The first biography of Carl Crow - one of the best-known and most successful Americans to live and work in Shanghai between the wars. After a successful career as a newspaperman and the proprietor of China's largest advertising agency in the 1930s he went on to write over a dozen books on China including the best selling series of anecdotes of his time in Shanghai: Four Hundred Million Customers.
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'Carl Crow's story of rags to riches to rags again set against the turbulent history of Shanghai makes for a gripping read. As a newshound, businessman, writer and entrepreneur, Crow's insights into China's modernization - and Western fantasies about the China market - are as fresh and illuminating as they were at the time. This is much more than a biography but brings together the whole story of Shanghai's rise and fall. The book is full of vivid details and amusing and sometimes sad stories which anyone interested in Shanghai's future and its past will enjoy.' - Jasper Becker, author of The Chinese and Hungry Ghosts
From the Inside Flap
Carl Crow arrived in Shanghai in 1911 and made the city his home for the next quarter of a century, working there as a journalist, newspaper proprietor, and groundbreaking adman. He also did stints as a hostage negotiator, emergency police sergeant, gentleman farmer, go-between for the American government, and propagandist. In the 1930s Crow wrote a pioneering book - 400 Million Customers - that encouraged a flood of businesses into the China market in an intriguing foreshadowing of today's boom.
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More About the Author
Paul French lives in Shanghai, where he is a business advisor and analyst. He frequently comments on China for the English-speaking press around the world. French studied history, economics, and Mandarin at university and has an M.Phil. in economics from the University of Glasgow.
Customer Reviews
“ With China in such obvious ascent, we of the West owe ourselves and the coming generations a better understanding of the country and its history. ”
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I enjoyed the book because Carl Crow did live an interesting life (journalism, marketing and hobnobbing with China's elite), in an interesting place (Shanghai) at an interesting time (pre World War 2).
That said, I have a few complaints. It is obvious that the author was working with very incomplete archival material, as the book has a "distance" from the subject that if he had talked to many people who had known Carl Crow should not be present. I felt like I was reading a summary of other reports, rather than a book that made Carl Crow really come alive. It is unfortunate that no one wrote a good biography before he died or shortly thereafter.
Secondly, I think the editing was terrible. Numerous times throughout the book, I read something and I said "Didn't I just read that?", and there it was - a similiar fact or statement in the paragraph above. No excuse for that kind of thing...
By far the best part of the book for me was when Japan invaded and the recently evacuated Carl Crow decided to go back to China, via the Burma Road, to report on the resistance and drum up support for China in America. This had the makings of engrossing book right there but unfortunately it was only one chapter of this effort.
That said, I have a few complaints. It is obvious that the author was working with very incomplete archival material, as the book has a "distance" from the subject that if he had talked to many people who had known Carl Crow should not be present. I felt like I was reading a summary of other reports, rather than a book that made Carl Crow really come alive. It is unfortunate that no one wrote a good biography before he died or shortly thereafter.
Secondly, I think the editing was terrible. Numerous times throughout the book, I read something and I said "Didn't I just read that?", and there it was - a similiar fact or statement in the paragraph above. No excuse for that kind of thing...
By far the best part of the book for me was when Japan invaded and the recently evacuated Carl Crow decided to go back to China, via the Burma Road, to report on the resistance and drum up support for China in America. This had the makings of engrossing book right there but unfortunately it was only one chapter of this effort.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
A book on the varied career of an American businessman/author in China during the first half of the last century. Carl Crow is still worth reading about today both as an early example of Western commercial influence and involvement in the Middle Kingdom and because of his observations on the scrambled internal politics that ultimately led to war with Japan and later the Communist takeover. (Anyone who knew Chaig Kai-Shek, Zhou En-lai, the Soong sisters, and Owen Latttimore is worth some time.)
I think the author (and/or his editor) might have spent more time polishing this text's prose to remove some small but noticeable style errors. At the same time, I think Mr. French exhibits in his book a very keen understanding of the complex politics that confronted China between the two world wars. He does not lapse into giving us just the story of Mr. Crow. This is really a social and political history of a great city and nation during turbulent times.
I think the author (and/or his editor) might have spent more time polishing this text's prose to remove some small but noticeable style errors. At the same time, I think Mr. French exhibits in his book a very keen understanding of the complex politics that confronted China between the two world wars. He does not lapse into giving us just the story of Mr. Crow. This is really a social and political history of a great city and nation during turbulent times.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Good Introduction to early 20th century China through the eyes of Carl Crow
March 14, 2008
Format:Hardcover
Carl Crow was an American journalist, then later, adman in Shanghai. His engagement with China started almost accidentally, but over time, like many westerners who have spent time in China, he came to identify with the country, and especially with average Chinese citizens, who suffered much through the civil wars, then Japanese invasion. To quote Crow himself (through French's book)"No one can live in intimate contact with the Chinese without coming to act and think like them, to take on a likeness which is more than superficial. Even the British and American missionaries have not been able to escape this. There is a great deal of the Chinese in every one of them who has lived long in this country."
Paul French has done an excellent job of capturing the mood of the country and people during a chaotic time in its long history. For those who are interested in getting a deeper understanding of contemporary China and what drives the Chinese today, they would do well to treat this book as a introduction to where China and the Chinese are today, and where it is likely to go in the future.
Paul French has done an excellent job of capturing the mood of the country and people during a chaotic time in its long history. For those who are interested in getting a deeper understanding of contemporary China and what drives the Chinese today, they would do well to treat this book as a introduction to where China and the Chinese are today, and where it is likely to go in the future.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Excellent Recounting of an Interpid Businessmen during Shanghai's...
There are many books on the market about Shanghai. However, Mr. French's book is your best choice for seeing how Shanghai's past is prelude to the present. Read more
Published on April 17, 2007 by sinophile
5.0 out of 5 stars
To understand Shanghai today, understand Shaghai yesterday
Carl Crow was a unique individual in a unique time and place -- early 20th century Shanghai. His best-selling book, 400 Million Customers, published more that 70 years ago, is... Read more
Published on March 13, 2007 by John D. Van Fleet
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