Mr. China: A Memoir

This book fills in some gaps for folks who are China watchers and who don’t know much about the early years of capitalism in modern China. It’s billed as a memoir of the author, himself. I found it a fascinating tale, full of informative insights. I’ll tell you a bit about it:The author is Tim Clissold, who, per the book’s back cover “has been working in China for 17 years (and)…lives in Beijing with his wife and four children.” The book’s earliest copyright date seems to be 2004, which puts Clissold in China in the late ‘80s. I’m not sure that he really explains why he first went to China, but, in any case, he did some traveling there at what he calls “the tail end of the planned economy.” He goes back to London, but then back to China in 1990.He lived in a university in Beijing for two years, learned Mandarin and much of the ways the Chinese led their lives. With a financial background, he takes a job as a Mandarin speaker with Arthur Anderson. At some point, he hooks up with a guy from Wall Street who can connect with hundreds of millions of dollars from Wall Street to invest in China. With his buddy, Clissold goes into the business of looking for Wall Street investments in China.And this is what the book is about: the series of investments and adventures investing in and managing these factories/companies over the next decade or so. There are excruciating details of predicaments and details involved with the management of the companies. Here, we learn, first hand, of peculiarities of Chinese business “rules,” if there are any. Here, the reader can feel Clissold’s frustrations, if not his fears.And, the author gives us insight into how most of the factories that he visited were originally set up under the Russian period of industrialization under Chairman Mao. After the Russians pulled out, the Chinese Military took over ownership and control of many of the factories. After Mao dies, the Military begins to release the factories to civilian control under the Communist government. Per Clissold, China was then like the U.S. was in the 1880s. Most of the factories were in disrepair and in need of investment capital, something that was then not available in China, domestically. Clissold also saw China at that time as uniquely like the U.S., in that it had resources and a population that could sustain its own economy. In short, Clissold saw great opportunity with investments in China.But dealing with Chinese business people involved pain. The massive dinners with serious drinking were a burden. The country’s infrastructure was primitive. Factories had been relocated to rural areas that were hard to get to and were vulnerable to natural disasters. But by the early 90s, the Chinese economy was beginning to take off, and numerous countries had businesses clamoring to get a foothold. Competition was fierce.Clissold’s Wall Street buddy raised the money in ways that astounded the author: “It was the wealth of the individual families in America…that really amazed me; I had no idea that such vast fortunes were controlled by families or individuals who had either made or inherited money,” he said. (This was the early 90’s, mind you.)Clissold had visited 100 Chinese factories. His buddy had raised $200 million. The idea was to invest in multiple factories, with the goal of eventually consolidating them into a single corporate entity. That was how money was made in the U.S. Why would it not work in China, too?With each deal, Clissold got majority ownership, but this did not mean that he would have majority control. Details of all his problems in this area abound in the book. But Clissold was essential. His Wall Street buddy did not learn Mandarin nor the details of how to deal with the Chinese in business. His buddy was the salesman. Clissold had to explain to the investors back on Wall Street what was going on at the ground floor. Clissold had to keep all the pieces of the puzzle in place.He works for eight years, then has a heart attack and decides to quit. But he goes back in 1998. He is hooked, including with the language. But I don’t think that he really tells us the details of the overall business. He does tell us that after 10 years, he had worked himself out of a job, that the era of joint ventures was over in China. He says that billions of dollars were lost by Western investors, but he infers that he and his were winners.I don’t think that he really wants to tell us the details of how he and his made money. It may be that his companies were at the base of the massive production of goods imported into the U.S. during the 90s. He says that the main purpose of the book is to better inform the American people of the ways of the Chinese in the hopes that we will better understand how the two countries need to interact and coexist in the future. Again, the book is more of a memoir than anything else, but it contains enough historical and personal insights to make it a good read.

Tim's insight of business in China is delivered with delightful humor and great reverence is very needed in these times of dangerous misunderstandings between the two most powerful economies in the world. As a Chinese American, while I had certain cultural cues growing up, Tim's stories and lessons really drove home those peculiarities of Chinese culture, which he (or Madame Wu) refers to as "Chineseness." While I am probably the proper case to refute that such a thing exists, it does resonate through certain older segments of the population that grew up in China, like my parents. This was a delightful book with important lessons about the cultural differences between East and West, but is really just two means to the same ends. Tim's final words should be well heeded by our business and political leaders --our similarities are far more pronounced than our superficial cultural differences. In the end, to thrive in China, a westerner must be a bit more adaptable to the ways of China. Bravo! Mr. Clissod! I look forward to reading your more recent, "Chinese Rules."

Mr. China puts us in the shoes of a western businessman delving into the opening China market of the late 80's and early 90's. When Deng opened up China for business, the author, Tim Clissold, was one of the first into China with western funds to invest. However, the dream of endless profits turned into a nightmare. In this book, you'll face conflict after failure as China is dragged into capitalism. The experiences in this book may serve as a warning for those who are doing business in China. In the end though, it seems that many of these problems could have been avoided by a little more research and cultural sensitivity. Also, in being first in China, Clissold came face to face with a clash of systems. Westerners assumed that they could do business as usual without concern for the loose business practices of a formerly communist China. They run into thousands of unexpected problems. Clissold tries to put a positive spin on it in the end, but after reading the book, you'll wonder where he gets his optimism from. Overall, it's a quick and interesting read on the opening of China. If you're doing or thinking of doing business in China, check it out.

Mr. Clissold was smitten with China and tried becoming "Mr. China" by living and investing in it. Unfortunately, he is - like many people who work around Wall Street - besotted with his own importance and completely egotistical. How otherwise can one explain how one Englishman hopes to be able to understand a country as vast as China, as populated as China, and as culturally deep as China?The story that comes across to me is of a man who was full of himself who found that China ate him up and spat him out. The book focuses on three main fights that he was involved in, but there is also mention that they had to replace 15 out of their original 17 partners. So, their vaunted searches and detailed knowledge of China was mostly a failure. Ironically, the author states that he was not sure about the OTHER money men who spent even less time in China than he.Also ironically, in the last chapter, the author mentions that while he was busy piddling away almost $400 million of investor money and generating no profits, native-born Chinese companies caught up to his level of sophistication and easily exceeded it. So, this is really a story of a colossal failure.The anecdotes and stories of the various fights that occur throughout China are funny and told with a vivacious charm. Which makes one sober up when you realize that people are getting knifed, cut up, and beaten.Another point to ponder is the sublime disorder and otherworldliness of the story. Can it really be as lawless as it appears? Or, is the vast conspiracies of the chinese people, managers, banks, and government perhaps a different story altogether which the author had not really penetrated?

The author's experience will resonate with many and inform/advise if you are just entering into business in China. It is an honest, no holds barred (but names changed to protect the innocent) account of the author's experience in trying to do business in and with China in the 1990s. The lessons and the story are relevant today.

Have just finished reading Mr China for the 3rd time, irresistible storytelling. Tim has perfected the art of combining humour with purposeful intellectual antidotes of doing business in China. Would highly recommend this book to anybody going to China.

Well researched and well written book, it was a delight to read.Read it twice and will probably read it a third time.Great depictions of the reality of doing business in China during the 90s, there is still remnants of that business culture (state sponsored enterprises) nowadays, the story is still very relevant in my opinion.

Great book, took to long to arrive.

Only half way through. Good so far.