CHINESE WHISPERS: Why Everything You`ve Heard Ab

The West has been getting China wrong for centuries. Our perspective on this sprawling and complex Asian empire tends to be skewed by our own insecurities. We assume that in China's rise we are witnessing the inevitable eclipse of the Western world. Ben Chu, economics editor of the INDEPENDENT, identifies eight common myths - or 'whispers' - that continue to hold sway about modern China and the Chinese, and deconstructs them one by one. Some, such as the supposedly inexhaustable Chinese appetite for work, have a long lineage, others, such as the myth that Chinese parents bully their children into success, are more recent. At the heart of the book is a challenge to the biggest myth of all: that it is only a matter of time before China rules the world. By exploring the twisting roots of these ideas and contrasting them with the reality, Ben Chu gets under the skin of this profoundly misunderstood country. Those who raise the alarm about the economic expansion of China are right about one thing: the Western world's relationship with China will help to define the twenty-first century. It is time for us to stop getting China wrong, and to stop listening to the Chinese Whispers.