Cracking the China Market, Then and Now

By Louisa Lim

Published February 21, 2007 at 3:31 PM EST

The latest guru to inspire a crop of books about doing business in China died 60 years ago. Carl Crow was an American advertising agent who arrived in Shanghai in 1911 with one suitcase, and stayed three decades.

His book 400 Million Customers was a blockbuster hit in 1937, and recently has spawned a crop of modern-day imitators.

Many of his insights about Chinese customers — and doing business in the Middle Kingdom — still hold true today, despite a half-century of communist rule.

Louisa Lim

Beijing Correspondent Louisa Lim is currently attending the University of Michigan as a Knight-Wallace Fellow. She will return to her regular role in 2014.

See stories by Louisa Lim

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

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