Good Reads for the Weekend: China
What it Is:
Many of our clients and visitors ask us what we are reading. Therefore we have decided to publish ‘Good Reads for the Weekend’-lists for several weekends in a row. Right now you can find our four best books about China online (Click on ‘Read Why it’s Cool’ below). Its history. Its mentality. Its cleverness. Its perseverance. Its sharpness in business. And its commercial communication practices.
Why it's cool:
1. The New Asian Hemishpere
Author: Kishore Mahbubani
Kishore Mahbubani is dean and professor at the National University of Singapore. He is an international renown and highly reputed lecturer . The New Asian Hemisphere is the most eloquent book when it comes to explaining why Asia, China and India in the first place, will own the 21st century. Mahbubani clearly sees and describes the innovations that the Western hemisphere brought to the world. He calls this the Seven Pillars of Western Wisdom. But now, standing on these solid pillars, the New Asian Hemisphere is able to see broader perspectives.
Great eloquent read!
Quote: “The primary purpose of this book is to explain the world as it is seen through non-Western eyes, so that the 900 million who live in the West appreciate how the remaining 5.6 billion people view the world”.
2. Dragons at Your Door
How Chinese Cost Innovation Is Disrupting Global Competition
Authors: Ming Zeng & Peter J. Williamson

Ming Zeng and Peter J.Williams wrote the best book when it comes to describing how arrogant the Western world can be. Often we hear the developed and rich countries in this world think: well, let them (the Chinese in the first place) produce the stuff, but we know how to innovate! Dragons at Your Door explains how tremendously stupid this is. As if the New Asian Hemisphere will be content with “just manufacturing”. As if they are not able to innovate on all levels and in very many fields! Dragons At Your Door describes and analyses it all very, very convincingly. “Everyday low prices on steroids.”
3. The China Code
Author: Frank Sieren

This is a thorough and well written book about the history of China. After reading it you will grasp the Chinese mentality better. China’s perseverance. China’s immense anxiety not to grow enough to feed one billion stomachs – and to risk societal unrest. But also China’s option to shield away from the word and become an isolated world on its own again. Frank Sieben, leading expert in China who has lived in Beijing since 1994, gives a compelling account of China re-emergence.
4. Brand New China
Advertising, Media And Commercial Culture
Author: Jing Wang

Brand New China is a detailed, penetrating and up-to-date portrayal of branding and advertising in contemporary China. It is amazing to read how efficiently appropriates the American ways of commercial communication. And how quickly the front runners become as clever and sophisticated and cynical about advertising.
Quote: “In recent years, widening gaps between the ideal brand and the purchased brand are indicative of the Great Declining Power of image branding solely driven by aspiration.”
