Compare Wang’s description of his parents’ financial struggles in North America with the hypothetical prosperity they might have enjoyed in China. How does this personal counterfactual illuminate broader questions about economic opportunity and social mobility in both countries?

How does Dan Wang use his family’s emigration story to frame the broader comparison between China’s engineering state and America’s lawyerly society? What personal stakes does this narrative perspective add to his policy arguments?

How does Wang’s personal background as a Canadian who lived in both the United States and China shape his perspective on the two superpowers? What advantages and potential limitations might this perspective create?

What does Wang mean when he argues that things in China are simultaneously getting better and getting worse? How does this paradox challenge common Western narratives about Chinese development?

Examine Wang’s claim that Americans and Chinese are more alike than different. What evidence does he provide for this argument, and how persuasive is it?

What does Wang suggest are the primary virtues of the lawyerly society? How do these virtues become liabilities in his analysis?

Examine the significance of Wang’s travels to smaller Chinese cities in shaping his understanding of the country. How does this approach differ from focusing exclusively on Beijing’s political developments?

Discuss the relationship between China’s economic dynamism and its political repression according to Wang. Are these phenomena causally linked, or merely coincidental?