Study 10,000 scrolls of books - journey on foot 10,000 miles

Citation

Teck Foo, C. (2007), "Study 10,000 scrolls of books - journey on foot 10,000 miles", Chinese Management Studies, Vol. 1 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/cms.2007.32301daa.001

Study 10,000 scrolls of books - journey on foot 10,000 miles

Study 10,000 scrolls of books – journey on foot 10,000 miles

In this fourth and last issue of the first volume of Chinese Management Studies, I like to bring to the attention of readers world-wide an ancient Chinese saying. It is on the art of learning so one may be a truly knowledgeable person. Just reflect on these two lines of Chinese characters.

Each line holds four Chinese words:

^• 

^• 

Explaining it for the non-Chinese reader (in brackets: pinyin and meaning of the Chinese character): (xing – journeying and in the past, it was on horse carriage, horse or foot); (wan – 10,000); (li – miles); (lu – roads); (du – study); (wan – 10,000); (juan – scrolls); (shu – books). Try pronouncing it as it is becoming quite fashionable even in the USA to be able to cite the key concepts in Chinese:

^• Xing wan li lu.

^• Du wan juan shu.

Now what better way to widen one's mind than it is by a person to travel as widely as possible? Indeed, it may be even be necessary if you are seeking to emancipate your mind. This is what President Hu Jin Tao had recently (June, 2007) advocated to the Central Party School (see[1] for full text of his speech). Upon taking on Chinese Communist Party leadership, he himself had travelled extensively across the four corners of the globe.

Thus, for this June-July season, I tried to keep up with the first part of this ancient precept xing wan li lu. The goal was for me to take a compressed journey from the West (Europe) to East (China, then Korea). That way I get deeper impressions of the contrasts between cultures.

I began by conferencing in Helsingborg, Sweden. In this city, what intrigued me is in encountering a Thai-Chinese entrepreneurial restaurant, Big Buddha. Even though it may be a Thai restaurant, the entrepreneurs are very often Chinese-Thai.

The ASEAN economy remained fuelled largely by the overseas Chinese entrepreneurial drive. It is often claimed that wherever the sun rises, you find in the vicinity, a Chinese restaurant.

In other words, unless constrained by political leadership as when China was under the tight control of Mao Zedong, Chinese entrepreneurs are robustly enterprising. For this reason, I welcome the empirical research paper that investigated into entrepreneurial opportunities, capacities and environments. The paper by Mai Yiyuan and Gan Zhilong made intriguing reading.

Whilst relishing the uniquely Swedish smörgåsbord at the QMOD Conference, I chatted with academics from Eastern Europe. From these conversations I learned they too are deeply interested on how Chinese management is evolving. For the Eastern Europeans had shared with the mainland Chinese, a communist heritage. So I am glad to bring along in this issue a paper by Ruth Alas and Wei Sun. Their research is centred on a theme that is vital in an environment of pervasive change: managing organizational change within Chinese enterprises.

From Helsingbord I took the ferry-train to Copenhagen where I boarded Turkish Airline and landed myself in Istanbul, Turkey. There I journeyed along the Bosphorus River. That stretch of flowing water that for many centuries acted as the demarcating line. The river kept separate two widely contrasting cultures: Asian and European. Comparative studies remain one of abiding interest to Chinese Management Studies.

In this issue, you find an illuminating piece of research by Spero Peppas and Tyler Yu. In their work, attitudes towards business ethics between the Chinese and the American students are being compared. Instead of a river, a vast, mighty ocean separates China and USA. For deeper insights to emerge, we need wider and even more in-depth studies.

Continuing on with the journey for learning, from sea-level Singapore, I landed onto the “roof” of the world. There in Lhasa, I delivered a lecture during a plenary session. Visiting Potala Palace, I learned of a new dimension to team-work from the chanting Tibetans[2]. Then it is on the coach to the world's highest lake, the Namtso Lake (4,718 meters). I rounded off with a trip jeep to Shigatse (350km from Lhasa) to visit the world's largest Tibetan Buddhist Monastery, Tashilhungpo.

Then eastwards in China, I flew to Chengdu immersing inter alia in the local tea culture. In Wuhan, the logistics hub of China, I delivered a guest lecture at HuaZhong University of Science and Technology (see Plate 1 for the photovisuals).

For I too need to update myself by re-visiting a city that had become a central logistics hub: Wuhan. In the remaining days of July, I will be venturing to Daejeon, the Silicon Valley of Korea.

Insights into Chinese management are shared by scholars via publications in journals such as the Chinese Management Studies. I try to share what I learned from my travels by uploading my snap-videos onto Google. For I believe, motion pictures do provide an alternative, often reinforcing kind of insights about another managing within a different culture. Thus, one may explore guanxi through implementing empirical studies as Wong Meiling had done for this journal. Equally, one may learn about guanxi building by observing Chinese tea culture. Say in Cheng-du, of the Chinese subtle art in weaving threads of guanxi.

_{Plate 1.}

In concluding, I must return to the saying. That after all the many miles of jetting about, you have to study (du) just as many scrolls of journal papers. For this a scholar can do no better than to have in his/her hands the forthcoming first volume of Chinese Management Studies. As Editor, I will continue to strive to bring to the attention of readers works from a geographically diverse range of scholars (as in this issue, China, Eastern Europe, Taiwan and the USA). I am keen to review innovative pieces from those are engaged in research or deep thinking and reflection into the art of managing in China and on any interesting aspect of Chinese management.

Check Teck Foo

Notes1.For full text of his speech, visit: www.chinaelections.org/en/readnews.asp?newsid=%7BC3658FB5-CE23-49B4-A479-F5F936436109%7D2.Tibetan Chant at Work: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8324547599139898665