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Fiorina continues to inspire Chinese women, entrepreneurs
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The Mandarin language version of Fiorina's 2007 autobiograpghy.
Photo courtesy of China CITIC Press.
Senate candidate’s autobiography still a hit in China
BEIJING, CHINA – If China, the world’s most populous country, could vote next year in the U.S. Senate race in California it’s likely that Carly Fiorina would easily win the race. Fiorina, who announced her decision to challenge current U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer this week, is widely admired in China.
Fiorina’s memoir “Tough Choices” was translated into Mandarin and released in China in 2007. The book continues to be prominently displayed in book stores across the country. In it, Fiorina recounts some of her experiences in China as CEO of Hewlett Packard.
“On one of my many trips to China, I was asked to give a lecture at Tsinghua University, the university in Beijing where most of the government leaders have been educated for many decades. The first question I received was from a young woman who asked how I balanced work and family. The second student asked if I had ever thought of starting my own business, and if so, how should she think about starting her own business.
“A young man said he really didn’t like his major and that he’d heard I had quit law school. His parents didn’t want him to change his field of studies, but he wondered if I thought it might be a good idea. I laughed and said, ‘Do you want to go home and tell your parents that Carly Fiorina said it was okay?’ He laughed and so did hundreds of other students,” Fiorina wrote.
Some Chinese said that they can identify with some of the challenges that Fiorina faced. For example, she writes about her decision to drop out of UCLA Law School and worried about disappointing her parents. Many Chinese feel a similar pressure, said Zhang Jun.
“We tend to think that Americans don’t feel as much stress as we do to please our parents. I realized from reading Ms. Fiorina’s book that Western people also feel this pressure. When I decided to move back to my hometown from Beijing, I thought about her words because I felt like a failure. But look at her – she ended up so successful,” he said.
Fiorina also recalled working as an English tutor while living in Italy with her first husband.
“At ten dollars an hour, the teaching work supported us. I was often asked by my businessmen clients to ‘explain American business.’ Of course, I knew very little about it, but, determined to try to respond, I began reading as many American business journals and newspapers as I could get my hands on. Then I would use the most interesting articles to both teach English and talk business. While I hope I earned my money and satisfied my students, those lessons were also a great experience for me,” Fiorina wrote.
Tina Tian said that when she took English classes at a private language training center in Beijing her teacher used Fiorina’s book as required reading.
“Carly’s story really inspired me,” Tian said. “When she was fired from HP, she was offered the opportunity by the board to lie about it and she refused. She could have saved face, but the truth was more important to her. I want to model that same behavior in my career.”
Most Chinese were unaware of Fiorina’s decision to run for office, but wished her well.
“She’s had a lot of experience in her life. As the first woman CEO of a top company, she’s broken many glass ceilings. Americans seem to like leaders who have had challenges, made mistakes, and then learned from them. But I hope she does good things for China,” said Li Ping, a business major at Peking University.
As for Barbara Boxer, Fiorina’s opponent next November, her two novels have yet to be sold in China.
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