began with the industrial revolution in the 18th century. it was dominated by outside powers during the 19th century. and for the last century, when this chinese's couples parents and grandparents were alive, china suffered through a collapsing dynasty, civil wars, brutal occupation by japan and prolonged battle between the forces of chang shy day and moo sze dong. a struggle that plunged the country into 30 years of highly charged experiments, from the great leap forward to the cultural revolution, all of which failed. china by the late '70s was an exhausted, impoverished, isolated country with a revolutionary's regime whose red china cause had lost any global relevance. this china's couple's parents were among the poorest people in the world with the fewest