YOUNG CHINA HAND
INSPIRED BY true events
A twenty-first-century China hand’s part thriller, part insider tale about the clash between Western wits, Chinese financiers, and farmers.
With the Support of
The National Arts Council of Singapore
about
Matt
Huang, a young investment professional, arrives in Beijing before the 2008
Olympics aiming for gold. He hopes to win lucrative deals to impress his
western bosses at All-Stellar, a high-profile, US$880 million private equity
fund.
Matt’s
first challenge is to gain the trust of Chairman Zhou, a militant entrepreneur
whose firm Dominant Duck becomes All-Stellar’s first China investment. But he
soon finds himself thwarted at every turn, as he grapples with conflicting
interests and a complex web of special guanxi
(connections).
A cataclysmic turn of events on the cusp of Dominant Duck’s
highly-anticipated initial public offering turns Matt into a key pawn in a
hair-raising corporate takeover battle across China. Pressurized to the point
of being hospitalized, held hostage in a duck slaughtering house, betrayed, and
disgraced, he still clings on to the dream of becoming a young Mr. China—until
his princeling-linked nemesis shows his expert hand.
Inspired by true events from 2008 to 2013, the novel explores the broader cross-cultural clashes faced by foreign firms and individuals operating in China, through Matt's struggle to prove his loyalty and mettle amidst an emerging class of young, pedigreed, well-connected China hands. The book's title also references the patriotic, intrepid American diplomats and reporters during World War II who ventured into the heart of China to provide vital intelligence to the US government. When an outcry over "Who lost China to the Reds?" broke out in the US, these China hands of yore were made scapegoats - a humiliation that finds slight echoes in Matt's turbulent experience in China.
authors
MATT HUANG
GRACE HSU
PRAISE FOR YOUNG CHINA HAND
What is the next generation of China business leaders really thinking? Does it require the experience of an old veteran China watcher to figure out this increasingly important question? Or maybe a newcomer with a sharp eye can better understand the shifting ambitions, mindsets and attitudes of the younger generations of Chinese, particularly the emerging foreign educated elite. If you buy into that increasingly persuasive argument and want a fresh look at new China, then Young China Hand is the book you need to read.
Tim Clissold, international best-selling author of Mr. China, and Chinese Rules: Mao’s Dog, Deng’s Cat and Five Timeless Lessons from the Front Lines in China
Young China Hand combines a gripping narrative about an epic battle for control between Chinese and foreign partners, with insights into the personalities, powers and policies that shaped China’s rise in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. A rare gem among the numerous books about doing business in China, this novel entertains as much as it informs readers.
Shao Zili, Co-Chairman of King & Wood Mallesons China’s Management Committee, and former CEO and Chairman of J.P. Morgan China
This is more than just a riveting novel about smart money, fraud, betrayal, and a struggle for redemption. It is also a window into twenty-first-century China, written with clear-eyed realism by two overseas Chinese-Singaporeans with a unique perspective on issues of East-West differences, identity and values.
ChinHwee Tan, co-author of Asian Financial Statement Analysis: Detecting Financial Irregularities
Young China Hand brings the reader deep into the opaque and treacherous world of business in China through fast-paced storytelling and vivid descriptions of a changing China. Matt Huang and Grace Hsu have skillfully blurred the lines between fiction and fact, offering a clever blend which will interest both serious China watchers and those less familiar with the rising power of our age.
Peh Shing Huei, author of When The Party Ends, and former China bureau chief and news editor of The Straits Times
Young China Hand is as much a thriller as it is a case study about China investing, private equity style. This gripping tale exposes the pitfalls of not responding wisely to the evolving demands, vanities and special interests of twenty-first-century Chinese entrepreneurs, financiers and young China Hands. Those who wish to avoid the tragic (and comic)—yet not uncommon—mistakes described in the book would do well to read closely. As a bonus, it also teaches about duck farming!
Michael Prahl, Partner at Asia-IO, and Distinguished Fellow, INSEAD Private Equity Centre
The risks and potential of China’s economy has become an increasingly important topic in global media and in business literature. What makes Young China Hand an outstanding book is its in-depth exploration of the complex environment in which Chinese entrepreneurs, who still form the backbone of the economy, have to operate. The book offers a fascinating character study of a typical Chinese founder, whose new ventures have great potential to provide jobs, invigorate communities, and create wealth for investors, but whose complex psychology and motivations can also pose huge risks for stakeholders—and even the broader financial system.
