China Speakers Bureau

The reversed gender gap at universities - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson

Most are familiar with the gender gap in China, where men outnumber women in national statistics. But Bill Dodson noted recently during lectures at a business school in Ningbo, his class had a reversed gender gap: 70 percent female students.
In his weblog:

After the university talk, I asked my hosts why it was the audience was so tilted toward women. Was it that women who had found the poster advertising the talk found my photo sexy or was it the more urbane fact that there were overwhelmingly more women on campus than men? (Actually, I didn’t ask the first question; though I did entertain the thought).
My host, a young, portly and good-natured student who worked part-time at the library answered, “The curriculum at the school is in English,” he himself answered in accented English. “Women score better on the language portion of the university entrance examination than the men, so more women than men are admitted to the university; also, more women in the undergraduate school enroll in our business school.” He finished quickly, “When we open our engineering school, the campus should attract more men. We hope to have more balance at the school within a couple years.”

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

Labels: Bill Dodson, China, China Speakers Bureau, education

All foreign books to be banned in China? - Bill Dodson

Image by Fantake via Flickr

Bill Dodson

Celebrity author Bill Dodson just discovered by accident that his succesful book China Inside Out has been taken off the shelves of a book store in Suzhou. It might be the start of more, he reports at his weblog. In the end all foreign books might be banned in China.

China Inside Out apparently caught the attention of the Fahrenheit 451 brigade in Suzhou. I’d gone down to the local branch of the Bookworm this past Sunday to kick-off a Royal Asiatic Society author’s talk on Edmund Backhouse’s Decadence Mandchoue, as bawdy an historical narrative as one will ever find. A friend at the shop told me my book had caused a bit of a stir a few days before with the local F451. I thought he was kidding.
The proprietor confirmed after the Decadence talk that, indeed, F451 had been to the shop, saw the nice little display for the book set up at the front bar; and politely asked that the book be removed. In all fairness, it’s not the first time the shop has been targeted. And it won’t be the last time, either. Apparently, F451 will shortly be requiring ALL books written by foreigners be taken down from the shelves.
Regime change has central and local authorities more brittle than at any time in twenty years.
The country just can’t seem to break out of some cycles.

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him (and his books) at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

Labels: Bill Dodson, books, censorship, China, China Speakers Bureau

Doing Business in Chongqing: A Wild Ride - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson

Western companies are flocking into Central China, running into new unchartered territory, writes Bill Dodson in the China Business Services, an excerpt from his book. Local government are just one of the unpredictable dangers, like in Chongqing.

Great hidden costs lay in store for potential investors like: government corruption; changeable policies; inflated costs of production inputs; a lack of skilled labor and experienced management; and affordable salary levels high enough to attract Chinese nationals from the east coast.

John, a friend with whom I’d worked on a project in Kunshan, near Shanghai, spent two years building an export factory in Chongqing for a mid-sized American company. John explained to me, “The township where the factory is located ran out of its allotment of natural gas half-way into the year. Cheap supplies of natural gas was the ONLY reason the company had put the operation there. It’s even in the contract that the company will receive supplies of natural gas without interruption. So when the local government told me, ‘So sorry, no more gas for you,’ I was angry. One of the Vice Mayors of the township offered that if my company gave him 2 million RMB the local government would look the other way while I hooked up to the gas supplies in the next town over.”

More stories in the China Business Services or in his book China Inside Out: 10 Irreversible Trends Reshaping China and its Relationship with the World.

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

Labels: Bill Dodson, China, China Speakers Bureau, Chongqing

What about your contingency plan? - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson

Is your company ready when China explodes, falls into piece, or does both, Bill Dodson wonders on his weblog. What happens in your company when the natives get restless?

Interestingly, most of the rejection has been of Asian companies; expressly, Taiwanese (Foxconn) and Japanese (most recently the car plants in the south whose workers went on strike while Foxconn staff was suicidal; and the rampant protests in Chinese cities against the Japanese in 2005). Mostly, Western companies, which in general tend to pay their workers more than their Asian FDI counterparts and – again, generally – tend to treat their staff with a bit more respect than Asian investors – have gotten off with little more than job-hopping youngsters who will quit and join another company for a 50 RMB raise in salary.
Still, that’s not to say that Western companies should be complacent about social upheaval in China that could affect their operations. Recall the boycotts of French brands and retailers in 2008, when the French government made gestures that drew the ire of Chinese hardliners: Carrefour and Auchan had a tough time of it while thousands of Chinese protesters all but ransacked the hypermarkets. American businesses must remember the ritual stoning of the American embassy in 1999 (oops, we bombed which embassy?) and then again in 2001 (spy planes like us).

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

Labels: Auchan, Bill Dodson, Carrefour, China, China Speakers Bureau, Foxconn

Most-sought speakers in April 2011

Kaiser Kuo

"No comment." Few of our speakers have been quoted so often by the mainstream media saying nothing. Kaiser Kuo easily made it into the top-position of most-sought speakers for April as he was - and still is - unable to say anything about a possible cooperation between his company Baidu and Facebook. It has not reduced his popularity in our top-10.
He even passed Shaun Rein, who had a top-month in doing the opposite: saying things that matter. Shanghai Disney, inflation, IKEA, Fukushima, Google and the luxury goods market: almost no day passed without mainstream media quoting Shaun Rein.
Most popular newcomer is certainly Bill Dodson, whose book, China Inside Out: 10 Irreversible Trends Reshaping China and its Relationship with the World, is making big waves.
Our top-10 of most-sought speakers for April (March in brackets)

Image by Fantake via Flickr

Bill Dodson

Kaiser Kuo (2)
Shaun Rein (1)
Victor Shih (10)
Paul French (3)
William Overholt (7)
Tom Doctoroff (5)
Arthur Kroeber (4)
Bill Dodson (-)
Helen Wang (8)
Wendell Minnick (6)

(We have an early release of our top-10 as we are preparing to move our China Speakers Bureau website, and counting system, into Wordpress. You might notice some disturbances on the line, as we move on.)

Labels: Bill Dodson, China, China Speakers Bureau, Kaiser Kuo, Shaun Rein

Thursday book talk in Chengdu - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson

The Chengdu Bookworm, part of the famous chain of book stores, will host a book talk by Bill Dodson on his book China Inside Out on Thursday 24 March at 7.30PM, he announces on his weblog.

I’ve been invited to the Chengdu Bookworm to discuss my book China Inside Out this week Thursday, March 24, at 7:30pm. The Bookworm’s Literary Festival is winding down this week, with appearances by Jonathan Watts, author of When a Billion Chinese Jump, and Peter Hessler, author of Country Roads. I’m pulling up the rear.

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

Labels: Bill Dodson, China, China Speakers Bureau

No salt for my French fries - Bill Dodson

Image by Fantake via Flickr

Bill Dodson

Salt hysteria has hit the East coast of China and Bill Dodson reports in his weblog from Shanghai on the difficulties of getting salt for his French fries.

My wife later that evening told me over dinner how our ayi had bought a kilogram of salt. “It was so expensive,” she told me, “a single small bag can now cost 15 rmb.” Bags used to cost a couple yuan. She explained to me the near-hysteria with which Chinese consumers were buying up salt in fear of atomic radiation blowing in from Japan should a reactor explode at the Fukushima nuclear plant. The iodine in salt, so Chinese wisdom holds, will protect consumers from radiation poisoning. She told me, “I said to the ayi, ‘What are you going to do, eat handfuls of salt?” She said the ayi had no response.
The government has remained mum on the subject, perhaps theorizing that because there is no solution should there actually be contamination, that at least salt is cauterizing pedestrian anxieties. Salt producers must be laughing all the way to the bank.

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

Labels: Bill Dodson, China, China Speakers Bureau, Fukushima, salt

Book launch "Inside out", Saturday in Suzhou - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson, signing his book

While already going strong, the global launch of Bill Dodson's new book China Inside Out: 10 Irreversible Trends Reshaping China and its Relationship with the World will take place this Saturday in Suzhou, he announces at his weblog:

The Suzhou Launch will be this coming Saturday, March 12, 2011, at the Bookworm in Suzhou, just off Shiquan Jie. The book talk will last about an hour, starting at 4pm; after which will be a launch party with free flow wine and beer (but just for another hour or so).
I’ll be discussing the ramifications for China of the first couple pages of chapter 2 of the book, in which I describe how I unwittingly become caught up in a revolt of middle class protesters angry about the invasion of a property developer onto land to which they hold the deeds. Now, we’re not talking peasants, here; but bonafide, certified, Chinese professionals who find themselves pitted against the local government, unscrupulous property developers, construction managers with bad comb-overs and white-helmeted police in a local, Suzhou dispute that turns very ugly.

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

Labels: Bill Dodson, China, China Speakers Bureau

Explaining China "inside out" - book review

Bill Dodson

Explaining China to an outside audience will never be very easy, but most (book) authors fall at least in one of two major pitfalls.
First, their writings are often meant to outsmart their fellow China experts, not to inform people. While there is nothing wrong with trying to look better than your peers, it seldom is the best way to explain a complicated China to relative newcomers. Expert reviewers often complain they have found nothing new, unless a book challenges their world view. They just fail to understand, they might not be the target audience.
On the other extreme other authors simplify what is happening in China to such a degree, to accommodate their audiene, the country becomes a cartoon of itself.
In his book China Inside Out: 10 Irreversible Trends Reshaping China and its Relationship with the World, Bill Dodson gracefully avoids both dangers. His strong story telling skills makes his explanations both entertaining and convincing. This is a must-read book all China experts should advise to their newbie friends.

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

Labels: Bill Dodson, China, China Speakers Bureau

Misleading foreign media - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson via Flickr

Blunt comments by Chinese staff takes Western managers by surprise, explains Bill Dodson on his weblog in a story where a newcomer was set straight by his company manager after he mentioned censorship on the internet. "You have been misled by foreign media".

During the afternoon meeting one of the Western managers had made a point about the central government’s internet censorship policy. The plant manager replied, without missing a beat, “You have been mislead by the foreign press”. The Western manager paused a moment, off-balanced by the remark. He had only been in China a couple days, and so was not used to the bluntness with which Chinese can address friends and coworkers. The Western GM, a long-time resident of China, laughed. The plant manager was serious; however, he quickly lightened up because of his travels outside the country and his work over the years with Western colleagues.

Bill Dodson just published his book China Inside Out: 10 Irreversible Trends Reshaping China and its Relationship with the World.

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

Labels: Bill Dodson, China, China Speakers Bureau

US IT programmers for a China price - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson

The pendule of globalization is now moving towards the US, notes Bill Dodson in his weblog, where IT programmers cost a much as those in China. An analysis of the moving IT market in the eyes of Bill's American friend:

“They sharpest ones (in India) took their money and left. And the country hasn’t cultivated the rest.” She was enthusiastic about the Dutch, who are producing some “amazing” technologies, she said. She’s also working with a Finnish team. “The Finns are doing some cutting-edge stuff,” she added. So what else is there to do during those long, cold, dark winter days, I wanted to quip (but didn’t). I asked her about the Chinese software team she had been working with six months ago.

“They were so-so. Nothing really sparkling. And now, because the economy in the States has been so bad, American developers are now costing me about the same price.” She gave me an example. “A Chinese team leader quoted me a price of 300 rmb per hour for a programmer. That’s more than $20 and hour: I can get a really good American programmer for that price – and we’ll have a cultural affinity that I’ll never have with the Chinese, even though they may just be a fifteen minute drive down the road from me (in Suzhou).”

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

Labels: Bill Dodson, China, China Speakers Bureau, globalization, wages

China inside out - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson

Our exclusive speaker Bill Dodson just had his book China Inside Out: 10 Irreversible Trends Reshaping China and its Relationship with the World released at the publisher Wiley's.
A highly animated and energetic speaker, he presents in a clear and understandable way the important trends impacting China markets, business interests invested in the country and international relations with other nations. He uses high-profile current events underscored by personal anecdotes from his years of living and working in China to explain China's culture, politics, industrial policies and investment trends.

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

Labels: Bill Dodson, China, China Speakers Bureau

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

The reversed gender gap at universities - Bill Dodson

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

All foreign books to be banned in China? - Bill Dodson

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Doing Business in Chongqing: A Wild Ride - Bill Dodson

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

What about your contingency plan? - Bill Dodson