ARCHITECTS: 8 Insider Secrets for Succeeding & Prosper in China PDF Free Download
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Insider Secrets for
Succeeding & Prospering
in China
8
Gavin Crombie
ARCHITECTS:
Legal Mumbo Jumbo
Where I tell you you’re responsible for your own actions and my lawyers love plagiarists
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Published by:
Gavin Crombie
8th Floor, 803, Building A,
DESUN International Building,
1480 North Tianfu Ave.
Chengdu, Sichuan, China
Postal Code: 610041
SecretsOfSuccess@WeAreDigitalFrontier.com
This report is based on the book ‘Secrets of Success for
Architects in China – Insights from the Men and Women Who
Built Modern China’.
The book collects the distilled wisdom of twenty-eight world
leaders in architecture and design. These are the men and
women who have been in the trenches and the mud and rebuilt
a country, and the book is packed with their advice, insights, tips
and tricks. This report is a summary of that advice.
Why 8 Secrets?
The Number 8 in China is imbued with special signicance – it is a
homophone for the word for ‘Fortune’ and is the luckiest number. People pay
huge sums to get lots of 8’s on their number plates, telephone number, and
house and apartment numbers.
So these 8 Secrets are imbued with the same good luck and good fortune
that the number 8 resonates with.
China’s Design and Architecture
To put it all in perspective, let’s revisit a little recent history:
The incredible development of China has been most visible in the creation of
massive new cities and skylines. During the last ten years, China has added
an incredible number of buildings—equal to the creation of a city the size of
Rome(!) —every two months. To put it another way, a collection of buildings
equivalent to all of the buildings in the U.K. has been built every year for the
last ten years. With an incredible 250 million people moving from the land
(countryside?) into cities in the last decade, it seems that China has massively
exceeded every single record or metric for building development. The world
will never see such an incredible transformation of cityscapes again—and all
of the contributors to this book were right there making it happen.
Introduction
Fueled by its people’s almost insatiable hunger for
both living space and investment property, the Chinese
economy has surged with such tremendous growth
rates that the country’s very visible transformation from
agrarian to urban living in such a short time has been truly
extraordinary. The mere 20 percent of the population living
in cities in the 1980s has risen to the 60 percent of the 1.3
billion people in China considered now to be urban. As this
demographic shift (earthquake?) has occurred, the task of
designing the infrastructure to support it has fallen on the
shoulders of a unique group of people: architects.
The men and women who have built, and who continue
to build, modern China are an incredibly diverse group.
Architects have literally come from all over the globe to
contribute to China’s most dizzying design decade by
creating brand-new skylines that have sprouted like a
concrete rain forest throughout the last ten years.
These architects, both men and women, have, on the
whole, successfully navigated the labyrinthine bureaucracy
of China. They’ve dealt with deadlines that would seem
unachievable anywhere else in the world and seen their
practices grow at the same astonishing rate as the rest
of China. As a result, most have enjoyed their experience
in China and come out of this last decade with a startling
sense of accomplishment.
These architects, quite simply, have created nothing less
than a new world in fewer than twenty years.
When you compare Shanghai’s 1993 skyline with its skyline
in 2015, the transformation barely seems possible.
The book is packed with good advice—direct from some
of the most successful people practicing architecture in
China. Their insights derive from massive experience in the
market.
Many of the contributors have worked in China for ten,
twenty or even thirty years. They’ve been involved in literally
thousands of projects and have learned the hard way how
best to practice architecture in China.
And between them, they have enough awards and kudos
that a warehouse would be needed to showcase them all.
Navigating the hutongs and alleyways of architectural
practice in China will never be easier than by taking on
board the collective knowledge of these giants in the
industry.
As Dan Winey from Gensler says:
“Succeeding here really is about being humble. It’s about
listening, listening, listening, listening and understanding
that you’ve got to have a very long view. It’s really a lifelong
process, learning about the culture of China. The key is
not only to respect the local culture, but to understand the
local culture. Gensler’s experience has been very dierent
than for some of the design rms that still do the majority
of their work outside, in New York or in Chicago.”
1 Adapting to Local Cultures
7 Building, Maintaining and the Importance of Relationships
11 Boots on The Ground
13 Engaging and Managing the Right Local Sta and Partners
17 Talk to the Right Person
19 Should I Learn Mandarin?
21 The Right Way to get Paid for the Job
23 Where to Make Money in Architecture in China Right Now
Contents
1
Adapting to
Local Cultures
1
Romeo Ty Senior Design Director + Architectural Author / JWDA Shanghai had this to
say about local culture:
“It is extremely important to learn how to celebrate dierences rather than impose
something rigid—a uniform or mainstream view—on the world. Imposing hardly works,
but knowing and understanding the local culture—everything from the social to the
professional—will get you heard, especially in our profession. Just listen, and you’re in.
You’re already in. I think that’s very critical.
• The Chinese do not essentially look at themselves as an ethnic people but rather
look at themselves as a culture.
• There is a widely acknowledged way of doing things and that way is the ‘Chinese
Way’
• It is almost a truism that there is a rule book that every one learns in China and that’s
the way things are done.
Therefore, at least understanding some of these dierences is essential to succeed in
China, if not necessarily becoming culturally Chinese yourself.”
The following pages give some insights into the Chinese mindset and how vastly
it diers from western countries, and the other points mentioned throughout the
interviews
2
So let’s start with ‘what is this local Chinese Culture that is
spoken about’?
This is a big subject that can be boiled down into a number
of points which may be termed generalizations, but are
things that seem to be pretty much ubiquitous in the
Chinese culture.
• Group Consciousness
• Not Causing Oence
• Family is Paramount
• Personal Relationships are extremely important.
• Work is an extension of the family – people expect to
be taken care of.
• Chinese culture is the most sensible in the world.
The main dierence is the concept of group consciousness
in the Chinese culture – independent thought and action
are not generally seen – people have a huge depth of
consideration for the group and not for the individual.
As Julia Monk from HOK Hong Kong says:
“In individual entitlement, you’re allowed to have your
opinion. Whenever Westerners give an answer to any
question, we’re really giving our opinion because there’s
no black or white answer when you get down to it. Chinese
people are hesitant about giving you an opinion because
they have to keep the whole group in mind when they give
their answer. It’s not a simple thing. Try to act in the spirit of
cooperation that group entitlement dictates.”
Getting to the bottom of someone’s true feelings can be
really dicult – it is not the done thing to answer a question
directly until all possible ramications for the answer on
multiple levels of relationships have been considered and
a conclusion that the answer is not going to upset anyone
and cause oence.
This dynamic means that getting to the truth is sometimes
well-nigh impossible. No-one wants to tell the truth in case
the person they are speaking about gets to hear of it and is
oended and causes trouble – which is very much on the
cards.
In meetings in China everyone will sit around and allow
the senior members of the team to speak or present. Then
there is silence – it doesn’t matter how many times you
ask for comment it never comes. Certainly you won’t get
any negative or even anything slightly-seen-to-be-critical
comment.
Frustrating? Yes. But how do meetings get anything done?
You wait – and later that day, the next day or in a few days,
one by one the sta will come to you privately and give
input into the matters discussed.
The concept of aggressive career development is often
lacking in the members of the sta, - in particular the
older, married with children - sta. In the history of China
there has never been a time when the state has paid for
retirement – or certainly not to an extent that someone
could aord to live very comfortably on a pension.
That means parents depend on children. And to get
children to behave in the right manner they are indulged
and given huge amounts of attention while they are
children. The parent will do every single thing within
their power to create a better life for the children on the
understanding that when they are old and unable to care
for themselves then the children will look after the parents.
Cue the ‘Tiger Mom’.
The worst people in Chinese society are those people
who do not look after their parents. There is even a LAW
specifying how many times the children must substantively
visit the parents every year and the children can be jailed if
they do not adhere to the law.
This factor inuences every single thing that cuts through
Chinese society and realizing the importance of this factor
is hugely important.
For example, you will be unlikely to get a positive response
if you ask a sta member, partner, prospective client or
client out for a meal over the weekend – that’s family time
and the person is almost guaranteed to be engaged in
family activity. However, if it is necessary to ask someone to
work (which by extension is beneting the family) then the
answer will always be yes.
Another way in which this manifests is in sta taking time
o for ‘family’ reasons – this is usually because an elder
needs to go to a doctor/hospital appointment or another
obligation that requires assistance from the younger
generation.
The group dynamic also works in another way – a person
making a decision doesn’t want to make a mistake because
that will involve a loss of face with his circle – and loss of
face within a group means the person loses the place that
he/she inhabits in the group. The sense of identity. The
sense of position. So not making a mistake means a couple
of things – one it brings a deep seated conservatism to the
fore so that making a decision will be agonized over for a
very long time and it also means that not making a decision
is a better decision that making a wrong one.
Basically it means that you must constantly ask the
question “What can I do to mitigate the risk of the decision
to use my company?”
3
You can help to hurry the decision making up by being able
to supply a huge amount of veriable information in the
presentation in order to help the decision maker feel more
comfortable with the process.
You have to take the time to mix and socialize with the
locals. And socializing with the locals is very dierent than
with western associates.
It’s the dierence between a coee in Starbucks or an
afternoon in a teahouse.
It’s the dierence between doing all your drinking at the
meal and not going to a bar to drink until possibly after
dinner, but certainly not before dinner.
It means playing ‘ma jiang’ if you have a talent for clicking
the ivory tiles and gambling.
It means meals become the place for social interaction and
if you are invited to a meal then you should invite back. It
means never forgetting any of the gifts that are given to
you – you must reciprocate in some way.
If you want to understand the local dierences, then you
need to spend time in the locality – you need to take
people out for dinner and ask question after question about
that area. Each part of China is dierent and has a slightly
dierent slant on things – as Michael Liu from Zhi Xin
Property Development Sichuan Ltd mentioned:
“You know Beijing is very cold. If you are an architect, when
you design residential for Beijing, you never emphasize the
landscaping—the plants and owers. Why? Because with
the cold weather it’s not possible to do that very well. But
in Chengdu, if you were doing exactly the same residential
project, you must emphasize the landscaping because the
weather is warm and that’s what people like and expect.
In Beijing, you would design an average landscape, but in
Chengdu or in Guangzhou you must put more emphasis on
that.”
These dierences cut across every single part of the
society – China is really dierent in the way it thinks, in the
way it appreciates things than western countries – not
better, not worse – just dierent.
If you look at a local Chinese website, you will see it is full
to the brim with bells and whistles. Things ash all over
the place and it is a riot of color. Compare that with the
minimalist websites in western countries.
Compare a western restaurant with subdued lighting,
couples holding hands, and soft music playing with a
Chinese restaurant – voices at the top of the volume
control, bright lighting. Noise, clatter, loud enjoyment,
laughter – and more obviously – always a large group of
people. There is even a name for the bustling clattering
that goes on in China – ‘re nao’ - heat & noise. The Chinese
thrive on it. Life is not fullled unless there is action, lights,
camera. It’s an outpouring and bubbling over of joy and
happiness and learning to enjoy what seems like chaos
4
is part of learning to enjoy China and understanding its
people.
The group dynamic is so important – everyone is watching
until the group ‘leader’ makes a choice – it may be to buy
an apartment in the complex you have designed – but until
it passes a group appreciation then it isn’t going to sell.
There is also a committee that you have to come to terms
with in China – the fox and dog friends – ‘hu peng gou you’.
Everyone has their group of friends that make up an inner
social circle. These are the people that a person meets
regularly if not daily. These are the people that sit in
teahouses and chat constantly about what is going on in
each other’s’ lives. Generally, this circle is the innermost
circle that can be trusted beyond the family.
This circle carries a huge amount of inuence in people’s
minds and are one of the most frustrating aspects of the
group consciousness in China. And it all too often works
something like this (and I have obviously simplied this):
You have a wonderful meeting with a prospective
Client/JV Partner/Investor/Developer and you leave
the meeting full of optimism. You have endured the 12
people on the other side of the table frantically taking
notes, and you have guided the General Manager/
Chairman to a point where he is ready to move forward
with the proposition/design commission or association.
Drinks all round.
Then at the next meeting things seem to have gone
o track. The Chairman/GM is no longer so optimistic.
There are 15 objections to the idea that weren’t there
last time. Things are now looking a lot less likely than
before.
What’s happened?
The foxes and dogs have had a bite at your idea. The
decision maker has taken your idea/design/proposal
to the court of the canines and they have poured cold
water on it. What if this goes wrong? What if that goes
wrong?
And in a culture that is based on ‘face’ or shame, the
person is not able to proceed, regardless of what he
personally thinks because IF the idea doesn’t work
out then his ‘face’ will severely diminished and he will
literally be embarrassed beyond repair.
There is a very strong cultural emphasis on business
success. Everyone wants to be seen as a clever
businessman, particularly in front of the inner circle of
friends. This is why there is conspicuous consumption like
nowhere else in the world. This is why a person will save
their entire monthly salary and eat noodles every day so
they can buy a carton of really, really, expensive cigarettes
and hand them around on the night at the club.
To succeed with a business transaction, you need to be
able to provide clear and incontrovertible proof that the
transaction is going to be a success and is strong enough to
pass muster with the inner circle.
No matter what it looks like on the outside, every single
Chinese businessman has a circle of peers like this and
they are listened to and their advice is sought.
You need to be ahead of this game and make the
proposition compelling and clear. For an architect there are
a few ways to do this.
1. Get a small job under your belt in China before going
for the bigger jobs – this ticks the box of ‘well, it’s all
very well in your country but have you worked in China
before?’
2. Be a large multinational architect with a demonstrable
portfolio. People in China respect awards and
achievements because it makes the loss of face much
less if it doesn’t work out.
3. Get really close to the prospective client before doing
business with them so you are already in the groups
view. If you are already seen as a strong relationship,
then half the battle is won.
4. Try and meet the group itself – put on a dinner/
evening and ask your prospective client to invite his
friends and then look after them really well.
Roman Wittner from Peddle Thorpe Interiors in Shanghai
expresses his understanding of this dynamic in this way:
“The key is to try to bring these things together to create
something new and outstanding that looks interesting and
awakens curiosity—at the same time linking it somehow,
anchoring it—to something more traditional, whether in the
materials or in some other way, if the form is completely
modern. Referencing a project based on cultural context is
quite important.”
Get to know the group dynamic and understand that
everything will be part of a group decision not just one
person’s.
5
Do not, however, become beguiled because someone has
shown you great hospitality and plenty of smiles. One of the
really incisive statements of the 36 Strategies (which it is
my advice to learn o by heart in a business sense) is ‘Knife
Hidden Behind Smiling Face’ – you don’t want to be the
receiver of that knife – so be wary until you get to know the
people properly.
Recently, I had occasion to conduct business with a
businessman who we had not known for a long time. On
the surface he was personality personied. Outgoing, warm,
friendly.
My wife advised me over and over to be careful when I got
excited about such a great guy – yes, even after 22 years
I get excited in these situations – and quoted one of the 4
million aphorisms I have been the recipient of: ‘You get to
know your friends on a long journey’.
This is not exactly the same as a ‘friend in need is a friend
indeed’ – it’s an expression of the fact that after 5,000 years
of smooth talking salesmen type characters and 5,000
years of bitter history, that you should be careful before
getting excited over new friends.
And… of course my excitement was misplaced – at a meal
with some of the others in the company the leader showed
his true colors by the way in which he treated the sta, and
the way in which everyone on his team thought it was funny
to see someone small humiliated.
On the way home my wife said: “You wait. This business
transaction will not go well” – and sure enough it didn’t.
The overriding moral of the story is simply that you need to
spend a lot of time in China to understand how it ticks – you
can’t possibly get the depth of understanding from sitting
abroad and visiting with a hot deal in the briefcase.
6
Building, Maintaining and the
Importance of Relationships
2
The Chinese have a wonderful word for relationships – it’s perhaps the most
misunderstood word that foreigners use – ‘guanxi’
• Guanxi is a system of relationships developed over ve thousand years of Chinese
history. In the absence of a well-structured legal system, guanxi provides a way in
which business deals can be done with a degree of safety and certainty. By creating
strong and mutually benecial relationships with people in positions of power and
authority, the businessperson creates an informal legal and insurance system.
• The system of ‘guanxi’ becomes very important when you are engaging in
a business and while westerners think that a contract is the denition of the
relationship, the Chinese mind thinks the relationship is the denition of the contract.
7
Charles Dalluge from DLR articulates this concept in this
way:
“In the West, the contract talks about what you’re going to
do, how often you’re going to do it, how often you’re going
to meet, what’s acceptable, what’s not, what you will do
if it’s not, how any additional service will be charged and
whatnot.
In China, it’s the opposite: Your relationships form the basis
of your contract. By that I mean that of course the stronger
your relationship with your client, the better you can deal
with the complexities of business anywhere in the world.
The stronger your relationship, the more you can conform
to the contract that you’ve signed. But in China, the
contract itself, without a strong relationship with the client,
doesn’t mean much.”
Guanxi is also very closely related to three other Confucian
concepts: ganqing, which is a measure reecting the depth
of feeling within an interpersonal relationship; renqing, or
the moral obligation to maintain a relationship; and the
idea of “face,” which refers to social status, propriety and
prestige.
Guanxi works with all of these concepts. It is written into
the Chinese DNA and acts as a protective mechanism in
business. There is a very high degree of mistrust in Chinese
circles, which is why you see so many family members
working in companies. Family, at least, are trusted not to go
out, steal the IP and set up in competition. The order of trust
is family rst, classmates second, friends third—and then,
nally, guanxi partners.
Guanxi is both a friendship and a bank of favors. To operate
correctly, guanxi relationships must be mutually benecial.
This may sound like a very mercenary way to conduct
human relations, but guanxi works eectively, keeping
social discord to a minimum. Developing the correct
relationships is necessary for navigating a society that has
scant resources and a huge population. People in China
who are adept at making friends and looking after those
friends are the people who rise to the top.
Businesspeople must cultivate relationships at all levels
of society if they wish to see their companies succeed. By
establishing a wide circle, they will always have someone to
call on when they encounter a problem in a particular area.
But just what is the process of building this circle?
A businessman starts the process of negotiation with
a suitable partner. As part of the Chinese way of doing
business, they will eat together. At this meal—usually their
rst—the Chinese partner will generally bring along his
heaviest cannon, his foremost guanxi partner.
During this rst meeting, the two sides of a potential
cooperation each get to understand the relative strengths
of the other in a Chinese-relationship sort of way. This is
a deadly serious game—a sort of “my gun is bigger than
your gun” kind of game. Here, in this test meeting, is where
the harness is put on your partner. If you go to this meeting
with no one Chinese representing your position, then the
harness is neatly and rmly slipped over your neck.
Your partner’s guanxi, by the way, is not your guanxi but is
his own guanxi. When you meet the party secretary, the
mayor or the governor at this rst meeting, do not assume
that he is there on your behalf. Your Chinese partner has
lined this person up as the overseer of his interests in
business. Mistaking the power of this person as belonging
to your side of the partnership is wrong.
Before entering into a relationship with a Chinese
businessman, you need to have spent time developing
your own guanxi relationships. These relationships cannot
be developed overnight. They require time and sincerity:
time to break through the reticence of the person you
are developing and sincerity in showing him that you
understand how things work.
To put it bluntly, your guanxi partner wants to know how
he will benet from his relationship with you. The answer
to this question isn’t necessarily how your guanxi partner
will benet nancially—although that is not an uncommon
occurrence. Rather, guanxi partners help each other in
many ways. For your guanxi relationship to prosper, you
need to nd ways of helping your partner, so that when you
need his help, he is prepared to reciprocate.
Spending time with your guanxi partner is essential. You
need to create a strong bond of friendship with him or her.
If your intended guanxi partner is a drinker, then dinners
and nights at the karaoke bar are appropriate. If he is not a
drinker, then family occasions, ma jiang (mahjong) nights
and visits to the countryside at the weekend will be your
activities of choice. The Chinese saying “You get to know
your friends on a long journey.” aptly describes the time it
takes to create relationships. You must become a trusted
ally of your guanxi partner; in other words, you must
become a true and sincere friend.
Once you have developed your own network of solid
guanxi partners—and this network can be small or even
just one person—you can then use these relationships to
amplify your power. This is the true power of guanxi and the
reason why you can build eective networks quite quickly if
you have already spent the time on the ground to nd your
way around and make some relationships.
8
Let me give you an example:
We had a company loan that needed to be rolled over
every year and the entire amount paid back before a new
rollover loan could be paid out—another little quirk from
China. The transition to a new loan means six to eight
weeks of bridging nance and a lot of hope and prayer
that everything goes well. One year, after being told that
we had been approved for the rollover loan, we had raised
the bridging nance and were waiting for the new rollover
loan to hit the company bank account. Seven days before
D-day, the bank informed us that it had (unilaterally, without
any discussion with us) cancelled the loan because of a
bad experience with another company in the same industry.
So sorry.
Angry? Apoplectic was more like it!
The bottom line was, we had seven days in which to raise
another loan—and this is how guanxi really works: A director
of the company had a classmate who was president of
the provincial bank. Call 1. Go to dinner. Explain problem.
Can you help? Answer: Not personally, but I have ‘a’ friend”
(euphemism for guanxi partner) who might. Calls 2 and 3:
introductions. Arrange a lunch. Same story. Same result.
On to contact 3, and then to 4, to 5, to 6 and then, nally, to
contact 7, which meant seven banquets in that one week.
We got a positive reply from a senior member of a bank
who agreed to extend the same loan. The paperwork was
done and the money transferred literally—and this is not an
exaggeration—two hours before the time when bad things
would have started happening to the company. And the
really interesting thing was, the bank that extended the new
loan was the same bank that had cancelled the rst loan!
Now, the rst contact had to be rewarded with some
suitable gift of sincerity—not with money, since guanxi is
not corruption, but with some nice gifts worth perhaps
2,000 to 3,000 RMB—to say how much we appreciated the
assistance.
And that is how to use guanxi to get things done.
9
There are a few axioms for guanxi and connection building
that might be helpful:
Appear to be strong
You must create an aura of power around yourself. Never
reveal your weaknesses. A lack of capital, connections or
technology should denitely be concealed from others.
The level of your apparent strength will attract people of an
equivalent level of strength and power.
Establish and maintain a network of mutual obligations
In developing relationships, you should build up a network
of “creditors” and “debtors.” The best way to do this is
to approach one of your friends with whom you have
credit, drawing on this resource to do a favour for another
friend, thus establishing a debt. Eventually, you will have
a complex web of people around you, all of whom will
respond to your call for assistance when it is required.
Choose friends with care
By all means, make friends with ordinary Chinese citizens,
but be sure to cultivate friendships with inuential and
important people, just as you would cultivate any other
business asset, because these people will be exactly that—
business assets, as well as friends.
Do not mistake acquaintances for real friends
Do not assume that someone you meet at an ocial
meeting is your friend or connection. These individuals are
doing their jobs and attend thousands of such meetings.
Real connections are developed in a social and informal
manner.
Never mix your connections together
Do not mix your connections together. If you do, you will fail
in the goal of building your relationships. Ocials do not like
to be invited to a social occasion to which you have invited
other ocials they do not know (or even those with whom
they are familiar). Subtle power plays will emerge quickly—
although you may not notice—and both sides will become
tense. Even introducing your Chinese friends to each other
in a non-business environment can be risky. While there
may be no problem, it is very common for two Chinese
friends to distrust each other until they have sorted out their
own relationship.
Tend your network
Once you have developed a network, tend it as you would a
garden. Make sure your connections are regularly invited to
your social occasions: Christmas, birthday parties and New
Year’s events. It is best to host gatherings in your home, if
your home reects your apparent strength. Remember your
friends’ special days—send small, not-too-expensive gifts to
them and their families on their birthdays and festivals.
Once you have spent time and money building a network
of reliable connections, you can draw on these relationships
to manoeuvre around obstacles and get ahead. To do this,
you have to critically analyse the needs of the people in
your circle of connections and identify the “levers” you must
use in just the right way to have them act on your behalf.
· You need your own independent relationships directly
concerned with the area of industry you intend to enter.
· Your guanxi partners must have authority and power
over the company you wish to deal with.
They are the reins you will apply to the horse of bad
behaviour in the marketplace.
If you can master this one business dierence in China,
then you will be successful. And that statement brings us
to my personal mantra, which is the only way you are ever
going to get a guanxi network built:
10
Boots on
The Ground
3
I have personally adopted this phrase as a personal business-advice mantra because it
is one of the most important factors in creating success in China. You can’t win and hold
ground if you don’t put boots on the ground.
Ask yourself why Japan, an old enemy of China, is so successful as an investor in
China. Although China and Japan have strong economic and diplomatic ties today, the
Chinese people still have considerable residual ill feeling toward Japan as a result of the
Second Sino-Japanese War, which took place more than fty years ago. Despite this,
the Japanese have the highest rate of investment in China of any foreign country and
are generally successful in their enterprises. Why should this be so?
Some assume that it is because the Japanese are Asian and therefore understand the “Asian mind game,”
but this assumption does not hold true. The rules for doing business and the way of thinking in Japan are
completely dierent from those that prevail in China. If the Japanese can overcome the negative feelings
surrounding a history of mutual hostility to successfully invest in the Chinese market, what prevents
Westerners from doing the same, when we enjoy a high regard in the eyes of most Chinese?
11
The answer is actually quite simple: The Japanese are
masters at learning how to do business in other countries
and getting the better of their opponents, even while
playing the opponent’s own game. Japanese companies
spend enormous amounts of money on intangibles such as
research, information and forming connections before they
even enter negotiations.
Generally, a Japanese businessperson will spend some
months (or years) in preparation before even contacting a
likely partner. The money spent in the initial stages would
stagger some Western individuals, who want to see an
immediate return on every cent invested. Whether it is
better to spend the money up front and see your business
succeed or hang on to your cash, only to lose it in an
unsuccessful venture, is entirely up to you. I know where I
would rather see my money go.
If resources do not allow you to spend much time in China,
you must be prepared to buy this knowledge, either by
employing China experts on your sta or by securing
the services of a recognized consultant or achiever in
the marketplace. Both of these options are expensive,
but unless you can do your own research in China, there
is simply no other way to enter the Chinese market
successfully.
If you y into China clutching a “great deal” and stay for
two days, a week or even two weeks, do not begin to
think you will learn even one iota about China. If you are
going to stand any chance at all in the Chinese business
environment, plan on spending some months in the country
laying the necessary groundwork. Spending several months
in China before doing business is, in my view, absolutely
essential.
It is during this apparently unproductive time that your
future business is made. Over the years I have counselled
literally hundreds of companies, and the successful ones
all share the same factor: They have boots on the ground.
The person with boots on the ground is the one whose job
it is to answer the 150 questions that have to be answered
before stepping into the deal.
Before committing to a market entry into China there
has to be an intelligence gathering period, which should
involve someone being in the country and doing on-ground
research.
Charles Dalluge from DLR believes that architects could
get away with ying into China 20 years ago but that the
market has matured to such an extent that this is no longer
a viable way to do business,
“Twenty years ago. You knew you could y in as the expert,
get o the plane and expect to get everything else right.
Now, with the sophistication of the clients and a lot of really
great competition from inside the country, the market has
matured. The clients who are doing really interesting work
are very sophisticated, very knowledgeable. There’s so
much expertise now on the ground that they don’t need to
put up with somebody having to y in and out or wait three
days for a decision because of the time dierence or hold
on while someone gets back to them.”
Now, it is a little dierent with architecture because
architecture, as mentioned previously, enjoys almost a
superstar-status in China. Because of this, architects often
are allowed an easier road in China, however, no matter
how the architecture practice is perceived, the reliance
on strong relationships with all stakeholders, means that
time has to be spent on the ground in China, building the
depth of relationship that is required to sustain a long term
business.
12
Engaging and Managing the
Right Local Sta and Partners
4
Nothing in China will aect your chance of success more than your choice of the
people you work with – either partners, sta, clients, and suppliers. Even if you elect
to form a wholly owned foreign enterprise (WOFE) rather than a joint venture, you will
still have de facto “partners” because the relationships you have with the companies
and markets you are selling to will make or break you.
13
Partnerships in architecture are somewhat dierent than
general business partnerships in China. One of the major
reasons for this dierence is the requirement that so much
of the local construction drawing work be done by the
monolithic local design institutes (LDIs). Being a true partner
to these organisations is dicult from the design point
of view. These LDIs, however, will play a huge role in the
construction phase if you are designing in China and are
generally held to be essential for completing your projects.
During the last decade, however, China has experienced
massive growth in the number of modern local rms
opening up in China. Probably the most famous is that of
the Pritzker Prize–winning architect Wang Shu, a forty-
eight-year-old whose practice is based in Hangzhou. It is
these rms that a new, foreign entrant into the market will
most likely will be targeting as potential partners. You’ll be
seeking a t in terms of creative impetus and style, as well
as with your area of architectural specialization.
Ultimately, though, the rules of a successful partnership will
follow this general advice: The maxim of impossibility is all-
pervasive in China, so in any deal where completion of the
negotiation seems very easy, warning bells should ring for
the Western businessperson.
If you nd a very cooperative partner right at the beginning,
it is likely that this individual or company is the wrong
partner for you.
When your Chinese partner is extremely willing to conclude
a deal quickly, or if government permission is granted
without any trouble, it is a good indication that something
is not quite right. Generally speaking, the obstacles that
emerge during a negotiation are the means by which
suitable partners are able to identify one another. Obstacles
are part of the system.
The best partners are elusive because the companies that
are not actively seeking to become involved with you are
ideal. You have to nd them and woo them as though you
were wooing a life partner. And a romantic courtship is
very much what that process is like: There is a well-known
Chinese aphorism, “Chinese marry with the head and do
business with the heart.”
For a partnership to succeed in China, a number of factors
have to align. First, there must be a bond of mutual respect
between the parties that has been developed into a rm
friendship along the lines already discussed. (Trust me on
this: Even if you think a business partner is only a business
partner, in China, if the relationship hasn’t been developed
properly, at some stage things will fall apart.) Second, with
a fully engaged partner running the partnership in China,
most of the advice in this report —apart from the advice on
choosing the right partner—becomes superuous, since the
partner is going to be managing the business “with Chinese
characteristics.”
And now for a somewhat uncommon piece of advice that
usually is very hard for Westerners to get to grips with:
When you set up a business with a local partner in China,
consider giving the local partner 70 percent (or even 80
percent) of the shares/prot/reward. In my twenty years
of personal experience, backed up by hundreds of years
of other people’s experience, in China, a joint venture
partnership set up like this is ultimately the most successful.
A negotiating position that I like putting on the table is
a 70/30 plus 30/70 allocation—that is, 70 percent of
Chinese business to the Chinese partner and 70 percent
of international business to the Western partner. The
reasoning behind this is quite simple—but simply eective:
Your partner will be much less tempted to get up to
funny business—i.e., loot the family silver—if he is looting
from himself. At 70 percent and above, the family silver is
generally safe. (Please don’t come and sue me over this
piece of advice if it doesn’t work out that way. I did use the
word generally!)
If you have put ‘Boots on the Ground’ and investigated your
space in the market and have identied the best person to
associate with you must then hunt that cooperation as if it
were your dinner or your beloved.
Setting up long term relationships take real eort and real
investment of time.
There is a concept of ‘Walk Slow, Run Fast’ and the slow
walking is the path you are on while you are building the
relationships and getting to know the intended partner. The
Run Fast is how you are going to have to move once the
relationship has yielded an actual business project together.
The speed that someone has to work once the job has
been awarded is crazy stu – you need to be prepared for
that. It will get rough and it will get busy until it is nalized. At
this point in time you will see the absolute dedication and
hard work that the team will contribute to the organization.
People will work all night if necessary and do it all again for
days if that is what is required to get the job done.
Unfortunately, it is not just when you have been awarded
the job – even pitching for the job you have to be really
quick – and totally prepared. The prospective client will
have a hundred questions – literally – and they are likely
to be questions that you didn’t think would be important.
Get a local to go through your presentation and critique it
before standing in the boardroom, and you need to have
those answers at your ngertips if you want the meeting to
proceed well and for the outcome to end up as dinner in
the pot.
14
Sta
Engaging sta is another area where things are very
much dierent than in western companies. Going back to
the group consciousness idea, sta hunt in packs. High
performing leaders in the industry generally have a team
under them that they have developed and worked with for
some time – when you employ the leader he will want to
bring his team with him.
If you bring in a leader from outside and try and slot them
into the existing team structure it is generally unsuccessful.
Sta love to work in a long term team – a team they feel
comfortable in, and where the relationships run deep.
When a leader in the company leaves you will nd that
most of the team he was working with will leave soon after,
generally to join the leader in the new company. And when
a new leader is employed there will be pressure to bring his
former subordinates on-board as well.
A positive eect of this dynamic is that sta will be intensely
loyal to a company as a result of being loyal to their team –
if the team leader is happy then the sta will be happy and
it is very important that team leaders are looked after and
made to feel an important part of the organization.
Another important dierence in managing sta is to have
a multi-polar management structure. Always have two
leaders who have dierent titles but equal authority levels.
Having only one hands a large amount of power into
that sole leader’s hands and it is likely that problems will
emerge.
Having two similar leaders in the company causes a
wariness about causing problems and is a disincentive to
consider themselves indispensable and to take advantage
of their position.
8 Essentials for Harmonious Sta Relations:
1. Never publicly criticize sta – spend time going over
issues in private and in a supportive way. Criticizing one
sta member in front of his team will not only get the
sta member o-side but also upset all the other team
members.
2. Create teams led by recognized leaders and allow
them to engage their own sta.
3. Bring in clear and unambiguous rules – Chinese sta
like to have clear instructions that can be referred too.
4. Understand the group consciousness that exists in
all Chinese relationships and work to support teams
and not the individual e.g. recognize a team as the
contributor and not the individual.
5. Organize regular social activities that are team based
– do not separate individuals for reward but always
involve the entire team/sta.
6. Create competition between teams and leaders by
assigning equal authority/rank levels to prevent a
concentration of power in one place.
7. Instigate monetary bonuses for teams but channel the
bonuses through the leader – the leader should be the
one to decide the distribution of reward.
8. Wherever possible promote from within and in
situations where an outside leader is brought in be very
astute in managing the transition and be prepared to
lose team members.
15
Talk to the
Right Person
5
Another big dierence in the Chinese way of doing things is the fact that there is one
boss and one person who is going to be making the decision – he may be getting
advice from the team (and remember the advice about the inner circle of friends) but
that won’t sway the holder of the power in the company – there will be one person who
is going to judge everything and you need to know who that is and make sure that you
are getting your message into his hands.
One of the biggest frustrations working with Chinese clients is doing a pile of work under the instruction of
someone in the organization and nding that in fact he hadn’t showed the work to the actual boss – bosses
usually come under the title of ‘Chairman’ or ‘Legal Person’ or sometimes it is just ‘General Manager’ – it is
ALWAYS necessary to identify this person right at the beginning because that’s who you will be pitching to
and answering to during the process regardless of what you are told or who you are with .
16
I have a friend who is a DOP (Director of Photography) who
is very successful in China – earns 5-10,000 USD a day for
making TV commercials. I asked him what he does to get
around this because setting up a camera shoot isn’t a small
task and if you have to do it over and over again it is very
costly.
He said he will not accept any markups from the team –
he goes to the company, puts his arm around the person
assigned to work with him and says “let’s go and see the
Chairman together shall we?”
Literally walks the guy down the hall to the Chairman’s
oce and knocks on the door there and then.
Then he charms the Chairman with why he did what he
did and makes the Chairman feel really special – 9 times
of 10 he gets his creative through without any problems
and funnily enough he gets paid quicker than anyone else I
have seen.
Do not be afraid of saying: ‘I can’t move ahead until I have
the go-ahead from the Chairman/General Manager or other
boss level because it will cost extra if I have to apply extra
variation charges’
Which leads onto one of the other major points that
occurred over and over again in the contributions from
everyone. That point is that you must be in China to be in
China.
This is completely relevant for the dynamic oered above
– getting to know your partners and who you can trust
and who you can’t. Because there is a lot of uncertainty in
getting payments in China, you had better be sure of who
is trustworthy and who is not; and because you are hoping
that you don’t fall prey to someone who will steal your IP/
business and/or your future.
This requires a lot of interaction on a social level (remember
that Chinese are summed up at meals) to carefully observe
how your prospective partner/client/Senior Manager
behaves in all situations.
It is absolutely essential that you spend this time getting to
know the lay of the land and this is not a requirement that
you can aord to dismiss.
If you look carefully at society in China, you will see a
society that is made up of lots of circles. There is circle
of family – nothing breaks that. The circle of classmates
– from primary school right through to University – is an
almost unbreakable circle (almost but not always). The
circle of workmates. The circle of friends. The circle of the
gated community where every city dweller lives.
If you are an architect or a businessman coming into this
environment, then you must adapt to this way of thinking
and living.
For example: if you are keen to develop closer relationships
with the people you are working with – not just sta – it can
be partners or clients etc. then don’t invite people out one
by one – take the whole lot – otherwise you will be seen as
unfriendly.
I don’t know how many times we have had massive
banquets (like 120 at a time) to make sure no-one is
oended. If you want to get away to the mountains for a
weekend – then prepare a bus.
Because if you go away in small groups they won’t enjoy it
– it is pivotal to society that things happen in groups and the
group must be all inclusive.
I might add that you need to start enjoying dierent things
as well while you are out on these group excursions – like
drinking tea all day, only drinking alcohol at the meal,
getting a lesson in singing in the Karaoke bar. Playing ‘ma
jiang’ and losing all your money.
Eating birdseeds which you have to break with your teeth
to get a small crumb. Having huge noisy breakfasts in the
morning. And just simply hanging out together. Get to like
steaming hot and spicy ‘hou guo’ – hot pot – and eating
swallow’s toe nails and other delights boiled in chilli oil.
Because it is a group activity and local Chinese simply love
to be together in a group.
The reason that there are so many hard-luck stories in
China is because there are people out there who do not
see you as one of the trusted circles and therefore you
are jungle meat – you can be eeced with impunity – and
with absolutely no sense of shame. If you were not clever
enough to protect yourself then you deserve to be eeced.
I don’t mean that I say that – that is the prevailing attitude in
China.
Scary – I know – but that’s why this advice is so important.
17
In a word no and in another word yes. This is one of those Yin and Yang type subjects
where both answers are correct.
Better stated the answer would be: learn sucient understanding of the language
to be able to politely converse over dinner or in social settings but do not expect
that you will be able to learn Mandarin to a level that would allow you to operate
successfully unless you spent several years at study.
By all means learn Mandarin – use it for social situations and when the business is already underway
– but in the negotiation phase I believe it is best kept under your belt and pretend that you don’t
understand. Get yourself a really good translator – the type of translator who can transfer ideas rather
than literal words.
Should I
Learn Mandarin?
6
18
Chinese is a complicated language – it has a long history,
which is important in that there are so many dierent ways
to say things. With a gazillion dierent characters each
meaning a word, unless you have been imbued from birth
in the language it is really hard to get to the required subtle
level of understanding.
Chinese is so dierent to other languages – in sentence
structure and in being based around the visual clues in
individual characters – that translating literal words, even
if they are expressed in sensible English, does not convey
what is actually being said. Therefore, getting a translator
who has been unleashed to convey the ideas behind the
language is extremely helpful.
I have sat in meetings with senior diplomats who I know
can speak pretty passable Mandarin (as in literally perfect),
who will not transact the really important stu in Chinese
because of the subtlety of the language and the complexity
of the ideas that lies behind words.
Chinese characters themselves carry meaning behind the
actual word because they are made of structures called
‘radicals’. These radicals convey meaning beyond the word
itself, for example, the character for a ‘man’ is made up of
two radicals – ‘eld’ and ‘power’. In other words, a man is
one who owns or tills the land and who holds the power.
Just as in the example above that indicates what a ‘man’ or
‘male’ is – both power and landowner the Chinese character
for the word good ‘hao’ is made up of the radicals for a
women and a son. In other words, the epitome of goodness
is having a wife and a son – a family. The very concept of
happiness is the family – which makes it no surprise to see
how important the family is in China.
While English has an unseen depth in that many words
have come from Greek, Latin and other languages and
may hold a hidden meaning as a result of the words origin
however understanding even these English words properly
would depend on knowing the words’ derivation and
original meaning. English cannot convey the subtlety of the
Chinese language either in depth of meaning or with as few
words as Chinese does, particularly through the medium of
the written characters.
I would go as far as to say that the culture of China is
wrapped inextricably in the written script – it is unique and
dierent to any other written language in the world.
When a particular word is used in Chinese it can change the
meaning of the idea just from the use of that word and this
is often used to indicate a negative response when using
an actual ‘no’; might oend – the word itself is positive but
the usage derived from the character indicates a negative
answer.
However, knowing a level of Mandarin, even right up to a
point of social uency puts you in a really good position
from a social acceptance point of view – it is highly
appreciated – and will be highly commented on. But in
terms of conducting and important meeting it is necessary
to have a native Chinese speaker, whose immersion in the
language is total is absolutely essential.
19
This is really where the rubber hits the road.
You need to be hard on the payment issue. If you are soft, then you go to the bottom
of the pile. This is where rstly, you need the right depth of relationship to be able to
harass the client into paying and if you don’t have that level of relationship then you
need to be unmoving.
But make sure that what you are asking payment for is essential to their business – if you have no
leverage then when you get hard you run the risk of losing the client.
Being hard means that you do not give in to the temptation to hand over work without the payment
being arranged. Architects can tell you many horror stories where they have lost the chance for
payment by losing the ‘moment of power’, as Louisa Relia from Seed Design Collaborative describes:
“I was working on a big, beautiful spa resort there. A production team in Shanghai was doing the work
with us. We had a big payment promised, but we were holding back on the CAD les and electronic
drawings and didn’t give them the whole cow while waiting for the milk money. The engineer called the
head of my production team and said, “Look, we really need to get the CAD les so we can gure out the
basement parking oor for the engineering plan.” The fellow who was working for me sent him the les
and all of our drawings.
What we didn’t realize was that the engineer was the grandfather of some relative of the client. The client
got the les and then disappeared.
We lost all of that money with that silly mistake.”
The Right Way to
get Paid for the Job
7
20
There are courts in China to recover debt – and there
are denitely many cases of foreigners getting their
money through the courts – but like anywhere else it
takes time, and you can end up spending too much
capital on chasing it for the risk that the judge might
not see it in your favor.
The time that having a contract is worthwhile is when
there is a dispute about money – at that point where
the client is simply not paying then a written contract
that has clearly stated the deliverables in a clear and
unambiguous way is essential for getting the lawsuit o
the ground to try and recover your money.
You must make sure you have a strict contract in China
that you can bring out in any dispute – and it must be
unequivocal and clear.
Vince Pirello from Woods Bagot is adamant that
contracts are essential:
“We set up contracts. We don’t do any work for free.
We get twenty percent up front before starting any
work, which protects us, regardless. If you do three
months of work per stage, and then the client wants
to re you because he doesn’t like you, you’ve actually
got the money in the bank already. Those are our
contract conditions. That works for us. Some people
say, “Oh, the Chinese don’t have a legal system,” but
they do. They have courts. And every project has to
have a contract. That’s law in China. You need to have
a contract, and you need to get a tax invoice to be
paid. And you have to register every contract, which
is actually very good. Contractually, having a lawyer
really helped.”
Most Chinese companies – particularly the smaller
ones – will not let any work go out of their hands unless
it is paid for in full – watermarks, password protected
les and other preventative measures are used all the
time in China before payment so don’t be afraid to
use these measures if you are not sure of getting paid.
Because once you lose that moment of power then
you have lost the money.
10 Essential Strategies to Safeguard Payment:
1. Maintain very close and mutually benecial
relationships with your client. A close relationship is the
best way to get paid for work, particularly if you have
on-going business.
2. Be prepared to wait for payment – even as long as
a year – the client may simply be juggling too many
monetary balls at the same time.
3. Ensure you have a properly constituted contract for the
work and that the contract is registered with the local
court as a valid contract.
4. Do not hand over nished work until payment has been
arranged if you are at all unsure about payment.
5. Insist on regular progress payments.
6. Build in a buer of approximately 10% to cover the nal
10% payment – which is usually the one at risk of not
being paid.
7. Try and develop a relationship with the accounting
department – they are often the ones who hold up
payments for their own reasons.
8. Make it easy for the client to pay you – by having a
legal local company registration that is able to issue
‘fa piaos’ – formal tax receipts. Either a Wholly Owned
Foreign Entity or a local agent can provide this.
9. If you are insisting on payment to be made by transfer
out of China (NOT advised) check in advance that the
company has the permissions and the means to make
these payments.
10. Be seen to be reasonable and understanding and
retain an air of calmness.
Bear in mind some important ‘DON’TS’ in getting paid:
1. Don’t get angry and have an argument – this will only
trigger a determination not to pay.
2. Don’t criticise the person in charge – especially publicly
or in front of sta – over non-payment. In a shame
based ‘face’ culture, this is tantamount to declaring war.
3. Don’t threaten court action unless you not only mean it
but have investigated the likely success of the success
of the action and have got a concrete arrangement for
taking the case to court.
4. Don’t say that you are bringing in the local foreign
consulate to put pressure on the client – this is almost
100% guaranteed to fail.
5. Don’t send juniors to try and negotiate – if you are the
person in charge then go and negotiate yourself.
21
While mixed use and residential property has entered a period of consolidation and
reduction in the past few years, there are a large number of emerging opportunities in
China for design and architecture. The economy is a developing economy and one that
has not yet reached a level of development that mirrors western countries in having
most of the niche opportunities lled up.
For example, there are few stadiums waiting to be built in western countries as there
is existing infrastructure in pretty much all of the locations that can support a stadium
already.
However, in China, there are a huge number of cities that have not yet built sports stadiums.
There are a variety of dierent verticals that are still very much underdeveloped in China and a number of
these verticals provide opportunity for foreign architects, and will provide opportunity for architects for a
very long time. China’s development plans are very much considered a long term strategy and until the
entire country has been developed and the economic benets are spread evenly then the government
will be focusing on using infrastructure growth as a mechanism to keep the economic growth rate at the
targeted levels.
Where to Make Money in
Architecture in China Right Now
8
22
1. Regional Cities.
Each province has a capital and a number of the richer provinces
(Guangdong, Sichuan, Zhejiang etc.) have already developed
their capitals into modern, world beating cities.
These richer provinces have not generally developed the
outlying cities in the province and these T 3 & 4 cities are still
very much underdeveloped.
The Chinese central government introduced a ranking system
in the 1980s to facilitate the staged rollout of infrastructure and
urban development throughout the country. Cities were ranked
by tier according to the government’s development priorities.
Although the tier system began as a bureaucratic classication,
it has now become a proxy for demographic and social
segmentation in China.
There is a staggering total of 662 designated cities in China.
There are currently 105 cities in China with populations over 1
million and of these only 4 are nominated as T1 cities and 35
cities are designated as T2 cities.
Tier 1 cities are:
Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen;
Tier 2 cities are:
Beihai, Changchun, Changsha, Chengdu, Chongqing, Dalian,
Fuzhou, Guiyang, Haikou, Hangzhou, Harbin, Hefei, Huhhot,
Jinan, Kunming, Lanzhou, Nanchang, Nanjing, Nanning,
Ningbo, Qingdao, Sanya, Shenyang, Shijiazhuang, Suzhou,
Taiyuan, Tianjin, Urumqi, Wenzhou, Wuhan, Wuxi, Xiamen,
Xi’an, Yinchuan, and Zhengzhou;
The other small and medium cities are grouped into Tier 3 or
4 cities.
These regional cities represent a very big opportunity for
architects and, because they tend to be harder to access, have
been largely ignored by western architects (largely, but not
exclusively) and as the economic benets of the development
of China spread out to these smaller cities opportunities will
continue to be available to western designers.
Architects looking for new opportunities would do well to make
a visit to the T2-T4 cities where few foreign architects have gone.
Strategic Areas of Opportunity
for Architects in China
2. Adaptive Re-use
In the main cities there are a large number of
buildings that are now considered either too old
or not suitable for their original purpose. These
buildings are being adapted to a variety of new
uses and repurpose.
Some of the most common reuse projects
involves converting buildings that were built 20-
25 years ago and are now considered too old to
attract the higher level of sales or rental prices.
Common buildings that fall into this category are
shopping malls and commercial buildings.
These sites, which usually sit in prime locations,
are being renovated to bring them up to dierent
standards of usability – facades, interiors, energy
eciency, trac pattern suitability and other
modern concepts.
When these buildings were originally built
China was only just starting on its development
quantum-leap and therefore many of the modern
architectural concepts and materials were simply
unavailable to the designers at that time.
Repurposing these buildings as opposed to
rebuilding is a cost-eective way to maximize the
return on the site and the location.
Shopping malls are being gutted and redesigned
so that high rental and up-to-date shops are
attracted. Commercial buildings are having new
facades and new interiors tted.
Foreign architects have a long history of being
able to commercially optimize space and
therefore are in high demand for these re-use
projects.
23
4. Education
Although the government itself designs and builds
public schools exclusively there is a very high demand
for new private schools. Education is one of the
sectors that is in a period of extreme change and this
represents an opportunity area for foreign architects.
China has experienced more international school
growth than any other country in the
world. An increasing desire by wealthy Chinese
families, living in China, for a western-style English-
medium education for their children is driving this
growth.
These schools fall into two categories, the rst being
schools exclusively for the children of expatriate
workers and the second being joint venture schools
developed between Chinese owners providing
the investment and land and a foreign educational
institute providing the educational structure and brand.
These schools teach both local and foreign students.
There are currently 500+ of these latter category
schools and as the middle class increases, both in the
T1 and T2 cities, this number is set to rise exponentially.
In particular there will be a huge increase outside
of the T1 & 2 cities as private education spreads to
smaller cities and regional centers.
Architecture practices with education experience are
increasingly being called on to design this explosion of
private/international schools.
3. Senior Living
With China’s population bubble moving through the decades
there is a huge need for retirement and care facilities for seniors.
The one child policy has created a generation where there will
be 6 adults (4 grandparents and 2 parents) needing to be cared
for by one child. This demographic bubble is already having
a major eect on the population and is steadily worsening.
Traditionally, every generation of a Chinese family lived under
the same roof. But that system is facing serious challenges in
modern, mobile China. Now, just 38% of people over the age of
60 live with their adult children.
Currently there are 220 million people over 60 years old in China
with that gure projected to soar over the coming decades to a
massive 40% of the population – around 560 million over 60’s.
In addition, there are fewer and fewer elderly people being
nancially supported by their children in China as the society
becomes more modern and mobile.
Senior Living facilities are becoming the new growth area in
property development and since it is an area that China has little
experience in (elderly people are traditionally almost exclusively
cared for at home) there is a very large opportunity for foreign
architects with experience in this area developing in China.
Not only is the senior living facilities sector about to grow at
vastly accelerated rates but the provision for end of life care
is also picked to grow rapidly. Currently China is very much
towards the bottom of the 80 countries assessed by the
Economist Intelligence Unit for end-of-life care facilities, which,
when coupled with the increasing number of elderly people, will
inevitably mean a huge increase in hospice and nursing care
facilities.
China has a huge growth curve ahead of it in this area and it
is one that foreign experience and expertise in design can be
utilized as this area starts to take o.
A large number of local Chinese developers have already
started investigating and testing the market in these areas.
24
6. Sports and Cultural Facilities including Amusement Parks
Tying in with the development curve in the regional cities and
areas are the social facilities such as sports centers, cultural
centers such as concert halls and entertainment facilities,
amusement parks of varying size and complexity, as well as
museums, art galleries and other ancillary facilities promoting
sporting and cultural activities – such as artist’s colonies and
gymnasiums.
The value of the overall scale of the sports industry is
expected to reach 5 trillion yuan (about $800 billion dollars),
the average sports venue area per person will reach 2 square
meters, the number of people who regularly participate in
sports activities will reach 500 million, and the coverage of new
neighborhoods with sports facilities will reach 100 percent.
The current GPDS value of sports alone in China is a mere 0.7%
of GPD compared with the US 3% of GPD attributed to sports,
means that the growth potential is enormous over the coming
decade.
Sports and cultural activities are entering the mainstream of
Chinese culture as the brand development based around
Chinese sports heroes and cultural icons is becoming
mainstream.
As with other areas of high growth, the regional and T3 & T4
cities oer an attractive alternative to the competitive T1 & T2
cities.
5. Healthcare
There has been an implementation of numerous
favorable policies tailored to facilitate the growth
of private healthcare services in the past few years
in China and private hospitals are much better
positioned for the next stage of growth in China
than previously.
One of the most meaningful elements is the
proposal to consolidate the retirement benets and
medical insurance of government employees with
those of the private sectors.
In particular there is a huge rise in the number of
dental clinics, ophthalmology clinics and private
hospitals.
Private hospitals have increased to 12,500, which
represents a 16% increase on 2015 numbers.
Ophthalmology Clinics are currently turning over
more than $5 billion USD (54 billion RMB) and the
dental sector is on track to rise to around $12 billion
USD (82 billion RMB) by 2018.
As with the rise in senior care facilities, the
healthcare sector is undergoing a boom in the
provision of private healthcare amenities which
include fully-edged full service hospitals to
private clinics and medical centers.
25
China is not going away. It is a huge country. It has a huge population. It has bucket loads of room for
development yet to go – even though it is the world’s second largest economy it is way behind in the
per capita stakes.
Here is a big number – if China were to have the same per capita GDP as the US then the economy
will be a 74 trillion-dollar economy. Nearly 4 times that of the USA.
It’s a Wrap
There are 80 million people (the members of the ruling
Communist Party) who are dedicated to making this
happen in a totally ruthless and well organized fashion.
Instead of thinking of the Communist Party as solely an
ideological/political entity (which it is), also think of it as the
worlds most sophisticated business development group.
The Party plans and manages every single area of
development and business and it is involved in every
single part of the decision making process in China – the
development of a business must meet countrywide goals.
Each 5-year plan takes China closer to the goals that are
carved in stone and assuming that no internal or external
strife happens then this goal will be realized. The ‘Party’ is
able to manage problems that plague other countries with
ruthless eciency and it enjoys such a hold on the lever of
power that it is able to implement solutions with incredible
rapidity.
You may decide to be part of this or decide not to be part
of this. But if you are going to join this transformation and
be one of the ‘Builders of Modern China’ then you need to
know what the 28 contributors to this book have learned
and shared.
26
Digital Frontier Books has released best-selling author
Gavin Crombie’s SECRETS OF SUCCESS FOR ARCHITECTS
IN CHINA: INSIGHTS FROM THE MEN AND WOMEN
WHO BUILT MODERN CHINA, available in print and as an
e-book now. Find out, from those who made it happen,
how China has rebuilt its skylines, infrastructure and image
as part of the most intensive period of construction the
world has ever seen in this 352-page book illustrated with
dozens of stunning full-color photographs and architectural
renderings.
It’s no secret that China, with its fast-growing economy,
has put up some of the world’s tallest and most innovative
buildings in an extremely short period of time. During the
last ten years, China has constructed buildings equal to
a city the size of Rome every two months. A collection of
buildings equivalent to all of the buildings in the U.K. has
been built within its borders every year for the last ten years.
With an incredible 250 million of its people moving from
the land into cities in the last decade, China has massively
exceeded every single record or metric in the word for
building development.
Gavin Crombie’s bestselling 2005 book, THE WAY OF THE
DRAGON: SECRETS FOR DOING BUSINESS IN CHINA,
is used in more than a dozen M.B.A. programs globally.
He currently heads Global Frontier, a Chengdu-based
architectural visualization rm that marries Western and
Chinese research, marketing/sales and customer service
expertise to successfully conceptualize and create projects
from storyboard through to the nal presentation.
Do you want
to learn more
of the Secrets
of Success in
China?
SECRETS OF SUCCESS FOR
ARCHITECTS IN CHINA:
Insights from the Men and Women
who Built Modern China
For more information about Digital Frontier, visit:
www.WeAreDigitalFrontier.com
