Anglo-China Publishing – Wainstalls Partnership

Hofstede and National Culture: a guest viewpoint by Charles Hampden-Turner

A Dutch colleague of ours, Geert Hofstede, measures national cultures. He found that China thinks very long-termbut Britain and the USA think very short-term. Likewise China is high in self-control while the UK and USA are much higher in self-indulgence, being much more related to consumption than production.

This clearly relates to the COVID-19 pandemic. Young people want to go to bars and beaches and indulge themselves, while it takes self-control to self-isolate and keep your distance. One reason China can build a hospital in 9 days, is that it thinks long-term and keeps building modules in reserve. What takes nine days is the assembly of what had been stored. The long-term includes the short-term. If you exercise control now you can indulge later, but it does not work the other way around.

Charles Hampden-Turner is a British management philosopher, and Senior Research Associate at the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge since 1990. He is the co-founder and Director of Research and Development at the Trompenaars-Hampden-Turner Group, in Amsterdam.

Guilt and Shame: a guest viewpoint by Charles Hampden-Turner

A common distinction made by anthropologists is between a guilt culture common in the West, and a shame culture, typical of China. In a guilt culture, the individual breaks a universal law or rule, and feels guilty as a result. Any regret tends to be private and the pressures are not strong.

In a shame culture, the community confronts particular persons and makes them feel ashamed of having endangered the lives of those who are now reproaching them. Their angry stares make those persons who were careless “lose face” for not considering other people. The pressure can be very strong indeed and may be much more effective in getting that person to comply with social norms. In the West the police may fine you for not obeying a law or following instructions, but is it not more telling to have the persons you endangered, look you in the eye?

COVID-19: a guest viewpoint by Charles Hampden-Turner

China has dealt with COVID-19 incredibly better than the USA. It has suffered 3 deaths per million while the US has suffered 424 deaths per million at the latest count, so the PRC has less than 1% of America’s death toll. Why is this, when the US had so much more warning?

My company measures the values of managers world-wide. The whole of East Asia, influenced over the years by Chinese civilization, is less individualist than it is community oriented. China grasps that the community is what preserves the rights of the individual, who must defer to that community if and when it becomes infected, so that parents and grandparents could die. Confucianism teaches fidelity to parents. In contrast Americans feel their liberties are infringed by lock-downs, by face masks, by interfering governments.

Conflict vs Unity: a guest viewpoint by Charles Hampden-Turner

China is the mirror image of much of the West. When we look in the mirror this switches any mark or spot on our faces from one side to the other. The West sees government as conflict leading to unity We say rude things about each other and then ask hearers to vote on who made the best argument.

China starts with unity, which over time admits into it more conflict in viewpoints. Each of us puts what we most admire in the shop window and hides the other value away behind the stage. Hence in the West we have debates, name-calling, and angry demonstrations, and hope this will lead to a new accommodation, when votes are counted. China puts consensus, agreement suggested solutions in the shop window and hides from sight the strenuous disagreements that went into forging this. Meetings are called to celebrate hard won consensus. Of course everyone agrees!

The UN Sustainable Development Goals – how to fix the world

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were launched as a 15-year programme, 2016 – 2030, to try to mobilise individuals, businesses and governments to fix some of the world’s most pressing issues – including climate change, urbanization, poverty, hunger, education.

Five years on, how are we doing? Importantly, how is China reacting to the SDGs? We invite scholars to share their research and ideas on the SDGs and China, and the SDGs in China. Case studies and success stories are welcome. Please contact [email protected] in the first instance.

Belt and Road – an invitation for authors

The Belt and Road initiative, (yi dai yi lu, One Belt One Road) has been called a ‘21st century Silk Road’, connecting Asia, Africa and Europe. Championed by Chinese President Xi Jinping, the initiative is expected to exceed $1 trillion in construction and contracts alone, and it has helped China to become the world’s largest lender of development finance, surpassing the World Bank in 2019.

But academic studies of this colossal programme are few. We are pleased to invite scholars to consider how a book or chapter collection on aspects of the Belt and Road – logistics, trade, financial, cultural, economic, to name a few – might enhance understanding of the programme. Please contact [email protected] for more details.

Anglo China Publishing sign a partnership agreement with China National Publishing Import Export Corporation (CNPIEC)

Anglo China Publishing (ACP), the publishing division of Wainstalls Holdings in the UK, have concluded a distribution agreement with the state-owned publisher and distributor CNPIEC.

Wainstalls Managing Director John Peters said “We are pleased and honoured to be working with one of the world’s largest and most prestigious publishing services businesses, CNPIEC. This will help us develop our operations in China in the future.”

CNPIEC was founded in 1949, and serves more than 10,000 Universities and libraries. ACP have offices in the UK and Hangzhou.For more information contact [email protected].