Liu Kang argues that globalization is not simply a new conceptual framework through which cultural change in China can be understood; it is a historical condition in which the country's "gaige kaifang" (reform and opening up) has unfolded, and a set of values or ideologies by which it and the rest of the globe is judged. In five clear and concise chapters, Liu examines China's ideological struggles in political discourse, intellectual debate, popular culture, avant-garde literature, the news media and the internet. He constructs an understanding of post-revolutionary Chinese culture, making the case that Mao's ideology has been gutted, and arguing for its value in providing China with its own cultural identity, curbing the excesses of capitalism, and putting forward an alternative model of modernization.