“In 2009, Jon Huntsman Jr., ambassador to the People's Republic of China, set off a social media storm when he declared that 'there is no such thing as a China expert' and that those who consider themselves as such were 'kind of morons.' His words, delivered in China at a press briefing held by the White House Press Secretary, upset a number of professionals who make their living by providing culture-specific expertise. I had to meditate on it before coming to the conclusion that I agreed with the guy. China is an enigma, a Gordian knot. By definition it is an unsolvable problem, and so of course there can be no deemed experts.”
If any China consultant can claim to be a China expert, it's Paul Midler. Author of the penetrating and hilarious manufacturing memoir Poorly Made in China: An Insider's Account of the China Production Game, Paul – with over a quarter century of experience doing business between the US and China markets – has returned to the literary world with a lengthy meditation on what makes China so difficult for the Western mind to wrap itself around; why it's politically confounding, historically frustrating, and personally confusing... yet also so endlessly fascinating and charming for many as well.
Not structured as an academic work with a central thesis, Midler feels free to wander – from personal stories and anecdotes, to historical and political events – and digging deep in the archives, sharing many stories and passages from the many memoirs written by expats, officials and missionaries of their years in the Far East – many of which are very politically incorrect by 21st century standards. Every chapter is functionally a separate essay on a different theme, and it can be enjoyed just by flipping through them at random, and need not be taken as a straight read-through. Yet this is far from a collection of “drunken expat rants”- Midler's writing is always tempered by the understanding and affection of long experience.
If any central theme emerges, it's the theme of paradox. Midler's view of China is one of endless contradictions: a totalitarian state that feels as lawless as the wild west; a country of people easily whipped into fanatical frenzy, yet who can remain gently civilized in a state of complete anarchy; a place where the rule of man is often much gentler and more humane than the rule of law; bottomlessly corrupt yet blessed with surprisingly effective and efficient bureaucracy and officialdom; unfathomable etiquette and no manners; and a society that, over the centuries, has engineered itself to somehow both be utterly collectivist and as dog-eat-dog as an Ayn Rand fantasy. What struck me most, though, was that nearly everything that is presented as “wrong” with China, could equally said to be what is “right” with it- the behaviors which give us such trouble are precisely those which give Chinese civilization it's strength. To quote another China observer, “The Han Chinese didn't get to be the all-time world champion ethnic group by being nice guys or by docilely soaking up every foreign idea that came along.”
Likewise, Midler's book quietly challenges many of the assumptions of the “Soothing Scenario” (made famous in James Mann's The China Fantasy: Why Capitalism Will Not Bring Democracy to China) as well as it's flip side. For those not familiar with it, the “Soothing Scenario” is the idea that export capitalism and a generally open attitude towards China will bring about their transformation into a democratic state and a “responsible” partner in the world order. It's flipside is, “if they don't... well, then they'll collapse in stagnation and we'll never have to worry about them again.” Both are very smug and shortsighted views – and Midler seems to suggest that they are both deeply incorrect.
In my own years in China, I found that the country constantly challenged my views on how the world worked, and left my worldview irreparably changed. Midler's view seems similar to mine – unlike many expats (particularly short-termers) who become frustrated with things not working the way they expect, we both have something of the view that China is amazing that it works at all, or has gotten as far as it has. I think this perpetual amusement and curiosity, as well as the expectation of setbacks, kept me from having the “bad China days” that seem to be common among the expat crowd.
I have very few points of disagreement with him, except for one- I don't think that the “quality fade” he points to as a characteristic of Chinese export industry is uniquely Chinese, but tends to always happen in monopolistic or monopsonistic situations, and is generally remedied by expanding competition. In the middle of the 20th century, the US came to so thoroughly dominate automobiles and white goods that our industrialists invented the American version of quality fade – we called it planned obsolescence. Arrogant, short-lived tech monopolies have all gone through the same as well – the “first runs” that gave them their edge eventually gave way to less innovative and poorer quality runs, resulting in stagnation and sometimes failure. In a competitive environment, this is a problem that corrects itself.
But this is a small quibble with an otherwise delightful collection of reflections from a career as a cultural and economic go-between, which I highly recommend to all China watchers...
… just don't ever start calling yourself an expert.
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- Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2018
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Top reviews from other countries
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- LC QualityReviewed in Canada on August 16, 2018
Informative present-day critique of Chinese culture, though commerce-oriented
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- garymqReviewed in Australia on August 28, 2018
A critical guide to understanding the complexities of China
