contributions to leadership understanding contained herein and by
viewing the totality as a student of modern Sino-American leadership
in China. However, I must admit that my firsthand understanding
of Chinese culture in general and Chinese leadership in particular is
limited to Han Chinese in coastal China during the recent open-door
era. My first visit to China was in 1985 although I have been an
eager student of Chinese history and thought since reading, as a child,
my first adult novel: Pearl Buck’sThe good earth. Finally, I gladly
leave judgments on the adequacy of my colleague’s translations to
others.
My study of leadership in China has benefited enormously from
my cross-cultural studies with my Japanese mentors, Professors
Katsuo Sano and Mitsuru Wakabayashi at Keio and Nagoya Univer-
sities during the 1970s and 1980s. From them I learned the difference
between surface-level behavior and deep-level behavior. Surface-level
behavior is the stuff of cultural stereotypes and caricatures such as
those found in popular culture-based books. Although some people
believe that these surface-level, cultural stereotypes contain some
introductory useful information, I believe that they are on balance
dysfunctional for any meaningful cross-cultural relationship. For
example, I have never owned a cow or horse, yet I am stereotyped in
Japan and China as an American ‘‘cowboy.’’ I reject that image and
object to anyone treating me as a John Wayne clone.
Historical outcropping
Chinese leadership history differs from that of the West in many
respects, but a few of the more noteworthy are the absence of a Magna
Carta in 1215 in which the King of England agreed to be under the
laws (the rule of law), the early decline of the Western feudal system,
and the rise of the scientific and industrial revolution with its steam
engine and machine technology. These events fostered colonialism and
the rise of corporations in the West. Instead, China became a giant
country early in its history and was ruled by emperors without the
rule of law. It continues to survive under these conditions and only
the emperors have changed through forces of various kinds upto the
present day.
I was told by my Chinese mentors early in my studies that ‘‘the
Chinese are pragmatic and the emperor is far away.’’ This meant that
274 George Bear Graen