Beyond the Chinese Face: Insights from Psychology

Rating:
Summary: Making sense of a new environment
Review: I have now been working in Hong Kong for nearly four months. A colleague lent me 'Beyond the Chinese Face' in my first week here in Hong Kong. I have lived in several different countries and cultures, and so have at least an intellectual understanding of different perspectives and ways of seeing the world. But it is amazing how unhelpful one's intellectual awarenesses are when faced with understanding actual events or situations in a new cultural setting. What 'Beyond the Chinese Face' managed to do for me was to assist me in building a framework in which to understand what I observed on a daily basis. By enabling me to feel that I understood more about the context I was in, I felt more relaxed, and so was able to engage with different customs and rules more easily. Even Hong Kong bureaucracy became more comprehensible! I liked the fact that the book made it clear that many of the existing research studies are flawed, but the overall patterns emerging from research were clearly laid out. It was refreshing also to read a book that was based on academic research but was written in a style that was accessible and easy to read. If only more academic writing were like this! This is a valuable resource for all newcomers to Hong Kong. Thanks, Michael.

Rating:
Summary: Making sense of a new environment
Review: I have now been working in Hong Kong for nearly four months. A colleague lent me `Beyond the Chinese Face' in my first week here in Hong Kong. I have lived in several different countries and cultures, and so have at least an intellectual understanding of different perspectives and ways of seeing the world. But it is amazing how unhelpful one's intellectual awarenesses are when faced with understanding actual events or situations in a new cultural setting. What `Beyond the Chinese Face' managed to do for me was to assist me in building a framework in which to understand what I observed on a daily basis. By enabling me to feel that I understood more about the context I was in, I felt more relaxed, and so was able to engage with different customs and rules more easily. Even Hong Kong bureaucracy became more comprehensible! I liked the fact that the book made it clear that many of the existing research studies are flawed, but the overall patterns emerging from research were clearly laid out. It was refreshing also to read a book that was based on academic research but was written in a style that was accessible and easy to read. If only more academic writing were like this! This is a valuable resource for all newcomers to Hong Kong. Thanks, Michael.

Rating:
Summary: Very good introduction if you know how to use it
Review: I think the reader from Victoria, BC, Canada was probably most right here in this forum. You have to know what you can expect and what you cannot. What you cannot expect here, is a guide to the thinking of around 1,5 billion people, because that is the number of people we're talking about.

And they are very very different, I would dare to say more different than any other ethnic (can we say so?) group worldwide: you have ABCs (American born Chinese), their parents and certainly CBCs, Aussie BCs and so on. There are Singapore-Chinese and overseas Chinese in other Asian countries. Taiwan Chinese and Hong Kong Chinese. And then there is this huge mainland area with around 1.3 billion Chinese, where the living conditions differ so greatly that it's hard to imagine for anyone who hasn't been there.

All those people are Chinese, but the all have different backgrounds: capitalistic system or planned economy (though even the mainland is shifting very quickly towards capitalism, stronger than outsiders usually see), freedom of speech or getting killed for speaking out the truth, diversity or open hate from other societal groups (e.g. Indonesia) and so on and so on. And then there is the fact that people differ even within a society, with the result that you could very easily meet Chinese people from, say Beijing, who are very open sexual and have more sexual experience than, say, an American 30 year old who never had a girlfriend. Nevertheless it's a fact that most Chinese are not like that but instead having less sexual experience than their western counterparts (I'm not judging this, just stating the fact as the book says it and also as my own experience supports it).

Now, one could say (and 3 other readers did so) that this book is therefore useless. I strongly disagree. First of all the author states exactly this fact at the beginning and warns about generalisations (as every psychological book should do so). Second the information he gives is in around 95 % of the cases supported by my own experience (nationality: German; 8 months living in Hong Kong, studying Business and Chinese and working, travelling on the mainland to Shanghai/ Beijing/ Guangzhou/ Shenzhen, also having lived in the US for 6 months meeting quite a few ABCs,).

So use this guide as a background information but not as a "now I know everything about Chinese"- guidebook. Nobody will ever know everything about the Chinese, simply because there are no "Chinese" as such. But this is the general problem of all social sciences where there is no 1+1=2 like in maths. Knowing that, this book helps you a bit and gives you quite a few "I see!"s on your journey into the fascinating Chinese culture (which is indeed possible for a non-Chinese although the reader from San Francisco obviously doesn't think so). Therefore I rate the book 5 star because it delivers what it promises and this is how I define quality.

Rating:
Summary: To See Behind the Chinese Face, We Need to Be Chinese
Review: The fundamental flaw in this book is that it is written by an American. For any Westerner to presume that they can, with authority, describe what makes Chinese tick is ludicrous. The book is all the more damaging because it is written in a style that leads some readers to believe it is based on scientific study by a well-healed professional.

I know the author of this book. I have seen him as a client, and was dismayed by his lack of understanding of Chinese people. He is an American who has lived in Hong Kong for over twenty-five years, but has retained his American viewpoint. When his book came out, my Chinese husband and I both read it. There are so many Western-style generalizations about Chinese people in this book that it is an insult to all Chinese. I was very surprised to see it still on the shelves of the foreign language section of Xinhua Book Store the last time I was in Beijing.

Rating:
Summary: Very good introduction if you know how to use it
Review: What an insightful, sensible, readable and informative book that explores the question that many ask about other cultures - "HOW and WHY do others think and behave as they do?" Without a doubt an expert in his field, Dr. Michael Bond masterfully weaves for the reader an explanation to this question in a thorough and understanding fashion. A fascinating, yet understandable voyage into Chinese culture. This small yet valuable book truly goes - "Beyond the Chinese Face."