References are also very cultural, so you should be careful. Chinese references tend to be of very little value. They are full of useless praise along the lines

References are also very cultural, so you should be careful. Chinese references tend to be of very little value. They are full of useless praise along the lines of "He comes from an excellent family". My wife's current boss (Professor) has an interesting technique. If he has a good postdoc, and wants them to get a faculty job, he writes a reference letter and starts it with something along the lines of "You should not hire this person, and here is why: ". If nothing else it makes sure someone reads the letter, and he has a very high rate of success this way. Roughly 75% of his postdocs get hired for faculty positions in a field where less than 15% of postdocs go on to get academic jobs.