There's two massive (i.e. large GDP und PPP) largely homogeneous markets in the world: the USA and China. If you want to hit the Chinese market with your produc

There's two massive (i.e. large GDP und PPP) largely homogeneous markets in the world: the USA and China. If you want to hit the Chinese market with your products knowing Mandarin and the culture is essential, just as knowing US culture and English is essential for bringing products into the US Market. All projections have the Chinese market greatly surpassing the US over the next 30 years and cementing its role as the primary consumer market in the world. So having said this Mandarin is extremely difficult and its only going to be useful if you plan on actively using the language - to build products, to get clients, to hit chinese markets, or to enjoy the culture - literature,films,music, etc. To this point, the films, music, and cultural wealth of China is already quite rich and only getting better by the day as more and more money poors into Chinese households and the standards of living increase. I certainly expect China to eventually take a center stage in media production just like Hollywood of the US, actually surpassing Hollywood. You can already see this happening as China is poised to overtake the North American film market this year. (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hollywood-china-a-fad-future-887134 http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hollywood-china-a-fad-...)