Duration

4 months (2021)

Tools

Google Workspace apps, Miro, Typeform

Role

Lead Researcher

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Under A Non-disclosure Agreement

Some of the details in this case study may be vague to protect the client's intellectual property.

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When we kicked off this project, the question on the table was deceptively practical: how does an organisation that's built on Chinese language and culture stay relevant to a generation that didn't grow up the same way their parents did? Business China had the legacy. The question was whether the next generation saw themselves in it.

Challenge

The usual assumption is that tradition and modernity are in tension. But when we spoke to students and young professionals, we found something more interesting. Mandarin wasn't just homework or heritage - for many of them, it was possibility. A way to connect, compete, and carve out space in a future that was becoming more global and more Chinese at the same time.

So the real question shifted: how does Business China stay meaningful in that in-between space, grounded in its legacy but genuinely reaching forward?

How we listened

We talked to both sides of the bridge:

• Surveys to understand how youth think about Chinese culture, language, and ambition.
• Focus groups with students and young professionals - the people who'd actually shape Business China's next chapter
• And conversations with stakeholders and leaders, to understand the organisation's long-term vision and, just as importantly, its unspoken hopes

Post-fieldwork debrief and synthesis

A clear theme kept surfacing: this generation doesn't want to be spoken down to. They want dialogue, agency, and a chance to remix tradition on their own terms.