This is China! blog

I’m a bit annoyed as a Science Fiction fan the film “Inception” has not yet appeared on local theater screens here in China. I write in The Diplomat…

“I haven’t seen Aftershock, nor have I any intention of seeing it since it just seems like a bigger budget version of the kind of thing they show so often on Chinese TV in which earthquake/flood/typhoon (take your pick) demolishes a happy Chinese town (which seems a bit of an oxymoron in these days), after which the People’s Liberation Army marches in and picks up the pieces (literally). Actually, I only have to turn on the nightly news here to see the PLA march in to save the day after a flood/mudslide/drought/typhoon/earthquake has decimated a region.”

Read more …

A recent round of banquets with local government officials inspired me to post a blog on The Diplomat:

One of my colleagues refers to the endless rounds of saucy dishes served at government banquets and countless rounds of toasts as ‘speed dating’. The idea at these meetings between government officials who want to entice investors into their region and these potential investors is to bond as quickly as possible by making one’s body as uncomfortable from over-consumption as possible. Hosts call out to banquet guests ‘gan bei!’ (empty glass), with toasts between two people more like races to the bottom of the glass. As one government official in the Shandong Province coastal city of Yantai once put it to me, ‘I am ruining my health for our relationship.’

Check out the rest of the article here.

Image credit: Cultural China

Over at The Diplomat I’ve a post on the innovative ways in which local Suzhou DVD shop owners are honoring China’s national pledges to protect Intellectual and Creative Property Rights.

The sale of domestic DVDs is lightly regulated in mainland China, so illicit copies of films by Zhou Ren Fa (Chow Yun Fat), Anthony Tse, Zhao Wei and the two Bing Bings (Li and Fang) are de rigueur in such shops. So are Japanese and South Korean films, and especially South Korean soap operas, which are hugely popular in China (rich boy meets not-as-rich-girl, tries to catch girl, who demurs for many episodes, eventually feeling great affection for the young man whereupon the girl announces she’s going to die—which she does, slowly and painfully and to a flood of tears. Not mine, of course). Chinese local governments don’t much mind if their neighbours’ stuff gets ripped off.

Read the article here. Always a revelation around nearly every corner!

Image credit: France24.com

The China expat website eChinaCities recently interviewed me on how difficult it was for foreigners to set up and run a business legally in China. I’ve been doing it for years here in China, without having paid graft or taken kickbacks or making shady side deals with government officials. Part of the reason for that is I don’t have the time or patience to mess around with these kind of relationships: the times during which I’ve indulged someone through guanxi, I’ve regretted it. So I now rationalize even that very Chinese way of doing business. Also, though, it helps our business is based in the Suzhou Industrial Park, which has a very strong influence from the Singaporean government. The Singaporean government itself is based on the colonial British model of efficiency in government affairs.

Shanghai has improved greatly in the manner in which it treats foreign investors; however, the brand corporations with deep pockets of course receive much greater assistance in wending through the maze of policies, regulations and bureaus than do tiny companies. Outside the close orbit of Shanghai, though, and setting up and managing companies requires far greater due diligence of the area, its regulations, and the departments that affect the investment. Localities throughout China are notoriously parochial, so new enterprises need to spend extra attention on the relationships that will supposedly facilitate approvals and audits. The relationships can cut both ways, with locals’ expectations for the business way out of wack with the Westerners’. The further away from Shanghai foreign investors venture, the further back in time the enterprise travels, back to where the rule of man is far more important than the rule of law.

And always have an exit strategy. Local governments that believe themselves the only game in town for a foreign investor inevitably become sloppy and demanding. Companies need to be sure they know how they will extricate their project from a location with minimal damage to the image and bottom line of the mother company. Though China has become a more straight-forward environment in which to do business, the shifting tides of domestic interest in foreign adventures in China is on the wane, depending on the industry. Experienced local governments that support “pillar” industries like automotive, renewable and clean energy, and aerospace will facilitate approvals and business transactions for investors; whereas foreign invested companies that want to set up in discouraged industries like textiles and toys will find a gauntlet of unpleasant restrictions with which to deal; in which case, China may not even be the right place for the enterprise.

Read the article.

Related posts:

Kicking the Kick-back Habit

Corruption Rules

Dan Harris at the China Law blog Group on LinkedIn posed a fun question:

Why is China so mediocre in team sports like basketball and soccer, and what does that mean, if anything, for business in China?

I answered:

“Well, I’ve done exhaustive research in China about this very subject, having talked with several taxi drivers in China about what they thought! ^_^ Interestingly, their consensus is that the players just don’t play well together. One fellow told me the players were always quarreling, and never wanted to work together. A Chinese businessman told me the environment of corruption in which football in China has been stunted only emphasizes the mercenary aspect of the sport for Chinese players and officials. It would be impossible for a team to grow up mentally and spiritually fit in such a condition.

“I also think the sports in which China has excelled typically have great government machines behind them that pluck children from their families at a very early age to mold the children’s bodies and temperaments. Most of the sports, though, involve single players.The only team sport I am aware of the Chinese have excelled at through this model is women’s volley ball.”

“I see the lack of cooperation between Chinese daily; let’s face it, with so many people vying for limited resources it’s no wonder it’s one of the most competitive societies in the world. Local governments do not coordinate investment policies; employees will not give advantage to coworkers who may be able to take their jobs; and suppliers are only happy to cut corners fully well knowing their actions may spoil cooperation with other suppliers and customers.

“Though Chinese society and business culture would not have to change in order for the Chinese to cultivate a winning football team, it sure wouldn’t hurt.”

The discussion thread is fun and insightful, a good read. Check it out.

Since the birth of my son about a month ago we’ve had my Chinese mother-in-law stay with us to help us out with the little one and with odds and ends around the apartment. She is a big-hearted woman from the countryside, though she and her own family have lived in Suzhou for nearly fifteen years. One of the biggest surprises I’ve had is the sheer educational value of home-spun wisdom from the Chinese countryside as refracted through the prism of taking care of a newborn.

Some of the things I’ve learned include:

• a box of two hundred eggs from the countryside is far fresher and healthier for mother and child than any eggs bought in the city. Given that at most my family eats two or three eggs a day, I hope those country chickens put something special in their eggs to keep them fresh for the three months they’ll be taking up space in my refrigerator;
• a fried egg (no liquid yolk) wrapped in a small cloth is a sure way to make sure the baby’s tummy stays warm and his total body temperature stays above 100-degrees Farehnheit;
• when baby has a slight cold nothing unblocks his sinuses better than warm piss on cotton placed on baby’s head;
• if baby has a bad night’s sleep, blame the annoyed ghosts of ancestors past who were disappointed not to be around when baby was born;
• always keep baby boiling: several layers of wool tightly wrapped around baby’s legs and torso are sure to keep out breezes, especially when temperatures are a frigid 35-degrees C (about 100 degrees F);
• mothers should not cry as it sours their breast milk;

Happily, my wife did not drink coffee while she was pregnant, though as gentle readers already know, I love my daily espresso. The family urged me to stop my caffeinated ways lest the baby be born with a permanent coffee-stained complexion. The baby’s skin at birth, though,  was milk-white, much to the family’s relief. So I guess spermatozoa are immune to caffeine, after all. Thank goodness!

While in Beijing for the Clean Energy Expo the week of 21 June a friend and former editor of mine at the China Economic Review invited me and a colleague to the rooftop of a siheyuan to enjoy the USA World Cup Match against Algeria. Siheyuan are traditional homes with courtyards in which wealthier families lived during dynastic times. After 1949, most of the siheyuan were divided into living quarters for four or five families. The unit I visited had been redecorated to include a large kitchen and living room area, a couple bathrooms and modestly sized bedrooms. The place was well-lit. We walked a steep iron stairway to the rooftop of the place, where a dozen other Americans and Chinese friends sat on fold-out chairs watching a large screen that fluttered in the wind. Beer flowed freely and introductions were easy. After a frustrating 89 minutes during which the USA team fumbled nearly every shot on goal, our side eventually triumphed.

A warm, breezy night. Camaraderie. Beer. USA v Algeria:1 – 0.

What more could a guy want?

USA winning the World Cup. In my lifetime.

An American friend and I were recently talking about the different kinds of expats one encounters in China and throughout the world: the “I don’t want to be here but the company sent me” type, who stays within his regal circle, relatively insulated from the natives; the “woohoo! here to party!” kind, who has a girl on each arm; the English Teacher, a bit oblivious to what’s really going on around them; the gone-native sort, who tries to out-native the natives; the blow-hard, who knows all there is to know about how the natives think and breed; and the cynic, who’s likely made his home in the country and is simply looking to get on with his life after the exhaustion of acculturation. I think I tend to be in the last camp, having skipped through several other of the expat lives in the list.

My friend and I agreed that for the most part expats are looking for an experience very different from the one they left behind in their home countries. Sometimes, expats as personalities simply don’t fit into the society in which they were raised as children. And other times, expats are looking for something they couldn’t find in their home country.

I told my friend one of the things I had been looking for in the States but found was rare was a sense of true mutual support between people. As a kid who spent formative years living in Hawaii in a mixed Asian neighborhood, I was deeply impressed and influenced by the way neighbors helped each other and adopted my young mother, helping raise my siblings and I. I have found something similar in China, though not amongst the Chinese. The sense of altruism and support I found amongst expats: all from different countries – like my neighbors in Hawaii – and all in a country not their own.

We’ve seen each other over the years through many adventures, trials and triumphs. They’ve been especially helpful and supportive over the past few weeks as my wife and I have shaped our lives around the newest addition to the family. Now – just as I had as a kid in Hawaii – our son will have aunties and uncles and cousins who are in no way related to him by blood, but who will love him and support him as though he were.

It’s the sort of gift that’s tough to buy off a store shelf.

She wanted me to kill her. She told me the pain was unbearable. If I wasn’t going to kill her, she told me, at least allow the doctors to cut her open. She squeezed my hand until my knuckles turned white and my eyes squinted with muted tears; she wanted me to share what she was going through. I have to admit I didn’t like it much, even if it was just one-tenth of one-percent of the the pain a woman feels at labor. Eight hours later, at 8 o’clock Sunday evening, 16 May 2010, I witnessed my son born in a pool of blood and screams, wailing after the long journey he’d taken to come into our lives.

The doctors and nurses at the Suzhou No. 2 VIP maternity ward did an outstanding job supporting my wife during labor, and during the four days they stayed in the clinic caring for my family (though the sofa on which I slept most nights could have been more comfortable). A force of nature has entered my life, an infant boy named Ashley Xavier (Chinese name: Zhou Si Cheng): both Chinese and Western blood intermingle in his veins. He as the first addition to our family will shape my life and my senses in ways I can barely imagine; much as China itself has.

I can’t wait.

On my flight back from Singapore recently I sat next to a pleasant online travel manager who was born and raised in Singapore. I told her how much I enjoyed my nearly week-long visit to the city-state, and how impressed I was in general with the education level of many of the people I met and those with whom I would be working during the editorial, production and marketing of my book.

The agent screwed up her sun-tanned face as though she had smelled something bad. She said, “It’s so competitive. Look at the United States or Australia: they aren’t as competitive and yet their economies are so strong.”

“Well, I did see most students on the subway coming home around five o’clock. You mean, they have to study all the time.”

“Too much,” she said, shifting in the narrow seat. “It’s better now, but the system is so results oriented.” I took that students must study-to-the-tests, instead of studying to learn or to create.

“Is that a Singaporean thing or an Asian thing?” I asked. “Chinese students have to study really hard, too.”

She thought for a moment, then said, “In Singapore we have no choice. We don’t have anything worth selling on to anyone else except our people. We export our people.”

There are worse exports for a service economy, I suppose.