The Entrepreneurs and Engineers in China: The Situation in the Long 1980s

Abstract

Entrepreneurs and engineers are two kinds of members of the engineering community. Among the characteristics of entrepreneurs and engineers are that they make appropriate and fast responses to changes in technological development, the economic system, the system of law, ideology, and social tradition. This phenomenon was prominent in China during the long 1980s. In this chapter, the long 1980s refers to the period from 1978 to 1992, in which the transformation from a planned economic system to a market economic system took place in China. Under the transformation of the economic and ideological system, the Chinese engineering community, especially entrepreneurs and engineers experienced tremendous changes. Specifically, entrepreneurs disappeared before the 1980s and then reemerged, and engineers who had been bound or restricted, evolved into a special kind of engineers, Sunday Engineers. This chapter will first briefly introduce the meaning of the concept of the long 1980s. Then it will focus attention on the characteristics of Chinese entrepreneurs and engineers during the long 1980s.