Guanxi Master

A Contrastive Look into the Meaning of North Korean Paintings

A few years ago, I remember looking on in anticipation as a batch of paintings from several North Korean “National Treasures” artists, slowly slid from their protective coverings to form a small pyramid of scrolls on a white sheet spread out on my apartment floor. My best friend from college, Mike, art dealer and media producer in China, brought them back to the US, partly as a gesture of good will and partly to show the American art community the unexpected serendipity of having a North Korean communicate over the gulf of ideology and politics that separates our two nations through the flimsy elements of water, soot, and rice paper. I don’t know what I was expecting, but as scroll after scroll was unfurled before me, the swirls of color and bold brush strokes seemed to catch me off balance and lodge in my mind’s eye in a profoundly simple expression of joy. A kind of joy unexpected from a land associated in the media with terror, famine, and deprivation. I had not expected to be moved by art from the most narrowly defined ideological genres in existence… instead I was overwhelmed.

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An Omen of the Middle Kingdom’s Rise in Middle America

In the last few years, fishermen in the United States have started to notice that the old bluegill, sunfish, bass, and catfish of the Illinois, Mississippi and the Ohio rivers have been disappearing. In their place a new kind of fish is gobbling up resources, feeding on the other species, and reproducing at an astonishing rate. The problem has become so intense that officials are now afraid that the Great Lakes are doomed to fall in the onslaught. They call these ferocious invaders “Asian carp”. The Chinese call them “Li Yu” (鲤鱼), “Black” or “Silver” carp, and have cultivated these breeds for their amazing reproductive vitality and hardiness for thousands of years. Read the rest of this entry »

Playing the Game – Understanding How It’s Done

This is the second of a two-part series exploring the Chinese use of Western philosophy as a basis for negotiation with the outside world. The first article detailed how Chinese utilize postmodernism to undermine the West’s position. The second part discusses practical applications for negotiation.

With an awesome reputation for getting a deal, the Chinese are globally acknowledged masters of negotiation. As our first article explained, much of their talent lies in identifying the other party’s values and priorities, and then using those same priorities to control the agenda. At a philosophic and political level, this means China effectively takes the language and values of Western postmodernism, and uses them to its advantage. At an individual level, a Chinese negotiator will identify something that the foreigner wants, and then use it, as it were, “against him.” Read the rest of this entry »

Understanding one of the most important aspects of Chinese culture

The Chinese can be very generous people. In fact, they are some of the most generous people I know. They never arrive empty-handed, and won’t let you leave without taking gifts or food. From fighting for the check at a restaurant to playing the gracious host, the Chinese’ spirit of generosity is one of their greatest cultural treasures. Stemming from the old village traditions, this attribute continues to impact everything from the birthday of an Anhui farmer’s baby to Foreign Ministry negotiations in western Africa. Read the rest of this entry »

A little-known jewel of Chinese wisdom that is opening doors to great opportunity

China has a historical tradition of great old sages. However, they generally weren’t characterized by the flowing silk robes and serene walled gardens that the Western mind imagines. Instead, art and history always depict them as wearing tattered rags and living in mountain caves, cold and poor. Lao Zi, Ji Gong, Zhuang Zi, and the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove are all models for this stereotype. They were men who “Saw the Tao,” and realized that because entropy was inherent in all things, poverty was the only “sustainable” lifestyle that could be proposed. In this philosophy, therefore, the building of palaces and the ruling of nations was pointless – unless one realized that they are pointless, at which point they become great fun! Read the rest of this entry »