Asian Godfathers: Money and Power in Hong Kong and South-East Asia

Asian Godfathers: Money and Power in Hong Kong and South-East Asia

by Joe Studwell

Profile Books, HK$220

Every armchair Asia specialist knows about the remarkably small group of tycoons who wield such enormous power in the region. What many of them don't know, or choose to ignore, is the way this power is exercised, where it comes from and - as Joe Studwell shows - how destructive it can be.

Perhaps the greatest strength of this book is its demolition of the myths that surround these men - and, yes, they're all men. If women appear on the godfather stage it's always in the role of wife, mother or daughter of one of the Asian tycoons who, according to Forbes magazine, constitute a third of the two dozen wealthiest people on the planet.

In countless hagiographies they're portrayed as outstandingly shrewd business people, often rising from rags to riches with a strong benevolent inclination. And in Asia there's an unpleasant tendency to explain their success in racial terms because so many of these tycoons are overseas Chinese. The most dedicated propagators of eugenic myths (the prize here goes to Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew, claims Studwell) say that race provides the key to understanding their inherent abilities.

Studwell crushes these stereotypes with enthusiasm. He argues that race doesn't explain the concentration of Chinese tycoons; it's connected with the success of immigrants, much in the same way that immigrants have flourished in other parts of the world.