Just how well do we know China?

China has been and continues to be a hot topic. Manufacturing jobs are escaping to China while the country’s economic growth continues to be astounding. Yet when you think about it, how well do we know the country and the people? Obviously those who have lived there know a lot more, but the rest of us have to get by using some stereotypes.

The latest issue of HBR had an interesting article on China – “Inside the mind of the Chinese Consumer“. The article rounds up Gallup Organization’s 10-year study of Chinese consumers and it turns out that a lot of the commonly held beliefs are either false or at least misleading. One of the most commonly held beliefs is that Chinese are hard-working people who focus heavily on getting rich now that the opportunity is there. While there is some truth to this, it was interesting that people closest to the attitude “Work hard and get rich” has dropped from 68% in 1994 to 53% in 2004 – at the same time, those with the attitude “Don’t think of money/fame; live a life that suits my own tastes” has gone up from 10% in 1994 to 26% in 2004. That probably reflects the fact that more and more people are climbing to the Chinese middle class and no longer have to worry about the essentials.

There was one confusing thing in the article; it mentions that “Like their counterparts in Germany, Japan and the United States, Chinese workers know what their jobs require of them.”. In the previous page, it’s stated that only 34% of Chinese people strongly agree with the statement “I know what is expected of me at work”. Somehow I think these are either conflicting statements or the situation in other countries is much worse than I thought..

And the famed Chinese work ethic? The fact that a whopping 88% of employees aren’t interested in their jobs (20% of whom actually hate their jobs) is a sure sign that the work ethic really is not what it’s made out to be. Instead, factories keep relying on poor people moving from the countryside – those who still have the work hard and get rich-attitude.. But eventually those people will run out, too.