Asia Pacific

North America | Asia Pacific | South Asia | Latin America

We know this region well, as well as anyone can know such a rapidly changing and deeply complicated place. Behind the booming construction, manufacturing, hosting the Olympics, and a so-called consumer revolution, what is happening in Chinese households? How is daily life changing in smaller cities and how are urban residents coping with questions of food and product safetly?

The middle class is growing in Vietnam, too, and new fashions in food, dress, and entertainment are leading enterprises to new questions. And Japan, conservative in some ways and cutting-edge in others, presents quite different questions--about women's economic power, about adolescents' ideas of the future, and about the meaning of "green" products and services--just to name a few.

We can help you understand the social structures, cultural contexts and reasons behind what people do as you develop relationships in China, Vietnam, Japan, or Korea. Our team can provide insights in both urban and rural China, from tier one to tier three cities. We have explored rural villages' youth and computer knowledge, studied IT consumption of migrant workers in urban alleyways, and flown with differently-abled Chinese people to learn how they use aircraft interiors.

We understand culinary cultures of the region quite well, especially in China and Vietnam. Some of us, being a part of these cultures ourselves, understand regional cuisines, how people cook and eat, and the history behind the food first hand. We claim a certain cultural expertise, not only because we love to eat but also because we have conducted research on Vietnamese food preparation and packaging, and recently, an exploration of the emerging place of wine in Vietnamese gustatory pleasure. And Ben Ross knows his regional Chinese restaurant culture better than anyone we know--Chinese or gringo.