business - Yet another book

A few weeks a friend gave me yet another book, "Inside Chinese Business" by Ming-Jer Chen, published already in 2001. Mostly I tend to be rather critical about this kind of books that seems to offer business people a 'one-stop' introduction on how to do business in China. Especially key words like "guanxi" and "Confucius" offer those all to easy labels that cause more confusion than transparancy.
This book does offer - for a change - very useful background information how Chinese social structures, especially the larger families, are operating. It has its drawbacks, but that should not stop you from buying it.
First, the books concentrates on those Chinese families that mainly operate outside mainland China, while there are most certainly a few additional families that would be worth to be identified inside China too. Second, inside China relationship-building is changing, possibly more than among the Chinese families outside China. Because of the one-child policy, Chinese families inside China cannot rely on blood relaties only, but increasingly have to rely on close friends and other families. Further, because of the increased higher education, a larger number of well-educated Chinese without these family ties do business or get on the job market. That also reduces the influence of the traditional family structures in mainland China.

Inside Chinese Business