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HOW TO LIVE & DO BUSINESS IN CHINA

Name: HOW TO LIVE & DO BUSINESS IN CHINA
Author: Ernie Tadla
ISBN: 978-1-4251-0120-8

EIGHT LESSONS I LEARNED FROM THE COMMUNISTS

by Ernie Tadla ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 11, 2007

Short, wide-ranging and serviceable.

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First-time author Tadla delivers an eclectic volume that may be of use to North American businessmen.

Even at well under 200 pages, How to Live & Do Business in China is a sprawling work that is part-memoir, part-travelogue and part-primer on Chinese culture. Tadla writes of his experiences as a 61-year-old Canadian adjusting to Chinese norms while serving as a consultant to a U.S.-owned, Chinese-operated commercial production company. He struggles at first, hindered by his Western prejudices, but eventually achieves what he calls a change in paradigm and meets with success. As a first-person narrator, the author is a likable fellow with a rough-edged yet generally readable writing style. As he contrasts Western and Chinese approaches to just about everything–likening the cultural differences to the difference between left- and right-brained thinking–Tadla includes personal anecdotes to illustrate his points. Discussing Chinese medicine, for instance, he relates his apparently successful efforts to beat back prostate cancer using a method blending Western and Eastern approaches to health care. The book is organized somewhat haphazardly, and the author tends to run off on tangents, a few of which–a touching tribute to his late wife, for one–stray from the thrust of his work. Most of his observations, however, prove useful in illuminating Chinese standards to Westerners otherwise unfamiliar with the territory. Several sections–an overview of Confucianism, an essay on the crucial concept of "guanxi," a description of the Chinese haggling process–may help ordinary tourists and businessmen. The author mangles a sentence here and there, and he unsettlingly glosses over Chinese human-rights abuses while lauding the government’s ability to get things done, but altogether this is a friendly, handy beginner's guide to navigating the society of a vast, ancient country.

Short, wide-ranging and serviceable.

Pub Date: April 11, 2007

ISBN: 978-1-4251-0120-8

Page Count: -

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.