China Telecom wins the 3G-wars - Paul Denlinger

Paul Denlinger

In May three Chinese telecom companies started a race for the 3G-technology and according to Paul Denlinger China Telecom is going to defeat current market leader China Mobile.

China Telecom, for a long time, was the odd man out, until the May telecom ruling allowed it to introduce 3G mobile services in direct competition with China Mobile and China Unicom.

Obviously, the Chinese government feels that there is a lot of room for pruning back on China Mobile’s dominant position in the mobile market.

Paul Denlinger is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau and one of China's key telecom watchers. Do get in touch when you are interested in having Paul as a speaker.

When you want to ask us a question

via Wikipedia We have added a few tools that make it easier for you to ask us questions. First and for all, we help you to pick a good speakers. We represent hundreds of speakers. If you would like us to help you select the right speaker on China or China-related issues, please fill out this Speaker Request Form.

If you have other questions on the China Speakers Bureau, you can use our Inquiry Form, or contact us directly.

For potential speakers we have a third form, You can submit your application and registration fee online.

Of course, you can also directly get in touch with us at our contact page.

Bad timing: skypecast goes MIA

When you think new media are today about introducing every more new stuff, you might be wrong. I have been working on getting Skypecasts, a service by Skype to allow large scale numbers of people to join calls, as a tool for the China Speakers Bureau. What we are missing are places and tools to conduct the debate on China issues, I feel (and will write more about this later).
Skypecasts seemed an ideal tool to conduct and record discussions, use them on our website. Unfortunately, this week the service has announced it will be over on September 1. I'm not as upset as the many people who based a part of their livelyhood already on that service, but it is not a nice surprise.
So, the obvious question: what is a good alternative. I have been using Yahoo IM in the past for this, but killed it, because it was killing my computers because of the capacity it used. Any suggestions out there?

Post-Olympic evaluation of our speakers

Getty Images via Daylife The Beijing Olympics were of course a great way for our speakers to get some attention from the media for their specific viewpoints on the Olympics. From a short note I just sent to our speakers:

We had a few big hits, as Shaun Rein already before the Olympics started came with solid research suggesting Olympic sponsors were not really getting what they were paying for.
You can see that when we can have such vivid video clips, that works very well.
The machine moved on with Kaiser Kuo, Tom Doctoroff (at least three times), Paul French, Zhang Lijia, Ken Carroll and today James Farrer had a look at the Olympics from their perspective.

At the China Speakers Bureau we have a few tools at our website, like this weblog or the speakers' corner to capitalize on this kind of publicity our speakers generate. Do let us know if you have additional suggestions.

No gold for China from Japan - James Farrer

James Farrer

The high expectation of Japanese media on the effects of the Beijing Olympics fell flat, writes sociologist James Farrer from Tokyo in Policy Innovations:

Influenced by Japan's own postwar experience, columnists ask whether the Beijing Olympics will serve the purpose of integrating China into global society, in the same way achieved by the former Axis powers in the postwar Rome, Tokyo, and Munich Olympics, and later by Seoul in 1988. Most answer negatively.

In a few ways the Japanese media had a different viewpoint than the international English-language media, says Farrer:

Japanese media reports seem at the same time more critical and less condescending than their U.S. counterparts. Japanese seem to expect more of their giant neighbor but are also far more fearful and skeptical of it. This dynamic is especially evident in the profound mistrust in Japan's mainstream media toward Chinese political leadership and the insistence by some conservative Japanese commentators that China is headed for a severe economic downturn. These pessimistic economic predictions are significant if only because Japan is the largest foreign investor in China, which is now Japan's largest export market. Of course, Japan's reports also say a great deal about Japan's own obsessions, including concerns about Japan's declining vitality and status in comparison with its increasingly powerful and affluent "neighboring country" (a term frequently used in Japanese media).

James Farrer is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau, focusing on sino-Japanese relations and other contemporary issues in China. His main focus is on the sexual revolution in China and Japan.

China's sport stars only work when they win - Tom Doctoroff

Tom Doctoroff

Branding in China works differently than elsewhere in the world, marketing guru Tom Doctoroff, the chief executive for Greater China at J. Walter Thompson, the advertising agency, says in the New York Times, looking back at the Beijing Olympics.

“You have to define the sport and be a master of the universe,” Mr. Doctoroff said. “It’s extremely imperial. Anyone who can’t be the emperor of basketball or the queen of tennis won’t make it.”

That would be bad news for the lower Olympic gods and their perspective to make a living from marketing. Even former champion Liu Xiang might have lost his position in China. Doctoroff in the New York Times:

“It’s like leading mice to cheese,” said Tom Doctoroff, referring to athletes and the Chinese market. “The question is, do these celebrities have what it takes to make it in China?”

More than most countries, sports marketing experts say, Chinese fans will back only athletes with personality and a long winning streak, meaning many top athletes may fall flat here.

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Tom Doctoroff is one of our specialists focusing on branding in China at the China Speakers Bureau. If you are interested in having him as a speaker, do get in touch with one of our offices, like our US-office at +1 413 323 4356.
If you think you can add value as a professional speaker to our service, do get in touch with us too.

China's economy, steady as she goes - Arthur Kroeber

Arthur Kroeber

"We're going down from stupidly fast last year to really fast this year and just plain ordinary fast next year, which would be in the 8 to 9 percent range," says Arthur Kroeber of Dragonomics, a Beijing consultancy to Reuters.
In post-Olympic China the expected growth of the economy is high on the agenda as the central government is preparing a stimulus package for the smaller and middle-range enterprises (SME"S) of between 200 and 400 billion Renminbi (20-40 billion euro's). But the rumors of an slump of the Chinese economy, following a global trend, are largely overdone, says Kroeber about the slowdown he foresees. "It's a big downshift, and that may create some problems, but they'll still be growing faster than any other major economy in the world."

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Arthur Kroeber is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau, and one of the leading experts on China's economy. If you are interested in having him as a speaker, or any of our other authoritative economists, do have a look at our economy page, or ask one of our people for a tailor-made suggestion.

Back to Barack Obama

Getty Images via Daylife The Beijing Olympics have ended and with mixed feelings (some happy, some sad) China is returning to business again. The world's media will be turning to Barack Obama, who will have his finest moment very soon in Denver and the Paralympics will not be noted by many as the world's attention is no longer focusing on China.
A good moment to see how our speakers at the China Speakers Bureau have been performing in the global China-debate and I think they have been doing a pretty good job. Shaun Rein has been dominating the Olympic marketing debate already before Li Ning lightened the torch in Beijing. Shaun started the debate at Bloomberg in July and has not been away from the mainstream media since then.
Others have followed him. Tom Doctoroff reported from the Birdsnest both on the failed Olympic marketing, but also went deeper in exploring the changes in China's soul in Adweek. Kaiser Kuo explained how the Beijing Olympics have changed the perception the outside world has of China and Chinese, especially as Chinese emotions appeared for a worldwide audience.
In this weblog we want to follow how our speakers are doing in the different China-debates. That debate will continue, even though the world's media might turn now for a week their attention to Barack Obama in Denver.

Sino-Japanese relations and more

Wikipedia Today we have been adding on request some country-specific categories, like the sino-Japanese relations. We did have already a section on 'international relations', but with some exceptions (like William Overholt) that description was too vague, we discovered. We have been adding section on Africa, the USA, India and Japan.
Europe is still missing as a section: we will have to look into that shortly. Do let us know if you have more suggestions.

Setting off a media career - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia

Our best-seller author Zhang Lijia is going to tour Australia to promote her book "Socialism is Great!" and is treating the domestic media with some great interviews.
After ten years on the Chinese factory floor and a study in Great Britain, Zhang saw back in China the start of her media career, she tells the Syndney Morning Herald:
Since her days in the factory, however, Zhang had harboured ambitions to write. "I got my first breakthrough with Newsweek in May 1996. I wrote about a socialist model village, Dazhai, and how it had become commercialised. Shortly after I became pregnant with my first child I gave up the full-time ABC job [in September 1996] and decided to pursue my own freelance writing. Looking back, that's probably the best decision I ever made." Her journalism has since appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Independent and South China Morning Post among other publications.
In December 2000, she wrote a piece for The Wall Street Journal Asia about her experiences in the missile factory, provoking surprise among many who knew her. "Lots of my friends never knew I'd come from a worker background. They thought I was better educated. They said, 'Why don't you write a book?' I started some research and realised although the market had been flooded by China memoirs, few are set in the 1980s."

Zhang Lijia is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau and we can help you to check her availability for your event. Ms Zhang can cover a wide range of subjects, including the life of a working mother in China.

Strategic online communication, the Johnson Baby case - Sam Flemming

Sam Flemming

Moving from tactical online solution to strategic communication is the new challenge to reach online consumers, writes Sam Flemming. In his latest article he explains how Johnson Baby was successful in developing a permanent platform, to communicate with their 'ambassadors', in stead of setting up a one-off marketing campaign.

Since 2007, interactive agency Agenda has worked with Johnson Baby to develop the Mom Ambassadors program. The opportunity for such a program makes sense due to the sheer volume of parenting discussions within Chinese BBS forums. From CIC's own tracking of Chinese parenting BBS forums, we see millions of messages written by hundreds of thousands unique viewers every month in forums on sites such as Redbaby, 19floor and Sina. These moms are informed, passionate and talk actively about baby related products.

By staying in touch with those parents, Johnson Baby has developed a platform that serves as an example of how to integrate online marketing in a structural way in its corporate communication, Sam Flemming says. That is move time-consuming than having a basic online conversation, but a smart way to move.
More in Sam's article in Imediaconnection.

Sam Flemming is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau and if you are interesting in having him, do get in touch with one of our offices. If you are interested in other speakers on the same subject, do go to our marketing page, or have a look at our speakers on internet issues. You can also ask our specialists for a more tailor-made solution.

Director IMD World competitiveness center joins China Speakers Bureau

Stephane Garelli

Stephane Garelli, director of the IMD World Competitive Center and professor at IMD and Lausanne University, has joined the China Speakers Bureau as a speaker.
Each year economists and policy makers watch IMD in Lausanne as his center announces the annual ranking of the competitiveness of countries in the world. Professor Garelli has top-positions as the adviser of both governments and major corporations. He writes larger numbers of columns for media and is an often-invited speaker at many events.

If you are interested in hearing the viewpoints of professor Garelli, do get in touch with one of the global offices of the China Speakers Bureau.

Top-10 most sought speakers in August

Shaun Rein

The China Speakers Bureau is only for a bit more than a month online, so getting a top-10 of most-sought-speakers is a bit of a tricky thing. Not all of our speakers have been online for the whole month and still quite a few are still waiting to get on our website. The search engines are still in an early phase of discovering our distinguished speakers.
But fortunately, our number one for August, Shaun Rein, has been leading with such a distance, traffic is clearly pointing in his direction as the still-unchallenged leader.
Not surprisingly, looking as the successful way he has been getting tracking among the traditional media with his strong analysis on the Olympic sponsorship.
Do expect some large changes for September, but for August our top-10 looks like this:

1. Shaun Rein
2. Kaiser Kuo
3. Tom Doctoroff
4. Zhang Lijia
5. Warren Liu
6. Paul French
7. Sam Flemming
8. William Bao Bean
9. Paul Denlinger
10. William Overholt

Congratulations again for Shaun! If you are interested in the movers and shakers among our speakers, do have a look at our speakers' corner.

Olympic emotions show a different country - Kaiser Kuo

Kaiser Kuo

Sobbing Chinese have killed one global misconception about the country, the supposed lack of emotions they display, says Kaiser Kuo in an interview with Reuters.

"Liu Xiang's coach sobs uncontrollably on television after China's national hero hobbles out of the hurdles. Spectators weep in the stands.

"Four women rowers collapse in their boat after winning China's first rowing gold. Overwhelmed by raw emotion, they do not know whether to laugh or cry and end up doing both in spades.

"Chinese shooter Du Li, the weight of a nation on her shoulders, crumbles in tears after failing to win the first gold of the Games with 1.3 billion people willing her on.

At the Olympics, the Chinese certainly are wearing their hearts on their sleeves.

"There has been an image in the West of Chinese sport being a machine bereft of emotion. This has changed all that," said Kaiser Kuo, a columnist on the Beijinger magazine who has watched the transformation of China's psyche while the world is watching."

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Kaiser Kuo is also director digital strategies at Ogilvy and a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Are you interested in having him sharing his observations? Do check with us his availability.
Are you interested in other celebrity speakers on China? Do call us at +32 484 758562 for a tailor-made advise.

Accepting new speakers

via Wikipedia At the China Speakers Bureau we are going to open up for new speakers again. Getting assignments in is our priority, but we also do not want to keep our gates closed for qualified speakers, as we have done in the recent past.
Do note our basic requirements though. We have a strong focus on China and China-related issues and are going to stick to that. So, when your strong points are in sport, innovation or technology, we are only interested if that adds value in the China context. The good news is: we do not care where you are actually located. Much of our assignments are coming from outside China.
Do have a look also at our current stable of speakers. We do love to get new speakers who add value to our current speakers. That means, we do have enough people who cover doing business in China a more generic way. The more specialized skills you have, be easier it will be for us to find assignments.
We also require a strong track record in giving speeches for a fee. Our business is based on a percentage of the speakers' fee, so if there is no fee we might lose interest.
There is more to say, but if you meet those basic requirement, do get in touch and we can start our discussions. Do get in touch with Fons Tuinstra at fons.tuinstra@china-speakers-bureau.com for more information.

China's search for its soul - Tom Doctoroff

Tom Doctoroff

Tom Doctoroff attended China's search for its soul at the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics. In Adweek he explains how he enjoyed that, while the search is not yet complete.

Most importantly, the ceremony was targeted to the Chinese. Zhang, a victim of Cultural Revolution abuses, was pleading with the nation to, finally, stand up with pride. Today's China, he believes, springs from a rich cultural heritage and a timeless worldview, one in which all elements of the universe are elegantly interconnected, always in motion. China's profound respect for analytic intelligence has created a country that reveres the scholar, emphasizes knowledge over might, defense over offense, skill over brute force, concentration over impulse. These qualities, he insists, must be venerated.

More in Adweek.
Tom Doctoroff is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. If you are interested in having Tom as a speaker, do let us know.

Dealing with failed Olympic marketing - Tom Doctoroff

Tom Doctoroff

Olympic sponsors have started to lick their wounds and the Financial Times asked our Tom Doctoroff - among many others - to give their verdicts as marketing experts on a failed Beijing Olympics.

"If you turn on any Chinese television station, most of the advertising is absolutely indistinguishable. It's loud, it's got the same voiceover, the production values are primitive to say the least - I mean, they are antediluvian," says Tom Doctoroff, Greater China chief executive of JWT, the advertising agency....."Brands are not just a question of desire, but it's also a question of concrete corporate structure . . . it's still very rare to see a truly marketing-driven organisation, as opposed to a sales-driven organisation," says Mr Doctoroff. Many Chinese companies take a short-term view of profits - and do not want to invest money over the longer term to build their brand.

The debate on the Olympic effects for marketing is going to have a far-reaching effect as many sponsors have already announced they will be backing out. An for good reason, says also consultant Paul French in the same article:

"The problem is, no one has really managed to get out ahead of the pack with the Olympics . . . there's just this pack mentality with everyone doing very similar sort of stuff".

Both Tom Doctoroff and Paul French are speakers at the China Speakers Bureau. If you are interested in having one of them - or both - as a speaker, do let us know. If you want to have a larger choice, you can look also at our marketing page, or get in touch with one of our consultants for a tailor-made advice.

China Daily steals and manhandles article

Zhang Lijia

When people compare the China Daily of twenty years ago with the Chinese English-language publication of today, they might think that things have improved. They might have, but they are still not well.
Jeremy Goldkorn's Danwei points at an article by the Chinese author Zhang Lijia, where she defends the amazing change in China, originally published in The Guardian. (We published about it before here.) Not only has the China Daily republished the article without permission (we call that theft), it has also modified Zhang's article in a way some Chinese sensitivities on Tibet could be avoided.
The incident illustrates that on crucial moments, these state-owned media cannot be trusted.
More at Danwei.

Both Zhang Lijia and Jeremy Goldkorn a speakers at the China Speakers Bureau. If you are interested in have them as a speaker, do let us know. If you are interested in other authorities speaking on the media in China, do go to our media-page.

China's creative imperative - starting to read

Image via Wikipedia In my quest for interesting new angles and possible speakers for the China Speakers Bureau I have started to read a book I received yesterday from the publisher Wiley "China's Creative Imperative: How Creativity is Transforming Society and Business in China" by Kunal Sinha, working for Ogilvy, a company some of you might hear off.
In terms of topic, it is an excellent choice: the swap China is making from a low-end producing of cheap good to a service-focused, developed economy is really a topic that will keep us busy over the coming years.
Chinese creativity - or in the Western perspective - the lack thereof has always kept me busy, since the Chinese tend to be much more creative and more inclined to out -of-the box thinking compared to many (not all) of the Europeans I know.
Has anybody already read the book? Thoughts about it? Please let me know.

KFC's success in China - Warren Liu

Warren Liu

KFC in China grew from one to over 1,400 outlets in China in twenty years time, making it into the largest foreign fastfood chain. Retired MBA-lecturer Warren Liu took a step back and analyzed in his book why the eternal number two behind McDonalds took the top position in China.
"Warren Liu's fascinating book provides a deep insight into the enormous success of KFC in the Chinese market," writes Ken Lieberthal, professor of political science at the University of Michigan and China-adviser of the Barack Obama team. "He unravels the key factors - not only KFC's overall strategy but its embrace of localization, rapid execution, and other adaptation - that spells succss, even against McDonald's. The author knows this story from the inside, as a key leader in the KFC China effort when it really accelerated, and he tells the story with both analytical rigor and verve."

Warren Liu is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. If you are interested in having him as a speaker, do get in touch.
If you are interested in other speakers on doing business in China, do have a look here. This subject is a great angle for MBA or EMBA courses, working on China. If you are interested in additional speakers for business educational purposes, do have a look here.

Astroturfing no issue in China - Sam Flemming

Sam Flemming

Astroturfing, companies and governments pretending they are a grassroots online movement, is no issue in China, Sam Flemming contends in an issue of the leading Digital Media on the feature.
Flemming, a leading analyst on all things digital in China, says does not deny its happens but says that the size of the online communication in China is so huge, astroturfing would have to real influence.

Sam Flemming, CEO of online word-of-mouth consultancy CIC, argues that the sheer number of messages posted on the web makes it hard to make a real difference through astroturfing. “There are so many conversations out there that it’s hard for any group of humans to have a significant impact.”

Sam Flemming is a leading speaker on the internet in China and represented by the China Speakers Bureau. If you are interested in hearing him, do drop us a line.
See here more of our speakers on the internet in China.

"Fake foreigner" Jeremy Goldkorn hits Southern Weekend

Jeremy Danwei

"Foreigners take a very biased view of China. They think that there is no freedom of speech in China. They think that everything is totally like the Cultural Revolution without any voice from the people. But it is not that simple."

Danwei's Jeremy Goldkorn hits China's leading newspaper Southern Weekend (here in a translation by ESWN; h/t Thomas Crampton) that babtizes him the "fake foreigner".

"Foreigners actually do not have too many channels to understand China," says Jeremy Goldkorn. The model of Danwei.org is very simple. That is to translate the latest published articles in China into English and publish it on the blog. This opens a new window for many foreigners who want to understand China but cannot read Chinese. When he chose 'Danwei" as the name of the blog, he though that 'Danwei" was a term with unique Chinese characteristics: The Danwei is a unit that can provide wages, benefits and other guarantees under socialism. This is a utopian society that provides an identity for the people.

More at ESWN.
Jeremy Goldkorn is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you are interested in having him as a speaker, do get in touch.
See here more of our speakers on the media in China.

It's a government game - Rowan Simons

Rowan Simons

Soccer in China is a government's game , analyzes our soccer specialist Rowan Simons in yet another review of his leading book on this sport in a section of the Wall Street Journal. "It is all politics."

“I was extremely happy on 13 July 2001, when China won the bid to host the Olympics,” says Simons, who is also director of Odyssey Media Investments, a media investment consultancy. “But I’ve become disillusioned. It started as a wonderful opportunity for China to open up.”

Simons says that China focuses only on elite athletes who are sure to bring home the medals and neglects community sports. “The Olympics has put sports reform in China back by a decade,” he says. “The danger is that China thinks the Olympics is the end of its sports journey. But it should be the beginning of a new sports revolution in China.”

China's online media need good statistics - Paul Denlinger

Paul Denlinger

Lacking reliable data on China's online media is having a debilitating effect on the industry, argues Paul Denlinger in his latest column at China Vortex.

The situation is not helped by government-supported “big picture” reports by CNNIC which give too broad numbers on a national basis and support a government agenda, but do not provide any business insights. They are great grist for press releases and the politically-charged Chinese and western media, but that is about the only value they have.

Only good independent statistics might help China's online media to get their fair share of ads revenue, Denlinger says:

It’s a testament to the robustness and attraction of China’s economy that the Internet has been able to grow as fast and as far as it has without these independent numbers and stats, but it is also a tragedy that many dollars have not made it to China because of the comparative opacity of the market.

If this systemic bottleneck problem can be addressed, the volume of ad money which would go to Chinese online publishers would go up dramatically.

Paul Denlinger is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. If you are interested in having him as a speaker, do let us know.

Learning Olympic Chinese - Ken Carroll

Ken Carroll

The world's most famous Chinese learning institute Chinesepod, set up by Ken Carroll, has developed its own fast track to fame: Olympic Chinese, and was noted by the New York Times.

The tutorials also help users navigate Beijing’s physical and cultural landscape, understand the sports announcers and chat with the person sitting next to them at an event. After just 13 1/2 minutes of listening to Mr. Carroll and his colleague Jenny Zhu online, you will be able to proudly say in Chinese, “The gymnastics competition has begun. Wow, their moves are really impressive. Yeah, and really steady, too.”

Ken Carroll is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. If you are interested in having him for a lecture, a key note or as a panelist, do get in touch.

Shocked by American ignorance - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia

Celebrity author Zhang Lijia expresses in the Korea Times her amazement about the ignorance on China she noted when she was on a recent book tour in the United States, and tells why she support the Beijing Olympics:

Zhang Lijia, author of the New York Times bestseller, "Socialism is Great'' ― her coming-of-age memoir during the Cultural Revolution ― echoes the concern.

``... I often got questions from American audiences asking me if America stands any chance of survival against China's rise," she told The Korea Times.

"I was shocked. I think there is a great ignorance. That's why I support the Beijing Olympics. It's an opportunity for Americans to know more about China and vice versa."

Zhang Lijia is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you are interested in having her as a speaker, do get in touch.

The first Web2.0 Olympics - Kaiser Kuo

Kaiser Kuo

The Beijing Olympics will be the first one facing a full scale web2.0 exposure and Ogilviy's new media guru Kaiser Kuo looks at his weblog at the dilemma's:

There’s ample irony, and for some perhaps a certain poetic justice, in this — that the capital city of a country so infamous for censoring the Internet should be the first to host the Games the age of Internet video sharing, citizen journalism, social networking, of microblogging, and the myriad online services and tools that have empowered ordinary people.

Ahead of the Games, the Beijing organizers have banned all not approved publications of Olympic events, but that process might even be harder to manage than stopping the rain, as even the athletes are now reporting from the Olympic grounds.
Brand managers - and here Kuo turns to his day-time job - will equally have a hard time in managing the exposure of their brands.

China is ready for democracy - Arthur Kroeber

Arthur Kroeber

China is ready for democracy, but its 'middle class' is opposing it, writes Arthur Kroeber on Tuesday in the Financial Times.
In debates the emerging consumers and the Chinese governments most media depict both as opposing forces in the struggle for more democracy, but according to Kroeber they are actually on the same side, fighting against building more democratic institutions.

For democracy advocates inside and outside of China, the Communist party’s relative success in improving its governance capacity means that arguments resting on the a priori assumption of democracy’s superiority will fall on deaf ears. This is particularly true because the Communists’ programme especially benefits the natural constituency of a more open society. This is the so-called Chinese “middle class” – people in cities who have significant discretionary income left over after basic necessities are paid for.

That elite will only stop opposing democracy when it offers them stability in the long term, a guarantee they now get from the current regime. More at the Financial Times.

The writer is the Beijing-based managing director of Dragonomics, an economic research firm, and publisher of the China Economic Quarterly. If you are interested in having Arthur Kroeber as a speaker, do get in touch with us at the China Speakers Bureau.

Forget "The Great Firewall of China," please

Kaiser Kuo

Kaiser Kuo's plea to foreign correspondents attending the Beijing Olympics to forget the cliches about China, made it today to Reuters.

"I think the highest blood boiler for me is the phrase 'coming-out party'," he told Reuters after writing a tongue-in-cheek column warning the media of the pitfalls of reporting China with a supposedly fresh eye.
He warned that after appearing in 75.4 percent of stories about the Olympics being awarded to Beijing, talk of a 'coming-out party' "now incites English-speaking expats to an ugly violent rage. Use it at your own peril."

Time to stop criticising China - we've already come so far

Zhang Lijia

Author Zhang Lijia remembers her youth and tells the world it is about time to stop criticising China, in Comments are for free of The Guardian. She documents the massive changes the world has been going through but who are not seen by many in the outside world.

Yet Beijing's Olympics will be a success because the majority of the population want them to be, not just because the government wants to use Olympic success to gain legitimacy. Xia Fengzhi, a 67-year-old retired worker and a volunteer, told me how happy and excited he is about the Games: 'I want foreigners to see what China has achieved. We were called the "sick man of Asia". Now we are strong and rich enough to hold such a major international event.'

Recent publications: Zhang Lijia in the New Statesman, Spitting Image, on nasty habits of the Chinese:

Nevertheless, I must admit that many of the uncivilised habits here come down to a lack of public concern. Speaking loudly in private is one thing, but doing so at dawn in a hotel when everyone else is sleeping is another. Once I took my nanny, an uneducated village girl, to the cinema to see a new film. In the middle of it, her laughing and loud comments about a black character's large backside forced me to drag her out.

Zhang Lijia is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do let us know if you are interested in having her as a speaker.

Telling the world how the internet is changing China - Kaiser Kuo

Kaiser Kuo

China and the internet are hitting the international agenda yet again as the Beijing Olympics draw near. That is a good moment to listen to our own internet guru Kaiser Kuo, former journalist, now director digital strategy at Ogilvy in Beijing. Taking on journalistic cliches about China, explaining how the internet is changing China in a dramatic way and how the outside world fails to understand those changes are some of his favorite subjects.
When you listen to this voice of reasons (like on the included video clip of June 2008), you realize that the 25,000 foreign journalists in Beijing and the IOC should have had a talk with him, before complaining about the censorship on China's internet.
It is not too late. When you are interested in having Kaiser Kuo as a speaker, he joined the China Speakers Bureau and you can drop us a line to check out his availability.