The Economist - USA (2020-11-13)

The EconomistNovember 14th 2020 China 27

2

B

ookshopsin chinaarerepletewith

works offering advice on self-better-

ment.Topicsrangefromcopingwithshy-

ness(“HowtoMakeFriendswithStrangers

inOneMinute”)tosucceedinginbusiness

(“Financial Management in Seven Min-

utes”).Thetitle ofone recent bestseller

urges:“Don’tOptforComfortattheStageof

LifethatisMeantto beDifficult”. Their

popularityandcontentsreflectthestresses

ofasocietyinrapidflux—oneinwhich

pathsto wealthareopeningupinways

barelyimaginable a generationago and

competitionisfierce(seeChaguan).

ReliablestatisticsonChina’sbookmar-

ketarehardto find.Butaccordingto a

studybyEricHendriks-Kim,a sociologist

attheUniversityofBonn,self-helpbooks

mayaccountforalmostone-thirdofChi-

na’sprinted-bookmarket.InAmericathey

makeuponly6%ofadultnon-fictionprint

sales,reckonsnpdGroup,a researchfirm.

AlthoughChina’sleaderskeepstressing

theneedforChinatobe“self-reliant”,seek-

ersofadviceonhowtosucceedoftenturn

toAmericanbooksforguidance.InChina

lastyearthetoptenself-helpsellersin-

cluded translations of several American

works,suchas“HowtoWinFriendsandIn-

fluence People”,“Peak:Secrets from the

NewScienceofExpertise”and“TheSeven

HabitsofHighlyEffectivePeople”.

Chinesereadersappearmoreeagerfor

suchimportsthanpeopleinmanyother

countries that are culturally closer to

America. That may be because both China

and America are “hyper-competitive and

materialistic regimes”, argues Mr Hen-

driks-Kim, who has described this in his

book “Life Advice from Below: the Public

Role of Self-Help Coaches in Germany and

China”. In the early 2000s a Chinese trans-

lation of “Who Moved My Cheese?”, a moti-

vational book by an American, Dr Spencer

Johnson, became so popular that a play

based on it toured theatres and the Chinese

word for cheese acquired a new meaning:

one’s own self-interest. Books proliferated

in China with cheese in their titles.

China has a long tradition of reading for

practical purposes. In 2018 fiction account-

ed for 7% of sales, compared with more

than 30% in Germany. “One of the most

striking features of China’s market for

books is its absolute and passionate rele-

vance to life,” said a report in 2006 by Arts

Council England. The exam-focused edu-

cation system leaves little time to develop

interpersonal skills, so people, desperate

for advice on how to sell themselves, turn

to self-help books instead.

That may suit the Communist Party, ea-

ger as it is to promote “positive energy”. But

the party would prefer native-born role

models. State media have touted a book by

President Xi Jinping, “Seven Years as an

Educated Youth”, as the kind of tome peo-

ple should study (see picture). It describes

Mr Xi’s hard life in the countryside during

the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and

1970s. “Is there really any self-help book

better than Xi’s?” asked one headline.

Mr Xi is also fond of the classics, some

of which are being repurposed for self-im-

provement purposes. Yu Dan, perhaps Chi-

na’s best-known pop philosopher, has sold

11m legal copies (millions more may have

been peddled in photocopied form) of

“Confucius from the Heart”. Some Chinese

have mocked it for making the sage sound

“much like the masters of American self-

help”, says Mr Hendriks-Kim.

Perhaps the self-help industry has come

full circle. After all, China’s 6th-century-bc

masterpiece for would-be generals, “The

Art of War” by Sun Tzu, was arguably the

self-help prototype. Its title has been ech-

oed, consciously or otherwise, in the

names of countless other books of the

genre. One such is Donald Trump’s “The Art

of the Deal”. Its fifth and most recent trans-

lation in China was published in 2016 by

the Communist Youth League. 7

Themarketforself-helpbooksisbooming, strongly influenced by America’s

Self-helpbooks

Highlyeffectivepeople’s republic

Xi and the power of positive thinking

the imposition of them, fearing they would

harm Hong Kong’s economy.

Pro-democracy politicians—at least

those not disqualified—may still stand in

next year’s elections. Mr Leung says the

next Legco must have an opposition. But

the trend is clear. Vocal opposition in

Legco, which increasingly has involved

filibustering by democrats, will be throt-

tled. The opposition “may have to shift to

venues outside the establishment” to ex-

press discontent, says Eliza W.Y. Lee of the

University of Hong Kong—although, as she

notes, opportunities for street activism are

being shut down, too. The national-securi-

ty law, along with coronavirus-related re-

strictions, have all but stamped out unrest.

It is unlikely that many members of the

public will be upset by the democrats’ de-

parture from Legco. Those who support the

government have long regarded them as

troublemakers bent on disrupting legisla-

tive proceedings. Opinion polls suggest the

government’s many critics have little hope

that the legislature will ever be democratic.

So, as the Communist Party tightens con-

trol over Legco, they increasingly regard

the involvement of pro-democracy politi-

cians in it as meaningless, says Ho-Fung

Hung of Johns Hopkins University. In Sep-

tember the Hong Kong Public Opinion Re-

search Institute canvassed views on the de-

cision to delay the elections. It found an

almost even split among opposition sup-

porters between those who wanted their

camp’s legislators to carry on working dur-

ing Legco’s extended term, and those who

preferred that they resign. “I’ve been re-

ceiving a lot of messages of support from

members of the Hong Kong public saying

they don’t want us to give credence to this

institution anymore. They tell us that by re-

maining, we give it some sort of credibil-

ity,” says Mr Kwok.

Such pessimism is easy to understand.

Since the security law was adopted there

has been a steady stream of news that has

spooked Hong Kong’s democrats. Several

outspoken academics have been forced to

quit, or have not had their contracts re-

newed. Earlier this month a television

journalist was arrested after helping to

produce a story for Hong Kong’s public

broadcaster, rthk, that was critical of the

police response to an attack by thugs on

anti-government protesters during last

year’s protests. Her alleged offence was ob-

taining car-ownership details from a gov-

ernment database using a false pretext.

But the existence of an opposition in

Legco, however frustrated by the electoral

system (almost half of the seats are re-

served for interest groups such as indus-

tries and professions), has long made Hong

Kong’s political system stand out from the

mainland’s. The prospect of a Legco de-

prived even of the few teeth it has is indeed

a bleak one. 7