Paul Denlinger, CEO, China Business Strategy and tech blogger behind China Vortex responds to immediate reaction by those in the US social media community to China's decision to order the shut down of entertainment websites in China for 3 days of mourning for the Sichuan earthquake victims.

Paul's article Let's See How Many Ways We Can Get This Wrong offers a perspective that helps give insight that is being overlooked and prompted Christine Lu to gather a bit more insight from him.

CHRISTINE: Paul, in your most recent post Let's See How Many Ways We Can Get This Wrong you talk about how immediate reaction in the US to China ordering entertainment websites to shutdown for 3 days was misunderstood. Although you express frustration, you don't seem surprised either by the reaction of key social media figures such as Robert Scoble. What are some key points you're hoping that people take away from your most recent post?

PAUL: The edict came across as heavy-handed in English, but in its original Chinese, it was framed more as a recommendation. Of course, recommendations from the central government in time of crisis carry a lot of weight and business owners have to take responsibility for any possible repercussions of their decisions.

When it got into English, it somehow became an order or edict, which fit into Robert Scoble's stereotype of China's government as being authoritarian. Robert's wife is Iranian and left post-revolutionary Iran, and he probably thinks that the Chinese government is somehow similar to Iran's.

The problem with Robert's point of view is that once Americans stamp a government as "authoritarian", they equate that with being evil, and shut the door to learning more about it, or considering that it may evolve and become more open. And once it is considered authoritarian, they think that everything it does and says has to be interpreted as being manipulative and PR spin. Most absolutely reject the idea that it can reform and become something even remotely democratic, which is why you get so many ignorant remarks in the Friendfeed discussion thread. So, even though China is changing rapidly, their views of China are essentially locked in the freezer and become more and more dated. Then just add that most of them don't come to China to learn more about the people, and you have the formula for some really silly ideas about China.

CHRISTINE: As we know, it takes years of living and working in China to understand things from the Chinese perspective - especially when it comes to understanding the Chinese government's reasoning for initiatives such as this one. Playing a bit of devil's advocate here, can you really blame westerner reaction to these initiatives? How else are they supposed to see the situation other than a negative move? What are the first steps towards seeing China through the eyes of the Chinese, when you're not Chinese to begin with?

PAUL: The first thing is to realize that about 90% of what the US media says about China is framed in political terms, and in terms of China's rise and how it will affect the US's international position. It's important to realize that this is a political issue only, and it takes time to establish political and social context so that you understand the government's rationale for what is going on.

The important thing to realize is that with 30 years of reforms and opening up, the Chinese government has unleashed forces it cannot completely control, but can only hope to channel in ways they would like. Economic reformers in the Chinese government have a saying: "If China reforms too quickly, society will become chaotic, and if it reforms too slowly, the government will perish." The government needs to stay one step ahead of what the people want in order to survive. But sometimes, you get officials who still try to do things the way they used to in their good old days, and that is why you get clumsiness with media-related and other issues.

Most Chinese just want to have good jobs, decent wages, have a home and send their child to decent schools so that they can have good careers. The thing is, in order to understand Chinese this well, a visitor has to be willing to invest some amount of time getting to know them. Unfortunately, for the most part, Americans are not willing to invest the amount of time necessary to understand Chinese as individuals, so many Americans continue to have really embarrassingly wrong stereotypes about China and the Chinese.

CHRISTINE: For the person reading this on The China Business Network and is new to China but obviously wants to learn more, what are some key points of advice you have for them to avoid falling into the "FriendFeed" critical frenzy prompted by this recent announcement by the Chinese government?

PAUL: First of all, reject all stereotypes you have heard about China and the Chinese. If you forget everything you have heard about China, you will actually learn how to deal with it better. Be humble, and just say that you are in China to learn, and see if there is something your company can offer to them. That is much better than hitting the ground fresh off the plane and going straight into broadcast sales mode.

CHRISTINE: On a side note, it seems that social media apps such as Twitter and FriendFeed have begun to play a role in closing the cultural gap. Would you agree? How effective a tool is Twitter and FriendFeed for you these days?

PAUL: They drastically cut down the time news and opinions get spread around. It means that you really have to react much faster. But it also means that you have to think through what you are going to say faster, and present it in a coherent manner. The downside is that some people act like kids with ADD and can sometimes say silly things, then switch to another whole new issue the next day, completely forgetting the previous discussion.

Paul's full post on this issue can be found at his China Vortex blog post titled Let’s See How Many Ways We Can Get This Wrong

About Paul Denlinger

Paul Denlinger's life reads like a Who Is Who of business in China. As a senior manager he worked in the past two decades both Chinese and Western companies with sounding names like Shanda, Unilever, Philips, TSMC, Acer, Walt Disney, McDonald's, BMW and even the state-owned newswire Xinhua is on his reference list.

Telecom and information technology have been at the core of his activities in China, working with companies like Nokia, Asiainfo, Intel, Microsoft and Lenovo.

A true polyglot, he has held management positions in marketing, advertising, TV production, and information technology. In addition, he has taught in university. He holds an MA degree in linguistics from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

While working at Ogilvy & Mather Taiwan, he also served as an evangelist for its in-house computing initiative, driving adoption in the creative department.

He has also taught at the university level at Soochow University in Taiwan, where he set up the first the computer-assisted instruction for curriculum for the College of Liberal Arts.

In addition, he established his own corporate video company, On Cue, to service corporate clients. He served as senior producer and writer at the company.

Paul has developed a versatile, action-oriented and pragmatic approach to problem-solving. He has earned a reputation for his ability to tackle a wide range of problems, and engages exceptionally well with people from the boardroom to the plant floor, in English and Chinese.

You can follow Paul on Twitter as pdenlinger.

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China Earthquake Paul Denlinger Robert Scoble The China Vortex