While I am not a specialist in Chinese Economic History, I do teach a course in Asian Economic History that takes up China. It seems to me that this has been an active research field with lots of worthwhile books and active scholars. Indeed I am a bit reticent to even address the question because of concerns for slighting important books and scholars. How should one respond to a query on this list for recommendations on books regarding the History of Economics and specific researchers in this area? With these caveats, the following books come to mind as entrees into the field and means of starting to identify researchers: Mark Elvin, _Pattern of the Chinese Past_ Lloyd Eastman, _Family, Fields, and Ancestors_ Kenneth Pomeranz, _The Great Divergence_ For post-1949 Chinese Economic History there is Barry Naughton, _The Chinese Economy: Transitions and Growth_ (MIT Press, 2007). For reasons stated above, I will not try to provide a list of specific researchers. But let me note that the current chief economist at the World Bank (effective June 2, 2008) is Justin Yifu Lin; Lin has published a number of influential articles dealing with episodes in post-1949 Chinese Economic History. David Mitch