Chinese on the Beach is set in the brief, electric window when China threw open its doors and the world came rushing in. Spanning the 1990s into the early 2000s, these stories track expats, locals, and returnees as they chase opportunity, reckon with history, and try not to fall through the cracks. A power struggle in a Beijing media empire, a love triangle shadowed by the SARS pandemic, the ruthless choreography of Shanghai's social scene-each story explores the tensions of a country speeding toward the future, and the people caught in its wake.