CultureShock! China

Rebecca Weiner Angie Eagan &

Description

CultureShock! China is an essential read for anyone intending to live or work in the world's fastest-rising economic powerhouse, the People's Republic of China. This book guides you through settling in and socialising, from choosing your accommodation and employing an ayi, to finding good restaurants and enjoying China's varied and exquisite cuisine. Get first-hand knowledge about working in China and about the Chinese language. Learn about this beautiful country's 5,000 years of rich history and visit the spectacular splendour of its mountains and rivers which contrasts with the towering skylines of metropolitan cities like Beijing and Shanghai. Be enlightened on Chinese culture and discover how the people balance traditions and customs with modernity. Filled with practical information, CultureShock! China is a must-have guide that will equip you with the confidence to try out everything in this exciting country.

Sujets

• China

Informations

• Publié par: MarshallCavendishM
• Date de parution: 01 février 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789814346801
• Langue: English

Extrait

Introduction



Considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World, the Great Wall of China is the world's longest man-made structure. It is estimated that more than 1 million people died in the construction of the wall

Contents First Impressions Fast Facts Famous People Do's and Don'ts Resource Guide Culture Quiz Further Reading More Cultureshock! Apps

As soon as you walk out of the airport gates, China hits you: the sounds, the smells, but mostly the incredible density of people. Within minutes, you become aware that your first challenge will be making yourself understood. You had felt so confident on the airplane after your three months of intensive language study. The fact that you cannot recognise a word being spoken around you is a bit of a worry. The indulgent smile of the official-looking security guard you try to ask where to catch a taxi and then non-coherent response make your stomach do a quick flip. How in the world are you going to navigate China without understanding the language?
Some are drawn to the exotic nature of the country, some terrified by it. The aim of CultureShock! China is to demystify the Oriental mystique enough to make it easy to navigate, but still a wonderful adventure.
This book is organised into ten chapters, ending with useful facts, suggested reading and contact details for important resources. The authors begin the book by providing China context. Chapter Two moves you through 5,000 years in just 23 pages, giving you enough knowledge of where they have come from to better understand who the people of China now are. Chapter Three delves into the psyche of modern-day mainland Chinese, detailing the influences and aspirations of their lives.
Chapter Four prepares you to dive into Chinese society, providing useful tips on social mores to enable you to navigate through your first person-to-person interactions as you begin to move more deeply into your China adventure.
The biggest practical challenges to making China your home are addressed in Chapter Five. The authors cover everything from securing the proper legal status to stay in China to navigating your new home city.
Most Chinese share one common passion food. You can’t know China without experiencing the diversity and personality of her cuisine. Chapter Six takes you on a culinary trip across China, delineating the differences among regional cuisines and suggesting signature dishes for you to sample as you eat your way to your own list of favourites.
Chapter Seven provides an orientation of festivals, holidays, entertainment and destinations that take your China adventure, and related understanding of the country and her people, to the next level. This is made all the easier through tips related to learning the Chinese language provided in Chapter Eight.
Advice on the most effective way to work in China are provided in Chapter Nine. The chapter provides useful insights on how to operate effectively in China’s professional environment, as well as suggests organisations that may provide valuable business networks. The chapter concludes with an overview of charities that may benefit from you / your company’s support.
If this has only whet your appetite for further reading on China, the authors have provided a list of their favourite books for you to continue learning more about China.

First Impressions

Nanjing Road in Shanghai is one of the country's busiest shopping districts. At night, the streets take on a new life of their own as the neon lights attract and bedazzle visitors

China

‘ "What’s the name of that song of yours? I’m asking you what its called," (the village headman) snapped. "Mozart is thinking of Chairman Mao," Luo broke in... the headman’s menacing look softened. He crinkled up his eyes in a wide beatific smile. "Mozart thinks of Mao all the time," he said. This was the first taste of our re-education.’
Dai Sijie, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
Wild wild east
Each week, city blocks were moving parts of a giant puzzle, whose complete picture would be the modern day, world-class city that will host the World Expo in 2010.
Imagine living in a city where if you forget to pick up your dry cleaning for just a week, you run the risk of losing it forever because the block the Laundromat is located on is slated that week for demolition. In 1995, that was the risk that you ran of forgetting your dry cleaning for more than a few days in Shanghai. Twenty-five per cent of the construction cranes in the world were in Shanghai.
Imagine living in a city where the day you arrived, the place known as Pudong was a single-standing TV tower, grandiosely called ‘The Pearl of the Orient’, which looked like a cross between a Jetson’s space home and a series of onions skewered on a stick, standing amid farmland and rundown wood shacks. A mere six years later, that same TV tower was surrounded by a shining city of iconic architecture, inhabited by millions, which hosted leaders from around the world attending the 2001 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings. Global news broadcasts from the APEC meetings made that skyline, which didn’t exist six years before, the new image of modern China.
When we arrived in China in 1995, it was like living in the wild, wild east. Nothing was possible and everything was possible. You were coated each day with the construction dust of change happening around you minute by minute. It was clearly the most exciting place to live and do business in the entire world. The one single truism was that nothing would ever be boring in China. That truism still holds.
The single question people ask when they hear that you have lived in China for ten plus years is "When will you leave?" The answer is always "When it stops being exciting."

Fast Facts

Farmer tending to the rice padi fields. China is the world's largest producer of rice which comes as no surprise since rice is the staple food of the Chinese and is eaten at most meals

China

‘China is big enough to permit many views. Precisely because the country eludes generalization, some observers have tended to grasp at straws, too willing to convert a trend into a prophecy many people are buying cars, so eventually half a billion will own cars; some groups want democracy, soon everyone will.’
Jasper Becker, The Chinese
Official Name
People’s Republic of China
Capital
Beijing
Flag
Red with a large yellow five-pointed star and four smaller yellow five-pointed stars (arranged in a vertical arc toward the middle of the flag) in the upper left-hand corner
Time Difference
Greenwich Mean Time plus 8 hours (GMT + 0800). There is one official time zone in the country, although for practical purposes, Xinjiang runs on an unofficial time two hours behind Beijing time. In Xinajiang, all government services run on Beijing time, while other business operate according to local time.
Telephone Country Code for China
86
Climate
Covering 9.5 million sq km (5.9 million sq miles), China is the third largest country in the world, behind Russia and Canada. With geography that ranges from the Gobi Desert to Mount Everest, weather patterns vary with region. In general, the south of China is semi-tropical with hot, humid summers. Eastern China has hot and humid summers, with winters near freezing. Northern China is dry, hot in the summer and extremely cold in the winter. Inner Mongolia winter temperatures can reach lows of –40°C (–40°F). Much of North-west China is desert and mountains.
Population
1,330,141,295 (July 2010 est.)
Language and Dialects
The official language is Mandarin, however there are a variety of regional dialects spoken across China. Major dialects spoken include Cantonese, Shanghainese, Fuzhou, Hokkien-Taiwanese, Xiang, Gan and Hakka dialects. English is not commonly spoken in China, although it is a newly required subject for schoolchildren.
Religion
China’s main religions are Buddhism and Taoism. Secondary religions are Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Must Muslims are found in Xinjiang. China’s largest Jewish population is in Kaifeng, Henan Province. Christians form 1 per cent of the Chinese.
Government Type
Communist State
Currency
The Renminbi (Rmb), also referred to as the yuan (Cny), is the official currency in China.
Industries
China’s main industries are mining and ore processing, iron, steel, aluminum and other metals, coal; machine building; armaments; textiles and apparel; petroleum; cement; chemicals; fertilizers; consumer products, including footwear, toys and electronics; food processing; transportation equipment, including automobiles, rail cars and locomotives; ships and aircraft; telecommunications equipment, commercial space launch vehicles and satellites.
Exports
Main exports are machinery and equipment, plastics, optical and medical equipment, iron and steel.
Ethnic Groups
China consists of Han Chinese, which make up 91.9 per cent of all Chinese. The remaining 8.1 per cent is made up of Zhuang, Uygur, Hui, Yi, Tibetan, Miao, Manchu, Mongol, Buyi and Korean.
Airports
China has 502 airports (as at 2010)
Electricity
220 volts

Famous People

Sun Yat-sen
Famous for leading the republican forces which overthrew the Manchu Empire in 1912, he is the only person who remains a hero in both mainland China and Taiwan. Known as ‘The Father of the Revolution’, Sun Yat-sen was an idealistic leader who sought to unite China under one stable government.
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was the leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party which eventually become know as the Kuomintang Party. Promoted by Sun Yat-sen, he rose to leadership of the Nationalist Party shortly after Sun Yat-sen’s death in 1925. Chiang Kai-shek was best kno