You won't find a good explanation because there aren't many macroeconomic events bigger than this and we simply don't have the data. Economics in general is a curve-fit process; it's far easier to look back on past events and explain them than it is to forecast. To complicate the issue, China has a hybrid market/command economy which allows them to do things that a market economy (like the US) or a command economy (like the former Soviet Union) can't do. It's not an easy combination to manage; as I understand it, most of what you're seeing here is China's burgeoning middle class taking a beating. The peasant class is unaffected by this, the wealthy are less effected by this. I've read a few books on investing with China in mind and I can't say that I'd recommend any. I have a bias towards the rationalists but I recognize it as a bias, not some deep insight into their accuracy.