China's Creative Imperative: How Creativity is Transforming Society and Business in China

Cover image from China's Creative Imperative, by Kunal Sinha

By Kunal Sinha
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc

"Important reading for managers seeking competitive advantage, as Chinese business moves ahead from a manufacturing-focused economy."
— John Quelch, Senior Associate Dean and Lincoln Filene Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School

"I've learnt from my experience in China to never under-estimate the Chinese. Kunal's insight creates a compelling case that they have what it takes to move beyond the world's factory to become a force in creativity. "
— Colin Giles, President, Nokia China

Based on interviews with a wide range of creators – designers, musicians, folk artists, painters, discussions with common people about the role that creativity played in their seemingly mundane lives, and extensive trawling of the popular culture scene in China, China’s Creative Imperative provides rich evidence and a provocative point-of-view that businesses should find hard to ignore. While the subject matter of this undertaking is as vast and diverse as the idea of creativity itself, Sinha and his team discovered several trends in modern Chinese creativity, along with key insights valuable to any business hoping to grow in China, such as:

– The explosion of creativity in China pervades every class of society. It provides both aesthetic and functional value, adding meaning, joy and a sense of achievement in life.
– Creativity in China is a tool, a strategy for social and economic reform. Businesses and individuals alike are profiting from it.
– Evidence that China has all the necessary conditions and ingredients to transform itself from 'made in China' to 'created in China'.

“Mr. Sinha’s talent in ferreting out the truth about modern China is second to none, and with his new book he has tapped into something that is both overlooked and vital to the future of Chinese culture and its relationship to the world at large,” said TB Song, Chairman of Ogilvy Group, Greater China. “The creative drive behind new China is something he captures very well, and it is indeed an imperative to read this book in order to understand how design and creativity will drive China’s growth in the future.”

Richly illustrated with pictures, China’s Creative Imperative differs from other China books which focus primarily on doing business in China and instead examines how the Chinese go about their own business, in very creative ways. This book shows how Chinese seek to be inspired by their past as much as by what happens in other parts of the world; they see themselves as integrated into the world, not being isolated. This is a work about learning and seeking inspiration from everyone.

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About the Author

Kunal Sinha is Executive Director – Discovery at Ogilvy & Mather Greater China, where he oversees the consumer insight & knowledge management function across all divisions of the company. He has spent over 19 years in the advertising profession, mostly in the account planning and consumer insight functions.

He is a five-time winner of the WPP Atticus award for original thinking in the marketing services, and has won the Grand Prix twice. He has been adjunct faculty at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, and an invited speaker at London Business School, Kent State University, Johns Hopkins University, Peking University and Syracuse University. He was listed in the millennium edition of the Who’s Who in the World, and has authored a large number of papers and articles in academic and business journals, including a paper on Marketing to India’s Underserved Consumers presented at Harvard Business School.

Kunal enjoys leading a double life – in his other one, he has published two books, ‘An Ordinary Traveller’, about travels in south Asia and ‘A Banarasi on Varanasi’, an insider’s perspective on Hinduism’s holiest city. He lives in Shanghai with his wife and daughter.