"HELP! MY REALITY IS TURNING RED"

"HELP! MY REALITY IS TURNING RED" encapsulates the frustrations regularly echoed by Westerners in the face of China's rise in power and influence as reflected by their rhetoric, specifically, the increasing vanity of their arrogance. As relative bargaining power shifts in favor of your Chinese counterparts, compromise becomes more difficult to attain via traditional means. New obstructions are primarily psychological on both sides, but the impact on outcomes is substantial, as well as the mental and emotional fatigue.

How can you predictably change this reality?

Since the universe is listening to your complaints and discontent, After The Chinese Honeymoon will help you rewrite the destructive narratives in your mind by shifting focus to things within your control and showing you how to control them. Instead of a daunting red maze of cultural landmines and psychological hazards, we'll level the playing field by illuminating all the perils and pitfalls in the Chinese arena.

When I wrote The Chinese Honeymoon Period, I focused primarily on ten fundamental Chinese cultural concepts that represent how Chinese people think and why they behave as they do. I wanted to create a blueprint for understanding 'how they feel,' a.k.a. empathy, which is essential for demystifying their responses while tactfully interacting with them. I've hosted over a hundred live and virtual Meetup events to socialize how to create new communication patterns that could lead to better results and discovered an invisible wall of psychological resistance. Attendees generally perceived a metaphorical 'red' reality representing everything they oppose about how Chinese people behave without seeking internal adjustments to convince them otherwise. Over the past decade, I have witnessed an incorrigible manifestation of myopia that I intend to treat by targeting awareness in the context of our overarching objectives.

If you read The Chinese Honeymoon Period, you hopefully discovered the difference between translating and actual meanings in the context of culture and its ramifications. It's different, often quite strikingly. The cast of characters we introduced also illuminated an emotional factor that ties directly to our cultural differences, which comes from a vast array of influences, from parental habits and early education to societal pressures and media influences.

As I explore these ongoing issues with students, event attendees, business leaders, and consulting clients, I've learned to refocus their attention on the most impactful difference makers that are usually endemic, emotional, and psychological. A persona and modus operandi that works in the proverbial West will likely achieve a vastly different outcome in China.

Their most pressing questions regarding their endeavors in 'red' China are:

• How can we fully trust our Chinese counterparts?
• How do we address their cryptic silence and nonsensical excuses to prevent circular conversations?
• How do we develop Guanxi-based relationships without compromising our principles and values?

These central questions have motivated me to dig even deeper into the nuances of our cultural differences. New interaction patterns with our friends and partners in China are relevant and more critical than at any time in history, and charting your success After The Chinese Honeymoon is essential for playing and winning the China game inside the Chinese arena.