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Chinese Business Networks State, Economy and Culture edited by Chan Kwok Bun

Using the proliferating volume of social science data and concepts on the subject, this book attempts to provide an alternative interpretation of the business conduct of the ethnic Chinese of East and Southeast Asia. The authors argue (among others) that:

• explanations of Chinese business conduct in terms of culture are too convenient and simplistic

• not all Chinese everywhere are the same, nor do they do business only among each other

• not all Chinese are successful in business, and not all successful businessmen are Chinese
  "guanxi" (connections) has its "down side"

• many ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia may well be "reluctant merchants" as they face many institutional obstructions to their upward mobility

• the seeming solidarity among the ethnic Chinese has more to do with external forces impinging upon them as members of a "racial group" rather than primordial sentiments internal to the group

Published by NIAS Press
Published 1999, 333 pp., illus.
ISBN 978 87 87062 79 4, paperback, £17.99