Rock Tradition. 685 Madison Avenue, New York, bet. 61st & 62nd Streets & Fifth Avenue at Trump Tower 1-888-756-9912 WWW.IVANKATRUMPCOLLECTION.COM 250 Park Avenue South New York (212) 375-1036 www.lignerosetny.com 155 Wooster Street New York (212) 253-5629 www.lignerosetny.com 4131 Main Street 160 NE 40th Street Philadelphia Miami (215) 487-2800 (305) 576-4662 www.rosetphilly.com www.lignerosetmiami.com G N O S G I N Q G N A W Y S E T R U O C O T O H P I A S A W A BreathTaking (2006), by Shi Xinning. upbringings, but also by their historical circum- erner would learn about China is guanxi —roughly stances. I’ve found that these “seven deadly sins” translated as “connections” or “networks of inu- could undermine Westerners’ eectiveness to do ence.” As a result, foreigners new to the game tend deals in China. to think that guanxi is everything in China. There Cheat •Telling the Chinese how to build is no free lunch, even in China. Guanxi is part of a Rome. While we all know the old adage, “ When complex web of bartered give-and-take’s that are in Rome, do as the Romans do.” It seems that passed through generations or circles of relation- SHEET when in China, many Westerners tend to tell the ships. To manage a project in China, whether to Chinese what to do based on an assumption that establish an art museum or a cultural foundation, the Westerners know better. That may have held you typically would need to manage guanxi at the for doing true 30 years ago, but no more. Seiji Ozawa, one of national, provincial and local levels. Good guanxi the rst foreign-born conductors to take helm at a alone cannot supplant fundamental business logics. prestigious American orchestra, once talked about •Expecting risk-free returns. I often found business his own experience. He said, if you are a foreigner, many Western businessmen unwilling to take any they will not hire you if you are as good as them. You risk in China. They are so wrapped up in their view in China have to be better . of China as a ruthless, dangerous place that they feel •Mistaking lack of sophistication for paralyzed to take any action or reasonable risk assess- lack of intelligence. It’s a common human ment. Their desire to achieve a risk-free return that is 1. Regional dierences can tendency to underestimate an individual coming not even possible in their own homeland, let alone in a from a business environment that is perceived as less business environment of its own distinctive charac- mean varying degrees of busi- sophisticated. For instance, within the past decade, teristics, is puzzling to me. ness sophistication. Chinese art markets leapfrogged from a handful of •Trading common sense for cultural commercial galleries to high-ying art funds and differences. A long lineage of literature on doing art exchanges without the critical support of an business in China has attributed countless horror 2. Things can happen much established infrastructure made up of museums, art stories and cautionary tales to two perceived cultural faster in China. One needs to professionals, art critics, art laws and so forth. polarities: socialism vs. capitalism and Western vs. work harder to keep up. Chinese are very keenly aware of its tumultuous Chinese. While there is certain truth to these polari- history in the past 200 years and the West-centric ties, we cannot succeed in any transnational setting worldview that has until recently largely dictated unless we nd common ground in our humanity. international politics and economics. Anyone •Taking a short-term view about China. 3. Just as many things in who wants to do business with the Chinese must Chinese people, like people elsewhere, respond less China can disappoint you, there rst embrace the idea that they are very proud of favorably to opportunistic investors with no long- are many things in China that the recent rise of China, despite some misgivings term commitment to their market. Many Chinese can delight you. about certain unwelcomed social consequences. business leaders often observed that some foreign •Handing off all China strategies to investors were unwilling to “pay tuition” to study one’s “China Head.” Many CEOs of multination- and learn about their market. Success in China, as in 4. In terms of technology als reasoned that, out of the respect for the Chinese any other business environment, is not always based cultural dierences, business or otherwise, they on getting an upper hand over one’s counterparty. application, China has migrated would be better o to hand their China strategy Interestingly, sometimes the Chinese themselves are to hand-held devices faster than over to their “China Heads.” Then they often found not even free from their own versions of these deadly the West. how wrong they were. sins. Perhaps this is the lesson from the chicken Given the importance of China market to most and pig fable—in any relationship, one is never sure of the Western businesses, business leaders are whether one is the chicken or the pig. 5. For timely communica- well advised to stay engaged at the very top level. It tions, text messaging is more would be oversimplifying it to apply one represen- Chiu-Ti Jansen is the founder of China tative’s viewpoint to the China as a whole. Happenings™, a multimedia and advisory platform eective than email. Most •Believing that Guanxi is a talisman. that focuses on the cultural and lifestyle industries in Chinese do not use voice mail. One of the rst Chinese expressions that a West- contemporary China. o 30 | MAY ���� Experience the divine DAVID H. KOCH JUNE 23–26 | LINCOLN CENTER | THEATER CenterCharge 212-721-6500 | www.ChineseArtsRevival.org Based in New York, Shen Yun Performing Arts is the world’s premier Chinese dance and music company. NYO XXXXXXX 32 | MAY ���� ART NYO A P I C A S S O F A M I L Y AFFAIR Art historian Diana Widmaier Picasso curates the newest Picasso exhibit at the Gagosian Gallery with Picasso biographer John Richardson. Picasso—one of the rst in her clan to really delve into the arts—sounds o on the inspiration for the exhibit—her grandmother, Maya, no less – her favorite of the more than 80 works in the exhibition and how it really feels to have the surname Picasso By Rachel Morgan Why the decision to do the Picasso exhibit now? Encounter of Pablo Picasso and Marie-Thérèse This project has been a dream for many years. “The Walter (1927)”; “Thoughts on a Historiographical Marie-Thérèse years” were a period of exceptional Revision” (Chemnitz, Kunstsammlungen, 2003); creativity in Picasso’s life. One can establish parallels and “Marie-Thérèse Walter and Pablo Picasso: ” � Y with the early Cubist years and work from the 1950s, New Insights Into a Secret Love” (Munster, Picasso R E L L three phases in which Picasso threw himself into the Graphiksammlung, 2004). A G N most fecund experimentations of his artistic life. I A S O Which work in the exhibition is your favorite? G A G How does it feel, knowing your grandmother was The monumental original plaster from Boisgeloup, Y S E T R Picasso’s muse? Bust of a Woman(1931), is one of my favorites. I U O There is something magical about the way they also love an incredibly intimate drawing of Marie- C � A L A T met. Some kind of providence was cast upon them Thérèse made in 1935, just after she gave birth to my A H E when Picasso noticed the curious beauty of the mother, Maya. There are so many exceptional works I C R T A 17-year-old girl and immediately hastened to enlist that it is dicult to choose. É B Y her as his model. I never met my grandparents, but B O T strangely—because Picasso’s work is a diary unto How did you select the works to appear in the O H P � K itself—I have become a voyeur of their relationship. exhibit? R O Y The works presented are from one of the most W E N When did you begin to work with John Richard- astonishing periods of Picasso’s oeuvre. From � � S R � A son? It was very intense. 1927 to 1941, Marie-Thérèse was the subject of Y T I E We organized it in less than a year with Valentina numerous sensual metamorphoses. We wanted C O S Castellani, the director of the Gagosian Gallery. the exhibition to reect the remarkable variety S T H For both John and I, Marie-Thérèse was already of techniques—painting, sculpture, drawing and I G R S T very much at the center of our research. In the print—and materials—plaster, charcoal and pastel, I S T R / A third volume of his biography on Picasso, A Life of among others. Painting and sculpture seem to O S S Picasso: The Triumphant Years, 1917-1932, published confront each other in the a rtist’s representation of A I C P in 2010, John wrote about his new ndings. I have Marie-Thérèse, which is shown in the exhibition’s O L B > A also written several articles on the subject— “The assortment of works. P F O S E E T G A A T S I M E Y � Pablo Picasso, Marie-Thérèse au béret rouge et T � T � E © au col de fourrure, lef. Diana Picasso, right.