Humans are emotional beings through and through, despite our pretensions about “logic” and “rationality.” Still, now and again a logic presents itself that is so compelling that it forces us to take notice. One such logic revolves around how we judge ourselves and others, with culture winding up, per usual, at the center of things. [...]

Today we’re revisiting the topic of contracts versus hétong. There’s rich territory to explore here. I was recently revisiting Lin Yutang’s classic book, My Country and My People, and it spurred some more thinking on this issue. I’ve quoted from the book before: it was Lin Yutang who referred to China as “a nation of individualists” [...]

In earlier posts I’ve quoted from Jack Perkowski’s Managing the Dragon: How I’m Building a Billion-Dollar Business in China. I haven’t yet finished the book. I’m enjoying it a lot, because it’s chock full of wisdom for the Westerner who wants to make a go of it in China, and much of what he writes [...]

When doing business in China, sometimes the most “obvious” things can trip us up the worst. In his classic book Beijing Jeep, Jim Mann tells the long tale of American Motors Corporation’s Jeep-building joint venture in Beijing, including many an anecdote with cultural lessons. One such lesson involved Ed Schulze, head of production and maintenance [...]

Over Labor Day weekend I got together with an old friend — a fellow I once taught Chinese to, who for a couple years made a quasi-career out of advising Western leaders on the ground in China about how to do business. I asked him to tell me a few stories. He told me of [...]

In some earlier posts on the business of culture, I’ve referred to three precious resources that are hard to come by and easy to squander in China: time, money and goodwill. The third one may be a bit of a puzzler. To the American eye it may look out of place alongside the twin kings [...]

If you’ve ever visited China, you probably noticed how little space gets wasted. Families make do in spaces that seem absurdly small to many Americans. Vegetables are grown in often-surprising places: next to roads and railroad tracks, for instance. Money doesn’t get wasted either. Many have talked about how the Chinese consumer is the great [...]

I was thinking about the qualities of the culture-savvy leader as I read this piece on Dan Harris’s always insightful China Law Blog. At one point Mr. Harris quotes an earlier essay of his: