This wasn't meant to be mean or condescending, although it probably reads as such.
For good or ill, Harry is bang on the money here. Most of the foreigners I know researched China as intensely as possible before coming here and thought we knew what we were getting into. This is good for a laugh, looking back!
That you read blogs and websites is fine, state controlled media is pretty much useless IMO, talking with (outside) Chinese is an excellent idea.
But don't think you're going to get here and be able to make face and influence networks work for you day one. Having a basic idea of the concepts of face won't do that for you. It doesn't work that way. It just doesn't.
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