Motherland and Homeland

Sometimes, I get a little paranoid. I remind myself that it's completely natural to be curious about what others think/say about you, but I feel like my need for "continual feedback" (consultant lingo for "please tell me what I'm doing wrong or right so I can stop doing/keep doing those things") has gotten exponentially worse since I've started consulting. Any way. As the dollar declines, the economy struggles and America as a whole also gets a little more paranoid about how it will stand against the other rising superpowers of the world, it is also natural that collective eyeballs turn toward China. As a Chinese-American, I can't help but feel a little collective-consciousness here with the motherland, and voraciously read the analyses of what China is and what it could be.

On the international playground, stereotypes have already begun to spring up, and for good reason. Brazil is the relatively harmless and easy going kid, due to their strong relationship with the U.S., existing acceptance/assimilation of American culture and abundance of resources that the U.S. wants. Russia is the shy kid who usually hangs out by the tetherball courts-- quiet but open to playing with others. Not much is known about her and we may have had disagreements before (so our relationship is tenuous) but due to her abundance in oil and gas, the U.S. will continue to half-heartedly offer its friendship (just in case we want to play tetherball one day). India is the confident kid, becoming more popular by the day due to their open, welcoming personality, eagerness to assimilate to American culture, exploding middle class and pure, unadulterated manufacturing strength (ROI on developing products and services here could be one, but they have actually significantly improved their standard of living, hence the exploding middle class).

China is different. They are the nerdy, misunderstood kid, slowly making everyone a little nervous because they alternate between quietness/mercurial moodiness and boisterous grandstanding. (Think of them almost as an unpredictable significant other-- you never know what you're going to get-- so you're options are to stay away or get rid of them.) Again with an exploding population, particularly within the middle class, they have the luxury of throwing bodies-- relatively educated ones at that-- towards any problem. Add in their growing emphasis on internal investment (in infrastructure, education, etc.) and suddenly, America's unease makes sense. I honestly believe that its a fear of the unknown. I'd like to reference the "uncanny valley" here, which usually refers to the point at which human-like entities become suddenly too human-like, and it makes the audience uncomfortable (see: Polar Express, Heavy Rain, L.A. Noire). Similarly, China seems so familiar, yet because of its distinctly eastern values, it's still kind of a wild card. It's a culture that emphasizes the collective over the individual (yet is becoming increasingly "American-ized" as demonstrated by the personal ambition/greed of the younger generations), that places a premium on education, encourages meritocracy-- where humbleness and obedience are characteristics of pride.That being said, it is a culture in flux. As the younger generation becomes more accepting of more "capitalistic" traits, a cultural clash has already begun to take place. The result of which is wholly unpredictable.

The best embodiment of this transition was displayed in a recent article by Fast Company recently about how startups in China are changing corporate culture. In the examples given, they've highlighted Alibaba (eBay wannabe), Youku (YouTube wannabe) and Baidu (Google wannabe). The traits that they've highlighted (ways that they've "shaken up" the culture) are:

1. Belonging- 1:1s with your leaders are great... but whoever heard of your CEO performing marriage rites for his employees monthly? Welcome to the brave new world of hyper-integrated work/life integration (Alibaba)
2. Fun- Encouraging freedom of expression and following the idea that if you love what you do, it won't feel like work, therefore increasing efficiency. This company is a physical manifestation of the break from the conformist Mao culture (Youku)
3. Semi-Independent Thinking- Breaking from the collective mentality that rules most collaboration in Chinese culture (which in turn stifles creativity and increases risk of "yes-death"), they encourage "semi-independent" thinking through "creative implementation" that doesn't go so far as to be radical innovation, but focuses instead on a free-er form of fact-based innovation (Baidu)

The thing that strikes me is that these characteristics are not particularly revolutionary... I would argue that Chinese culture lends itself quite well to the startup culture due to its emphasis on the collective and accountability. Asian cultures have had a history with these types of management styles, since Japanese/American managers developed Theory Z and propelled the Asian economic boom of the 1980s. Nevertheless, I am interested to see that these Chinese startups, which are really spearheaded by what I consider the "new guard"/ new and emerging generation of Chinese, are moving in this direction. Although some would argue that this management style is simply closing in on a iterative cycle, I argue that this change in thinking is probably more indicative of what we can expect as China evolves culturally.

Having been raised in a relatively strict, traditional family, I was taught that I should always think of the group, then the "you" (whoever I was directly interacting with-- a friend, a partner, a significant other, etc.), then myself. As China evolves and becomes more materialistic, I fear that it'll fall into the same pitfalls of self-serving organizations that already exist when they have the opportunity to be more than that. Either way, I'll be keeping the motherland in my thoughts-- maybe not on the forefront, but I'll be keeping an eye out.