20 years
20 years.
I set foot on the Middle Kingdom twenty years ago. It was the late nineties, there was no Starbucks, no bread, no luxury brands, no Alibaba, nothing of what makes today's China so pregnant in our g world.
I was a very young unexperienced Chinese culture lover and mostly an academic mind with an adventurer spirit. It was a hell of a time, and so much fun to see all the developments and changes taking place.
I have read all the Chinese classics, philosophy, novels and i have not stopped to nurture myself with those esoteric knowledge.
When i arrived establishing myself in Shanghai, all my Chinese friends told me that an intellectual mind like myself would be better off in Beijing than in narrow minded consumerist Shanghai. I decide to base myself in Shanghai specially because of that. I did not want to spend all my time discussing philosophy, Zhuang Zi or Lao Zi with likeminded people. I wanted the opposite . I wanted to put this knowledge on trial by plunging into business and ventures of different sorts to get a knowledge in action, not just a theoretical one. As i continue to frequent Chinese classic authors of different sorts everyday i was dealing with very concrete problems and real people. There was some rollercoaster time, big ups and big downs, time of tremendous achievement and time of despair. Along the way a lot of people reached out to me from outside of China to be their consultant, china managing director, or even to give my views on China for media and conferences. I steadily turn them all down. It did not feel right to me . Of course i met some people who do not know the Chinese language nor Chinese culture and with an inexistant track of record becoming " China Specialist" overnight. I was determined ( and still am) not to fatten their ranks.
At the time i was too focus on my multiple ventures, to learn the ropes, to become ChinaWise to even bother, and i had this intuition that this type of China Specialist position was a trap. I was not ready nor credible enough in my own eyes to give any kind of advice. I had to turn 20+ .
The following book is both a treaty on Chinese culture and a field manual destined to those who have to deal with China, in business, government or even love . It is rooted in reality, filled with first hand informations, and organised around a few key principles . It is not made "to explain China" nor " reflect on China " or whatever noisy subjects that metastases in the media or the internet . It might fuelled some dinner conversations, but it is redacted for a single purpose : to make you win ! Too many books on the subject written by academics, business consultants or journalist try to be "right on China". This one is not about winning an argurment, it is a weapon to win.
UNDERSTAND WHERE YOU ARE
5000 YEARS OF CIVILIZATION ARE CONTEMPLATING YOU
Here you are. You finally arrived in China. As soon as you are leaving the airport, you have this exciting feeling. You are where you should be to take your business or your fate to the next level. At home, you saw it gradually coming. The West is in crisis, and the power, the money, the cultural influence even as shifted towards the East. Here 100 new millionnaires are created every single day. You can be one of them. Whatever you have something left at home, or you came "mayflower's style", you are affronting a totally different reality. You can't really verbalise it, but you know it in your gut. Maybe you already speak Chinese, maybe you are dedicated to learn, maybe you already have a tutor, or maybe you think you do not need the langage. It does not matter if you are already rich or not, famous or not, powerful or not, all cards are going to be redistributed and your first decisions will unfold consequences that you can't really see.
Only one thing is certain at this stage. Wether you know it or not, you are going to get wet.
A/ take the Sea
Confucius was devising with his favorite disciple, Yuen Wei, along a tumultuous river. He was talking about human nature, explaining how measure in everything is the human's reality. He took the river next to them as an example. In a well orderly contain fashion, he slowly explained how we human can not survive some powerful aspects of human nature such as passion, greed, hubris, emotions ... Look at the river, he said, It is not humanly possible to survive this force. One need to go in life reflecting about this reality. Do not get tempted by what's surround you and will make you loose your ground and contenance. As Confucius was pronouncing those wisdom, a long haired, savage type appeared on the water, smiling and cheering upon those waves in a frantic, disorderly fashion. Confucius and Yuan Wei, glanced at each other for a moment, speechless. The Master then said: " This creature must have some knowledge about the Dao, Hurry, we have to interrogate it". They both started to run, and finally reached the " creature" who was air drying on the bench of the river. The creature was naked and when Confucius and his disciple approached him they could see he had the same human attributes than theirs. Despite them, he was uncovered, and he did not have the carefully knotted scholar pony tail but at their surprise he could speak. As Confucius was asking him how he managed to survive the terrible flow of this powerful river, the man told them that he just decided to plunged, and somehow let the current guide him, not really thinking about how.
Long story short. Some of you have probably recognised a famous chapter of Zhuang Zi.
Contemporary China, is very different than this ancient times were this story takes place. If you ask your Chinese friends , a huge lot of them never read the book written five centuries B.C.
Let me put it that way, you are equally the 3 characters mentioned in this story. And as long as you deal with China you will continue to be, exchanging roles at a pace so fast you probably won't notice. After a While being the apprentice, you will meet newbies and get it the master clothes for a short moment before something so small and casual will erode all your certainty about your hard learned lessons. But sometimes you will have those graceful moments were everything turns right without any knowledge of the why, your biggest concern will resolve overnight, and you will have the satisfaction and the comfort of achievement.
Sink or swim
Chinese reality and society is super tough and always has been. If you see people smiling ( as you know Chinese people smile), don't get confused. They smile because it is though, it is an attitude forged for dozen of centuries as a reaction to an unfair society, an history of wars, destructions, famines, natural catastrophes, and hardship. You might consider that the Chinese economy is doing very good, that people are getting rich and you might get distracted by the abundance of goods, food, lights, skyscrapers and so on, the reality is still very though and the country is a boiling volcano. If you hear that the government is fostering the concept of "Harmony", know that they fear turmoil. Today the Regime is talking about "China dream", understand that social unrest is at the door and that a lot of people feel left apart of China's growth. You probably be among those people, but if you interrogate them they will discard this point of view. They will tell you that Chinese people are confident, that the country is steering in the right direction, and their reassuring words. True or not it is not here the subject. It is impossible to know for sure, and things are good till they are not.
Know one thing for certain: you are and will always a foreigner ( some sort of monkey with a human face) . Your human type, your different culture sets you appart. period. What you see is never what is really happening and you need to start to be good at see it through or you will rapidly suffer the consequences and be a fool.
How to learn Chinese quickly and efficiently
Chinese langage is almost impossible to master for foreigners. You can spend decades learning it without fully understand what people are talking about. It is a sort of Moby Dick, a giant whale that is evolving constantly. Whatever is your level, you will face situations where it's not enough. You must constantly be on the learning curve with it. It is the same with Chinese history ( well everything coined Chinese basically) you can not know it. The reasonable approach there is not the macro approach ( you might appear knowledgeable among ignorants but it won't serve you to know by heart the successions of Chinese dynasties - it won't bring you any insight, it would just make you an entertaining monkey- ). Instead, i deeply recommend the micro approach. Chinese culture and langages ( the oral, the written and the social) are so vast, that you will certaintly find something that will passionate you. You just need to be honest with yourself and you will find something. If you are a sophisticated person, very aware of social etiquette, i will recommend you start with writings from the Qing Dynasty ( using the same counter intuitive method as mentioned earlier. The Qing were not Han - the dominant ethnic group of China- they were foreign of some sorts so they had to deploy treasures of energy and creativity to make themselves legitimate), if you are passionate by strategy, do not read Sun Zu first, but get some good novels or even movies about the fighting kingdoms and read the Shui Hu ( the story of looters, rascals, thiefs...) , if you like to get drunk, read poetry and get drunk with people, in any case, do not try to mask your defects, use them, go to the extremes with it, nobody will make you feel judged and you will learn what you need to learn and further reform or avoid. You might become adorable in the process, or even popular, fun to hang with etc...
The only thing you should avoid is to be arrogant, pretend that you are a better version of yourself that you are actually, get mad at people, frustrated or gloomy.
The same applies for companies. You will see a lot of companies that "seems" to have success in China, have impressive portfolios etc... you might envy them. And for some this success might be real for a while... What you are not realising is that their visibility, this publicity is their biggest flaw. They are China dependent which make them fragile.
THE POLITICAL PORK
Few months ago, i went to visit an old accointance of mine who also a foodie passionate and an excellent cook. He is a fifty something Shanghainese man, from a proletarian origin who managed to do very well for yourself. Despite his wealth, he likes to live frugally, and if you cross him in the street you might think that he is, at best, some kind of janitor. He is very knowledge man and has a very special blend of qualities among his pears. Both extremely practical and sophisticated scholar type of person who knows the classics. That day, he has spent the whole morning in the kitchen, preparing a vast set of delicacies in a non pretentious and excellent way. The main dish was the infamous "Su Dongpo Pork" which is a slow cooked Pork with soya sauce. This one was one of the best i had the chance to eat in decades. As i was complimenting my host for this dish, i asked him what kind of Pork he used, if it was free range and locally produced.
- " I used Political Pork !"
Political Pork?
Yes Political Pork ! you never heard of that?
Not Really .
It is called Political Pork because it is imported. Our government imports a lot of meat from western countries such as the E.U, New Zealand or Australia. in China we have to capacity to produce enough meat within our borders but nevertheless the government has decided to import it from different countries. Those countries have often a surplus on production, and are compared to China, much less populated. When the Chinese market open to them it creates a great opportunity, and an effective asymmetry. If one of the leader of this country is beginning the make unfriendly comment on China, the government can imediatly close its market and replace it by a more obedient one. That's why it is called political pork.