The US and Chinese middle classes - Helen Wang

Helen Wang

Although both groups are called the "middle class", both groups in the US and China differ greatly, celebrity author Helen Wang explains in an interview with Womenetics on her book "The Chinese Dream".

Womenetics: China has never officially defined middle class, which is a typically Western term. When you wrote the book, how did you define the class?
Wang: In the book, the middle class is defined by family income between 5,000 yuan ($773) and 30,000 yuan ($4,641) per month. However, owning an apartment is essential.

Womenetics: What are the differences between the Chinese middle class and the American middle class, in terms of what they care about and the lifestyle they are pursuing?
Wang: In China, middle class is a prestige group, which people look up to. People of the middle class are expected to have good manners and a trendy lifestyle. But in the United States, the middle class is nothing special, as the majority of Americans think they belong to the middle class. Unlike a Chinese middle class family who prefers to live in the downtown areas, a typical American middle class family usually lives in the suburbs. That is because in China, the gap of living conditions between city and rural areas is big, and there is practically no suburb. ..

Womenetics: Emigration is now a very hot topic among Chinese middle class. How do you look at this?
Wang: I think the growing number of Chinese middle class families moving abroad shows they feel insecure about the situation in China. It is certainly not something good for China, but for those people, they have to know life in another country will be tough because emigration involves lots of changes in life, including career and social network. On the other hand, based on my experiences in the United States, I believe as long as you are talented and determined, you will have opportunities to make your dream come true.

More in Womenetics

Helen Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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China Daily reviews The Chinese Dream - Helen Wang

Helen Wang

The China Daily USA reviews Helen Wang The Chinese Dream: The Rise of the World's Largest Middle Class and What It Means to You. An interview about the fraternizing between China and the US.

A fragment from the China Daily:

A culture of fraternizing among nations is already beginning to emerge, Wang says.

"China is picking up ideas and learning like crazy from the West, while Eastern culture and philosophy is so hot in the United States. The differences between these two cultures are there, but people, especially those from the academic and business communities, are more aware of these than before.

"My book is a small contribution to this convergence of interests and tendencies from both cultures," Wang adds.

The Chinese Dream has an obvious resonance with the idea of The Great American Dream. American historian James Truslow Adams defined the concept as "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement regardless of social class or circumstances of birth".

It also brings to mind Martin Luther King Jr.'s now-mythical public address at a civil rights march in Washington DC in 1963, making an impassioned case for racial equality. The latter, along with Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, inspired Wang to leave Chinese shores and seek a life in the US in the late 1980s.

"They seemed to breathe fresh air in my life and my thinking," she recalls. "I was young, I wanted to experience something radically different."

More in the China Daily.

Helen Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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Helen Wang speaks at Kepler's bookstore, May 26

Celebrity author Helen Wang of The Chinese Dream: The Rise of the World's Largest Middle Class and What It Means to You will speak on May 26 at Kepler's bookstore, Menlo Park, California.

From the invite:

In The Chinese Dream, a groundbreaking book about the rising middle class in China, Forbes columnist, consultant, and China expert Helen Wang challenges us to recognize that some of our fears about China are grossly misplaced. As a result of China's new capitalist paradigm, a burgeoning middle class--calculated to reach 800 million within the next fifteen years--is jumping aboard the consumerism train and riding it for all it's worth--a reality that may provide the answer to America's economic woes. And with China's increasing urbanization and top-down governmental approach, it now faces increasing energy, environmental, and health problems--problems that the U.S. can help solve. Through timely interviews, personal stories, and a historical perspective, China-born Wang takes us into the world of the Chinese entrepreneurial middle class to show how a growing global mindset and the realization of unity in diversity may ultimately provide the way to creating a saner, safer world for all.

The event will take place between 19 and 21 hours at 1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park, California 94025-4349.

Please RSVP here.
Helen Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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The yin and yang of the Chinese Dream - Helen Wang

Helen Wang

A very positive review of The Chinese Dream: The Rise of the World's Largest Middle Class and What It Means to You (See all International 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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Where to make money in China? - Helen Wang

Helen Wang

Celebrity author Helen Wang taps into the excitement of Western companies to enter the China market. The paper JingDaily asks her wide ranging questions on her book on China's middle class, The Chinese Dream. Focus on health care and education, she advises foreign companies.

JD: Last year, we interviewed Handel Jones, author of ChinAmerica, who said that education, health and the Internet are going to be the most lucrative sectors for Western companies to tap the Chinese middle class. Would you agree with this? Are there any other sectors you would add?

HW: Definitely, the healthcare and education sectors will provide lucrative opportunities for Western companies. I am not sure about the Internet as it’s currently dominated by domestic companies. But if you look at the e-commerce sector, it could be a game changer. Recently, many VCs have invested in e-commerce and group buying sites as China’s internet users are approaching half a billion.

I think the consumer products sector, particularly in the areas of luxury goods and big ticket items such as automobiles, LCD TVs, and smartphones, will see increasing opportunities for Western companies. I would also add the clean tech sector. Western companies are leading in technology in this field.

More in JingDaily.

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The Temple of Apple - Paul French

The Temple of Apple via Wikipedia

The Apple outlet in Pudong, Shanghai is getting mythical proportions and babtized by retail analyst Paul French the 'Temple of Apple'. In Mercury News he explains why Apple changed from a laggard into a winner in the booming China market, unlike other US brands.

While Apple currently captures only a sliver of China's consumers, the country's 300 million-member middle class includes many upwardly mobile consumers with money to burn.
"Apple's moment is here," said retail analyst Paul French of the Shanghai-based firm Access Asia. "There is now enough of an urban middle class with enough money to afford Apple products. Five years ago -- or even two or three years ago -- there weren't enough of those people."...

Paul French by Fantake via Flickr

While many Chinese buy cheap knockoffs of Apple products, plenty of others are more than willing to pay top price for originals -- and the reliability and status that comes with them.
At the Pudong outlet -- a spacious store awash in natural light that French calls "the Temple of Apple" -- product adoration crossed a number of age groups one recent afternoon, from teens sipping milk tea to professionals getting assistance on Macintosh software. Young couples cuddled over iPads as music, from hip-hop beats to the Beatles, filled the air.
"They've got great products and they are doing this at a time when Chinese consumers are feeling bullish and have some money," French said.

More in Mercury News.

Paul French is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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Is the Chinese dream also the American dream? - Helen Wang

Helen Wang by Fantake via Flickr

Helen Wang, author of The Chinese Dream: The Rise of the World's Largest Middle Class and What It Means to You, will address on April 4 the INSEAD Alumni Association of Northern Californa in Palo Alto about the challenges and opportunities of a rising Chinese middle class. More details here.
“The Chinese Dream tells one of the most important stories of our time,” says Ken Wilcox, CEO of Silicon Valley Bank. “Helen Wang enlightens us with the possibility of ‘unity in diversity’. A comprehensive, and yet easy to read book about modern China.”

Helen Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. She will be visiting China in June and August and is available for speaking opportunities. When you need her at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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1001 American questions on China - Helen Wang

Helen Wang by Fantake via Flickr

Will the Chinese middle class pull America out of recessions? Will China become a democracy? Helen Wang faces a stream of American questions on US media, and does a good job. On her media page an overview of the recent radio boardcast that hosted her, after releasing het book The Chinese Dream: The Rise of the World's Largest Middle Class and What It Means to You.
Will China explode any time soon, asks Tommy Schnurmacher at Astral Radio. And will China's poor accept that others do better?
Helen Wang's missonary work in explaining China to America seems long overdue.
Helen Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need her at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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China: US opportunity to reinvent itself - Helen Wang

Helen Wang by Fantake via Flickr

Many Americans fear the rise of China, Helen Wang discovered in many media appearances, she writes in her weblog. Wrong, "I’d like to focus on what makes America a great country to begin with."

The United States of America is founded on the principle that all men are created equal. It is based on the idea that regardless of one’s background, with determination and hard work, one can achieve whatever one aspires to in life.

This very core of the American Dream has continued to unleash enormous amounts of human potential and creativity, and is still attracting top talent from around the world. I have talked to many Chinese young people, and many of them expressed the desire to come to America and obtain a green card...

For example, a growing Chinese middle class will not only help the Chinese economy to rebalance from its current excessive-saving syndrome, but it will also create markets for American companies to sell into China and therefore alleviate the pain of America’s overconsumption. When the two major economies with opposite strengths and weaknesses can rectify and fortify each other, the world will be able to thrive on a virtuous cycle of globalization without being vulnerable to an American recession.

Most importantly, in order for America to live up to the challenges of the 21st century, it needs to move away from “the global dominance” mentality as stated in Rachman’s article. That is precisely the mentality that led to America’s arrogance in world affairs and caused anti-American sentiment in some parts of the world.

More in Helen Wang's article.

Helen Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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Young Chinese less romantic about the US - Helen Wang

Helen Wang via Flickr

Helen Wang answers questions from ATimes, on the day of the official launch of her book The Chinese Dream: The Rise of the World's Largest Middle Class and What It Means to You. How do young Chinese look at the US?

Twenty years ago, when I first came to the US, China was just opening. Chinese had very little information on the world. After all, during the Cold War we were adversaries. Once China opened, we began to see that the world was very different than we had been raised to think. And once we could, we all wanted to go to America. I viewed America as a place for the impossible, a romantic version of what the world was not - a dream come true. 

Even now, young people in China still look up to the US, but that has begun to change over the last couple of years. Largely because of the financial crisis, some say: "See, maybe they don't know what they are doing." Also, as a Chinese living in America, I felt that up until about two or three years ago, American news coming out of China was very biased - not very right on - but that has changed recently. I feel the coverage now by American media outlets is actually quite fair and balanced on China. I think a lot of American media has done a better job recently of focusing on getting first-hand information in China, less surface stories, and less American-centric... 

When I left China twenty years ago, there was no Chinese dream. But now there is: now people in China can start a business, they can own homes, they can drive new cars, and they can send their children to college. In many ways, Chinese see how Americans live and they want more of the same thing. The difference is that Chinese are very much focused on their own economics - they feel that as long as they stay out of politics they can have a good life.

More at Atimes.

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

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Defining China's middle class - Helen Wang

Helen Wang by Fantake via Flickr

In her newly released book The Chinese Dream: The Rise of the World's Largest Middle Class and What It Means to You, Helen Wang gives names and faces to the hundreds of millions Chinese who have been shaking off poverty in the past decades. In Forbes she kicks off a discussion that has already been heated in the past: how to define China's middle class?

Since “middle class” is a Western concept, to a certain degree, it contains mythical elements for many Chinese. For example, they think middle class Westerners all own homes, drive cars, and travel for vacations. In addition, Chinese believe middle class people should have good manners and a tasteful lifestyle. They do not consider less-skilled professions such as waiting tables as middle class. In China, rural migrants who earn very low salaries mostly fill those jobs.

In The Chinese Dream, I use a combination of these definitions: urban professionals and entrepreneurs from all walks of life, who have college degrees and earn an annual income from $10,000 to $60,000. Over three hundred million people, or about 25 percent of China’s population, met these criteria in 2010. 

Please let me know whether you agree with these criteria. How would you define it?

More in Forbes.
More on her book here.

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Helen Wang will be on Fox News 1270 Am talking about the Chinese middle class 9am Dec. 7th. She is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. when you need her at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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The Chinese dream - review

Helen Wang via Flickr

One of the more amazing shifts China has undergone in the past decades is its ability to create wealth for its citizens, and lift hundreds of millions out of poverty. The mental picture many outsiders still have of China, enforced when they see the PLA marching on Tiananmen Square, is a country dressed in green and displaying an image of equality.
Connecting real names and faces to the all-too-often abstract growth figures we all know is a daunting task, Helen Wang has taken on in an excellent way in her book “THE CHINESE DREAM: The Rise of the World's Largest Middle Class and What It Means to You”. Mostly, journalists are looking for the extremes to illustrate their stories: the very poor, or the very rich. Easily we forget that China has hundreds of millions between those extremes and - more than those extremes - they tell us how a country is really doing. Their stories about what they want from life, their future and their government is what really matters.
That rising middle class, trying to achieve their dreams, comes to live in over one hundred interviews and stories where individuals tell about their ambitions. Helen Wang has to strike a tricky balance, between first putting hundreds of millions together in one group, the middle class, and still describing them like individuals with - often contrasting - ideas and targets. That mosaic of human stories and ambitions makes the book also a very accessible and recognizable picture for the world outside China.
Whether the Chinese would call themselves “middle class”, like the Americans do, will be a debate in the years to come, as it was in the recent past. Helen Wang has set first valuable steps on a road where we can discover what we have in common and where we differ and - following the Stanford mantra - how we can make a difference.

The official launch of the book will take place at December 10 in Palo Alto, California between 6 and 9 PM. More details and reservation is possible here.

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The Chinese Dream - Helen Wang

Helen Wang via Flickr

The long-awaited book by Helen H. Wang The Chinese Dream: The Rise of the World's Largest Middle Class and What It Means to You is now available at Amazon. The book is endorsed by some of the bigger names in the China debate:
James Fallows of The Atlantic: "A fascinating look at one of the most dynamic forces shaping our world today"
Gady Epstein, Beijing Bureau chief of Forbes: "A truly valuable read for anyone who wants to do business in China.”
John Quelch, professor at Harvard Business School: " An unusual book, very readable and full of insight.”
Shaun Rein, managing director China Market Research Group: "A must-read for businesses that want to tap into this enormous market."

Helen Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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Helen Wang joins China Speakers Bureau

Helen Wang by Fantake via Flickr

Author and consultant Helen Wang has joined the China Speakers Bureau. Born in Hangzhou and since twenty years living in the US, she has become a leading expert on China's middle class. Her book "The Chinese Dream" will be published shortly.
Her Chinese roots and American experience puts her into an excellent position to explain the rise of this new economic force in China, both its chances and its challenges.
Helen Wang has previously at a prestigious think tank, Institute for the Future, and consulted for Fortune 500 companies including Apple Computer, Oracle, and Bank of America.
Her book "The Chinese Dream" is expected next month.

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Chinese want to be rich, not middle class - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr

Many observers wrongly assume Chinese want to be middle class, like the Americans once were. They are wrong, explains Shaun Rein in the Wall Street Journal. Chinese want to be rich.

While investment by global brands has traditionally been highest in Tier 1 cities, explains Shaun Rein, managing director of the China Market Research Group, these days, most growth is happening in Tier 3 cities — defined as medium-size cities such as Dalian that are highly entrepreneurial. And it’s luxury that sells.

“The concept of an emerging middle class in China is a myth, says Rein. “In the U.S., blue-collar workers are happy to shop at Macy’s [department store] for life. Here everyone wants to be rich. It’s why middle-class brands like Marks & Spencer and Calvin Klein haven’t done well.”

Louis Vuitton has 17 thriving stores in Tier 2 (in developed capital cities such as Chengdu) and Tier 3 cities in China. That’s a good measure of the “luxury readiness” of smaller Chinese cities. Swarovski crystal can be be found in about 200 shops spanning 35-40 Tier 1 through Tier 4 cities (such as Jinhua). Luxury brand consumption is linked directly to the development of cities and commercial real estate, specifically malls and shopping centers.

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Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you want to share his insights at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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