In his first book, Enter the Ageing Dragon..., Bromme Hampton Cole artfully narrated the emergence of modern aged-care in China through the entertaining lens of classical film. He explored the efforts of the Chinese to reconcile local customs of care giving to international standards and examined foreign companies' efforts to find their footing in a nascent industry. In Dragon with a Cane he reaches beyond the realm of senior care business issues and plumbs the human experience of ageing in China. Using his singular ability to effectively communicate, he interviews 8 elderly Chinese men and women, gives them a voice and presents their vulnerabilities and intimate challenges with profound human sentience. Collectively, the stories depict a cultural odyssey of those whose lives began in the early 20th century and are coming to a close in the dawn of the 21st; a mix of tearful tragedies and joyous victories, these profiles convey a real history of the subject's lives, respectfully and poignantly. In a parallel narrative, Cole draws upon the profiles as case studies and formulates a comprehensive social theory for aged-care in China. Dragon with a Cane is, in a very real sense, an ethnographic manifesto of the elderly Chinese experience; a seminal work in every respect.
About the Author: Over the past 7 years in China, Bromme Hampton Cole has been tagged by Asian journalists as a transformational leader, disruptive businessman and at times, a dissident entrepreneur. He outright rejects such characterizations as superficial. They are, however, a result of his maverick ideas and inextinguishable enthusiasm which has been shaking up China's aged-care health industry in effective ways. Bromme is zealously devoted to challenging the status quo, seeking overlooked opportunities in the healthcare value chain and implementing dynamic solutions. In a recent interview, the Straits Times called him "...the rarest of businessmen: a healthcare iconoclast." Bromme finds this portrayal slightly eccentric, but welcomes its ostensible percipience. Out of the boardroom, Bromme satisfies his passion for adventure with a keen enthusiasm for custom motorcycles. But when among close friends and staff, Bromme transposes; he is beguiling and reflective, visualizing his role as a force multiplier within the senior healthcare industry. And in quieter moments, he is a voracious scribe; he has written two books on China's massive demographic transition; his third is forthcoming. Yet in simplest terms, Bromme is best explained as an intrepid idealist who thrives on the edge of a power curve...never yielding, always progressing and unconcerned with mistakes. He openly acknowledges being mercurial, pensive to the point of absentmindedness and an impenitent aesthete. He has several businesses in China, among them "iHuHuHu", the revolutionary mobile healthcare APP, "WeBamboo", China's first volunteer platform and "Care Expo", China's most important B2B aged-care conference and trade show. He can be contacted via Linkedin or brommecole@yahoo.com.