I’ve just come across Doing Business in China, How to profit in the world’s fastest growing market by Ted Palfker, published a couple of months ago by Warner Business Books. It looks a little light-weight (lots of exclamation points, too, something at which my 18-year-old daughter would turn up her nose, and that seem a little odd in a business title), though it may be just the ticket as a non-threatening introduction for people completely new to China. We’ll review it soon, but today I thought I’d quote a few lines from the front jacket flap:

Tips and insights include:
Be aware of guanxi , a word that defies simple translation. It means “relationship” or “connection” in the narrow sense. But when used in terms of business and bureaucracy, guanxi is far broader, meaning everything from “connections” to “networking” to “pull.” Unlike smaller matters of etiquette in China, people will expect that you understand guanxi and play by the rules.