Reviews
Operation Yao Ming: The Chinese Sports Empire, American Big Business, and the Making of an NBA Superstar
By Brook Larmer. New York, NY: Gotham Books, 2005. 350 pp. $26.00 hardcover.
A former Newsweek bureau chief stationed in Shanghai, Brook Larmer began to follow the story of Yao Ming in 1999. Drawing upon the substantial research he has conducted since then, including personal interviews with Yao and with insiders of China's sports establishments and the US sports industry, Larmer provides in this book an in-depth look into the Chinese icon's evolution and the contentious politics of his career. Operation Yao Ming will appeal to readers with an interest in China but with little background in basketball, as well as those with an interest in basketball but little China knowledge. Needless to say, for those interested in both China and basketball, Operation Yao Ming is a must-read.
The book provides an intimate portrait of Yao's evolution: first, from a teenager who hated basketball to an adult who came to embrace and excel at the sport; and second, from a leading basketball player in Shanghai to a National Basketball Association (NBA) athlete living in America. In many ways, Yao's first transformation is stunning. Although he was born to parents who were basketball players themselves, the early years of his athletic training could not have been more discouraging to PRC sports authorities, who were hoping to cultivate a phenomenal basketball player. Larmer reveals that Yao, as a teenager, detested practice and only played the game out of deference to his parents. Moreover, his coaches believed that the teenager showed little promise on the court, and his mother twice sought to transfer him away from the sports school. It was not until the summer of 1998, after he had attended an NBA summer camp, that he saw meaning in the game and began to enjoy basketball.
Yao's second transformation is also fascinating. Larmer entertainingly recounts how Yao had to adjust to the faster and more physically aggressive, personality-driven game of NBA basketball. From battling Shaquille O'Neal on the court to weathering basketball critics off the court, Yao faced severe challenges, but he ultimately prevailed thanks to his self-effacing and team-oriented personality—and his solid basketball skills. As a newcomer to America, Yao also inevitably had to adjust to a new lifestyle, by expanding his English vocabulary (to include, among other words, "gangsta," "holla," and "wassup") and learning to drive. He also had to deal with family tensions, as his parents lived with him, much to the surprise of his NBA teammates.
Larmer thoughtfully places Yao's story in the broader political, economic, and social contexts of China's transformation.
Operation Yao Ming is more than just a simple biography. Larmer thoughtfully places Yao's story in the broader political, economic, and social contexts of China's transformation. He sketches PRC sports officials, Nike, Inc. executives, and NBA managers, traces the history of basketball's evolution in China, and describes the contentious negotiations leading to Yao's NBA deal. All of these illuminate the different forces that have shaped modern China: the increasing importance of national pride that is exemplified by the sports authorities' desire to train—and keep within China—globally competitive athletes; and the growing liberalization and opening of the Chinese economy, which has pulled top companies in the US sports industry across the Pacific.
As he traces the story of Wang Zhizhi, a contemporary of Yao Ming, Larmer also underlines a fundamental dilemma that appears to daunt the PRC leadership. Wang was a leading Chinese basketball player who rivaled Yao and who tried to advance his career by joining the NBA. He ultimately failed, and alienated himself from his family and from China, because he insisted that he would not train with the PRC national basketball team. In featuring this controversial tale as a clear counterpoint to Yao's success story, Larmer highlights the earnest and often conflicting desires of China's leaders to, on the one hand, prove that their country is modernizing and opening to the outside world and, on the other, maintain significant control over their own citizens.
Operation Yao Ming thus offers a fascinating look into Yao's world and, more broadly, China's transformation. Full of intriguing details, this well-written book, which combines an intimate biography with thought-provoking insights into China's politics and society, is an excellent and stimulating read.
—Victorien Wu
Victorien Wu is junior editor of the CBR.
The China Ready Company
By Steven H. Ganster with Kent D. Kedl. Aurora, IL: China Pathways LLC, 2005. 226 pp. $24.95 hardcover.
"If you want to keep supplying us, we need you to go to China." "What's your China price?" Companies not already in China are facing tremendous pressure to go there. But after seeing the disastrous experiences of some companies that went to China in the 1980s and 1990s, as well as frequent news reports of companies still encountering difficulties there, many firms thinking about going to China today are taking a more cautious approach than many of their predecessors did.
A good starting place for company executives that are contemplating a China entry is the China Readiness Assessment, laid out in The China Ready Company by the principals of consulting firm Technomic Asia. Steve Ganster is founder and managing director, and Kent Kedl is executive director, of the firm. The China Readiness Assessment distills the authors' observations and lessons learned from more than 20 years of doing business in China. They compare China to the Yukon during the gold rush: "Of the tens of thousands who actually made it to the Bonanza, only a handful found fortunes. ... In the Yukon gold rush, most stampeders knew little to nothing about where they were going. ... Those who survived the perilous journey mostly found only disappointment once they reached Dawson City and the grossly exaggerated claims of 'gold for the taking.' Many stampeders headed home, empty-handed and financially ruined. Some China veterans reading this can feel their pain."
One of the reasons companies run into trouble in China is that they rarely analyze their motivation for going—or their state of operational, management, and financial readiness—deeply enough. The China Readiness Assessment helps companies to do so by asking probing questions a company should consider, and reach consensus on, before proceeding with a China initiative. It also gives numerous examples, drawn from clients' experiences, of how various companies assessed each component of their China readiness. Charts, figures, and graphs show how companies can determine their state of readiness in various areas.
The book argues that any company properly assessing its readiness to go to China must be willing to spend significant amounts of time and money simply to find out if they are ready to go. "As one experienced China executive said, 'You should only spend what you can afford to lose.' In your China Readiness Assessment, you need to be able to come up with this number." Ganster further describes how his firm starts assessing a company's financial readiness: "We like to use a shock test at the outset of this discussion with clients in the initial stages of contemplating a China strategy by suggesting that a minimum of US$200,000 will need to be spent in the exploration and implementation stages alone. ... If a client balks at this number, we question their seriousness and stomach to go much further. Their hesitation can be a sign that their financial health is not in a state of readiness to move on and that, if they cannot absorb this level of expense, it may be best not to proceed."
Sometimes, after closely examining its motivation and state of readiness, a company may discover that it does not need to, or should not, go to China.
Sometimes, after closely examining its motivation and state of readiness, a company may discover that it does not need to, or should not, go to China. In fact, the final chapter is a case study, showing how one company conducted a China Readiness Assessment and changed its China strategy following its self-examination. This company had been thinking for several years about moving part of its manufacturing operations to China; its managers assumed that the firm was ready. Yet upon completion of the assessment, the company found, to its surprise, that it was not. The company decided instead to set up customer support centers in China to meet customer needs highlighted during the assessment.
The China Ready Company is a serious book written in an engaging style with dashes of humor. It will interest anyone involved in business in China and should be required reading for managers thinking of taking their company to China, as well as those who advise such companies.
—Virginia A. Hulme
Virginia A. Hulme is associate editor of the CBR and will take over as editor-in-chief beginning with the May-June issue.
Managers and Mandarins in Contemporary China: The Building of an International Business Alliance
By Jie Tang. New York, NY: Routledge, 2005. 208 pp. $113.00 hardcover.
In August 2000, Jie Tang, a London-based business anthropologist, went to China to study the development of an international construction project over the course of one year. From a desk at the project headquarters and through her regular attendance at meetings, Tang gained access to the inner operations of an ambitious collaboration between a state-owned Chinese developer and a German team to plan and build a world-class exhibition center in a Chinese coastal city. The product of Tang's research, Managers and Mandarins in Contemporary China, is an insider's portrait of a Sino-foreign joint venture.
The slim volume offers a highly readable narrative of the project's progress from its initial planning to near-completion. Apart from two brief analytical chapters in the beginning, the bulk of the book is a chronologically organized account of the management problems that emerged during the project. Specific topics include the formation of the joint venture, the selection of contractors, the involvement of the local government, meeting styles, and conflict resolution.
One major theme of the book is the rise of distrust among members of the German team of their Chinese counterparts, as a result of numerous repeated incidents. When a contractor was being selected, the firm preferred by the Chinese team suspiciously bid precisely ¥100,000 ($12,404) lower than the firm preferred by the Germans on a contract worth hundreds of millions of renminbi. In another case, the Chinese side authorized the use of cheap materials that did not meet the standards specified in the contract and concealed this from the Germans, who were upset when they discovered the change. In joint meetings, Chinese team members often spoke among themselves and instructed the interpreter to leave out certain parts of their dialogue. These experiences undermined the German team's confidence in their Chinese partners. Interestingly, Tang notes that members of the Chinese team experienced no such disappointment because they assumed distrust and conflicts of interest to be the norm. Naive Westerners, Tang suggests, may expect too much when seeking to build deep partnerships in China.
Chinese management styles, however, are changing. Tang discovered different attitudes toward contracts among younger managers. Older managers in a steel company involved in the project were unconcerned with the details of their contract, to the point that they were unwilling to even read a revised contract. A younger manager warned that they could be taken to court if the contract were not followed, to which another older manager responded, "But we are all from the same locality; we all know each other. After all, business is based on trust." This and other stories indicate that China appears to be making a move from business transactions based primarily on trust to ones based on contracts and law.
Because the exhibition center was a high-profile project, it was crucial to the careers of local officials whose reputations in Beijing were at stake. The officials involved hoped that a top PRC leader would open the center, perhaps with the German chancellor. In addition, some members of the Chinese team had political ambitions and thus remained highly responsive to local officials. Ultimately, government orders and intervention, however intrusive, were successful in resolving deadlocks and keeping the project moving forward.
Tang's advice for Westerners attempting to form business partnerships with Chinese firms is simply: be aware. Had they been more aware of the constraints government officials placed on the Chinese managers and knowledgeable about Chinese management styles, the German participants would have been more realistic in their expectations and less frustrated.
Managers and Mandarins is written as an ethnography without potentially distracting notes and citations. Tang, who has management experience in China and England, brings the insight of a neutral expert and gives the reader a fuller story than most scholarly accounts would. Though it offers no sweeping conclusions, the narrative weaves together insights about Chinese management methods, government involvement in business, and cross-cultural cooperation. The depth and completeness of the case study, which are the book's greatest strengths, should make it an informative read for foreign businesspeople, China scholars, and anyone curious about how Chinese firms operate.
—Erik Mobrand
Erik Mobrand is a doctoral candidate in politics at Princeton University, where he specializes in Chinese and Korean affairs.
Singular and Different: Business in China, Past, Present and Future
By Jie Tang. New York, NY: Routledge, 2005. 208 pp. $113.00 hardcover.
By Ian Rae and Morgen Witzel. Chippenham, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. 173 pp. $65.00 hardcover.
In the 1820s, a Guangdong trader once expressed that "the most minute description [of China] could scarcely suffice to [provide] anything like an accurate idea of a market singular and different in many ways from all others." Drawing upon this statement in naming their book, Ian Rae and Morgen Witzel posit that despite globalization, China remains singular and different from all other markets in the world. To succeed, foreign businesspeople need a nuanced and well-informed understanding of China's uniqueness. Moreover, in addition to commitments of significant time and resources, which are essential for a successful business venture in China, businesspeople would greatly benefit from cultivating a genuine interest in China and its prosperity. In taking this long view, and building on the Guangdong trader's notion that "minute description" would not suffice, the authors present broad historical and cultural themes to help the reader understand business in China.
The book begins by explaining why China is singular. According to Rae and Witzel, China is unique because for thousands of years, it developed independently of the West, and its longstanding philosophical and cultural traditions have powerfully shaped attitudes still held today. The authors then go on to make a case for studying China, noting that the country is rising and will eventually become an economic superpower. The next few chapters explore the historical and cultural developments that have made China so different. By tracing the development of Chinese economic and political thought over 2,000 years, the book covers significant ground swiftly, but it does so in a manageable and understandable way. The book also seeks to explain China's attitudes toward the West today by recounting the history of Western interaction with China from the 1700s on.
The second half of the book explores China in the modern age, beginning with Deng Xiaoping's Open Door policy in 1978. The linking of the themes presented in the first half of the book with their practical applications in the second half leads to some repetition. There are chapters on negotiation, overseas Chinese, management in China, and China's financial markets. The final chapter of the book provides helpful suggestions on organizations, books, and films for those interested in learning more.
In illustrating China's history of doing business with the West, the authors provide the reader with a deeper understanding of the origins of Chinese business attitudes and practices.
This book is intended as an introduction and thus includes many broad generalizations, which may frustrate a reader who wants more specific advice. In illustrating China's history of doing business with the West, however, the authors provide the reader with a deeper understanding of the origins of Chinese business attitudes and practices and underline helpful lessons for today's foreign businessperson. For example, the section on socialist capitalism is particularly helpful as an aid to understanding this key guiding philosophy of contemporary China, one that may seem like an oxymoron. The book is rich in practical examples of how to do (and not to do) business in China; it is thus not only historical, but also practical.
The book undoubtedly reflects the authors' own substantial China experience and familiarity with the subject, which allows them to present information that could have filled a massive volume in a digestible manner. Rae is a consultant who previously ran his own business in China, and Witzel is a writer and lecturer on China. Both have taught courses on China at the London Business School and published extensively on China.
In sum, Singular and Different is a well-written, thoughtful, and balanced China business book that should be beneficial to China veterans and newcomers alike. It is well worth a read for those who are not necessarily seeking quick, easy answers.
—Dana Lofgren
Dana Lofgren is an international trade analyst investigating antidumping and countervailing duty cases at the US International Trade Commission.
Chinese Law and Legal Research
By Wei Luo. Buffalo, NY: William S. Hein & Co., Inc., 2005. 380 pp. $85.00 hardcover.
After spearheading seven volumes of Hein's Chinese Law Series, Wei Luo, a prominent Chinese legal bibliographer and US-trained lawyer, amasses a comprehensive explanation of the PRC legal scheme in his latest volume, Chinese Law and Legal Research. He also makes an exhaustive compilation of Chinese legal and governmental sources and provides guidance on research strategies.
Despite the publication of PRC laws and regulations, case reports, and research articles, locating and accessing such material continues to be arduous, in part because of the lack of transparency in government. This book, with nine solid chapters and sufficient supplemental materials, meets the demand for a systematic and effective overview of Chinese law and methods of legal research.
In the first two chapters, Luo outlines the structures of legal and governmental institutions by referring to the PRC Constitution. In both chapters, he augments his analyses by drawing on rich historical background. He especially stresses the socialist character of China to alert researchers who have studied non-socialist legal systems to adopt a fresh perspective.
Chapters three through eight feature multiple annotated lists of legal sources. The chapters include lesser-known official and commercial sources, both in print and on the Internet; detailed descriptions of each cited source, including its historical characteristics; and discussions of areas that have not yet been thoroughly studied, such as legal publishing and methods of accessing governmental information in China.
The book is comprehensive and well-organized and guides the reader through the content in a manageable step-by-step process. The book is fairly carefully written and edited, considering the massive amount of materials cited and the fact that it contains materials in both English and Chinese. The appendices, including a bilingual list of national laws, are also valuable.
Unlike the earlier volumes in the series, this book is suitable for a broad audience. Legal academics and practitioners, particularly those who are not fluent in Chinese, can greatly benefit from this volume. Chinese Law and Legal Research should also be on the reading list for any law school course on Chinese law and can be used as a primary source. In sum, this book serves as an excellent reference, and those engaging in Chinese legal research should keep it close at hand.
—Joan Liu
Joan Liu is an associate curator at the Law Library of New York University School of Law.
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