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

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.

About the Author :
Tim Clissold has lived and worked in China for more than twenty years and has traveled to most parts of the country. After graduating with degrees in physics and theoretical physics from Cambridge University, and working in London, Australia, and Hong Kong, he developed a fascination with China. He spent two years studying Mandarin in Beijing before cofounding a private equity group that invested more than $400 million there. He has since spent time at Goldman Sachs recovering distressed assets and, more recently, started a business that invests in projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions in China through the UN's Clean Development Mechanism. Mr. China was his first book. It has been translated into twelve languages and was an Economist magazine Book of the Year. Stephen Critchlow is a popular and versatile actor who has enjoyed a wide variety of work, including roles in Hamlet and Pygmalion in the West End, Cyrano de Bergerac at the Royal National Theatre, and as Kenneth Horne in Round the Horne Revisited on Tour. He has also been in more than two hundred productions as a member of the BBC Radio Drama Company.

Review :
A pragmatic application of good-sense peasant wisdom in negotiating big financial deals with the Chinese...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. -- "Kirkus Reviews" Clissold alternates a quick and engaging romp through Chinese history with tales from his own recent misadventures in the carbon-trading market there. -- "New York Times Book Review" Drawing on more than twenty years of experience living and working in China, Clissold, a British businessman, offers five lessons that are absolutely crucial to understanding, appreciating, and ultimately working with and competing against the Chinese...Most importantly, Clissold's advice is timely and may even be useful to those outside the business world as well in. -- "Publishers Weekly" More than many, Clissold understands China, and here, in addition to his narrative (often humorous) of business dealings, he limns the history, battles, lessons, and outlook of this 'civilization' (not, as he points out, merely another nation-state)...Clissold's fascinating slice of life in contemporary China opens a brilliant window into a culture that has evolved over thousands of years, one the rest of the world would do well to try and understand. -- "Booklist"