Flower - China: [the essential guide to customs & culture]

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ISBN 978 1 85733 854 6

This book is also available as an e-book: eISBN 978 1 85733 855 3

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library

First published in Great Britain

by Kuperard, an imprint of Bravo Ltd

59 Hutton Grove, London N12 8DS

Tel: +44 (0) 20 8446 2440 Fax: +44 (0) 20 8446 2441

www.culturesmart.co.uk

Inquiries:

Series Editor Geoffrey Chesler

Design Bobby Birchall

Printed in Malaysia

Cover image: Detail of the Nine Dragon Wall in the Forbidden City, Beijing. Adobe Stock

Brushwork calligraphy on by Bernard Lui.

Images on Fotolia.com.

Images on the following pages reproduced under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license: 21 Jakub Haun; 36 Jesse W900; 103 (top), 125, 127 N509FZ; 109 Another Believer; 117 Pjt56 ---; 123 Laurent Blanger; 132 Wellcome Images, a Web site operated by Wellcome Trust. Photo number: L0037832.

Reproduced under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license: 15 ; 16 Luca Galuzzi (Lucag); 18 GFDL; 23 Maros M r a z (Maros); 24 (top) sailko; 35, 52, 105, 116 CEphoto, Uwe Aranas; 41 Andreas Habich; 42 Stougard; 56 Yoshi Canopus; 59, 69, 121 User:Vmenkov; 68 Poa Mosyuen; 73 Daniel Case; 88 Donaldytong; 89 Gerbil; 106 Shizuha; 107 Gisling; 122 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:The_Port_of_Authority; 124 Siyuwj; 129 Fayhoo; 135 Ferox Seneca; 158 BrokenSphere.

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KATHY FLOWER has worked in the UK and China as a BBC radio producer, TV presenter, scriptwriter, teacher, and trainer. She spent four years with the British Council in Paris, and was copresenter of an English-language teaching series on French TV. This led her to Beijing, where she copresented Chinas first major English-language teaching series, Follow Me, on Chinese TV. She became known to hundreds of millions of enthusiastic Chinese viewers as Fay-lau-ah laoshi, or Teacher Flower. Back in London she joined BBC World Service Radio. Kathy has returned to China many times to work and travel. She now teaches international students, including many young Chinese enrolled at British universities, and lives in Hampshire and southern France.

The Culture Smart! series is continuing to expand.

For further information and latest titles visit

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The publishers would like to thank CultureSmart!Consulting for its help in researching and developing the concept for this series.

CultureSmart!Consulting creates tailor-made seminars and consultancy programs to meet a wide range of corporate, public-sector, and individual needs. Whether delivering courses on multicultural team building in the USA, preparing Chinese engineers for a posting in Europe, training call-center staff in India, or raising the awareness of police forces to the needs of diverse ethnic communities, it provides essential, practical, and powerful skills worldwide to an increasingly international workforce.

For details, visit www.culturesmartconsulting.com

CultureSmart!Consulting and CultureSmart! guides have both contributed to and featured regularly in the weekly travel program Fast Track on BBC World TV.

Since 1979, when Premier Deng Xiao Peng declared China open for business, millions of its citizens have been lifted out of poverty and given the chance to control their own destinies. Initially China achieved its spectacular growth by making and selling things we want at prices we can afford, as The Economist put it; three decades on, it is a major player on the global stage, courted by governments worldwide.

Having become rich, new China has made peace with its past. Old Chinas once derelict temples and palaces have been restored to vibrant life and draw huge crowds, while new Chinas futuristic cities are on a par with Tokyo, London, or New York.

Behind these economic miracles lie the Chinese people, 1.4 billion individuals, each one part of a family unit. Where Western family sagas focus on illicit love affairs and property, Chinese family sagas offer a guide to the countrys turbulent history. Perhaps most famous is Jung Changs bestselling autobiography, Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China. The first daughter was Yu Fang, Jung Changs grandmother; as a small child her feet were bound and then she was sold to a warlord as one of his concubines. Her daughter by him was to become Jung Changs mother, Bao Qin, a founder member of Chinas Communist Party. Jung Chang, born in 1952, at first had a privileged childhood; but when the orchestrated chaos of Mao Zedongs Cultural Revolution began in the 1960s, her parents were denounced and tortured. Eventually Jung Chang gained a scholarship to England and left for good. Nowadays, generations of daughters (and sons) of China are free to study abroad, to travel, and to work toward their own dreams. But competition is fierce in todays market oriented China, and traditional beliefs in the importance of hard work, a good education, and a supportive family are stronger than ever.

Chinas outward-looking economic agenda is very recent. In the past, its size meant it did not need to engage with anyone outside its borders. China saw itself as the center of the world; peoples on the periphery were considered barbarians, to be graciously received by the Emperor and then dismissed. From the sixteenth century onward, Europeans who tried to establish links with China were equally politely rebuffed.

After the Communist takeover in 1949, China remained closed to the West. Not until 1971 could US envoy Henry Kissinger go secretly to Beijing to meet Mao, followed in 1972 by President Nixon himself. But after Maos death in 1976, Deng Xiaoping opened Chinas doors, putting it on the path to prosperity and changing it, and the world, in the process. The Chinese you will meet in this fascinating country are well educated, warm, knowledgeable about world affairs, and keen to talk about everything under the sun. This book should help you to be a good guest, whether you are there for work, pleasure, or both.