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

by Tim Clissold Narrated by Stephen Critchlow

Overview

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.

Editorial Reviews

The New York Times Book Review - Mara Hvistendahl

Clissold alternates a quick and engaging romp through Chinese history with tales from his own recent misadventures in the carbon-trading market there…

Publishers Weekly

09/15/2014
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. (Nov.)

From the Publisher

Delightful… this trenchant, immensely entertaining study in the contradictions of Chinese capitalism should be required reading.” — Fortune

“An adventure tale. Clissold is a wonderful and compassionate narrator (with) a deep respect for the culture, language, and history.” — USA Today

“One would be hard-pressed to find a serious Western investor in China who isn’t aware of Clissold’s eye-opening account.” — Forbes

“Lots of Western businessmen have China war stories, but only Tim Clissold has written . . . this funny book.” — Newsweek

“One of the wittiest, most compelling accounts of anything I’ve read in a long time. A terrific book.” — Tucker Carlson

“A compelling account, related with sly humor and hard-earned wisdom.” — Library Journal

“Hugely entertaining…Clissold loves China…but he also views it with clarity and no small amount of humor.” — Washington Post

“A pragmatic application of good-sense peasant wisdom in negotiating big financial deals with the Chinese....Clissold’s deep knowledge of Chinese culture and language informs this useful work.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Clissold’s advice is timely and may even be useful to those outside the business world as well as in.” — Publishers Weekly

“The insights Clissold sheds on deal-making in China ultimately stem from an ability - born of years of experience and his fluency in Mandarin - to see any situation from a local counterparty’s viewpoint.” — Financial Times

Newsweek

Lots of Western businessmen have China war stories, but only Tim Clissold has written . . . this funny book.

Financial Times

The insights Clissold sheds on deal-making in China ultimately stem from an ability - born of years of experience and his fluency in Mandarin - to see any situation from a local counterparty’s viewpoint.

Fortune

Delightful… this trenchant, immensely entertaining study in the contradictions of Chinese capitalism should be required reading.

USA Today

An adventure tale. Clissold is a wonderful and compassionate narrator (with) a deep respect for the culture, language, and history.

Washington Post

Hugely entertaining…Clissold loves China…but he also views it with clarity and no small amount of humor.

Tucker Carlson

One of the wittiest, most compelling accounts of anything I’ve read in a long time. A terrific book.

Forbes

One would be hard-pressed to find a serious Western investor in China who isn’t aware of Clissold’s eye-opening account.

Washington Post

Hugely entertaining…Clissold loves China…but he also views it with clarity and no small amount of humor.

Financial Times

The insights Clissold sheds on deal-making in China ultimately stem from an ability - born of years of experience and his fluency in Mandarin - to see any situation from a local counterparty’s viewpoint.

Newsweek

Lots of Western businessmen have China war stories, but only Tim Clissold has written . . . this funny book.

USA Today

An adventure tale. Clissold is a wonderful and compassionate narrator (with) a deep respect for the culture, language, and history.

Time magazine

Praise for Mr. China: “Clissold’s memoir is an instant classic. Sharply observed, funny as hell. Indispensible.

Kirkus Reviews

2014-09-16
A pragmatic application of good-sense peasant wisdom in negotiating big financial deals with the Chinese. An investment analyst who returned to his native England with his family in the mid-2000s after 20 years living in China, only to be lured back by a new high-stakes venture in "carbon credits" ("not the black stuff"), Clissold (Mr. China: A Memoir, 2005) chronicles the whole quirky yet lucrative journey. During his years in China, the author had learned to abandon some basic (Western) assumptions about society, business and government: "I'd learned the hard way that if you wanted to survive in China, it had to be on Chinese terms." As a fluent speaker of Mandarin, Clissold was approached by a fast-talking Australian entrepreneur to help put together a mega-deal that would aid polluting Chinese companies with the installations of new equipment (incinerators available only in Japan) to reduce the country's enormous greenhouse gas emission crisis. The English syndicate of investors researched horribly polluting factories in places like Hangzhou and helped fund the purchase of incinerators, then offered carbon credits on the eager European market. However, the way of doing business in China was not so straightforward or transparent, and the deal threatened to fall through. Hence the need for Clissold's particular brand of patient, frequently amusing translation ("even a beast like a thousand-pound ox must lower its head to drink"). Between dispensing old saws about the futility of changing ancient ways, the author walks readers through the first attempts to crack China's markets, namely by Lord Macartney in 1792, and subsequent resistance to outside change all the way to Mao Zedong. The author's "rules" of respecting China's particular way of doing business include the overarching need for stability and the use of indirection, among others. Clissold's deep knowledge of Chinese culture and language informs this useful work.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170295944
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	11/18/2014
Edition description:	Unabridged

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