How have large-scale resource deals between China and the countries of Southeast Asia come to rest in places and peoples lives? This is the question that animates this important book, complicating what is often seen in stark, binary terms. There is no simple answer, as the contributions make all too clear. Local histories and geographies, socio-cultural contexts and national policies all require an excavation of shaping factors and conditions if a semblance of explanation is to be rendered. This book helps us in that process of getting beneath the surface