Tim Clissold

I doubt I'll read a better business book this year. A cracking tale of a man trying to set up and invest in businesses in China, it reads sometimes like a drama, sometimes a soap opera, sometimes a comedy and sometimes a travelogue. It works on all these levels too. You can't help feel sorry for Clissold as he wrestles with business case situations that would be near impossible to control in the West never mind China, involving fraud, cheating, lying, shooting, rioting and cultural racism. show more The stress almost kills him, but underneath it all there is an affection for this country and all its foibles that allows him to forgive it and its people. He wants to help them to a better life, and believes capitalism is the answer. Money, however, seems to bring out the worst in many people whatever culture they're from, and millions are squandered in every chapter. One of the most amazing cultural depictions therefore, is that of Wall Street, dolling out hundreds of millions on the strength of a presentation or two. This is a sobering picture of what the capitalists are doing with your hard-earned money you put away for your retirement - gambling it on a fashionable whim with about as much information as you could pick up from an edition of Newsweek. I'd thoroughly recommend this book. show less

Now, this is how a memoir should be written, especially on a subject like China. He was charmed by the mystery of China, and moved there on a whim and a prayer. (Actually I felt that his Madam Butterfly reference is fairly correct, because that's almost how China is. )

He moved to Beijing around 1988/89, and tried to learn Mandarin in a Chinese University. He ate cabbage Beijing style, and watched the slow transition of a country's rise from communist country to that of a quasi captialist show more one. As Clissold has said in the book, the Chinese are captialists in heart.

In less than 20 years, China has risen from a super poor country to a quasi economical super power. The burning passion from every Chinese to escape poverty, crime, governmental control, and their attempts at building a brighter future for themselves are all presentd here in this book.

This isn't a sucess story. In fact, this is a story about failures, but the more he "failed", the more he learned about China in a more fundamental way. The last chapter is especially touching. He decided to travel 1000 kms on his bike through some of the poorest regions of Northern China. And how he felt when he went to Pudon in Shanghai. In his own words, "I felt like I've been inside for too long, and when I came out, the sunlight was blinding me."

His parting wisdom is important to all that players effecting China - China will be China, and it will do things on its own pace, in its own way. You can't hope that China will change on your behalf, because it won't. All those people that said that China will eventually see light of reason and play the way everyone plays, well.., read this book.

HIGHLY recommend it. show less

[Quickfire backlog reviews] An interesting outsider perspective, though ultimately still an outsider perspective. He spent long enough there to shed some assumptions and arrogance but the very fact he was there at all does show that a fair amount remains.

This is an excellent memoir of a financial adventure in China in the early 90s.

As a layman, I can't comment on the wisdom or otherwise of the various undertakings described here, nor of the way in which they were undertaken. But this cautionary tale is told with sufficient clarity and verve to ensure that even I, financial illiterate that I am, came away with a good idea of what had happened, and I immensely enjoyed the freewheeling style of Tim Clissold's telling.

The Chinese are baffling, show more even to those Westerners who have dwelt among them for decades, and are fluent in the language (both linguistic and ethical). I therefore feel a little less guilty myself for finding China so perpetually impenetrable, and so perpetually fascinating.

I guess, though, that as an economic imbecile I probably missed a lot, and that while you don't have to speak Money to enjoy this story, it would probably help. show less