Introduction: Why Dragon Suit?

I checked, and then I checked again: nobody had written a book called Dragon Suit. Why not? Ever since I moved to central Shanghai two decades ago, I saw them every day: sharply dressed men and women who confidently went about their multimillion-dollar business. I passed by as they discussed issues of importance over designer lunches. I stepped out of the way as they dashed from chauffeured cars into glitzy office towers. Most importantly, I met them daily as a leadership coach and consultant. Was I really the only one who mentally labeled them Dragon Suits?

Chinese people use the dragon as their cultural icon because dragons are believed to be everywhere and still remain a mystery—think Loch Ness Monsters in every lake. Like the dragon, China is unavoidable: I challenge you to look around you right now without spotting anything made in China or, if you are in a crowded bookstore, airport, or café, someone from China. Yet, despite thousands of dragon-titled books, films, lectures, and businesses, the world’s most populous country managed to remain a mystery to most people.

Yes, managed. Like the dragon, China has carefully managed its exposure so that everyone can admire its power without knowing too much about it. China is the world’s biggest and most misunderstood story. And that is where the suits come in. Because while heads of state, global CEOs, investors, traders, journalists, talk show hosts, office workers, and pub-goers make hit-and-miss attempts to understand and explain this omnipresent force, there is someone who might help them. That person is a current or former expatriate manager in China—a Dragon Suit.

This book started as a series of interviews I made with executives who had spent years in China’s vast metropolises managing factories, warehouses, stores, clinics, recruitment, sales, and research operations. Their accounts of why they accepted jobs in China, their first impressions, their daily life, their professional trials and triumphs, their struggle with bad air, restricted Internet and culture shock, their promotions to ever-higher leadership positions, personal growth, and eventual departure are fascinating as they are.

But beyond the personal journeys, their revelations explain why China emerged from obscurity to global dominance in a quarter century and why international firms are determined to do business in, or at least with China. Why it prefers to erect Great Walls that restrict the movement of information, goods, and people in and out of the country while its presence is felt in virtually every household in the world. Why, while it claims to be a land of harmony, it is so often embroiled in conflict with the outside world and itself.

Most importantly, the Dragon Suits who appear in this book teach us how to get on well, or at least much better, with China. They learned the hard way, over a long time. Once they returned to their countries or moved elsewhere, they already helped hundreds of colleagues, bosses, customers, or suppliers who were understandably mystified by China’s uniqueness. But although Dragon Suits are scattered across the world and may be closer to you than you think, I strongly believe that by sharing their stories and opinions, we can make an increasingly China-facing world a little bit easier place.

Since I settled in China in the sizzling summer of 2002, I have spent most of my working days demystifying the leadership cultures of East and West to one another. I have worked with European and American CEOs in Asia, Asian executives at Western firms, and people of various nations and professions who somehow found themselves entangled in the thrilling exchange between China and the world. But Dragon Suit is not a business manual. It is a collection of first-hand insights into what some experts call the golden age of foreign business in China. It also reveals why the same people think the golden age is over, and what we can expect of the new era that people doing business with China are about to inaugurate.