Within its 130 pages the book takes an overview of the period 1945 to 1991, covers five East Asian societies, and still manages to bring in the occasional comparison with other areas of the world.
全書僅一百卅頁，時間上縱論一九四五至一九九一年，空間則橫跨東亞五個社會，還不時旁徵博引，與世界上其他地區作比較。