Re-branding A Culture
Six weeks ago when we were all saying Happy New Year, it seemed more like a question than an exclamation. If the monotony of the pandemic makes today feel like December 74th, you might get a spirit lift by switching to the lunar calendar. Say “Happy 4718!” and “Happy Year of the Ox!” and hopefully your attitude will improve.
The lunar calendar is one of many, many things that people don’t understand about Chinese culture. I have been in sales and marketing my entire professional life, and I have been Chinese-American for even longer. So I feel qualified to suggest that Chinese people have done a pretty lousy job marketing themselves in the Western world. And that we could really benefit from some re-branding.
American history books capture the immigration of Chinese laborers to build the Transcontinental Railroad in the 1860s. The Chinese were seen at the time as hard-working people who were both praised for their intellect and industrious nature and demonized for their cultural differences and threat to displace whites in the job market. Fast forward 150 years, the current view of the Chinese is that they are hard-working people who are praised for their intellect and industrious nature and demonized for their cultural differences and threat to displace whites in the job market (and in the top US schools).
There was an unofficial brand re-positioning campaign for Chinese-Americans back in the 1950s, and my family had a central role in it. In the period following World War II, immigration from Europe and Asia was on the rise; the Eisenhower administration was intent on assimilating immigrants to become Americans by being law-abiding, hard-working, and patriotic. My paternal grandmother (Toy Len Goon) came to America in the 1920s, she ran a hand laundry in Portland ME while raising eight children who all went on to college and became successful professionals. Her life story fit the “Model Minority” image that the US government wanted to promote, and in 1952 she was named American Mother of the Year, the first immigrant to receive this honor. For Chinese-Americans and also for relatives back in the home country, there was a genuine uplift of pride in being Chinese and optimism of being accepted in America’s melting pot.
I was born five years after my grandmother was named American Mother of the Year, and it’s entirely possible that was the last marketing effort that the Chinese in this country have benefitted from. For this drought I feel we can blame Chinese cultural values; whether a Chinese person grows up in a communist or a democratic system, the overarching rules our parents taught us are “we”, not “me”. Don’t draw attention to yourself. You don’t compare yourself to other people. Your accomplishments speak one hundred times louder than your words. Based on these handicaps you can see why Chinese people are crappy at marketing.
Since we Chinese are not going to re-brand ourselves, then it’s left for others to come up with their own brand meaning. So let’s think for a minute about the things that influence how non-Chinese people think of us:
- The Chinese Zodiac. Now is coincidentally the one time of year when people hear about this aspect of Chinese culture, and IMHO it is another example of bad marketing. People get their information from the placemats at their local Chinese restaurants, with the main takeaway that everybody who is born in the same year has the same personality traits. It’s hard to decide what’s more appalling: that these “insights” are a representation of Chinese wisdom, or that thousands of Chinese restaurant owners feel that these placemats are a good PR practice to perpetuate. And don’t get me started about fortune cookies.
- Movies. The few Chinese actors who have been popular in the US have been martial arts experts (such as Bruce Lee and Jet Li); they were consistently typecast as stoic, brooding, mysterious heroes that audiences could admire but not relate to. Jackie Chan melded comedy to his martial art skill set, and that novel combination made him likable and contributed to his success. Crazy Rich Asians broke the action-hero mold, but still dealt largely in parodied portrayals of Chinese stereotypes. These are missed opportunities for Chinese brand-building; we sorely need more charismatic, endearing, authentic role models that Chinese men and women can rally around. I have family members who still say, “If Bruce Lee hadn’t died so young, things would be a lot different for Asian males today.”
- Global pandemics. In my lifetime there has been the Asian Flu, SARS, and COVID-19, all originating from mainland China. With the Chinese government being typically close-mouthed in providing details about the causes and the remedies, people in the US fill in the blanks. This is why we hear “Kung Flu”, why Chinese-Americans are verbally and physically assaulted in public spaces, why Chinese restaurants lose 90% of their business overnight. It’s fair to say that when China sneezes, Chinese-Americans catch the cold.
- The Harvard Trial. This is the case where an organization (supposedly) representing a group of Asian-American college applicants sued Harvard for “unfairly” rejecting them and their perfect SAT scores and 4.0 GPAs. The court ruled in favor of Harvard and their admissions practices, and in doing so added two new lines to the existing narrative: first, while these applicants had impeccable academic credentials, their “personal scores” were lower than non-Asian applicants. Second, the playing field is becoming too unbalanced and unfair for everyone else and thus Asian domination is sure to follow. One could call this one a self-inflicted wound for Asians and Chinese; not that the plaintiffs’ case was illegitimate, but the bad optics and the tone-deafness just added to the resentment level.
When it comes to professional advancement, it can be hard to identify the problem Chinese people face. By all accounts, Chinese students are getting into the best prep schools and colleges (even if everyone can’t go Harvard), then getting attractive job opportunities. To their parents’ joy and relief, many are becoming doctors and some are even good at relating to their patients. High Tech, Life Science and Engineering fields are strongly represented by Asian talent, with salary levels well above the mean. To maximize career potential, I can name some vulnerable areas for Chinese professionals to improve: (1) get comfortable and skilled at dealing with corporate politics; (2) learn to advocate for yourself and your career goals via self-promotion; (3) focus on communication and collaboration skills, and see where your individual contribution fit into your organization’s bigger picture.
Speaking of bigger picture, while sharing my thoughts about the plight of the Chinese-American brand it would be wrong to ignore the current state of racial equality in America today. We are not an underserved minority, and while we may not have White Privilege many of us have been drafting behind it for the last 50 years. I hope that everyone has developed a greater understanding of institutional racism upon reflection of Black Lives Matter, and then puts Asian racism into a proper context.
Final thought for my Chinese-American sisters and brothers: clearly there is no Brand Manager who is looking after the image and reputation of Chinese people, no organization or ad agency that is planning a public relations campaign. Therefore, let’s agree that WE are the Chinese-American brand, and individually YOU represent the brand by what you think, say and do. Don’t worry about changing the minds of 300 million Americans, simply focus on the people in your work and personal circles. We can collectively unpack the myths and bring new meaning to the brand, one placemat and one fortune cookie at a time.
Tim Guen is President of CareerMap and provides frequent insights into career-building during economically challenging times.