Clearing Western misconceptions about China

Editor's note: As the People's Republic of China celebrates the 75th anniversary of its founding this year, China Daily asked prominent international figures to reflect on their relationship with the country and to talk of the direction in which they see it going. "My experiences of working in China and spending time with Chinese people taught me to question the old, accepted stereotypes," said Geldart, who wrote three books about China and is now director-general of the Institute of Directors, or IoD, a 120-year-old member community of business leaders and directors in the United Kingdom and beyond. "I started to read books on China and then the Chinese Classics, including The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Journey to the West, Dream of the Red Chamber and Water Margin as well as I Ching, also known as The Book of Changes," he said. Thinking that there was a wider truth to be told about the people of China, apart from business, he then talked to more than 300 people in almost two years and published Notes From a Beijing Coffeeshop in 2015, which provides a series of fascinating observations of how people are really doing business and living in today's fast-changing China. Geldart said writing the books allowed him to scratch much deeper into the way of life of many ordinary Chinese and taught him a lot more than he would ever have got through just reading books or flying in and out to "do business".