China a to Z

A practical and accessible guide to an ancient but rapidly changing culture--now revised and updated Perfect for business, pleasure, or armchair travelers, China A to Z explains the customs, culture, and etiquette essential for any trip or for anyone wanting to understand this complex country. In one hundred brief, reader-friendly essays alphabetized by subject, this fully revised and updated edition provides a crash course in the etiquette and politics of contemporary China as well as the nation's geography and venerable history. In it, readers will discover: · How the recently selected President and his advisors approach global relations · Why China is considered the fastest growing market for fashion and luxury goods · What you should bring when visiting a Chinese household · What's hot in Chinese art · How recent scandals impact Chinese society From architecture and body language to Confucianism and feng shui, China A to Z offers accessible and authoritative information about China.

"A father-and-daughter team who between them have published many books on Asia (e.g., The Girl from Purple Mountain ) here provides 100 A-to-Z chapters offering extensive coverage of practical Chinese history, culture, and customs. Topics range from banquets, bargaining, and body language to the one-child policy, Three Gorges Dam, and Wen Jiabao (who became premier in 2002). The tone is light, but the information is well chosen for general readers and travelers."—Library Journal

Auteur

May-lee Chai

Texte du rabat

A practical and accessible guide to an ancient but rapidly changing culture—now revised and updated

Perfect for business, pleasure, or armchair travelers, China A to Z explains the customs, culture, and etiquette essential for any trip or for anyone wanting to understand this complex country. In one hundred brief, reader-friendly essays alphabetized by subject, this fully revised and updated edition provides a crash course in the etiquette and politics of contemporary China as well as the nation's geography and venerable history. In it, readers will discover:

· How the recently selected President and his advisors approach global relations
· Why China is considered the fastest growing market for fashion and luxury goods
· What you should bring when visiting a Chinese household
· What's hot in Chinese art
· How recent scandals impact Chinese society

From architecture and body language to Confucianism and feng shui, China A to Z offers accessible and authoritative information about China.

Échantillon de lecture
Introduction Since the first edition of China A to Z, China’s position in the world has grown more important. Economically, socially, culturally, and politically, China’s influence cannot be ignored. China now has the world’s second largest economy and is projected to overtake the United States for the number one spot by 2017. Once known for producing goods on the cheap, China is no longer the world’s sweatshop: the economic boom has helped the country to become the largest consumer market for many goods, ranging from fine art to automobiles, as well as the fastest growing market for luxury goods. As more Chinese tourists travel the world and more students from China choose to study abroad, the opportunities for social and cultural exchange are growing ever greater. At the same time, China and America disagree politically on almost every important issue, including human rights, global warming, investments in Africa and other parts of the developing world, how to handle crises from the Middle East to the South China Sea, and U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, a democracy and longtime U.S. ally that China considers to be a renegade province.

Despite these continuing disagreements and potential for conflict, China’s transformation into a powerful, modern nation is a historic feat that deserves the world’s attention. The growing economy has allowed hundreds of millions of people to enter the middle class, one of the fastest economic turnarounds in history. It’s a remarkable development, especially considering that just over fifty years ago, more than 40 million Chinese starved to death, some under Mao Zedong’s disastrous Great Leap Forward policies.

When the United States and China first reestablished diplomatic relations and Deng Xiaoping ushered in the “Open Door Policy” of economic reform in 1979, Chinese were still living under the “iron ricebowl” system. The old Communist system guaranteed everyone a (low-paying) job for life and government-approved housing. The society suffered under these laws: everyone was poor, consumer goods were rarely available and of questionable quality, births were restricted to one child per couple, and political rights were nonexistent. The unleashing of China’s economic power under Deng Xiaoping’s reforms allowed for some free enterprise and joint ventures with the world’s companies. The material quality of life in China improved rapidly, although the political system remained controlled by the Communist Party.

After the Open Door Policy of Deng (who was the paramount leader from 1979 to 1997), China’s next generation of leaders initiated and implemented more economic reforms, even permitting capitalists to join the Communist Party. So long as a person had connections—called guanxi in Chinese—to high officials, that person’s business could thrive. In fact, by 2012 China had the third highest number of billionaires in the world, behind the United States and Russia, and in 2013, China had more billionaires created by the stock market than the United States.

The next challenge for China’s leadership has been to transition the export-based economy based on cheap labor into a more mature form that promotes domestic consumption and innovation. Manufacturing has already shifted away from clothes and toys, and now China assembles the world’s smart phones, tablets, and personal computers. No longer content to make goods for other countries, China has invested heavily in its universities and research parks, hoping to spark a technological revolution on its own soil. And the effects have been tremendous: Chinese companies are developing green technology, from wind power to solar energy to batteries for electric cars; and entrepreneurs are launching their own social media sites and online shopping sites.

Once repressed under Mao, Chinese artists and writers have gained unprecedented audiences domestically and worldwide now that they, too, are encouraged to create. A Chinese novelist won the Nobel Prize in Literature for the first time in 2012. Investors have paid millions of dollars for traditional artists like Qi Baishi as well as contemporary art pieces. Chinese movie directors, actors, composers, and fashion designers are finding success at home and internationally, creating a period of cultural ferment unlike anything China has experienced since before the revolution of 1949 gave birth to the People’s Republic of China.

China’s growth has not gone unnoticed by the world. Tourists have made China the third most visited country in the world, record numbers of American students are now studying Mandarin, and many of China’s Asian neighbors are expressing concern about the rise of China in their backyard. In turn, China has become embroiled in territorial disputes across Asia from Japan to Vietnam to the Philippines. In 2013, the Pentagon issued a report officially accusing the Chinese government of waging a cyberespionage campaign on U.S. military, government, and business computer systems in order to gain valuable information.

China’s unprecedented economic growth has also brought about increased social problems. China remains one of the most inequi…