China Nowadays

Everyone already has some idea of China's latest economic revolution. The change from socialist to post-socialist China within a few decades is unparalleled to the West. Our old lenses are not enough to make sense out of it. The changes are so complete and so rapid that many Chinese people are creating new relationships with products and services. Things can be new in China in ways that they are not new in the so-called west. Old business practices?from intellectual property management to product development and marketing?may not be enough to maintain a sustainable relationship with China. We aim to bring the academic learning and the business learning together in this conference.

Behind the booming construction, manufacture and consumption, to the latest admission into the World Trade Organization and success in the Olympics bids for 2008, what is happening to people's daily lives China? What household changes are happening as the economy sees the double-digit growth? How do concepts of beauty or ideas of owning an automobile, or taking a foreign vacation play out in this new China? Ethnographic research can link science, the humanities, and business questions to produce trustworthy accounts of what behind the numbers, what Chinese people do and why they do it.