40 CultureShock! China
transportation, and work very long hours for salaries generous
by Chinese standards, but still just a fraction of those of global
peers. But compared to the floating population, the xiagang,
the villagers, or indeed their own parents, these workers by
and large have opportunities undreamt of, and their future
looks as boundless as that of China as a whole.Managers and Technocrats
Leading these offices and factories are a considerably more
select group. These are the Chinese workers who have
mastered not only technical and language skills, but also
some of the ‘softer’ arts of business, from managing teams
and negotiating deals to handling cross-cultural issues.
Many of these are ‘returnees’, Chinese who have done
stints of study or work abroad and are bringing their
experience home. Others have worked their way up the ranks
within Chinese or foreign-invested companies, learning first-
hand how global business works. Many have also received
coveted international assignments from previous employers
and have a good sense of living standards abroad, which they
seek to adopt at home.
Such experienced managers are increasingly in short
supply in China as more and more foreign companies crowd
in, seeking the guidance of managers with both deep local
knowledge and serious global exposure. As a result, middle-
to-senior Chinese managers often command salaries much
closer to those of their global peers than to salaries of other
Chinese. They tend to have lifestyles that combine some of
the best of the global and the local. And they tend to be very
savvy in terms of managing their careers and planning for
their children.
Paralleling this successful managerial class in the business
world are growing ranks of thoughtful administrators within
the government, academia and the growing numbers of
think-tanks in China. While China’s government is still far
larger and more heavily staffed than those of most developed
nations, it is continuing to shrink and becoming more efficient
over time. And increasingly, it is staffed by sophisticated
technocrats far less concerned than their forebears with