In the 1980s and 1990s, London art dealer James Birch built quite a reputation selling works by British surrealists and emerging young British artists (YBAs) from his Chelsea gallery. Then the globally renowned Francis Bacon agreed to let him arrange an exhibition for him in Moscow in 1988. His memoir of that adventure, Bacon in Moscow (Cheerio Publishing, 2022), is both funny and frustrating by turn, and many who did …
Moving goods around has been one of the great challenges for domestic and foreign business in China since the beginning of the country’s reform and opening up in 1979. Getting your product inland, down to consumers in lower tiers, into the countryside, to the far west or the south has been a process that had to begin virtually from scratch. Refrigerated trucks, air and rail freight, and just-in-time delivery are… …
These days, male Idols are a standard part of the advertising toolkit across Asia and in China – in fashion magazines, shopping channels, adverts, and online sales channels. It may be a rarely seen phenomenon in the West, but rest assured that it is huge in China. Put simply, male idols are able to sell more magazines and more product than female idols – largely because of their enormous and …
It’s safe to say that many are amazed (and rather jealous) of the apparent success of China’s e-commerce market and the internet businesses that thrive within it. But how did they do it? New book From Click to Boom (Princeton University Press, 2024) asks that very question – how did the world’s largest e-commerce market highlight a digital path to development? Paul French caught up with its author, Lizhi Liu,… …
Originally from Oxford, Alec Ash is a writer and editor focused on China, where he lived from 2008-2022. His first book, Wish Lanterns: Young Lives in New China, was published in 2017. Feeling burnt out, he decided to move to the more peaceful province of Dali in Yunnan to experience life there. And it was where he found himself living through the Covid-19 pandemic, too. Ash now lives in New …
Michael Sheridan has been reporting on China since 1989 for the Sunday Times, Reuters, ITN and the Independent. His new biography of Xi Jinping covers the character-making moments in his past and then brings his rule right up to date, offering an insight into how his leadership is shaping the contemporary environment that businesses in China must navigate. Paul French talked to Michael Sheridan about how businesses in China can …
Former diplomat and prolific author Kerry Brown, currently Professor of Chinese Studies at Kings College London’s Lau Institute, has just published The Great Reversal (Yale University Press). The book takes as its starting point that while modern China has a narrative of its relationship with Britain, Britons don’t have a similar understanding of our relationship with China. If they are taught any history at all, children at schools in the United Kingdom today are more likely …
Paul French caught up with author Ralph Jennings to get his advice on a few especially puzzling aspects of Chinese work life Ralph Jennings lived for seven years in Beijing and more than that in Taipei. He’s worked as a news editor with the state-owned China Daily, an advice columnist for the 21st Century weekly in Beijing and as a reporter for numerous international media outlets, including Reuters. He also… …
On a freezing January afternoon in 1992, Deng Xiaoping, China’s former paramount leader and now a revered elder statesman, set off on a month-long trip around China’s south in defence of the reforms he had set in motion to open up China’s economy and transform the country into the political and economic powerhouse we know today. In The Southern Tour: Deng Xiaoping and the Fight for China’s Future (Bloomsbury Asian …
Every August, book writers and readers gather in Edinburgh for several weekends of author talks, workshops, panel discussions and other events. It’s a busy time of year – the start of Edinburgh International Book Festival coincides with the Edinburgh Fringe and the end with the Film and TV Festival. It makes it a great time to head to the Scottish capital, and for those with a particular focus on China/Asia, …