Like gunpowder and printing, China had etiquette before most of the rest of us. But Confucius has been dead a long time and Mao Zedong got rid of what remained, leaving the Chinese with a reputation around the world for having more money than manners.
Sara Jane Ho, the 27-year-old quintilingual founder of Institute Sarita, Beijing’s version of a Swiss finishing school, plans to change all that by teaching outward-bound Chinese how not to act like the so-called “ugly Americans” of yore. Her timing could be just about perfect.
“Debutantes are becoming big in China,” says Shaun Rein of China Market Research in Shanghai. “It’s definitely a very good market. There are a lot of ‘wannabes’ out there these days.”