- Gordon Dumoulin
The necessity of a collective memory of China's past...

"๐ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ธ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฌ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ณ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ข๐ช๐ฏ ๐ข ๐ค๐ฐ๐ญ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐บ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐ขโ๐ด ๐ฑ๐ข๐ด๐ต..."
๐ ๐ฏ๐ผ๐ผ๐ธ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐ถ๐ฒ๐ ๐ผ๐ณ "๐ฐ๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐บ๐ถ๐น๐น๐ถ๐ผ๐ป ๐ฐ๐๐๐๐ผ๐บ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐" (๐ญ๐ต๐ฏ๐ณ) ๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐๐๐ฒ๐ป ๐ฏ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐น ๐๐ฟ๐ผ๐
An interesting review by author Paul French of the book '400 million customers' by Carl Crow (1884-1945, US businessman in Shanghai, founder of the first Western advertising agency in Shanghai).
It is interesting to see the comparative circumstances which Carl Crow was experiencing by his thoughts, opinions and actions about China in the 1930's in relation to the current 2020's. With regard to the cultural and geopolitical sensitivities in which Crow was especially concerned and activated about, enhancing awareness for the Japanese aggression in the 1930's and strongly opposing the commonly used racist term "Chinaman" at the time.
Another comparative similarity between the 1930's and today is the volatility of realities and actualities about China expressed by China experts in books, op-eds and reports then and now.
Carl Crow's book was soon forgotten after the โWar of Resistance against Japanese Aggressionโ (ๆๆฅๆไบ), better known in the West as the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937. Sometimes regarded as the beginning of WWII in the Asia-Pacific. Only when China opened up again in the 1970's, foreign businesses relearned the Chinese business culture and environment from scratch again, often with hard lessons. While many of those business culture lessons had already been written down by Crow 40 years before, though completely forgotten.

In the current 2020's, it is not much different with the short expiry dates of the overwhelming number of publications and opinions about China whether economically, socially or politically.
As Paul French mentioned in his review; โwe need to work hard to keep a collective memory of China's past, something the foreign business, academic, and China-watching communities (in all their problematic forms) have not been especially good at.โ
And not only about the past but also about a collective consideration of Chinaโs present instead of often conveniently selected perspectives.
Read more about Paul Frenchโs interesting review on Crowโs book and also about Carl Crowโs life in the China Project : https://thechinaproject.com/2023/01/10/carl-crows-400-million-customers/
#china #china2023 #chinesesociety #chineseculture #chinesehistory #chinamarket #chinesemarket #chineseconsumers