Almost everyone who knows little about China is enthralled by the opportunity to sell products to all those people who live there. Those with a little more knowledge also get excited about having products made for export from Mainland China. Those with still more knowledge look forward to outsourcing services to China. Beyond that, some speculate that Mandarin Chinese will even become the dominant language of the Internet, and see amazing opportunities to buuild new economy businesses from a Chinese base.

But those speculations all beg the question: What should your company be doing today?

The New Silk Road is the first book I have read that reflects the views of my friends who have 20 plus years of experience doing business there. As such, it counters much of the overoptimism that makes American companies too anxious to expand there, and leads to mistakes that hurt short and long term results.

Any company that is considering its first stake in China, or re-evaluating the stakes it has today, should be sure that those involved read this book.

The key lessons are that company goals must be more carefully considered, partners chosen more thoughtfully, expectations of near-term profits lowered, a focus shifted to developing Chinese management and workers, and a longer-term perspective taken on developing and maintaining relationships. Perhaps the most fundamental point of the book is that things are very uncertain in China. With lots of effort you can reduce the uncertainty, but it will still be higher than in almost any other country. So there will be a premium placed on making decisions that will be good ones regardless of what happens in the Chinese business environment.

When you do your homework, you will find that China has more competition than almost any other country and lots of excess capacity. A small percentage of the people can afford to buy what you want to sell. Regulation and bureaucracy will keep you out of the best markets for what you want to do. The rules will change tomorrow. Everything will take a long time. Political tensions among your home nation and China will be used against you in business. Sounds challenging, doesn't it?

While China is underdeveloped economically and in entrepreneurial and business skills, the people are well educated and know a lot of things you do not. For one thing, they know the many different markets in China and how to do business there. They have local connections that you need. They also have skills in negotiation and strategy that you may not have. So seek out how to make the best of both worlds, rather than just plan to do business like you do in your home country. In fact, your product will probably have to be customized for the Chinese market.

Mr. Stuttard does an excellent job in his essay, "Reflections on China at the End of the Second Millennium," of summarizing the lessons from the case histories. Be sure to reread this essay after you finish the book. It will help put the case histories in perspective for you.

He has done well in choosing a variety of case histories, that reflect varying levels of success. The book is especially lucky to have the perspectives of comapnies with a great deal of Chinese experience like American International Group, John Swire, United Technologies, and Shell. In each case, either the company's CEO or the operating head in China is the person interviewed.

The people who run the business in China for you will be very vulnerable. When unpredictable shifts cause results to fall, their heads will be on the chopping block in some companies. That's not a good idea, because the set-backs will often not be due to any fault of their own.

You will also get helpful hints on the best ways to recruit talent, conduct training, and integrate expatriates.

After you have finished reading and enjoying this valuable book, I suggest that also consider where else the lessons of this book apply. I suspect that your success in many other parts of the world would be enhanced if you employed these lessons there, as well. Also, how else can you overcome communications stalls among your various operations and with your various stakeholders?

Focus on what needs to be done now to develop your short and long term potential!

This short book consists of the reflections of John B. Stuttard, former Chairman and CEO of PricewaterhouseCoopers China (1994-1999), and summaries of his interviews with 11 top executives working in Western companies in China. Each interview runs 8-10 pages and includes a short bio of the exec along with a quick snapshot of the company's current Sino-standing. The first chapter is Stuttard's and is a fine read that perfectly sets the context and perspective of the 21st century business environment in the country destined to one day overtake America as the world's single largest consumer economy.

Everyone featured in the book, including the author, is an "Old China Hand". Several of the companies are legacy firms, those with pre-WWII and pre-Mao histories who returned after the country turned face forward once again. Others are case study JV's with relatively short, 10-20 year pasts. Each chapter is compelling.

There is some flag waving for the Chinese. These are people who have listened to countless stories at countless banquets about the Chinese fear of chaos and the cultural scar tissue of 150 years (roughly 1790-1940) of shameless behavior by colonial minded Westerners in China. These stories are, after all, Inculcation 101 for any Westerner attempting even superficial commerce or business in the Middle Kingdom. Let's not forget the Chinese did a pretty good job of creating 25+ years of chaos themselves during the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. The Japanese were several degrees beyond shameless during World War II. These events are much fresher in the Chinese consciousness than King George III, yet he and Emperor Qianlong still seem to dominate every conversation that explains and/or justifies Chinese desire to top down control all macro and micro aspects of their economy, firms and even routine business transactions.

Still, there is sage wisdom on every page. The book is best when the execs tell what they did in China to be successful. Some of the common themes are the need for good local managers and training programs, a corporate culture of equality with your Chinese partners regardless of equity division, the success of long term strategies versus short term. The deliberate love each exec feels for what they are doing and, in some ways, for China, is clear. The awesome change taking place in this country is also reflected in these interviews. A difference in attitude and tone can be seen between execs in consumer product industries versus sensitive and still restricted ones like oil.

Very little happens fast in China, except the neckbreaking pace at which Western funds are being spent to form infrastructure and modern physical assets. These are the people who have footed a noteworthy part of the bill. They have alot of value to say and this is a rare peak at thinking at their rung of the international corporate business ladder.

China has made such enormous strides towards liberalising its economy over the past decade that it is now the world's second largest recipient of foreign investment after the United States. Yet, in some very important ways, Chinese customs, practices, and values remain alien to Western business thinking and practice as they ever were. As many a hapless expatriate manager has discovered to their cost, gaining a foothold in the vast Chinese market can be an uphill battle on a slippery slope of tradition, conflicting objectives, bureaucratic wrangling, ever-shifting laws and regulations, and regional differences. Despite this, as the stories chronicled in this insider's guide to doing business in China demonstrate, it is a battle that can be and is being won.

The New Silk Road is based on extensive interviews conducted by the author with business leaders who have many years of experience with the country. It features a series of lively narratives in which these experts share their insights into and observations of all the important aspects of doing business in China. These are important lessons they've learned about everything from making sense of, and marketing to, the patchwork of striking different regions that make up China, to building trust and negotiating with the Chinese.

This long-awaited insider's view of doing business in China informs you of the pitfalls and tells you what you need to know to succeed in the twenty-first century's great new business frontier.

John B. Stuttard is a Senior Partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers. From 1994 to 1999, he was Chairman and CEO of PricewaterhouseCoopers China, operating in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Dalian. In his 32-year career with PricewaterhouseCoopers, he has also worked with the UK Government's Cabinet Office think tank advising on privatisation, and for services to Finnish industry was made a Knight First Class of the Order of the Lion of Finland.

See also my review of: CHINA'S FUTURES Scenarios for the World's Fasting Growing Economy, Ecology, and Society James Ogilvy & Peter Schwartz with Joe Flower Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2000 ISBN 0-7879-5200-1

I don't read much books but this one is the best that I have ever read.
You shouldn't miss this book as it will bring you hope and strength to fight for the misfortune. Quote from Lucy, ¡§Ah Wor gave her life to me will help you cope with areas in your life, no matter what difficulties you encounter. The opportunity to make the best of things is held out if we will work hard for it.¡¨ So friends, don't give up and live richer.

I met Lucy when I was 4 years old in a Vons supermarket. It was not until I was nearly 14 years old that I read Lucy's book and have to say that it made our friendship even more special. There is nothing quite like this book to give one perspective upon life that we might readily ignore in the busy stream of life. I treasure my copy of this masterpiece

Most certainly the best to show what can happen if all the odds are stacked against you and your luck has run out as well. Hats off to loyal people surrounding Lucy for their continued support.

I have lent my copy to many friends and guard my ownership - pity it is out of print should not be at all.

"Other Voices, Other Vistas," edited by Barbara H. Solomon, is a wonderful anthology of stories. The selections in the book are grouped by geographic region into 5 sections, each containing 5 stories. The regions represented are Africa, China, India, Japan, and Latin America. In her introduction, Solomon notes that all of the stories are written by major authors who had published fiction after World War II.

The group of 25 authors is full of noteworthy names: Chinua Achebe, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Jorge Luis Borges, and more. The themes in the anthology include love, marriage, parenthood, oppressive governments, art, religion, economic struggle, ideological conflict, and cultural dislocation. The modes range from fantasy to stark reality--there is violence and serenity, beauty and grotesqueness, sorrow and humor.

I especially loved the Chinese stories, which give a vivid portrayal of life under the Communist regime--it's like a real life dystopia. Other strong selections include Yukio Mishima's "Acts of Worship," about a professor's pilgrimage; Isabel Allende's "Clarisa," a colorful character study; and R.K. Narayan's "A Horse and Two Goats," a story of cross-cultural miscommunication. Overall, I would recommend this book both as a classroom text and for individual reading. Recommended companion text: "Caribbean New Wave," a short story anthology edited by Stewart Brown.

This is a pocket-size book, that contains short stories from the best international authors. Each story is a good one. Each one is different from the next. So, this book is good not only for college classes, but anyone who enjoys reading short stories from Asian, Latin, and African authors.

This collection is valuable to the teachers in humanities classes, because it opens up their students' minds (hopefully) to the new and often previously completely unknown world of different cultures. Many best authors are chosen from each culture. All stories, without exception will bring something new to you as a reader, and the reading itself will be nothing but a sheer delight!!!! All stories will also make you think about your own culture and its values. Some stories will make you laugh, yet others will make you cry...

Mrs. Pollifax is thrilled when Mr. Carstairs, her boss at the CIA, gives her an assignment to China. As luck would have it, Mrs. P. has recently completed a course in Chinese history, so she is primed and ready to go. She joins a tour group and is told that one of the other group members is actually a CIA agent who will become her partner later on. She tries unsuccessfully to detect her future partner and is very surprised when the agent's identity is revealed. She sees a lot of interesting Chinese countryside and tries to get acquainted with other tour group members. Later in the book, she rides a runaway horse and encounters some rough stuff from a Russian spy. This book, as the others in the series, is charming, and a little romance adds some pizzazz to this one.

I really enjoyed Mrs. Pollifax and the China Station. For folks who don't know who Mrs. Pollifax is, she's a 'sweet little old lady' who just happens to work for the CIA and have a brown belt in Karate. The stories are always filled with adventure, suspense, and yet, are for the most part wholesome and 'cozy.'

In this installment, Mrs. Pollifax is sent to China disguised as a tourist, to help rescue a prisoner from a labor camp. Armed with very minimal information and a secret partner, Mrs. Pollifax and friends, must find a way to extricate Missing Mr. " X" from China, without getting arrested, detained or worse... Killed!

This was a great installment in the Mrs. P. series. Although some of the minor characters were irritating: i.e. Jenny, and 'perfect all-knowing' Iris, I liked seeing Mrs. Pollifax in action, and her interaction with her co-agent was amusing.

Definitely a must for Mrs. P. Fans.... A fun, light mystery sure to entertain just about everyone.

Dorothy Gilman rarely ceases to amaze with her talent at keeping the pages turning. In "Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station," Gilman once again creates plausible situations that never fail to catch the reader off guard. Again it is nearly impossible to decide whom to trust. A very fun read!

The "Two Women of China" of this novel's subtitle are one and the same: Mulberry is a Chinese woman who has witnessed the major upheavals of twentieth-century China before fleeing to the United States in the 1960s, while the defiant, "Americanized" Peach is her "liberated" alterego borne of a traumatic past.

Nieh presents Mulberry/Peach's story in four sections. In the first part, while China is suffering from the final attacks of the Japanese invaders at the end of World War II, Mulberry is a teenage runaway stranded with other refugees on a boat caught in the rapids of the Yangtse River. A few years later, she is trapped in Peking with her fiance and his dying mother as the Communists surround the city. In the late 1950s, Mulberry is imprisoned in an attic in Taiwan, hiding from the authorities who are seeking her husband on embezzlement charges. And, in the final section, she has emigrated to the United States, where she is being pursued by the INS and haunted by her other identity, Peach.

Mulberry's plight is, at best, bleak, but Nieh manages to balance an astonishing sense of humor with the description of the calamities and isolation faced by her protagonist. Hauntingly written and beautifully translated, the novel can be read on many levels: historical and cultural allegory, political satire, a treatise on the immigrant's schizophrenic experience, a commentary on Eastern and Western sexual mores and gender identity. As a bonus, Sau-ling Cynthia Wong's discerning afterword amplifies these and other themes and provides useful background for understanding the novel, but (fortunately) "Mulberry and Peach" will be immediately accessible to any reader.

This qualifies as one of the most remarkable novels I have ever read. The title character Peach, in declaring her freedom, careens on as wild and uninhibited a course as any character in literature much in contrast to her meek and terrified now subaltern Mulberry. Try to buy the version which has an afterword by the translator: read this as you're reading the novel as the comments are interesting, informative, and enlightening. The novel's form, its literary roots, its themes all evade any fixed classification--no one can lay claim to any advocacy unless it is on its plea for the individual's integrity in the face of the attempts by societies, historical forces, and governments to quantify and stratify our lives. But even that claim cannot come close to revealing the complexity and exquisite craft of the work itself. Only on a second reading do I start to discover how much a treasure of telling detail "Mulberry and Peach" is. For you analytical types, there are multiple levels of allegory threading through the work. The caveat to "not overinterpret" seems not to apply. Such compelling writing deserves to become better known, more widely read and reread, and extensively broadcast to college literature classes around the world. Let's get it back in print, and then keep it in print. Although I am given to enthusiasms, I'm not given to hyperbole--I say, this is the work of a most masterful author. Please, someone, translate more of her work!

Hua-Ling Nieh's writing is tantamount to dreaming a song/story, it does not directly appeal to the senses but rather, enters the reader's mind subconsciously. A fascinating portrayal of a woman surviving post World War II turmoil in China, it blatantly and delicately explores the impact of the cultural, lingual, political, and social upheaval that is part of revolution. Mulberry herself undergoes a complete dissociation of her 'hated', 'weaker' Chinese self and morphs into Peach, the 'liberated', 'strong' American self. A wonderful story of survival, mental illness, and cultural transplantation, something many Americans do not appreciate. Should appeal to anyone interested in Chinese or Chinese/American history, feminism, or mental illness in literature.

To begin, I believe that books are an inadequate didactic medium within the martial arts world; only a live instructor can point out the subtleties and variations in the motions of the arts. However, many books, this included, are a valuable resource to practitioners.

Although the greater part of the book was very thorough, I have some caveats about those parts which are not as acceptable. The beginning covers a brief history of Chinese swords (mainly of the jian variety). I'm not sure if this is a misconception by the author or a mistake in editing, but some of the pictures misrepresent the weapons they are supposed to illustrate; a slight rearrangement would fix this in most instances, but the fact that they are not arranged properly may result in trouble for the less cautious reader, or for the amateur. I further disagree with some of Yang's descriptions of the jian; the paragraph about the "blood groove" in especial. Although he is a respected martial artist, I maintain that those writers who know little about the weapon itself should write less; knowledge of its use does not, in many cases, signify knowledge of construction/history.

Yang does not go into as much detail as I would like in some aspects; the martial merit of some techniques should be explained more deeply. In many cases, he suffices to say that these techniques were efficient and worked, but did not really provide any reason besides vague references to balance or qi.

However, I am impressed with the thoroughness with which Yang tackles the subject. He covers basic stances, guards, and attacks, and depicts three very detailed forms (he dedicates approximately 100 pages to the first!). I was also pleased to note that he included the hanzi for many of the terms he uses, although he uses the English translation of the terms throughout the text rather than the Pinyin; e.g. he would refer to the Horse Stance rather than to Ma Bu. As something of a purist, I would rather see the Chinese than the English, but some may prefer the contrary.

One last point with which I was pleased was his enthusiasm to warn the reader that his book is NOT a comprehensive manual, and that actual instruction is required to reach any real level of skill in jianshu. I agree with this whole-heartedly. Even though this book is excellent for beginners, no beginner should rely solely on it to attain skill.

Overall, a very decent book indeed; certainly worth a look, and a good foundation for building new skills or for refreshing old skills.

History, Exercises and Forms are all in this book. I believe it has 3 complete forms. The forms are easy to follow and I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a good sword book.

I found this book is the most comprehensive guide to learn Shaolin Sword. The picture and the explanation are clear and detail. I recommend this book for sword practisioner. I hope someday Dr. Yang will also produce "Southern Shaolin Sword" book.

I think everyone should read this book. It was great. I learned new words. I loved how there is a glossary at the back. It is also very exciting. Everything about Tibet seems different from America.

Tibet has always been very difficult to understand, so different from Western culture. "Rebel" lets a reader see Tibet from the inside, through the eyes of Tibetans at home there, not through the eyes of Western visitors. It gave me a feel for what it might be like to actually be Tibetan, and helped me to see how people from other non-Western cultures might think and feel. Definitely not just for teenagers.

It has your not so typical bad guy in it. It's thrilling. It's fiction, yet you learn about Tibet! It's action filled. It relates to every day life but with a twist of exoticness. The main character is pretty daring and brave.

The book tries to cover a lot of information, which can mislead new buddhists and pleople who dont know about buddhism. In addition it does not state that Orgyen Trinley Dorje's title as the Karmapa is disputed and the fact another Karmapa appointed by the Shamarpa (present karma-kagyu lineage holder)also exists. I would say this book was written for only a certian group of people who totally do not know what is happening in the Karma Kagyu School and those who refuse to admit that indeed there is a faction within the Karma Kagyu School of Buddhism. A very good example of partisan information.

Music In The Sky: The Life, Art And Teachings Of The Seventeenth KARMAPA Ogyen Trinley Dorje is the story of Karmapa (who is now 18 years old) and receiving the personal guidance of the Dalai Lama and other senior Buddhists in preparation for his ecclesiastical destiny in Tibet. Music In The Sky is an unique and very highly recommended blend of biography and Buddhist teachings.

I highly recommend this book, which recounts the story of Orgyen Trinley, the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, who is the spiritual leader of the Karma Kagyu, one of the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The Karmapa, now eighteen years old, made a daring escape from Tibet to India in early January of 2000. He was born in 1985 to a nomad family in eastern Tibet. From an early age he showed special qualities, and in 1992 was discovered and brought to Tsurphu, the main Kagyu monastery in Tibet, which was being rebuilt after its destruction during the cultural revolution. Karmapa was recognized by the Chinese government as well as by the Dalai Lama, but decided to leave when the Chinese would not allow him access to his main teachers to receive the special training necessary to continue his lineage. He now lives in Dharamsala, the home of the Dalai Lama, where he gives teachings and audiences and writes poetry as well as pursuing his studies, and from which he travels to teach and visit pilgrimage sites. Michelle Martin tells his story, including the thrilling details of his escape, and then presents translations of his teachings and poetry. Well researched and beautifully written, Music in the Sky introduces Karmapa to the world as a profound leader of a deep spiritual tradition.