In my opinion, Chinese are the best business men

[Ceiling Cat]

wrong! the british empire forced opium on the quing dynasty starting the century of humilation with western powers having colonies in china called concessions. infact when europe was still primitive china and others places on other continents where more advanced

The British were bankupting themselves trading gold and silver for tea and spices from China, so they stopped in the middle east and brought opium into China to use for trade instead of giving up gold and silver.

Europe, ( France, Germany and Italy ) was fragmented up till the early 1800. There are thousands of castles in these countries where kings or feudal lords would war with the neighboring fiefdom.

 

[zardoz]

The British were bankupting themselves trading gold and silver for tea and spices from China, so they stopped in the middle east and brought opium into China to use for trade instead of giving up gold and silver.

Europe, ( France, Germany and Italy ) was fragmented up till the early 1800. There are thousands of castles in these countries where kings or feudal lords would war with the neighboring fiefdom.

China was a single country on the surface, but fragmented internally nontheless. There was internal struggle for power, succession to become emperor. Also there were dozens of local warlords which often held real power locally - since China being such a big country, local power often had real meaning than central power at a time lacking instant communication. Corruption was also widespread in late Qing dynasty, everyman was working for hiimself, lack of morality. Even though Europe was divided into hundreds of little kingdons, a few big ones that actually came together like England, France, Netherlands were more united internally and less corrupt. And also they would compete with each other technologically - think industrial revolution. So they were able to defeat Chinese even though they were smaller countries.
China is trying to make a come back right now and is becoming more and more nationalistic. Of course they will be exploiting whatever opportunity they find - they will feel no guilt exploiting foreigners especially Americans and Europeans and Japanese after they have suffered centuries of humiliation under them.

 

[hinz]

Chinese people are very frugal, they tend to spend their money on their house becaue they can show it off and it appreciates, and cut costs on things such as food and entertainment.

Not so sure what you are trying to suggest since it all mixed up.

Yes, the Chinese are very frugual, so as the South Asian. Russell Peters would claim the Indians are cheapest, the Chinese come very close and the Jews are distant third.

By coincidence, all three groups of people are in various degree hated by other ethnic groups throughout history.

WRT house, do you mean the Chinese working their butts off to pay off the mortgages sooner and not having too much house? I don't recall the Chinese, like the White people consider their home a McMansion, Castle and thus spend the majority of the cash flows for DIY renos.

They sometimes do pay up, but not too much unless it's money laundering on the house that the previous owner, usually non-Chinese suck it up and do the big renos before listing for sale by leveraging. The Chinese bet they save money, hassle and headaches when the seller bear the blunt on renovation.

That pretty much explain Home Depot's big investment in China is a dumb idea and it's a matter of time when they throw the towel and quit the business over there.

BTW the Chinese prefer to pay "luxurious" condos where the locations say along the subway line or near the highways, plus "exclusive" clubhouses for the residents are desirable.

For food and entertainment, you are half right since they don't like to spend too much on eating out at so-called fine dining bistros, steakhouse and all those non-Asian dining establishment.

Many of them figure out by forex that they pay too much compared to the real Michellin Star fine dining establishment back "home" and that's before taxes and gratuity.

Having said that, the Chinese do enjoy eating out but they tend to refrain spending additional money on drinks at the dining place. Maybe for those CBCs and FOBs who are desperate to catch up and live like the white counterparts.

Business wise, they're always looking to pay cash and get a deal, and they do.

Still true, but it's getting harder since many Chinese businesses acknowledge it's a big security risk.

Many criminals, to whom I decline to say the ethnic backgrounds do notice that trait, peform dry run and detailed observations before catching those Chinese and robbing the bulk of the cash on the spots. They may hire security guards, something which will incur additional costs but they tend to mirgrate to debit and credit cards payments, albeit with min. amount spent before accepting the cards.

You could witness their businesses mass migration to electronic card payments if the spread on Visa, Mastercard and Amex interchange fee is quite narrow compared to the Interac.

They really don't make money off other asians because they're not willing to spend the money.... they make their money off of white ppl looking for something that's asian but isn't... Look at Spring Rolls, crappy asian food that's packaged all nice for white people.....

Spring Rolls is overrated as I notice most of the condiments they used are LKK and they have a habit to add more sodium on top of the dishes. Their Spring Rolls are not even authentic since they try to fool people, mostly White as Vietnamese, which in fact Cantonese since the Vietnamese rarely, if ever use spring rolls skin and contents like these.

Having said that, they do take the credit by package all nice for people to sit and enjoy the "experience". I still have cringes when there are times eating top notch Phos in places where the sanitation is less than satisfactory at the dining area, while in the washroom it is absolutely disgusting.

 

[hinz]

Historically, Europeans are the best business people, especially Dutch and British, then Americans. So are Jews and Japanese. They are all unethical and exploited Chinese, Indians and aboriginals! Chinese are historically corrupt, like to blow their money to show off, and arrogant - not willing to accept new ideas and technology - which lead to the downfall of their civilization while Europeans and Japanese rose to powers. It is only now that they realize they have to do anything to "catch up" that makes them very frugal, industrious and would go great length sometimes even exploitation. But no matter how Chiense businessmen exploit, it cannot compare to how Brits or Japanese exploited Chinese in the late 19 and early 20th century. The payback time has only begun!

At most you are half right.

The truth of the matter is the Chinese you described were not willing to accept new ideas and technology was due to the fact they were the most technologically sophisticated and wealthy in the world before 18th century. History is always 20/20 and they closed their country/dynasty/empire from the rest of the world by choice and they did make an error on judgement.

The industrial revolution starting in the 18th century was the game changer or shall we say a "Black Swan" event in the eyes of the Chinese that what they achieved for the past thousands of years became irrelevant and obsolete in the then new world order. To complicate the situation, their error on judgement made things worse when the western powers became extremely powerful after they became industrialized and they were at the Chinese doorsteps, trying to kick in and create new markets for their new goods.

Needless to say, the Chinese paid dearly for several generations and if that's not the motivation to catch up, what would it be?

 

[hinz]

wrong! the british empire forced opium on the quing dynasty starting the century of humilation with western powers having colonies in china called concessions. infact when europe was still primitive china and others places on other continents where more advanced

Hmm....the whole opium trade had more to do with the symptom of a "disease", namely, China, or Qing from the Manchus was caught and failed to industrialize the country/empire for competition by the time the Brits and French were ready to storm and kick in the Chinese proper....for trades.

Opium was nothing more than a tool to disarm the Chinese will or determination to resistance.

Plus opium was not considered illegal/ban substance until if I could recall early 20th century.

BTW, the tone on when Europe was still whatever speaks volume on why there are still stumbling roadblocks blocking China to be back to the glory days. The legacy must be a huge burden and the misguided pride must be bitter pill to swallow before really moving on.

By comparison, the Japanese did learn the costly mistakes from the Chinese at a distance and modernize the country after Meiji revolution.

 

[hinz]

Look at the number of Chinese students in the University of Toronto.

Hmm....That could be everything to do with the following,

-not bright enough to be admitted to the Ivy League and instead study in the "2nd best"
-not bright enough to be admitted to study hardcore science or engineering courses at U of Waterloo
-like UBC, maybe York U, Uof T is a "brand name" many Chinese could recall when you tell them you get your degree from Canada. Who could recall McGill over there from the get go?
-don't want to pay outragious residence fees or at most less expensive compared to those at Western Ontario, Queen's, Wilfred Laurier even U of Ottawa.
-don't want to study in "Waspy" institutions say hmm Western Ontario, Queen's or Wilfred Laurier.

 

[hinz]

I think the jury's still out on whether they're good businessmen. The chinese in china have for the most part traded on their vast, cheap populations, their willingness to degrade their environment (the pollution even in Beijing is horrendous, this info. I get from a close chinese business associate), and their somewhat questionable mercantilism.

+1.

Having said that, they are working overtime to go up on the food chain and catch up with the "big boys".

Time will tell whether they could make it since there are still significant roadblocks, say a big gap on qualified Chinese management executives with the experiences, expertises, credentials and capabilities to lead multi-cultural corporations based in China and/or multi-national corporations based outside China, something the Indians have clear advantages by comparison.

Take away these factors, let them compete on quality and not price, then we'll see if they can reach the japanese and germans

Maybe the Chinese are getting close to compete on quality compared to the South Koreans or Japanese in 5 to 10 years time but it's still a very long way to go to beat the Germans.

In the meantime, when I think of Chinese running the businesses, the majority of those would be SME, while the remaining private, not publicly owned large Chinese run enterprises are "conglomerates" with Real Estate Developments as the core.

(not canucks; we sell rocks, trees and oil and that's about it).

LOL, it's so true. Otherwise Canada is a backwater since the first thing the Chinese could think of western countries with abundant natural resources are Australia and New Zealand.

 

[TorontoWarrior]

There is a section in a great book out there by Malcolm Gladwell entitled, "Outliers" where he attempts to explain why the Chinese culture is successful, based on the arduous task of farming rice, which gave rise to the concept of the Chinese work ethic:

In chapter eight, “Rice Paddies and Math Tests,” Malcolm Gladwell continues to explore his claim that cultures can have significant impacts on various aspects of success. He takes an in-depth look at the work ethics of farmers in southern China and reveals how rice cultivation can be an intricate, laborious, and, if done well, rewarding process for an entire family. And over long periods of time, the processes and culture of rice cultivation appear to yield benefits to a people well beyond the farms.

According to Gladwell, rice farmers, the majority of whom have limited resources, improved the returns on their labor by “becoming smarter, by being better managers of their own time, and by making better choices.” In other words, more than simply working hard, they worked intelligently and strategically. Gladwell proposes that cultures “shaped by the tradition of wet-rice agriculture and meaningful work” tend to produce students with the fortitude to “sit still long enough” to find solutions to time-consuming and complex math problems, for instance.

 

[auto doctor]

I do remeber tainted Dog Food, Lead Paint in many products in kids toys and the rest, the cough cough summer Olympics. That's about it for my thoughts on Chinese Business. But our shelves at wallmart would be bare if we didn't have chinese products.

 

[zardoz]

I do remeber tainted Dog Food, Lead Paint in many products in kids toys and the rest, the cough cough summer Olympics. That's about it for my thoughts on Chinese Business. But our shelves at wallmart would be bare if we didn't have chinese products.

When you have a negative impression on a ethnic group or a country, all you "hear" are negative news.
You can say the same negative thing just about any country, say... England... mad cow desease, BP oil spill, bad teeth. But without them... hmm actually we will still be fine without England.

 

[hinz]

You can say the same negative thing just about any country, say... England... mad cow desease, BP oil spill, bad teeth. But without them... hmm actually we will still be fine without England.

You forget to mention WAGs and Essex girl, especially when they are really drunk

 

[alex52]

There is a section in a great book out there by Malcolm Gladwell entitled, "Outliers" where he attempts to explain why the Chinese culture is successful, based on the arduous task of farming rice, which gave rise to the concept of the Chinese work ethic:

In chapter eight, “Rice Paddies and Math Tests,” Malcolm Gladwell continues to explore his claim that cultures can have significant impacts on various aspects of success. He takes an in-depth look at the work ethics of farmers in southern China and reveals how rice cultivation can be an intricate, laborious, and, if done well, rewarding process for an entire family. And over long periods of time, the processes and culture of rice cultivation appear to yield benefits to a people well beyond the farms.

According to Gladwell, rice farmers, the majority of whom have limited resources, improved the returns on their labor by “becoming smarter, by being better managers of their own time, and by making better choices.” In other words, more than simply working hard, they worked intelligently and strategically. Gladwell proposes that cultures “shaped by the tradition of wet-rice agriculture and meaningful work” tend to produce students with the fortitude to “sit still long enough” to find solutions to time-consuming and complex math problems, for instance.

For some of the reasons mentioned above, India will not be more powerful super power than China.
The fact India is a democracy will also prevent it from reaching its true potential.

 

[hinz]

For some of the reasons mentioned above, India will not be more powerful super power than China.
The fact India is a democracy will also prevent it from reaching its true potential.

Maybe but when it comes to demographics, there will be more folks under 40s in Brazil, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, even Iran. China OTOH thanks to one-child policy and significant lower birth rate in general are going to age sooner than many like to admit.

I am sure you are fully aware places with significant Chinese populations like Singapore and Hong Kong have among the lowest birth rate on earth that rival the Italians, Japanese and Russians.

 

[auto doctor]

I like what my friend said when he came back from China recently. His Canadian Chinese girl friend said don't eat any food from the venders near the tourist area because they serve what the locals won't eat. LOL Now that is a good businesman

Dumb ass tourist..I think we do the same here in a different way.

 

[hinz]

I like what my friend said when he came back from China recently. His Canadian Chinese girl friend said don't eat any food from the venders near the tourist area because they serve what the locals won't eat. LOL Now that is a good businesman

Hmm....it's so old news.

 

[Master_Bates]

Hmm....it's so old news.

That can also be true in Canada... i.e. chicken balls

 

[GotGusto]

I've seen no evidence that suggests the Chinese are any better or worse business people than other groups. But I have seen, as we all have, that they are incredibly entrepreneurial. Go to any small town in Canada and you'll find a Chinese shop somewhere in it or a fast food joint owned and operated by Chinese. They're all over the major cities. Hell, go to an American ghetto and the same thing (if not Chinese, then Korean). Actually, don't go, it's dangerous. I don't know if they're good at business per se, but they sure try their hand at business at a disproportionate rate. It's like Indian taxi drivers. There are lots of them, a disproportionate amount, but I can't conclude that Indians are better taxi drivers than non-Indians just because there are more of them.

I don't know if it's the Chinese in particular but Asians are heavily involved in illegal drug production and distribution in Canada as well. Whenever the cops bust a grow-op or an illegal drug lab, the people charged are invariably Asian.

 

[hinz]

I don't know if it's the Chinese in particular but Asians are heavily involved in illegal drug production and distribution in Canada as well. Whenever the cops bust a grow-op or an illegal drug lab, the people charged are invariably Asian.

Hmm...could that be they go up the "food chain"?

BTW, if I could recall, many of those busted Asians running those labs are Vietnamese, not necessarily the Chinese.

 

[GotGusto]

BTW, if I could recall, many of those busted Asians running those labs are Vietnamese, not necessarily the Chinese.

Yeah, I figured. The Vietnamese are the 'gangsta' Asians, like the Italians are to Europeans.

 

[hinz]

That can also be true in Canada... i.e. chicken balls

LOL, don't eat those junky stuff since they are not Chinese food. The chicken balls are as authentic as the Chinese food at Manchu Wok.