What I Learned about Public Relations in China

Last month, I spent two weeks traveling through China to complete my final class as a graduate student at VCU. The course, Public Relations & Journalism in China, was a cultural and educational experience that I will never forget. 

Before the trip I tried to prepare myself for culture shock by attempting to brush up on some Mandarin—total fail, I entered the country knowing how to say “hello,” “thank you,” and “I love you panda bear”—but one of the things I was most unsure about was what exactly there was to learn about public relations in China.

I knew that public relations was going to be different in a country ruled by the Communist Party of China, but I wasn’t sure exactly how it would be different. As part of our educational experience we met with the EVP of Ketchum China, the president of Ogilvy for North Asia, the bureau chief for the Associated Press in Shanghai and an online editor for Shanghai Daily. Here’s a recap of what I learned:

1. Public relations firms in China are growing — As many brands are expanding their operations to include outreach in China, a marketplace once controlled by small mom and pop PR firms has transformed into one driven by large, internationally known firms such as Ogilvy, Ketchum and Edelman.
2. Social media is huge — On the mainland, many of the social networking sites we use here in the US are blocked by the Chinese government. This doesn’t stop everyone from accessing these sites, which means as a PR person you may still need to manage them for clients. Additionally, China has its own social media sites such as Weibo, which had 564 million users as of 2012. Comparatively, there are around 200 million Facebook users in America.
3. Events, celebrities and online videos are key elements of most large scale public relations campaigns — Just ask the Backstreet Boys. 
4. Campaigns can be censored or stopped by the government — The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the General Administration of Press and Publication have the authority to censor or stop public relations campaigns in China. Additionally, reporters are often given instructions from the Department of Publicity (known as the Department of Propaganda in China).
5. There’s one time zone in China, but international business doesn’t care about time zones — The days never seemed to end for the business people we met. China’s lone time zone is 12 hours ahead of New York. So if you are involved in international business in Shanghai, once you get home from your rush hour drive at 7 p.m. New York is just waking up, which means your work day will. never. end.  And that doesn’t even begin to consider the fact that in 3 hours, people in Los Angeles will need to talk to you as well. Good luck staying awake for that conference call.
6. Cultural differences mean different ethical lines — It is not out of the question to pay for a reporter’s traveling expenses to come to an event you’ve invited them to, in fact it’s almost a given.

For me, my biggest takeaway was realizing that the world is so much larger than I could even imagine. And while my study abroad trip only lasted two weeks, I feel as though I left China with memories and knowledge that will last a lifetime.