It's All Chinese to Me: An Overview of Culture & Etiquette in China

by Pierre Ostrowski, Gwen Penner

Picture yourself in China with this fun, graphic-novel inspired introduction to China, its culture and people!

Ready to gain insight into Chinese culture in a fascinating way? This comprehensive introduction to Chinese culture lets you peer into what makes China unique—its people. Firsthand tips, background info, and illustrations give you graphic impressions of the real China, and allow you to get a feel for not only what it's like, but how to survive the cultural differences. You'll find out In It's All Chinese to Me , you'll find the core insights to help demystify Chinese culture for Westerners.

"Offers a balanced view of China's cultural strengths and weaknesses and should be required reading for international travelers. Highly recommended."— Midwest Book Review

"An excellent job of illustrating many of the common issues people may encounter while in China. Bravo!"—Mark Rowswell, AKA Dashan, performer and cultural ambassador

Genres: China, Nonfiction, Travel, Cultural, Business

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[AllBookedUp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good insight to the Eastern philosphy. Now I understand my own culture from the old timers and know when they are just b.s. me. ;)

[Ariste Egan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating information presented in a fun, easy-to-read format.

[Bethany Irwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick and helpful insights in a fun and useful way. There's much I still want to know, but I did learn a good amount of u useful information.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fast, easy, and fun to read, I picked this up as I passed by a foreign books bookstore in Shanghai. Just an FYI, I couldn't figure out why the pages skipped from page 15 to page 18, bur easily pried them apart. I went online to see reviews for the book, and lo and behold, the first reviewer (who bought his book at an airport in Shanghai) said the same thing...pages 16 and 17 were glued together. Apparently the paragraph on capital punishment and a brief mention of Tiananmen Square didn't make it past the censors. Not an in-depth book, but a book that will wet your appetite to learn more about this deeply complex country and its customs.

[Emilia P · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite a comic book - but it read like one. Learning about guanxi and mianzi. Compliments and business practices. The joy of culture shock!
I need about 800 more pages of this book to get ready to go to China -it brought up as many new questions as it answered. Light-hearted but brutally honest, the illustrations made me laugh out loud. Pick it up if you love China or even if you don't give a hoot. The illustrations are worth it.

[Natali M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book in order to be prepared and try to smooth culture shock, however this is really very brief overview of Chinese behavior. Nicely written, easy to read, but if you want to understand and establish a serious long-lasting communication with Chinese, this book would be a useful addition or first step to start with, but not the main full source, especially in terms of doing business.

[Scott Stoker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read three of these now and this one by far is the most actual real life story of what it is like!

[Scott Mcgregor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book out there if you are thinking of living or traveling in China.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in just a single sitting, enjoying the casual writing and great drawings. It was a good jumping off point for all the China reading I need to do.

[Eldon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best books on Chinese culture I've ever read and I've read tons. Kudos to the authors for a fine job. Great illustrations!

[Senem · Rating 4 out of 5]

Çok eğlenceli. Gerçekten de iş seyahatlerimde bu kitapta yazanlara çok rastladım.

[Alondra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious overview on Chinese culture and customs. If you have been to China, this is a MUST read. If you haven't, maybe you won't understand many of the references and won't find them funny...

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 4 out of 5]

777 - 2015

Hilariously fun read.

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting information for the most parts especially the accompanying illustrations. but some of it struck me as if the author was trying to hard to be politically correct on certain situations.

[Bridget · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting! Full of fascinating information and basic overview of everything to expect if you visit there.

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny and interesting.