chinese society; his writing has also appeared in other outlets including Foreign Affairs, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and beyond.

In this New Books Network Episode, Dan discusses his debut book Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future (Norton, 2025). Styled as an aggregation of seven of his famed annual letters, Breakneck presents a dichotomy of China and the US as an “engineering state” and "lawyerly society” respectively, and traces how China’s “engineering state” has shaped Chinese society over the last decade.

Breakneck is now available for purchase online and in physical bookstores.

Show notes:

Dan’s website
Dan’s annual letters: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017
Dan’s blogpost about Breakneck, which we reference several times in the episode
China-related English books that Dan mentions: The Halls of Uselessness (Simon Leys), Other Rivers (Peter Hessler), Invitation to a Banquet (Fuchsia Dunlop)
Chinese-language movies from 2017+ that Anthony recommends for illustrating a diverse spectrum of sociopolitical noteworthiness: Wolf Warrior 2 (for China's nationalistic/geopolitical narrative), Upstream (for China's tech industry/labor market), Detention (for Taiwanese popular memory on authoritarianism); plus two additional movies not mentioned in the episode — Ne Zha 2 (for China's soft power potential) and Limbo (for a dark taste of Hong Kong's contemporary malaise).
Chinese-language movies that Dan recommendations: Caught by the Tides (Jia Zhangke), One Second (Zhang Yimou)

Anthony Kao is a writer who intersects international affairs and cultural criticism. He founded/edits Cinema Escapist—a publication exploring the sociopolitical context behind global film and television—and also writes for outlets like The Guardian, Al Jazeera, The Diplomat, and Eater.

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