Shanghaiist: JWT's 'Twelve Facts About the Confucian Consumer'

TravIsland

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 15:49:23 +0800

Personally, I feel there are few things in LIFE - especially those with the complexity and longevity as the Chinese culture/people - that can be summed into 12 simple (or convoluted) points. Maybe the days of Christmas...and even that (a partridge in a pear tree?) doesn't make sense to me. Do we really have to go for the gusto like this? Even a giant leap for mankind was a small step, right?

Kats

Tue, 24 Jan 2006 17:12:14 +0800

Oh my, which China has this guy been living in?!

yes_no_maybe

Tue, 17 Jan 2006 23:28:36 +0800

of the list, the "dinner party" part is the most baffling (more so than his point about the soy sauce, IMO). I mean, what did he get that from???

bruce

Tue, 17 Jan 2006 15:26:04 +0800

home de pigues, maybe you should read more sources on the subject to see what more foreigners with the right taste buds think about this bullshit book, maybe you are right that these bloggers may have aquired sour tastes after living in China for too long and when they read this kind of book get published for sale to even more remotely located foreigners. Well, having any Chinese taste or not, like Jeremy said, you cannot bullshit a bullshitter..... http://www.danwei.org/archives/002385.html

home de pigues

Mon, 16 Jan 2006 17:05:49 +0800

Sounds like sour grapes (or should that be pineapple?) from baluba and bruce. Anyway, judging by the JWT guy's analysis of China he hasn't been here very long.

bruce

Mon, 16 Jan 2006 14:39:46 +0800

Several possibilities: (a) he is too smart, to use the shock method to generate publicity, even if he only gets negative publicity, maybe that is all what he expected. (b)he has too much a good life of being an expat working for a MNC, let alone the largest advertising company in the world, in SH, China. His hard-earned position as so-called CEO China for JWT, should somehow give him more-than-normally-expected credibility of trying to sell a book about Chinese consumers. After all there are way too many blue chip FMCG companies have been paying JWT to market to Chinese consumers. He is just going to cash in, (I bet without paying PRC Individual Income Taxes), some extra money outside his expat package as he does not really need to worry about job security, kids schooling, wife's cultrual shock in China while dining at Pizza Hut, or JWT's profitability from the fastest growing consumer market. No matter how true these blogging reviews are about his book, I don't think this would not reflect anything negative on his annual performance evaluation at JWT, or cause any embarassment to Mr. China-Marketing-Expert. So all you bloggers can only continue to blog and eat your hearts out from this incident as yet another foreigner to reap wealth and fame from the good old C-H-I-N-A. My advice to the Chinese government would be to call Uncle Sam to find out how much money he made from the book deal and make him to pay some PRC derived taxes as he has profited from Chinese consumers' abnormal way of consuming......Don't worry he would still have enough to savor "Heaty" dishes.

baluba

Mon, 16 Jan 2006 13:21:14 +0800

People need licenses to drive cars. People need licences to own guns. People need licenses to build a house, or even to open a "pink light" hairdresser. Why dont they need licenses to write books or to open their mouths. And no, dont come with a "freedom of speech" thing: this guy is, as someone above mentioned, adding confusion to something already so confusing. But hey, he is being "cool" while he does it, so, we should be thankful right? Wrong. I bet this overpaid, overfed, underintelligent "marketing guru" will cash in thousands of dollars from subnormall audiences to talk about "his experiences in China"....I can see the powerpoints filled with slides with black and white pictures of little alleys and bycicles, stories about airplane food, the invariable overused "chinese people prefer red bean ice-cream over vanilla" and all other simplifications that make the average person think they actually learned something about a country they know not a much more other than they are good at ping pong and Chop Suey. The guy was clever enough to put some "Confucianism" values in it. I hardly think he knows anything about Confucianism other than "respect older people". He probably not even read the wikipedia page for it, if I know crooks well enough that is. Want to learn about China instead of pretending you do? Read My Country My People, from Lin YuTang. Best time investment you can possibly do. But hey, it was printed on shiatty paper in a tiny font, so, cannot possibly be a good book can it?

Paul French

Mon, 16 Jan 2006 09:11:39 +0800

Nowhere probably but Paddyfield in HK will send it up to you - http://www.paddyfield.com/mainstore/searchisbn.php?q=1403971692

Greg

Sun, 15 Jan 2006 14:54:33 +0800

Hi, I wanna buy this book, where can I find a bookstore in Shanghai to buy it?

Grokkit

Sun, 15 Jan 2006 05:14:37 +0800

1. Chinese people put pineapple, not pepperoni, on pizza. All foods are divided into “heaty” and “cooling” foods, and the two must be balanced at all times. Pizza is heaty, so the pineapple cools it down. ...................................from my experiences, chinese ppl would much rather eat the pineapple AFTER they eat the pizza. persionally i fink sweet on salty tastes infinitely nasty... but in china they coak pineapple peices in salty water...so i guess...blah...i dunno wut im tryna say

yes_no_maybe

Sat, 14 Jan 2006 06:25:06 +0800

Ppl react differently when they are confused. Some ask questions. Others keep quiet. This guy chooses to write a book and confuse more ppl.

Paul French

Fri, 13 Jan 2006 12:03:40 +0800

I just got a copy of the book sent to me and it rolls on in pretty much the same vein - the good news (if you are getting paid to review it) is that it's only about 200 pages long and in large type (which is bad news is you have to pay for it). The kindest thing that can be said is that it's not really aimed at those in China but rather those outside so the sort of 'Dummies Guide' style is perhaps a good idea. On the other hand maybe it's just a dumb book - it does happen.