Cowboys and Dragons: Shattering cultural myths to advance Chinese/American Business.: Charles Lee

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
A self-proclaimed “bicultural man,” Lee spent his childhood in China and Taiwan and his adult life in the U.S. He’s been advising and guiding the formation of Chinese-American joint ventures since 1977, when Americans were still “Capitalist Pigs” in Communist Chinese eyes. In his first book, Lee attempts to bridge the differences between the two cultures for the business reader. The key, says the venture capitalist, is to forget about the mechanics of doing business in China until you understand the cultural backgrounds, behavior and desires of the players involved. American businessmen are cowboys (no cowgirls in this book): individualistic, profit driven and ruled by law. The Chinese are dragons: group oriented, harmony driven and ruled by hierarchical authority. Roughly three-quarters of this repetitious book is devoted to elaborating on and redescribing these distinctions. Virtually every page features text boxes-up to four per page-reiterating the information in the preceding paragraph. Facts and advice, such as avoiding humor and sexual innuendo, often pop up more than once. The message, nevertheless, is sound. Lee advocates an emotionally intelligent approach to Chinese-American relationships. He refrains from value judgments, presenting differences as facts to be accepted and managed, and he recommends those differences be openly discussed and explained, suggesting mutual understanding can lead to successful endeavors. He shines in the descriptions of Chinese-American ventures in which he’s participated, which are sprinkled throughout the book, and in the practical advice in Part Five’s chapters on negotiating, decision making, executing and “most likely points of conflict.”
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Lee, an Asian American venture capitalist, uses his bicultural understanding to shed light on why it has been so difficult for Americans to gain entry to the huge Chinese market of 1.3 billion people. Each culture has a stereotypical view of the other that impedes business relationships: Chinese view Americans as brash, greedy cowboys out to take advantage of them, and we view the Chinese as treacherous, secretive dragons guarding the entrance to hidden riches. If each side holds onto these images going into business negotiations, Lee says, they will only enforce confusion and mistrust, and the deal will be doomed to failure. Lee sets out a series of lessons about the Asian culture, which takes the long view and shuns the individual for the group, does not feel comfortable interjecting humor and sexual innuendo, and considers conservative profit forecasts to be proper. Lee shows how cooperation can thrive when East meets West by Americans openly communicating with their Chinese counterpart about the reasons for our cultural differences. David Siegfried
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