Each time I return from China, I find myself puzzling over the same question: Why did the trip outperform my expectations again? Why did the frictions I braced myself for, mainly on account of my non-existent Mandarin, again fail to materialise?Do not misunderstand me. I am no novice when it comes to China, nor am I ignorant of its rapid development. Please do not lump me in with some of my fellow millennials, loudly declaring on social media, after a couple of hotpot meals at Xiang Xiang and one Guilin trip, that they are in a “very Chinese time” of...