Smokeless Sugar

Part political biography, part economic history, and part murder mystery, Smokeless Sugar sheds new light on regional and national politics and state-led industrialization in Republican China by investigating the 1936 execution of a Cantonese official.

An investigation into the 1936 execution of a Cantonese official leads to a reassessment of regional and national politics and state-led industrialization in Republican China.

Emily M. Hill is an associate professor of history at Queen’s University.

Robert Y. Eng, author of Economic Imperialism in China: Silk Production and Exports, 1861-1932:
The intricate detective work of Smokeless Sugar provides a well-reasoned and documented exoneration of the unjustly executed agricultural reformer Feng Rui. Hill’s book is the first detailed English-language account of a remarkable program of state economic planning in Guangdong during the 1930s, which laid the foundations for the Communist government’s economic restructuring of the region in the 1950s. One of her most important findings is the vital role of the state in economic development during the Republican period.

Parks M. Coble, author of Chinese Capitalists in Japan's New Order: The Occupied Lower Yangzi, 1937-1945:
This is a very impressive work ... It uses the career and execution of Feng Rui as a way of analyzing several key themes in modern Chinese history – regional and national politics in the 1930s, the role of the state in fostering industrialization, international trading issues and development, and the problems associated with transforming agriculture in China. Hill’s scholarship is excellent; she has thoroughly combed the Chinese sources.