Agriculture: a burden for China - Ian Johnson

+Ian Johnson 

Farming has been for 4,000 years the keystone of China´s civilization. But today it is dragging its economy, changed into a burden rather than an asset, writes journalist Ian Johnson in the New York Times. The government wants to move farmers to the cities, sometimes against their will.

Ian Johnson:

For about 4,000 years, farming in this region has been a touchstone of Chinese civilization. It was here that the mythic hero Hou Ji is said to have taught Chinese how to grow grain, and the area’s rich harvests underpinned China’s first dynasties, fe 

eding officials and soldiers in the nearby imperial capital.

But nowadays, Yangling’s fields are in disarray. Frustrated by how little they earn, the ablest farmers have migrated to cities, hollowing out this rural district in the Chinese heartland. Left behind are people like Hui Zongchang, 74, who grows wheat and corn on a half-acre plot while his son works as a day laborer in the metropolis of Xi’an to the east.

Mr. Hui, still vigorous despite a stoop, said he makes next to no money from farming. He tills the earth as a kind of insurance. “What land will they farm if I don’t keep this going?” he said of his children. “Not everyone makes it in the city.” 

From a bedrock of traditional culture, and an engine of the post-Mao economic boom in the 1980s, agriculture has become a burden for China.

More in the New York Times.

Ian Johnson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´request form. Media in China are a rather special feature. Are you looking for media experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this latest list.

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Tom Doctoroff

The China Daily reviews Tom Doctoroff's latest book "What Chinese Want: Culture, Communism and China's Modern Consumer" and what is really takes to sell to the Chinese consumers. "The Chinese world view, not to mention its brandscape, differs profoundly from other markets," he writes.

The China Daily:

Although Doctoroff's target audience is Western businesspeople, he believes anyone with an interest in learning what motivates the Chinese will find his book useful. "Particularly for businesspeople, as they get into collaborations they should have a deeper understanding that how Chinese individuals engage with organizations and society is very different from us," he says. 

Too many Western companies come to China with hopes of applying business strategies that have worked elsewhere, Doctoroff argues. An understanding of Chinese culture is crucial to correctly identifying an appropriate campaign for a given market. 

"Chinese rulers derive legitimacy from their assumed mastery of the system, so the worst sin a foreigner can commit is teaching," he writes. 

Doctoroff is confident that he can identify recurring themes and conflicts that define Chinese culture.

More in the China Daily.

Tom Doctoroff is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Creativity needs political reform - Tom Doctoroff

Tom Doctoroff

Why is China lacking creativity and a developed service sector, Adweek asks advertisement guru Tom Doctoroff, author of "What Chinese Want. The current lack of political reform is draining the country's creative resources, Tom Doctoroff argues.

Tom Doctoroff

They understand what innovation is and they admire it tremendously. Steve Jobs is a hero because of the fact [that] he had a different vision and he pursued it and won big. The problem is that the economic and social structures don’t encourage it. So will we ever see a Chinese entrepreneur that is truly innovative or a Chinese company known for innovation? I don’t want to say never, but I don’t see how this can happen on a broad basis unless you have significant political reform. You need a government that is impartial and has the mechanisms to protect individuals’ interests involving everything from judiciary to corporate governance to how banking loans are determined to transparency in bookkeeping to a more rational tax regime. 

Why are we not seeing more of the development of a service sector in China? 

Two reasons—one is macro, the other is human. The macro reason is that any time an industry affects the broad masses, it will be controlled by the state. So anything having to do with financial services, travel, even tourism is subject to the inherently noncompetitive commercial ethos the state advances. The second is bottom up and the comfort people have with paradigms and scripts and their fear of challenging conventional wisdom. A stewardess or hotel attendant would have to have the confidence to go off script, to really probe into what their customers’ needs are and give a solution even if it might not be on the approved checklist of solutions.

More in Adweek.

Tom Doctoroff is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting of conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form


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