Tuesday, May 17, 2011

The yin and yang of the Chinese Dream - Helen Wang

Wang_Helen_HiRes_black_MG_1708Helen Wang
A very positive review of The Chinese Dream: The Rise of the World's Largest Middle Class and What It Means to YouInternational Business & Investing Books)by Helen Wang in The Internet Review of Books, by Jack Shakely:
On a few occasions, Wang reminds us of the subtle nature of the Mandarin language. This is code to remind us that she, too, must be respectful and circumspect if she wants to continue doing business with the notoriously thin-skinned Chinese government. Almost every chapter ends on an up-beat look to the future, but if you peel back the optimism and bravado, you find a China with an inferiority complex, sure of the future, but conflicted about the present. Wang acknowledges that China's system of higher education is antiquated and ill-prepares young Chinese to take their place at the creative headwaters of the twenty-first century. One person laments that China can manufacture everything, but can't invent anything. Another claims that communism is a failed economic system, but that democracy is out of the question for decades, if ever.
The whole point of Wang's book--that a burgeoning middle class in China is inevitable is also classic yin and yang. No one can deny that the American dream of a car, a home, appliances and a good education for the children should not be withheld from middle class Chinese. Yet no one also can deny that adding 100 million more automobiles and tripling coal energy consumption will turn the Chinese Dream into an environmental global nightmare.


More in The Internet Review of Books.

Helen Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need her as a speaker at your meeting of conference, do get in touch


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