Four Top Tips for Businesses Expanding into China

Image credit: Stuart Miles

China is certainly a mouth-watering prospect to the SME business. The engine house of the world with a population of 1.3 billion, China seems to offer an opportunity for everyone and a market for everything.

Within publishing this is especially true, as the Chinese publishing industry is growing into one of largest in the world and certainly has the fastest growth rate. Five years ago, Publishing Technology started to set its sights on servicing the Chinese publishing industry and last year the vision finally became a reality. So as Beijing Book Fair, China’s biggest trade publishing event, gets underway out in China I will detail some of the tips and insights we have learnt along the way.


1. Do your homework
As I said, I’d considered establishing a Chinese presence for the company for a few years, but hadn’t moved beyond the developmental stages. In such an expanse of possibility, I realised, a secure, financially viable opportunity must be identified to justify the investment and guarantee success in this complex market.

During these years we attended conferences, spoke to publishers and consultants, quizzed my Chinese contacts, and probed my most trusted colleagues and advisors – all to confirm there was a marketplace and a gap in the market that we could fill. I immersed myself in the minutiae: I took nothing at face value, delving deep into the mechanics of the publishing market in detail, studying competitors, locations, logistics, revenue forecasts and potential clients in order to ensure I had a proper understanding of what our Chinese business would look like. Even so, the last year has thrown up many new aspects I had not seen and many surprises, mostly positive.

While it seemed like slow progress, it is clear now that these years of research, contact building and time invested in the Chinese market were an indispensable part of creating the right conditions for success.


2. Find the right partner
Something else I learned during this time was that on-the-ground knowledge, contacts and understanding is vital for success. While I have a very international background, I quickly realised that my knowledge did not extend to being able to master business in China. I knew we had to find the right local business partner. We were very fortunate to meet Helen Sun, a Chinese academic and publishing professional with deep knowledge of the national and international publishing community, unrivalled contacts and knowledge of publishing in China and an understanding of the technological side of publishing. She, like all successful partners, brought a combination of local contacts, knowledge and enthusiasm, which we as outsiders couldn’t bring to the table.


3. Appreciate Cultural sensitivities
China has a different business psychology to the familiar Western models. No CEO can immediately be aware of all the cultural intricacies inherent in a country’s way of doing business, but one must go in with an open mind and an understanding of one’s own vulnerability, a consciousness of difference – or a business will stumble before it has even started.

For example, in contrast to the strict contractual obligations that govern US and UK business cultures, the Chinese have a more liberal attitude. Tactical alliances and gestures of partnership are statements of goodwill, and do not necessarily become defined strategic movements until your business actually starts. It’s a different mind-set, and one that Western CEOs must orient their thinking towards, and another reason why having a local business partner who knows the lay of the land is invaluable.

Another key aspect to remember, and this is especially true in the publishing world, is that in dealing with the Chinese, you are essentially dealing by proxy with the Chinese government. Taking on-board government sensitivities is intrinsic to making any venture work and why no venture can realistically work there without a Chinese business partner to guide you through the process.

Read the whole article, please go to Publishing Technology. 

Is Amazon releasing the Kindle in China?

The Amazon Kindle Paperwhite could be officially making its way to China soon.
(Credit: Amazon)

Fans of Amazon.com's Kindle may soon be able to purchase the e-readers directly from the e-commerce company. 

According to QQ Tech Report, a source close to Amazon China said the online retailer could begin shipping directly to customers in China as early as this month.

ZDNet, which uncovered the story, also found that Amazon might be planning to release a Mandarin-based Kindle to attract Chinese customers. People who bought the new Kindle Paperwhite found a user's manual in Mandarin. A section of the manual states that customers can return their device to Amazon China for after-sales servicing. An anonymous Amazon representative told QQ Tech Report that Amazon has been developing a Chinese-focused Kindle for the last two years.

Speaking from experience, this is great news. I had two Kindles break on me during my first year in China. Because they were under warranty, Amazon agreed to replace them at no charge. However, customer service was unable to ship directly to China and I had to get the devices shipped to a family member who then mailed it over.

The big question will be whether or not Chinese customers are willing to pay for the Kindle and the accompanying e-books for the device. It isn't hard to find many generic tablet computers in China--some good and some not so good. Would it be that hard to put Android or some other operating system on a tablet that costs a fraction of what a Kindle retails for?  Written by by Jeff Eisenhauer

Please read the whole story at Asiacnet .

Monkey King: Vol. 1: Birth of the Stone Monkey

Currently, there are a surprising number of sequential adaptations of prose works, faithful and otherwise, available to readers seeking something other than the super-heroic serial adventures that have dominated the American market for the past half century. One could even argue that we’re in the midst of a Renaissance, if not a dawning Golden Age, of graphic novels based upon titles drawn from the Western canon and genre literature. However, the key term—and primary emphasis—in that statement would have to be upon the word “Western,” since the majority of these books were inspired by works originally written in English.
Fortunately, there are exceptions to every rule, and the release of JR Comics’s Monkey King Volume 1: Birth of the Stone Monkey readily proves that the great tales of any culture can be transformed into accessible, entertaining, even enlightening comics intended for a Western audience.
Monkey King is based upon one of China’s most famous novels, The Journey to the West by Cheng En Wu. Set in a mythic prehistory when men shared their world with gods and demons, Journey focuses on the escapades of the Stone Monkey, a creature born in the explosion of a boulder atop Spring Mountain.

Please go to Forward Reviews to read whole review about Adventures from China Series.

Mo Yan wins Nobel prize in literature 2012

Novelist, the first ever Chinese literature Nobel laureate, praised for 'hallucinatory realism'

Chinese author Mo Yan, who left school for a life working the fields at the age of 12, has become the first Chinese citizen ever to win the Nobel prize in literature, praised by the Swedish Academy for merging "folk tales, history and the contemporary" with "hallucinatory realism".
The win makes Mo Yan the first Chinese citizen to win the Nobel in its 111-year history: although Gao Xingjian won in 2000, and was born in China, he is now a French citizen; and although Pearl Buck took the prize in 1938, for "her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces", she is an American author.
The Nobel, worth eight million kronor, goes to the writer "who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction", with previous winners including Samuel Beckett, Doris Lessing and, last year, the Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer. Over the past month the Chinese press has become increasingly vocal about the possibility of a Chinese writer taking the award, with commentors equating "bagging the prize to Chinese literature gaining the world's recognition".
With the Nobel going to a European seven times in the last decade, all evidence was pointing to a winner from outside Europe, and Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami emerged as the frontrunner at betting firm Ladbrokes. Mo Yan, at 9/1, "definitely slipped under the radar", said the firm's spokesman Alex Donohue.

Translator: Howard Goldblatt

Born in 1955 to parents who were farmers, Mo Yan - a pseudonym for Guan Moye; the pen name means "don't speak" - grew up in Gaomi in Shandong province in north-eastern China. The cultural revolution forced him to leave school at 12, and he went to work in the fields, completing his education in the army. He published his first book in 1981, but found literary success in 1987 with Hong gaoliang jiazu (Red Sorghum), a novel that an internationally successful movie by director Zhang Yimou, set against the horrific events that unfolded as Japan invaded China in the 1930s.
"He writes about the peasantry, about life in the countryside, about people struggling to survive, struggling for their dignity, sometimes winning but most of the time losing," said permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy Peter Englund, announcing the win. "The basis for his books was laid when as a child he listened to folktales. The
description magical realism has been used about him, but I think that is belittling him – this isn't something he's picked up from Gabriel García Márquez, but something which is very much his own. With the supernatural going in to the ordinary, he's an extremely original narrator."
Informing Mo Yan of his win today, Englund said the author, who was at the home in China where he lives with his 90-year-old father – was "overjoyed and scared".

Please go to  The Guardian read the whole story.

Jiang Bao Chicken:a classic Chinese dish

Jiang Bao Chicken (酱爆鸡丁) is a classic Chinese dish and almost every region in China makes this dish. It's colorful, delicious with a little bit sweet taste. I bet you will love it!

Total Time: 30 Minutes | Serves 2-3
Prepare:
1 pound chicken breast(鸡胸肉), cut into pieces with cub shape
1 egg white（蛋清）
1 teaspoon potato starch water (土豆淀粉水)
Put the above together, mix well by hand about 10 minutes

1 cup chopped carrots（胡萝卜） and peas（青豆）, pour in boiling water until water is boiling again then drop water. You can buy a ready-to-cook package of carrots and peas at most supermarket
1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger（鲜姜）
1 green onion/scallion（葱）, chopped into small pieces
2 tablespoons sweet flour sauce(甜面酱)，you can find from most Chinese food market
2 teaspoon potato starch(土豆淀粉)
2 teaspoons sugar（白糖）
3 teaspoons cooking wine(料酒)
2 teaspoons soy source(酱油)

Cook:
1. Heat 1 cup canola oil (vegetable oil) in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken, tossing until chicken become white, then transfer to a medium bowl, leave 2 tablespoons oil in the skillet, pour extra oil to another bowl.

2. Add 2 teaspoons sugar to the skillet over medium-high heat, until the sugar became dark brown, then add sweet flour sauce, tossing 2 to 3 minutes, add cooking wine, soy source, tossing until you can smell the rich fragrance.

3. Add ginger, scallion, tossing 2 to 3 minutes, then add chicken, tossing about 1 to 2 minutes, add peas and carrots, tossing about another 2 minutes, pour potato starch water(勾芡), tossing about 20 seconds until the water is disappeared. 

4. Place to a plate and Enjoy!