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Chinese Rules

Mao's Dog, Deng's Cat, and Five Timeless Lessons from the Front Lines in China

Audiobook
2 of 2 copies available
2 of 2 copies available

From the author of the international bestseller Mr. China comes another rollicking ride through the slick mega-cities and industrial backwaters of twenty-first-century China—part adventure story, part erudite myth-buster, and part practical rule book to help Westerners win in China.

China's role as struggling underdog is now firmly a thing of the past. The world has tilted eastward in its orbit even as the West seems mired in self-doubt. Through living and working in China for more than two decades, Tim Clissold has uncovered stealth methods Westerners can use to straighten out complicated situations in China and achieve their own objectives.

Revealing the hidden logic that governs the Chinese business and political landscape, Clissold puts China's cultural, political, and military history into context and explains the mind-set that drives Chinese political and business leaders—a resource that has been sorely lacking in most books about doing business in China.

Here, with sharp observations and a deep appreciation for China's rich past, Clissold presents five rules anyone can use to deal effectively with modern Chinese counterparts. These include understanding that:

  • China has its own set of rules that provide a unique pathway to success;
  • the quest for stability overrides all others;
  • in China, one should never attack directly;
  • in solving problems, stick to practicalities and avoid arguments over theory;
  • and knowing yourself and knowing the "other" will help you survive a hundred battles.
  • Combining exuberant storytelling, sly humor, and counterintuitive insights, Chinese Rules traces Clissold's latest adventures, providing an object lesson in the contradictions between reality and conventional belief that continue to make China a fascinating, perplexing, and irresistible destination for Westerners.

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      • Publisher's Weekly

        September 15, 2014
        Drawing on more than 20 years of experience living and working in China, Clissold (Mr. China) a British businessman, offers five lessons that are absolutely crucial to understanding, appreciating, and ultimately working with and competing against the Chinese. These lessons are delivered through two parallel narratives. Clissold looks back to 2005, when he suddenly became involved in an emerging investment market based in China. He cofounded an investment company and invested in the carbon credits market. His recounting of his ensuing struggle to build a successful business aptly conveys the gaps between Western and Chinese business and social practices. These gaps can only be bridged by a working knowledge of the history of Chinese culture, traditions, and society. And so, second, the book is part history: Clissold recounts carefully selected historical episodes, from the dispatch of a British embassy to China in 1792 to the political rise of Mao and his successor Deng Xiaoping, as well as an account of the deadly 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square. Clissold’s memoir is less than captivating—it’s an “adventure” only insofar as investing is an adventure—but the historical portion is well-told. Perhaps most importantly, Clissold’s advice is timely and may even be useful to those outside the business world as well in.

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    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

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    • English

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