(Yicai Global) Aug.17 -- Shanghai Book Fair 2018 opened on Wednesday. Some 150,000 books from more than 500 publishers will be exhibited at the event over the next week. We picked the following 10 business and financial publications from them as recommended reading.

Creating a Paradise for Consumption -- Department Stores & Contemporary Culture in Shanghai

Author: Lian Lingling

Social Sciences Academic Press

June 2018 edition

Starting with spectacular architectural designs of department stores, the author writes about shelf layouts, advertising copy, in-house magazines, roof gardens and female shop clerks. The book contains a large amount of historical materials loaded with anecdotes, offering a vivid account of clashes between department stores and the local culture before readers' eyes. Depictions of the shop assistants take up a considerable portion of the book.

The author, Lian Linging, is a leading US-based sinologist. She spent 25 years on this book. Her observations cover various aspects of Shanghai's four department stores during the years of the Republic of China. The book is a detailed cosmopolitan social history study with in-depth discussions on topics ranging from commerce, nationality and gender to modernization, consumerism and globalization. It reveals how the arrival of department stores impacted the urban culture in Shanghai and the lives of local residents across social classes.

The Puzzle of Modern Economics: Science or Ideology?

Author: Roger E. Backhouse [UK]

Truth & Wisdom Press, Shanghai People's Press

February 2018 edition

Discussions in this book concern the methodology of economics. The question whether economics is a science or ideology has remained a contentious issue for many decades, and there is no sign of these debates coming to an end. Economists from different schools can be easily provoked by the question. The book is a vivid account of the history of such debates. The author, Backhouse, is a celebrated British economic history and a professor at the University of Birmingham. He hopes to shed light on the methodology of economics through narrations of the history of economic development in the 20th century.

The Philosophy of Nintendo

Author: Osamu Inoue [Japan]

Nanhai Publishing, Thinkingdom Media

June 2018 edition

Nintendo spent 130 years growing from a small card workshop into a global gaming power, and it is still a lively business even today. Not many books have been published on the Japanese behemoth. The author, an information technology and business journalist, gained in-depth insights into the firm's development path and corporate values after conducting Nintendo interviews for three years. The book is an account of Nintendo's entire development history, showing readers how the company seized opportunities and rose to the forefront of gaming technology, and how it sought inspiration and turned creativity into products.

Old Bankruptcy: The Nightmare Called Longevity

Author: NHK Special Program Team

Shanghai Translation Publishing House

July 2018 edition

Contrary to optimistic depictions of an enjoyable old-age life in The 100-Year Life – Living and Working in an Age of Longevity, this book looks at people's twilight years from a totally different angle -- how hard life can be after we lose the ability to take care of and financially sustain ourselves. The NHK crew conducted interviews to find out how elder bankruptcy affects seniors in housing, living, medical treatment and interpersonal relationships, revolving around money issues as its main theme. The book contains these interviews in their entirety.

Aging is a hot topic in Japan. China is also turning into an aging society and must learn lessons from its eastern neighbor. Above anything else, the value of the book lies in its revelation of the cruel reality: All the old men and women interviewed worked very hard and made saving plans for retirement when they were young, but still face a solitary and miserable life when old.

Cotton: The Fabric That Made the Modern World

Author: Giorgio Rello [Italy]

Shanghai People's Press

January 2018 edition

This is a study of the history of global economic development and transformation, viewed from the angle of the cotton industry. Trade in textiles and clothing totals USD425 billion every year in the world today. Through continuous globalization, two leading textile producers, India and China, have emerged as major manufacturing powers. In fact, both countries occupied important positions in the history of cotton production long before our time. Asia produced enormous volumes of colorful printed cotton well before the Industrial Revolution, and sold them to Japan, West Africa and Europe. The phenomenon is known as the initial form of economic globalization.

The End of Jobs: Money, Meaning and Freedom Without the 9-to-5

Author: Taylor Pearson (U.S.)

CITIC Press

July 2018 edition

The advent of artificial intelligence has made headlines across the world, stirring up concerns that more jobs will be taken away by robots, reducing humans to a useless supporting role. Through analyses of development of economies and professions in the past 700 years and interviews with hundreds of entrepreneurs across the world, the author concludes that a less changeable work environment is risky, and it is not easy to find a job that guarantees income for a lifetime -- it will be very inefficient to earn livelihood simply by spending several hours at work every day. Thus, he proposes a '90-day plan' and a 'work system of the future' that help people objectively assess their habits and behavior and change their way of thinking to accumulate assets sustainably and thereby attain financial independence.

Future Enterprises《未来的公司》

Author: Katsuhito Iwai [Japan]

Oriental Press

July 2018 edition

Japan entered its 'lost decade' in the 1990s when Japanese company management fell into decline around the world, even as US corporategovernance became the international gold standard. This book compares the differences in corporate governance structures between the US and Japan, and imagines what the future company might look like.

The author believes that the post-industrial capitalism era is one of differentiation. Businesses cannot survive without continuing to develop new products and technologies, new markets and new organizations. In the future, a company's life will be shortened. Large companies will become larger, small and sophisticated ones will survive, and medium-sized firms will be the most likely to face bankruptcy.

Time of the Rose

Author: Dan Bin

China CITIC Press

June 2018 edition

This book narrates the investment experience of Chinese professional investor Dan Bin who has been engaged in securities and futures research and investment since 1992. He served as chief investment manager of securities asset management companies, and later founded his own investment management firm with CNY2 billion (USD289 million) assets under management. He held a large number of shares last year of Kweichow Moutai whose share price was soaring last year. His insistence on value investment has made him once again the focus of attention. This collection of works brings Dan's speeches, investment notes and articles together in one volume. Throughnumerous examples, it explains the nature and principles of stock market investment, provides specific methods for value investment and detailed and practical case analysis of the author's investment in the stock market.

Blockchain: Financial Applications and Risk Regulation

Author: Chen Xiaojing

Shanghai University of Finance and Economics Press

June 2018 edition

Blockchain is a big hit now due to its technical characteristics of information record tracking and immutability, some trial applications have emerged in finance, such as the issuance and trading of electronic money. The author introduces the current attitudes of governments to blockchain technology, especially its application in the financial sector, and explains how foreign governments are strengthening their regulation over it. Compared with other new books that interpret blockchain technology, the main focus of this book is to remind and analyze the new risks that new technology may pose, so as to avoid blockchain becoming a new tool for speculators to make profit from small investors in the stock market.

Bay Area Economy: Exploration and Practice

Author: Lu Wenbin

Social Sciences Academic Press

April 2018 edition

The Bay Area economy is an important growth pole for today's world economic development. It is also a significant mark of the world's leading coastal cities and economic belts, such as the New York Bay area, San Francisco Bay Area, and Tokyo Bay area, all of which are world-class economic hubs. China has also seen the huge potential of the Bay Area economy. At present, it is making every effort to promote the construction of the Greater Bay Area of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau in a bid to create a world-class Bay Area and a world-class city cluster.

This book gives a detailed introduction to the world-famous bay areas from the perspectives of development history, economic success factors and industry and spatial form, and summarizes these experiences for the development of China's Bay Area.

Editor: Ben Armour