How to Live and Do Business
in China: Eight Lessons I Learned from the CommunistsChina Business Coaching Consultant
CHAPTER ONE
What happened to me while I was writing this book.
"Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet, Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat; But there is neither East nor West, border, nor breed, nor birth, When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth!" -Rudyard Kipling, 1889
When I went to China, I had a negative, self-righteous view of all things Chinese. It was a communistic, godless dictatorship. We, on the other hand, were a capitalistic, democratic, Christian society.
So after seven years and several major epiphanies, I changed my paradigm and discovered many positive things about the Chinese way.
I returned to Canada and wrote this book from my fresh, new Chinese perspective. My editor, Ross Freake, brought to my attention that I was now bashing the Western way as I had earlier bashed the Chinese way. I had been infected with the Stockholm syndrome. You are now reading a complete revision and change in attitude and paradigm, but not back to what it was before; there would be no gain in that.
Through synchronicity, I received another epiphany.
It is the concept of whole-brain integration, and the differences between the two brain hemispheres.
The left hemisphere * uses logic/reason |
The right hemisphere * uses intuition/emotions |
It is important to learn how to create balance with both sides of the brain.
analysis vs. synthesis
reasoning vs. intuition
extroversion vs. introversion
outer vs. inner
male vs. female
friend vs. enemy
capitalism vs. communism
My a-ha! The West is left-brain and the East is right brain!
Our actual brain structure includes the corpus callosum, a band of nerve fibers that bridges the two hemispheres. Interestingly, the female corpus callosum has 33 per cent more neurons than the male. That leads us to suppose that the female integrates both sides better than the male. Maybe that is why women can multi-task better than us guys.
East, West, left, right, wrong, right: which is best, which is right?
I believe the right way for humanity is to balance, to integrate the best parts of both. Instead of yes-but, it is yes-and.
Might this kind of thinking help us in our desperate search for world peace? Let us build bridges and have harmony, prosperity and peace.