I am a long-term resident of China, working in an industry -- advertising -- in which productivity is inextricably linked to robust self-expression. Like most Western commentators, I am saddened by the conviction of Liu Xiaobo, who has been jailed for up to 11 years. His crime was to help...

The father of a close Chinese colleague, a partner for more than a decade, passed away recently after a struggle with diabetes. His name was Mr. Ye.

I went to the funeral. In all cultures, key milestones -- points at which one's relationship with society and the cosmos are...

The Chinese worldview, not to mention its brandscape, is profoundly different from Western -- indeed, all -- markets. In my eleven years on the mainland, I have not encountered a single instance where significant modifications to positioning and marketing mix are not necessary. This, of course, does not preclude the...

Everyone knows the new generation of young Chinese is consumed by all things digital. Internet bars, bursting with netizens, are the size of football fields. More than 600 million individuals carry mobile phones. According to state-controlled media, there are more than 60 million bloggers in the PRC, double the amount...

Much as Western, Korean and Japanese entertainment companies bemoan infringement on intellectually property rights, illegal DVDs and CDs in China are here to stay. While progess can be made in other corners of the IP universe -- business software, for example -- the government will do nothing to stem the...

Can Chinese companies capitalize on the global recession to better establish and develop their brands overseas?

Definitions First. First, it's very important to define terms. Many Chinese companies will likely invest in American companies (or brands) given the massive decline in asset values in the United States and Europe. For...

It's a truism that you can't know China unless you connect with the lifestyles of the people. A year ago, I put my money where my mouth is and bought a quintessentially Shanghai-style lane house in a traditional "lilong" (or "longtong") in the center of the city's old French Concession....

The Chinese consumer is becoming increasingly modern and internationalized. However, while "egos" and ambitions are huge, the "new generation" is not becoming "individualistic" in the Western sense -- i.e., the peoples never define themselves independent of society. The middle class, those who can afford non-essential items, is torn between two...

In response to an outbreak of violence, the instigation of which remains unclear, the Chinese government has cracked down, and cracked down hard, on the Uighur minority in China's northwest province, Xinjiang. According to Chinese media reports, always softened, more than 150 people have already been killed, many of them...

The Chinese central government's decision to delay the "mandatory installation" of the "Green Dam Youth Escort" filtering software on new computers, announced yesterday by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), highlights an evolving relationship between the Communist Party and the Chinese people. Despite being light years from introducing...

The underlying drivers of the recession are different in China -- by global standards, growth remains robust here but the slowdown is pronounced -- versus Western countries. In the latter, times are toughest for low-end workers and entrepreneurs who have been hit by the slowdown of export industries. While aggregate...

In both Japan and China, there is much talk of "harmony." In China, it's is a means to an end. "Advancement," either individual or national, is the ultimate objective. In Japan, harmony -- fitting in -- is an end in itself. Primary satisfaction is taken in consensus. Yes, the young...

During Hillary Clinton's recent visit to the PRC, she unsettled human rights advocates, Amnesty International included, with a rather blunt assessment of the current state of China and the United States' human rights dialog. She "decoupled" pursuing America's long-term goals of advancing "universal" rights with the short-term imperatives of stemming...

Before I landed in Shanghai in 1998, even after four years of living in Hong Kong, my world view was "typically American." It's difficult for non-Americans to appreciate the sense of exceptionalism we grow up with. From Ronald Reagan's stirring references to the United States as a "shining city on...

In China, exports have hit a wall, with tens of thousands of small manufacturing companies closing their doors in Guangzhou and Fujian provinces, throwing millions of migrant workers out of work. In cities, property values are slumping and stock market investors are still looking for the bottom. The World Bank...

This is the first time in history in which a Chinese middle class of broad scale (125-150 million people) has confronted a global economic shock, begging the question of how spending behavior will - or will not - shift across a suddenly-altered economic landscape. Marketers hoping to counteract weakness in...

The Chinese are supreme pragmatists. They view the outside world as inherently dangerous, and revere stability and order as both tantamount to happiness and a prerequisite to progress. In a society without a fully developed legal system, anti-toxicity, in paint and milk, was never taken for granted, even before the...

What will be the main challenges in 2009?

To quote Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign, "It's the economy, stupid." China will not be immune to the global slowdown and any government-led efforts to stimulate consumption will take at least a year to kick in. But smart marketers will realize that this...

After the success of the Beijing Olympics, "brand China" was on the rise, both domestically and internationally. Now, however, those gains are threatened by one of the most dramatic product tainting in China's history, one that has shaken local consumers much more than 2007's recall of toy, pet food and...

Now that the Olympics marketing extravaganza is behind us, let's take a deep breath and ask ourselves whether China is truly poised to emerge as final frontier for multinational advertising and communications companies.

We have a trick. When we want to impress China's glorious opportunities upon colleagues from abroad,...