Retracing China's journey of 'remarkable' transformation

Firsthand experience

He advised his graduate students to go beyond textbooks, experience the country firsthand, make friends and have a sense of China as "a real living place".

"You have to have experience in the field; you have to have real Chinese friends that interact with you. You can't just read books or look at documents. You really have to engage with society and experience," he said.

Witnessing China's transformation firsthand, Gold reflected on the profound social changes that have swept the nation over the past four decades.

One of the important things that has happened since the opening-up was that "a lot of the lid which had been put on Chinese people's creativity and entrepreneurship was removed", Gold said.

"We saw this explosion of creativity and entrepreneurship contributing to the modernization of the country. People could bring their talents into full play. Over the course of more than 40 years, there's extraordinary and rapid economic development, and what's also important is China's integration into the global society."

The increasing social integration of Chinese people into global society was "a major change" and "extremely important", he said.

"For instance, here at Berkeley, every semester we have hundreds, if not thousands of Chinese students coming for short-term or long-term educational opportunities. In summer, we also have a lot of Chinese students who come here to work on their English and just experience global society," said Gold. "I think this is really a major positive development."