Media personality Katerina Cozias interviews Geshe Michael Roach about his new book China Love You: The Death of Global Competition. The conversation focuses on China’s rapid rise, the cultural gap perceived by many Westerners, and Roach’s “Four-Step” method for personal and professional success.
Bridging the Cultural Gap
Roach recalls a warning from his dentist before his first visit—“Be careful; they’re very rough people”—and admits that many Americans still view China as the “farthest possible cultural gap.” Yet his own trips overturned those fears when he witnessed Beijing’s transformation “from all bicycles” to “500,000 new cars a year.”
“China, I think for an American, is the farthest possible cultural gap.”
(0:13 – 0:19)
Cozias adds that China’s population is nearly four times that of the United States and that it borders fourteen nations—yet has largely maintained peaceful relations with all of them, underscoring lessons the West might learn.
The Four-Step Method from the Diamond Cutter Sutra
Roach explains that his well-known Four-Step process comes directly from the Diamond Cutter Sutra, whose Chinese edition is the oldest printed book in the world. He emphasizes that Chinese culture has “been feeding off these ideas for thousands of years” (2:25 – 2:34), suggesting that this long-term perspective underlies the country’s swift economic and social advances.
