Archive for Knowledge and Experiences
September 14, 2008 at 11:02 pm · Filed under Uncategorized, Knowledge and Experiences, Tourism, Learning through Foreign Cultures, Traveling, China News
Despite my doubts whether Beijing would pull off a successful Olympics and the controversy over free press, human rights, the Opening Ceremony, and other issues, in my opinion, China hosted an amazing Olympics. The skies were blue, there were large tracks of greenery, the Olympic Green was very attractive, traffic was not a problem, the volunteers were helpful and spoke English, security was present (most of the time, until you hear my friend’s story) but not imposing, the city was clean (almost sterile), the new subway is sleek and modern, and people were friendly and helpful. Everything was very well done, with a few exceptions. Visitors who didn’t speak Chinese were still at a loss when trying to communicate with taxi drivers and average folk. The buses shuttling spectators between venues were overcrowded and no one knew how else to get between venues. But my biggest complaint is the re-sale ticket market. There were a few scalped tickets available but nothing to justify the many half (or more) empty events. Where were all the other tickets? Where were the tickets to the Water Cube? Nonetheless, those who know Beijing, I believe, were all similarly impressed with how well Beijing pulled off the Olympics.
Unfortunately, those changes were not lasting. Despite the fact that the Paralympics are currently going on, the skies have already greyed over, the pollution has returned, and the streets are jammed again. Some of the changes will remain, though: the renovated airport (now one of the largest in the world), the modern, extensive subway lines, the unique venues of the Water Cube and the Bird’s Nest, and Beijingers pride in having hosted such an unrivaled Olympic games.
If you’re curious for more insight into China and reading the blogs of China-based expats isn’t enough for you, also check out NBC’s lessons in Chinese Culture 101. I can’t say I wholly agree with the portrayal, as many are far from complete and give only positive snippets of Chinese culture, but what makes them interesting is NBC’s take on Chinese culture.
I expect that with the upcoming election, China’s continued phenomenal growth, the 2010 Shanghai Expo, the 2010 Guangzhou Pan Asia games, and everything else, we’ll continue to hear a lot about and from China.
August 4, 2008 at 8:36 pm · Filed under Uncategorized, Knowledge and Experiences, Tourism, Learning through Foreign Cultures, Traveling, Peace Through Tourism, China News
The Beijing 2008 Olympics will start in 4 days!!
As of this morning, my plane tickets to Beijing are bought and in hand! I have a place to stay and the promise of Olympics Games’ tickets. Beijing Olympics, here I come!!!
I’ll be in Beijing from the evening of August 14th to the morning of August 19th if anyone wants to meet up. Yay!!!!
August 4, 2008 at 8:04 pm · Filed under Uncategorized, Knowledge and Experiences, Business Climate, Learning through Foreign Cultures, China News
As of yesterday all the food & drink vendors and retail outlets in and around Shanghai’s subway stations have cleared out their inventory and closed. No more grabbing breakfast in the subway station for me. 
They’ve even put tape over the doors to make sure no one sneaks anything inside. Some larger, more established outlets are still running, such as McDonald’s.
How do they decide who stays and who gets closed down?
Do they compensate the stores that are forced to close?
July 19, 2008 at 8:49 am · Filed under Uncategorized, Knowledge and Experiences, Learning through Foreign Cultures
I have a theory about why Americans downplay their culture of hugging when living as expats in China.
In the US, it is customary for female friends who are close or who haven’t seen each other for a long time to hug as greeting or farewell; the same is true between a male and a female friend. (Male friends shake hands.) Friends who are not close, will usually wave or say hi; in more formal situations they may just shake hands.
In the 2 years I’ve been in China, I’ve noticed that American expats whether in Beijing, Shanghai, or elsewhere have completely abandoned this cultural norm.
Americans have adopted the practice of kiss-kiss, or kissing the air while touching first the right cheek then the left cheek. Two girls, and a girl and a guy will do it. (Two males continue to shake hands.) They don’t even need to be close friends, mere friends or familiar acquaintances are given over to the kiss-kiss greeting.
This kiss-kiss greeting is common in Latin American culture and European culture. Notably, French and Italians do 2 kisses, while Argentines and Dutch do 3.
I, as an American expat in Shanghai, have become accustomed to doing the kiss-kiss greeting and farewell to such an extent that when Americans who are in town visiting hug me I am shocked and feel somewhat uncomfortable.
Anyway, on to my theory… My theory is that, largely due to the current administration, because Americans are so hated abroad, we try to diminish our American-ness by adopting other cultural styles. We try to make ourselves seem less American by acting like Europeans or Latin Americans. We attempt to show that we are citizens of the world and embrace other cultures by adopting them as our own, rather than beating them down, much as has been done in Afghanistan or Iraq. Obviously, this more of a necessity and common practice in expat life since daily we seek to be accepted by associates and friends from around the world who are frequently not fond of America. As expats, we are attempting to minimize our American-ness in the presence of a global community and seek acceptance among our kiss-kiss-accustomed peers.
I’m curious to know, if this is just a phenomenon of expats in China, or if this happens among American expats elsewhere in the world. Comments on the expat experience elsewhere and agreements (or not) with my theory are welcome.
As far as whether I like the practice, in some ways I do, as it feels refreshing and somewhat less awkward than the standard American hug. However, sometimes I do miss the benefits and closeness of a hug.
June 29, 2008 at 6:06 am · Filed under Uncategorized, Knowledge and Experiences, Tourism, Business Climate
This article published this last week on Yahoo, entitled Olympics could be a bust for Beijing hotels, confirms many of my predictions:
China has spent a reported $40 billion on new infrastructure and stunning venues, hoping to impress visitors with a modern city when the games begin Aug. 8. But the lack of reservations could shake the city’s hotel industry, which has more than doubled its five- and four-star hotels offerings to 160 since Beijing was awarded the Olympics seven years ago.
Ha declined to reveal his hotel’s occupancy rate, but he expressed concern over a report last month from the Beijing Tourism Bureau that showed five-star hotels were 77 percent booked, and four stars were at 44 percent.
Well, the occupancy rate was higher than I’d heard, but still not great when you consider,
Some five-star hotels are in good shape — at least during the Olympics — because they secured reservations from Olympic sponsors or Olympic committee delegations.
[…]
“They need to come, and they have no choice to turn back now,” Sander said. “They have put so much money down, they cannot draw back.”
Even all the greedy apartment owners are finding themselves not only without sky high Olympics rentals, but with no tenants at all.
In response to questions about visas,
“Beijingers will enthusiastically welcome foreign tourists,” said Zhang Huiguang, director of the Beijing Tourism Bureau. “But for terrorists and troublemakers, we’ll unite and fight against them.”
I like the use of the term ‘troublemakers.’ China is openly acknowledging they’re not just worried about terrorists but also about protecting their image. As such,
Students have been targeted too, because the government fears they might side with political activists if protests erupt during the games.
Anyway, just read the article, and if you have Olympics tickets (or know someone who does) but aren’t going to use them, I’m already here and I’m happy to buy them from you!
June 21, 2008 at 2:44 am · Filed under Uncategorized, Knowledge and Experiences
This week before the China release of Dreamworks popular new film, Kung Fu Panda, an artist named Zhao Bandi and two friends protested outside the Beijing State Administration of Radio Film and Television offices. These blogs broke the story (in English) and while they were interested in laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation, I’m more interested in Zhao’s motivation. China Media Blog suggested a possible motivation: “[…]I hate to see a national tragedy used by someone to pump up his own name.” That’s a reasonable theory, since Zhao is an artist who often portrays pandas in his works, he would want to draw attention to his own works.
But I have another theory…While China is so busy crushing dissent behind the scenes, why not manifest a protest over something extremely silly but still controversial among China’s netizens as a way of showing that China tolerates protesters. Just to further hammer home the point, show that a government ministry is willing to meet with protesters and to negotiate with them! Perfect! You have the makings a wonderful show piece for the global media and human rights activists who say: “the Chinese Government’s repression has rapidly upgraded, in an effort to make sure there is no dissident voices from the people during the 2008 Olympics.” Now China can claim, we tolerate protesters and we negotiate with them.
Win-win situation: Chinese government gets positive coverage and Zhao gets attention for his artwork.
Side note: Even though the official release of Kung Fu Panda was Friday, June 20th, many of my colleagues had already seen the movie and spent the whole week laughing and talking about it.
May 11, 2008 at 2:16 am · Filed under Uncategorized, Knowledge and Experiences, Entrepreneurship & Business, Entrepreneurship, Business Climate
You’re planning your next internet company, you intend to reach out to a broad audience-the whole world, so where do you base it-West Coast of the US, Europe, or China? (This is by no means a comprehensive analysis of this topic.) These are a few thoughts I have on the relative advantages of each location, based on what I know about the SNS (social networking) for language learning industry, including my Shanghai-based employer.
Advantages of China–
- Lower cost structure (labor, facilities & equipment)
- Huge market, the Chinese love their interactive, instant gratification web apps
- Entrepreneurial spirit, try anything, wild west gold rush mentality
- VCs (Venture Capitalists) may be looking more at China’s internet players because China now has the most internet users in the world, and China’s internet players have more solid histories of revenue flow than Western internet players
- Western students will intern for free just to say they’ve worked/interned in China, ‘the hot new place to be’
China’s distinct Disadvantage
- Relatively inefficient, unproductive programmers, engineers
US’s Advantages–
- High quality technical staff
- Proximity to Silicon Valley & VCs
- Proximity to a lot of tech conferences where you can meet VCs, influential bloggers, potential partners
- Ample opportunity to get your message out because of proximity to influential tech related media
Europe has similar advantages as the US, but not on the scale they exist in the US. There are some tech conferences in Europe, there are VCs in Europe, but the media coverage for tech stuff is relatively limited in Europe.
America’s & Europe’s distinct Disadvantage–
- High costs of labor, office space, infrastructure, etc
In conclusion, Europe seems to offer the fewest benefits. Not surprising, the cost differential makes China a very attractive place to base your start up. The US is the best for getting very influential and widely seen English-language media coverage.
Perhaps the optimal solution is to have the marketing/PR person (or firm) in/near Silicon Valley, the technical team, led by a capable Western project manager, based in China, and the executive going back and forth.
If you thoughts on aspects I’ve overlooked or other ideas, please post them in the comments section below.
April 17, 2008 at 6:18 am · Filed under Uncategorized, Knowledge and Experiences, Learning through Foreign Cultures
The whole situation with T_bet has gotten out of hand. From the blocking of Google News and Youtube to the San Francisco torch protests, and the closing of the Nepal-T_bit border, including stationing Chinese security forces in Kathmandu (talk about national sovereignty & autonomy that China values so highly), to Chinese attacking Chinese who support T_bet independence, this has really gotten out of control.
As if this could get any more absurd, today I was I was verbally attacked (albeit on the internet) by a Chinese person who was upset that I wasn’t equally outraged at CNN’s coverage of the T_bet situation. He claimed CNN’s coverage was damaging to China’s reputation and full of complete lies.
My response:
1) I haven’t seen any of CNN’s coverage therefore I can’t agree or disagree;
2) I’m not in T_bet, nor have I been following the historical-political situation; therefore, I am in no position to say what is truly happening or who is in the right;
3) I am not the outlet to which you should be expressing your grievances because
a) I already live in China, not in the US,
b) I do not control CNN, and
c) I don’t even own stock in CNN.
4) Perhaps you should be a little more open-minded about the whole situation and try to see both perspectives.
5) Did you ever consider maybe it’s the Chinese media that is telling the lies?
6) Since when did China have a good reputation to begin with in the English-language press?
Perhaps what’s more embarrassing and damaging to China’s reputation is that Chinese people are searching for fellow countrymen’s pictures and information on the internet to hunt them down and throw rocks at their house all in the name of nationalism. (I sure the West can still remember what happened last time a population had feelings of such extreme nationalism (think WWII).)
Maybe the reason the Chinese government maintains the Great Firewall of China and heavily censors the media is not for self-preservation, but to protect foreigners (expats) from the violence and anger that ensues when Chinese citizens don’t like what foreign governments or news media say and do. (That was a joke, by the way.)
P.S. If this doesn’t get my blog blocked in China, I don’t know what will.
March 25, 2008 at 5:53 am · Filed under Uncategorized, Knowledge and Experiences, Entrepreneurship & Business
China’s internet firewall has been working in overdrive lately in the wake of the crackdown on the Tibet protests. Last week Google video and Youtube (owned by Google) were down all week; Youtube came back online on Sunday. Google News in English, news.google.com, was even down for a day! Last week, I also ran into other screens and filters that normally don’t impede my surfing of the net in China, indicating that indeed, China’s internet censors were working overtime.
Despite all the blocking, what I found interesting is that my Chinese colleagues knew about the situation in Tibet even before I did (I wasn’t really watching the news when it started). Many of them had also seen videos of the situation before all the videos sites got blocked.
Though the Chinese government has only temporarily blocked international videos sites such as Youtube, it’s taking a harder stance with Chinese sites and forcing many to shut down altogether. To escape a similar fate, Google has and continues to filter its news.google.cn results for searches in mainland China.
If all this is frustrating to you, try a new Wiki site called Wikileaks which is dedicated to getting information in front of the public eye. Wikileaks released many videos and photos of the Tibet situation, and is, not surprisingly, blocked. However, a simple proxy server will solve that problem and the videos are a lot easier to view than Youtube’s were all last week.
If the great firewall of China still hinders your movement around the net, options include the Firefox plug-in Gladder and Tor, a volunteer relay system that allows users to surf the web anonymously. Tor may be just the answer we China-based, avid internet users need to have full access to the information available on the internet.
March 23, 2008 at 6:07 am · Filed under Uncategorized, Knowledge and Experiences
My Review of Mao
Some people raved about Mao, others said it was too pretentious and snobby. Those conflicting statements had me intrigued and when my friend offered guestlist=free entrance, I jumped at the chance to go check out the club everyone in Shanghai is talking about. Arriving at Mao on Saturday night, even with our name on the guestlist, it was only girls in free, guys still had to pay RMB50. Normally girls pay RMB50 and guys RMB100, so we weren’t complaining. Then as we strided past the door guard they handed us handcuffs with a card attached saying, “We are Pervert.” What is that supposed to mean and what am I supposed to do with the handcuffs except be annoyed that I have to hold them in the club?
The decor and the layout were nothing to rave about. We headed to the bar where my friend ordered juice and was shocked that her drink was RMB40 given that she didn’t get the drink coupon given to paid entrants. After taking her drink order, preparing it, charging her, and giving her the change, the bartender still hadn’t taken the rest of our drink orders. Just as I’d decided that he was useless, he remembered to take the rest of our drink orders and even better, forget to charge me for my drink.
Mao had a lot of white staff members, even for a club in Shanghai: bartenders, managers, DJ, even go-go dancers. The trio of dancers were wearing either too much black leather or just too few clothes. The shirtless guy had a dog collar and chain around his neck. I assume they were meant to reinforce the theme.
The music was good, Euro dance, and by midnight the dancefloor was packed. The crowd seemed slightly snobby but not even justifiably so given that, in general, they were not particularly good-looking, well-dressed, or (seemingly) monied. Still, with free entrance, a free drink, and good dancing, I enjoyed it and I’d go again.
The use of the name Mao is the epitome of irony given that Mao Ze Dong was the antithesis of everything that club represents: openness, freedom, and capitalism.
What’s the deal with PSB guards at clubs?
What purpose do Public Security Bureau policemen serve at clubs? If a fight breaks out, is one of them really going to stop it? No, that’s what bouncers are for. If someone starts an anti-communist rally in a club, is one guy really going to control it? Doubtful, on multiple levels. They are also clearly not there to prevent prostitution. Then, why are they there? It’s also curious that I only notice them at bars and clubs along Hengshan Road.
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