This year at FOCUS, Paul French has interviewed the author of a different new book on China. From history to economics, business case studies to geo-politics – the successful business person in China needs to grasp all these elements. So as the year comes to a close, here’s our round-up of those books, ranging in topic from Chinese urbanism to Deng Xiaoping’s legendary Southern Tour. Click the book titles to read more.
Reinventing the Chinese City, Richard Hu
Since the late 1970s, China has undergone perhaps the most sweeping process of urbanisation ever witnessed. It’s a story largely understood as one of growth, rapid development and economic dynamism. But it could also be seen as a tale of sprawl, bad planning and alienation. Now all the talk is of ‘quality’ in urban planning and city studies. In his book Reinventing the Chinese City, Richard Hu, a professor at the Canberra Business School, looks at the changes in China’s cities since 2010 and dares to make some bold predictions about the future. In the past, Hu has written about Shenzhen, as well as comparing Chinese cities to the rapid urban growth in other Asian countries. This latest work perhaps points the way to the urban future in China.
Wild Ride: A Short History of the Opening and Closing of the Chinese Economy, Anne Stevenson-Yang
Originally from Washington DC, Anne Stevenson-Yang moved to Beijing in 1993 to work for the US-China Business Council. In the next quarter century, she became one of the best-known foreigners in China, starting businesses in publishing, software and online media. Now back in the US, she has published a book that examines some of the current economic flashpoints in China – property, ghost cities, where power resides, and top-down control, among other issues.
Made in China: When US-China Interests Converged to Transform Global Trade, Elizabeth O’Brien Ingleson
How did the US, EU and Britain – along with many other countries – help make China the world’s foremost trading power? This is the question at the centre of Elizabeth O’Brien Ingleson’s latest book, and while it may focus on the US experience of trading with China, there is much for the UK to learn, too. The book is also an extremely useful overview of the up-and-down vicissitudes of trading with contemporary China. From the faltering, uncertain beginnings of trade in the 1970s through the period of opening up and reform to the go-go years around the new century and the problems of retrenchment since then.
The Southern Tour: Deng Xiaoping and the Fight for China’s Future, Jonathan Chatwin
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, Jonathan Chatwin travels 3,000 miles in the footsteps of Deng’s legendary “southern tour”, pursuing the stories of his journey and examining its legacies in the country today.
50 Useful Tips on China, Ralph Jennings
Even for seasoned China hands, some aspects of how business is done in China can be downright confusing. Luckily, journalist and author Ralph Jennings has attempted to demystify Chinese work culture in his new book, 50 Useful Tips on China. Paul French spoke to him about meeting etiquette, overtime and the concept of “chabuduo”.
The Great Reversal, Kerry Brown
Kerry Brown’s 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 to learn about European or American history. China is regarded as a subsidiary issue, a part of the vast, complex narrative of the British empire, despite the fact that it has profoundly influenced the culture of Britain through tea, porcelain, silk and ideas of garden design, and has impacted our politics through the role of British imperialism in China’s 19th and 20th-century history.
The Mountains are High, Alec Ash
Originally from Oxford, Alec Ash is a writer and editor focused on China, where he lived from 2008-2022. 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. Following the publishing of Alec’s memoir of his Dali life, Paul French talked to him about life in Dali, the rather relaxed pandemic experience there, whether burnt-out professionals are really forsaking city life for the mountains, what it takes to “drop out” in China, and who exactly is “lying flat”.
From Click to Boom, Lizhi Liu
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? From Click to Boom 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, an assistant professor at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University in Washington DC, to discuss potential answers.
Male Idols and Branding in Chinese Luxury, Amanda Sikarskie
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 loyal fan bases. Sikarskie’s new book explores the concept of the male idol, along with some of the major considerations for brands in China who want to work with them.
