Guanxi Master

How the West overlooks the positive requirements for constructive critique

In a recent blog at The China Beat, the Association of Asian Studies’ annual conference in Philadelphia expressed dismay that Beijing had prevented its Chinese featured speaker Cui Weiping (崔卫平) from attending. Ms. Cui had been scheduled to participate in the conference’s round table discussion “Against Amnesia: History, Memory, and the Role of Public Intellectuals in 21st Century China,” and while her work commitments were cited as the reason for refusing her exit from China, the title of the session itself may have been enough to raise concerns in Beijing. Control of an intellectual who may potentially be critical of China has a long historical precedent.

In China, artists and intellectuals have been fostered in an atmosphere of an almost religious awe for authority that must be scrupulously maintained in order to keep harmony and prevent dissent from breaking out into social unrest and chaos. When it comes to pointing out flaws in the ruling system, class, or person, the Chinese have a saying: Read the rest of this entry »

As I sat backstage discussing tea with two Chinese opera singers at the television studio yesterday, I thought about tea and its unique impact on Chinese culture and guanxi…

This is the season that all Chinese anticipate with rapture. The year’s best tea, in its “new” and “white” varieties, is coming out in the next few weeks, and the expectation has been a nagging thought in the minds of tea fanatics all over China. We have been looking forward to this moment since last year’s crop ran out in October, and cannot wait for the arrival of a new harvest of China’s finest beverage.

The reason for the excitement is because the best tea leaves are those harvested from the earliest spring growth. They must be picked by hand when only a day old, and then processed immediately the same day. Each tea plant will only give about five pickings of these delicate leaves, yet they yield the freshest and most fragrant tea known to man. Read the rest of this entry »

How the Chinese Ideal of Virtue Transmits to an Ethereal View of Business

On a delightful fall day a few years ago, while with my family on a Sunday jaunt in the rural Songjiang area of Shanghai, we pulled over to look at a roadside stall selling beautiful flowers in narrow pots, hanging from a rack. I was intrigued by the elaborate rig for these simple-looking, grassy plants, and was even more captivated by the smell of their little green flowers. I was hooked. I bought two pots and brought them home, and it was the start of my two-year, love-hate relationship with Chinese orchids.

Doing some preliminary research, I found that the cymbidium (our Latin name for the Chinese orchid) was one of the “Four Sacred Flowers” of Chinese tradition. One of the original features of the “Crystal Palace” of the first World Expo in 1851, it was notoriously hard to grow in hothouses in Victorian England, but its flowers are regarded as one of the most rewarding of the orchid species. Its delightful fragrance fills a room for weeks at a time.

And then, by chance, I stumbled upon an even more interesting fact. After seeing the orchids in my office, a painter friend immediately commented that I was “becoming a Chinese scholar”. “There is no flower that represents the scholar and his life better than the orchid”, he said with a wistful smile on his ancient face. “Why?” I asked innocently. “For that, you must look to Confucius!” he replied, in a mysterious way, and then changed the subject. This peaked my interest, and I started looking into it more. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re a follower of the China-related blogosphere, you will realize there is a great dearth of blogs that actually discuss Chinese culture. You can find everything from up-to-date discussions of commercial law, to the nuances of Chinese marketing trends, to detailed analyses of the bars of Beijing. However, there are very few sources of good information on Chinese culture and its current evolution, making it difficult for the lay observer to understand the dynamics of China’s modern society. In fact, that’s why we started Guanxi Master. However, even we need inspiration. Read the rest of this entry »

In the midst of rumors of a closing China, expats should learn how even hated influences can be tolerated in the Chinese quest for riches

In the northern Chinese province of Jilin, it is not uncommon to come across signs for local chapters of the “Resist Japan Club”. More than sixty years have passed since the Imperial Army was driven out of China, but for the people of the old puppet state of Manchukuo, the duty to fight against Japanese aggression continues.

Even at a national level, television programs frequently remind the Chinese populace of the “unforgivable,” rallying public sentiment against anything and everything that Japan might “do to China.” As recently as at last week’s national CPPCC congress, a university president warned, “Chinese youth need to be more fit, in case of a war with Japan.”

An interesting contradiction, however, is the prominent place of honor that a Japanese citizen receives in local shops and markets. No, we are not talking about the Japanese travelers who are courted for their tourism dollars – in fact, there are still areas of northern China where it is dangerous to be identified as Japanese. Rather, I’m referring to the waving golden puss that sits on the shelves and counters of so many Chinese stores. Read the rest of this entry »