CHINA

摘要

If standard venture investing is a bunch of rich guys playing high-stakes poker behind a black velvet rope, investing in China is an even higher-stakes poker game played on some private floor where showgirls feed gamblers grapes and wipe their brows with scented hankies. It's risky and full of distractions, yet it's also potentially very rewarding to those who are able to get in on the ground floor. And, for all the business activity that has taken place in China in the last decade, it is still very much a ground-floor opportunity. To gain perspective on the role that venture capital has begun to play in China, you have to try to understand China, and therein lies its greatest impediment: China is nuance personified. While our frontier mentality allows the United States to view every historical tragedy or triumph as an opportunity to wipe the slate clean and begin anew, this viewpoint is largely inadequate in China, where the impact of historical events lingers a little longer.