The biggest surprise is the blinding speed in which Asia has caught up with the rest of the world, both in total population of millionaires (equal with Europe) and in total assets accumulated (almost as much as the US).
I slum it in political forums often (I had to wean myself off of /r/politics just to get IRL stuff done!), and the prevailing wisdom of the crowds always think that the wealth in Asia is more concentrated into distinct industrial silos filled with nepotistic back-alley corruption and Politburo greed; which might well be the case, but it looks like some real entrepreneurial success is creeping in there!
Not much of a surprise there. If you ship all your manufacturing to an area and then proceed to get yourself hip-deep in debt to buy the stuff they make then the balance will shift rapidly.
Asia always had the long view, it's the West that is on a three monthly myopic 'quarterly earnings reports' schedule that makes it look as though we're making the right decisions but actually we're setting ourselves up for a bit fall. The cycle repeats.
I slum it in political forums often (I had to wean myself off of /r/politics just to get IRL stuff done!), and the prevailing wisdom of the crowds always think that the wealth in Asia is more concentrated into distinct industrial silos filled with nepotistic back-alley corruption and Politburo greed; which might well be the case, but it looks like some real entrepreneurial success is creeping in there!