Oriental Networks


Book Description

Oriental Networks explores forms of interconnectedness between Western and Eastern hemispheres during the long eighteenth century, a period of improving transportation technology, expansion of intercultural contacts, and the emergence of a global economy. In eight case studies and a substantial introduction, the volume examines relationships between individuals and institutions, precursors to modern networks that engaged in forms of intercultural exchange. Addressing the exchange of cultural commodities (plants, animals, and artifacts), cultural practices and ideas, the roles of ambassadors and interlopers, and the literary and artistic representation of networks, networkers, and networking, contributors discuss the effects on people previously separated by vast geographical and cultural distance. Rather than idealizing networks as inherently superior to other forms of organization, Oriental Networks also considers Enlightenment expressions of resistance to networking that inform modern skepticism toward the concept of the global network and its politics. In doing so the volume contributes to the increasingly global understanding of culture and communication. Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.




New Asian Emperors


Book Description

Much has been written about the rise of the Asian economies in recent decades, and their coming economic dominance in the next century. The New Asian Emperors shows how and why overseas Chinese companies are achieving dominance in the Asia Pacific. In the wake of the Asian Currency crisis, this book takes a fresh look at the role of the overseas Chinese as they continue to create some of Asia's most wealthy and successful companies. In particular, the authors tackle the principal difference between Western and Eastern business practices. The overseas Chinese, due to their origins and history developed a unique form of management - now they maintain it as their competitive advantage. Although Asian governments are currently floundering, the overseas Chinese networks continue to prosper. The authors explain the following to Eastern and Western managers: the sources and characteristics of overseas Chinese management, how to combat the overseas Chinese, the strengths and exploitable weaknesses of the overseas Chinese, whether overseas Chinese management practices will spread in the same way as Japanese management did, whether Western management technologies will find themselves outclassed. A feature of the book are the exclusive, in-depth interviews with the New Asian Emperors since most of them avoid the press and little is known of them.




Encountering Chinese Networks


Book Description

The text studies how various Western, Japanese, and Chinese businesses struggled with the persistent dilemma in China of how to retain control over corporate hierachies while adapting to dramatic changes in Chinese society, politics and foreign affairs from 1880-1937.




Oriental Networks


Book Description

Oriental Networks explores forms of interconnectedness between Western and Eastern hemispheres during the long eighteenth century. Contributors discuss relationships between individuals and institutions as precursors to modern networks as they facilitated the exchange of cultural commodities (plants, animals, and artifacts), practices, and ideas. Highlighting ambiguities and unexpected outcomes of networking, the volume adds historical perspective to our understanding of globalization.




Shinra Myōjin and Buddhist Networks of the East Asian “Mediterranean”


Book Description

This ambitious work offers a transnational account of the deity Shinra Myōjin, the “god of Silla” worshipped in medieval Japanese Buddhism from the eleventh to sixteenth centuries. Sujung Kim challenges the long-held understanding of Shinra Myōjin as a protective deity of the Tendai Jimon school, showing how its worship emerged and developed in the complex networks of the East Asian “Mediterranean”—a “quality” rather than a physical space defined by Kim as the primary conduit for cross-cultural influence in a region that includes the Yellow Sea, the Sea of Japan (East Sea), the East China Sea, and neighboring coastal areas. While focusing on the transcultural worship of the deity, Kim engages the different maritime arrangements in which Shinra Myōjin circulated: first, the network of Korean immigrants, Chinese merchants, and Japanese Buddhist monks in China’s Shandong peninsula and Japan’s Ōmi Province; and second, that of gods found in the East Asian Mediterranean. Both of these networks became nodal points of exchange of both goods and gods. Kim’s examination of temple chronicles, literary writings, and iconography reveals Shinra Myōjin’s evolution from a seafaring god to a multifaceted one whose roles included the god of pestilence and of poetry, the insurer of painless childbirth, and the protector of performing arts. Shinra Myōjin and Buddhist Networks of the East Asian “Mediterranean” is not only the first monograph in any language on the Tendai Jimon school in Japanese Buddhism, but also the first book-length study in English to examine Korean connections in medieval Japanese religion. Unlike other recent studies on individual Buddhist deities, it foregrounds the need to approach them within a broader East Asian context. By shifting the paradigm from a land-centered vision to a sea-centered one, the work underlines the importance of a transcultural and interdisciplinary approach to the study of Buddhist deities.




New Asian Emperors


Book Description

Southeast Asia has a population of more than half a billion, yet its economy is dominated by about 40 families, most of Overseas Chinese descent. Their conglomerates span sectors as diverse as real estate, telecommunications, hotels, industrial goods, computers and sugar plantations. New Asian Emperors shows how and why Overseas Chinese companies continue to dominate the region and have extended their reach in East Asia, despite the Asian financial and SARS crises of the past decade. The authors base their conclusions on in-depth structured interviews spanning a decade with the often elusive Overseas Chinese CEOs including Li Ka-shing, Stan Shih, Victor Fung, Stephen Riady and Sukanto Tanoto, as well as on the strategic information that their companies use. The analysis of the New Asian Emperors’ present-day management techniques and practices draws on the history, culture and philosophical perspectives of the Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. In the midst of today’s global economic crisis, this book also takes a fresh look at the role and management practices of the Overseas Chinese as they continue to create some of Asia’s wealthiest and most successful companies. New Asian Emperors explains: The sources and characteristics of Overseas Chinese management Whether Overseas Chinese management practices will spread in the same way that Japanese management did in the 1970s Whether Western management technologies have found themselves outmaneuvered in Asia’s post-crisis arena The Overseas Chinese managers’ strategies for the informational black hole of Southeast Asia and what Western managers can learn from them The New Asian Emperors’ unique strategic perspectives and management styles revealed through exclusive, in-depth interviews The implications for successfully co-operating and competing with the Overseas Chinese of Southeast Asia New Asian Emperors offers key insights into the Overseas Chinese and the important role that cultural roots play in their dominance of Southeast Asian business.




The Asian Economic Catharsis


Book Description

One result of the Asian economic crisis has been to shatter the belief that Asian ways of management are superior to Western ways. Now, just to survive, Asian firms have come to rethink their entire way of managing, and in his latest book, Richter, assisted by his contributing authors, gives a sharply focused analysis of how they are doing it. Emerging questions are how do Asian firms adjust to the new economic realities? and How do they develop their management style? There are plenty of new opportunities in Asia to play the new game, but they must be grasped and productively channeled. Richter and his contributors conclude that in the end, the Asian economic crisis, or catharsis, may well be a blessing in disguise. It provides an opportunity to completely review the way things stand in Asia. Like entrepreneurs who built the Asian economies, today's firms have the opportunity to lead a revival if they can redirect their businesses. This is an important resource for professionals in all multinational organizations and for academics and their upper-level students of international business.




Chinese Business Enterprise


Book Description




Chinese and Indian Business


Book Description

In recent years the phenomenal rise of the economies of China and India has led to a proliferation of academic studies. Much of the focus has been on economic performance, development strategies and the comparative advantage of the two economies. A comparative study of business as an agent of change has been lacking This volume brings together articles by leading scholars in the field of Chinese and Indian business who offer fresh perspectives on the historical antecedents of business in the two economies.




Chinese Indonesians and Regime Change


Book Description

By taking regime change as its main theme this book offers a new perspective on the multiple roles that Chinese Indonesians played in terms of shaping, moderating, and stimulating social change in Indonesia.