Behind the Foxconn debacle – A Prelude

A bus at FoxConn (富士康) where nine suicides have been reported (Source: Southern Weekend)

Recently, Foxconn has enjoyed the type of PR that no company ever wishes to find itself in – scrutiny of its labor practices splashed across global headlines — equating work in the company’s 300,000 person-manned force to indentured servitude — leading to what is now the ninth death at the company’s Shenzhen manufacturing plant. The fact that the Taiwanese-based Foxconn (a fact that seems to be only glossed over in most accounts I’ve read — UK’s Telegraph is the only non-Chinese media I’ve read that makes that distinction clearly) happens to be one of the largest IT product suppliers in the world, including Apple’s now legendary line of iPods, iPhones and iPads, adds to the sensationalism of the story.

During a four-week long undercover assignment with Southern Weekend (南方周末), a reporter lives and breathes the FoxConn life, which includes hours and hours of standing on the factory floors on a daily basis.  The intensity and focus on machine-like production is evident from the very beginning of the written account, where a worker comments that “When you’re standing and something drops, and you have to bend down to get it, you hope that there will always be something that falls, that you will never have to stand up. Having a minute to lie down, that would be an indescribable luxury.” (站着的时候,有个东西掉了弯腰去捡,恨不得一直有东西掉,一直不用站起来。要是可以躺一分钟,那就是天大的享受。”)

Shenzhen - 30 years ago. Back then, it was a small fishing village with a population of nearly 25,000 (Image source: CNReviews)

Shenzhen today is a growing metropolis with a population of nearly nine million. (Image source: CNReviews)

Even in a city like Shenzhen, whose prosperity has been built in the last 30 years on the back of its manufacturing prowess and whose skyline is dotted with factories supplying goods to global brands, FoxConn’s story has gained a certain notoriety.

However, while each of these stories carry an important piece of the story about life in a Chinese factory, there is another thread that deserves attention  — what of FoxConn employee’s relationships with the engineers, product designers, and other employees that companies like Apple send over to oversee implementation and production?

In number, they account for only a mere fraction of Foxconn’s city/factory ecosystem. Yet the power (status) they wield seems disproportional to the roles they are meant to serve. An anecdote that continues to most vividly come to mind is an account from an Apple engineer who frequented Foxconn’s Shenzhen operations about how the company once closed off a restroom to its Chinese workers, labeling it “VIP Only”, because an American Apple engineer had commented on the smell. One comment from an Apple employee had closed off access to a bathroom — not even a lounge, board room, or area that would be considered an employee perk — to the vast majority of the people there.

Even without the suicides, what kind of culture and work environment is being created? What responsibility — if any — do companies like Apple have in ensuring working standards comparable to those it practices at home? While the two companies are distinct legal and operational entities, when one talks about “work culture,” how far does that extend?

From the factory worker perspective, what do these type of actions say about management and about their places in the working hierarchy?

(I call this post a prelude in part because these are just the initial thoughts I’ve had — more will be added as further research and interviews are done)

An Evening with Dr. Kai-Fu Lee

Dr. Kai-Fu Lee is a name that is increasingly associated with the Chinese technology sector, having worked with companies like Apple, Microsoft, and most recently, with Google, to make their debuts in the Asian/Chinese markets.  His blog, hosted at the popular Chinese Internet portal Sina.com, is one of the site’s most popular, with more than 18 million hits at the writing of this entry.

After a rather public transition from Microsoft to Google, and an even more exit from Google China, the Carnegie Mellon-educated computer scientist is onto his next venture with Innovation Works, an incubator which aims to nurture and support the next generation of Chinese entrepreneurs.

While the Chinese Internet space has grown significantly in the last five years, regulatory challenges, a lack of know-how in bringing concepts and technical tools to market, and a general ecosystem to promote innovation has hindered the entrepreneurial growth of the Chinese tech sector.  Lee hopes Innovation Works will be the bridge to take China’s tech sector to the next level, and help create the same environment for innovation that has historically defined Silicon Valley.

In a discussion with members of the Asian-American Investment Managers community, Lee shared some of his thoughts on the current and future state of the Chinese tech space, particularly in online services.

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Talent and Scalability. Regardless of industry, one of China’s greatest opportunities (and challenges) is the size of its population. With 1.3 billion people focused on education, Lee highlighted the opportunities in scalability inherent in the number of skilled engineers in the country, who have also won their fair share of global programming accolades.  In a marketplace where the average salary for an engineer is 18,000 USD — compared with nearly ten times that amount in Silicon Valley — there are more opportunities to explore projects and ideas that may have been otherwise passed up.

While Lee admits that like in any other start-up environment where not all ideas may pan out in the end, the lower costs of testing out different business models and products will result in greater overall success.

Gap between actual and achievable potential of the Internet. I know that this is such vague and self-evident statement, but when you look at the numbers, it’s an important concept to keep in mind.  Currently, China has 390 million internet users, representing roughly a quarter of the country’s total population. Lee explained that since most online activity is still concentrated purely around entertainment and gaming services, the full potential of the Internet is yet to be fully explored, from online advertising, to e-commerce, to business services.  Below, I’ve highlighted some of the key opportunities that Lee raised:

• Cloud computing software will spearhead innovation in China’s software sector. Due to piracy and lack of IP protection, growth in software development has been stalled.  By forcing users online to run all processes, and in turn paying for these services, Lee predicts that cloud computing will change the way software is developed and distributed in China. He correlates this to the Chinese gaming industry, where 12 years ago, students were swapping CDs in dorm rooms, where today, they are paying spending their allowances on virtual goods.
• E-commerce will grow by at least 200 times in the next five to ten years. According to Lee’s estimates, China’s e-commerce environment is at least five years behind that of the US and Japan.  The average spending per capita online is 1/16 of the US, the Chinese online connectivity is 1/3 that of the US, and most of that has been C2C.   Roughly half of all e-commerce transactions currently take place on Taobao, the C2C selling arm of Alibaba.com.
• Mobile. Lee sees the greatest potential in the mobile sector, which currently has 800 million users (the number of cell phones).  Of those, Lee estimates that approximately 160 million are already on the mobile Internet.  However, most people are using their phones only for texting or reading, because that’s what’s most readily available now. What will happen when a device like the iPhone launches in China?

Google’s withdrawl from China: Of course, the topic of withdrawl of Google China came up — regardless of whether or not you agree with the company’s decision, Lee argued that it has also sent a signal to global companies like Facebook and Zynga who will be more hesitant in making significant headway/investment into the China market.

This, added with strict filtering mechanisms instituted by the government, has created an environment of two Internets — China and the rest of the world. What this means is that companies who choose to go directly to China will only be competing with local companies — for the time being.

As Professor Peter Yu, a legal scholar at Drake University once said, “The question is no longer how the Internet will affect China. It is how China will affect the Internet.”

Final thoughts: As always, Lee delivered an engaging, thought-provoking discussion that was able to break down something as abstract as “opportunities in technology in China” into bite-sized, actionable thought/action items.  As Lee himself said, “I really was not leaving Google, but rather going to Innovation Works.” With a system like Innovation Works in place, it will be interesting to see some of the developments coming out of the Chinese marketplace in the next couple years, especially in its development of not only entrepreneurs, but product managers who can combine technical know-how with business savvy to bring concepts to market.

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For more features like this in the future, please visit my site www.seekingwendy.com

yangshuo, china | 阳朔, 中国

十月份的美德 | october, 2008

(this is such a long overdue post — sorry! i’ve started and added to it numerous times now and am glad to finally have finished it … almost one year later. it’s actually interesting to see all these different feelings/memories interwoven from only a month after the trip to nearly a year later. and that is one of the things i love most about travel — you can read about all these places in storybooks and see them through nikon d-90 images, but it is the lasting memories and imprints they leave on the soul that endures in a way that no image or passage can truly ever capture. after all, we each explore with our own unique set of lenses, shaped by our experiences, personality, and lessons)

karst mountains. peaceful waters. rice fields. sleepy backpacker town.

these are nine words that come to mind when describing yangshuo — the third (fourth? i don’t really count guilin as a stop though) leg of my two week+ trip.

i actually never really planned to go to yangshuo. in fact, i had never heard of the place until a couple months before my china trip, where i had originially, in true overly-ambitious style, planned to go to huangshan, guilin, yunnan, tibet, and beijing in three weeks. by train.

after realizing that i couldn’t even get into tibet without a chinese tour designated specifically for foreigners, decided to save tibet for another time (which i really am looking forward to sometime soon — planning on going overland from yunnan and shangri-la). after convincing my relatives that i would take all measures to not be kidnapped, i decided on teaching english for a week at a school in yangshuo — zhuoyue.

johnson, who runs the school, is great and such a happy individual. an engineer by training and a traveler by spirit (sound familiar anyone?) he had decided to start a school in the sleepy backpacker town of yangshuo. walking along xi jie (west street), i felt like i had been transported out of china into a small, european city (although i’ve never been to europe), with climbers from all over the world, backpackers, and cafes lining the street serving hearty western breakfasts, and the aroma of coffee swirling in the air. it was only the random shops that were scattered around with their “没有钱” and other chinese saying t-shirts that hinted at the chinese-ness of the place.

zhuoyue was one of several english schools in the area — funny how they would all cluster around this small town just 10 hours by bus away from one of the manufacturing capitals of the world — shenzhen. situated at the mouth of lijiang, i can see why anyone would trade the smog and factory stacks of shenzhen for the tranquility of the river waters here for a few months.

as with many other places in china, the students were curious to hear about my experiences as a chinese-american — someone who looked just like them yet who seemed to grow up and live in a place that seemed worlds apart. they said they felt an instant connection to me, because while i looked chinese and yet spoke english like any other american, the way i said things made it easier for them to understand. many were originally from guangzhou, but some came from as far as inner mongolia and harbin — china’s northwest region. many had worked in the factories and procurement companies that dotted shenzhen’s skyline, and had come to yangshuo in hopes of improving their english — a ticket to a better career.

the youngest student was a young boy that was no more than 10 years old. a bubbly, outgoing kid, his dad would bring him to zhuoyue every day after school so that he could practice english and interact with travelers who brought stories from beyond china’s borders. i guess no matter where you are in the world, the language of parenthood is one and the same as parents all strive for what is best for their kids.  the dad himself was a shy middle-aged man who spoke some english but mainly sat back watching his son make “knock knock” jokes with all these laowai from canada, france, spain, etc.

the first day i was there, i met with yanny and yan — my two roommates for the night. they were from hong kong and had just finished their third (?) year of music school. we went on to ping an the next day and me up with ting — the coolest hong kong-born new zealander i’ve met who had been traveling through nepal, india and china up to that point — where we spent the day bamboo rafting down the same li jiang that i had just come down on a river cruise. how different it is to sit on a bamboo raft inches above the water versus the huge boats that plowed through!  highly recommended for anyone who has the chance to pay a visit to yangshuo.  we ended up docking half way up the river and hiked back through rice paddies and trails that hugged acres upon acres of farmland (and also had chickens that flew. seriously. for anyone that knows me i’m not too fond of chickens). along the way, we met an old man who actually didn’t speak any mandarin at well with a wheelbarrow filled with pommelos. we bought one from him and ended up enjoying one the juiciest, freshest pommelos i’ve ever had. by the time dusk rolled around, we found ourselves without a raft and we called “lao yang” — our rafter who had taken us there. rafting back through the moonlit and foggy skies was a surreal experience as mountains that had only hours ago been illuminated in sunlight turned into misty objects dancing in the fog. no motor sounds humming softly in the background, it was just us and the mountains.  i’ve found that there are moments when you’re traveling when you feel as if you’re one with the trees, the water, and the air that you just want to capture in a bottle and carry with you — that was one of those moments.

the next day yanny and yan left from hong kong, and i went bike riding with sunny — one of the students at zhuoyue. she was so nice and took me to moon hill and yulong he again even though i’m sure she had been there so many times already. we went and had this small river fish whose name i don’t remember anymore (which is why i should really stop writing posts about events/trips a year after the fact) that was indigenous to the area. she worked at a semiconductor company before this and together with her husband, was looking to build a better life. a softspoken woman with a “sunny” personality, i loved her honesty, her sincerity, and her general cheerfulness. i think i ended the day by watching american pie with manny, one of the teachers at the school from the phillipines — ahaha only in china.

the following day, jackie — another one of the students — took some other travelers and i to his “secret fishing spot.” only that day it was raining and there were no fish. it was still a fun bike ride out into the farmlands and we were cooked traditional 农家菜 by a local family. i still remember how the farmer held out the duck that would become a soup to me and told me to see if it was okay and fat enough — i quickly said yes as there was no way i was going to hold a flapping duck by its neck 😛 if you ever get a chance, i would definitely recommend going to a local farm and having them cook a meal for you — it seems like the “new” thing to do in china but much much more than that, it does give you a glimpse into another dimension of china that isn’t always in headlines and a people’s way of living.

as the sun set yet again, we decided to peddle back with a flashlight between the six/seven of us. oh chinese adventures … along the way there were houses with lights though so that definitely helped.

towards the end of my stay in yangshuo, the biggest dilemma i faced was whether or not to stay in yangshuo longer or go to beijing. seeing as how it was raining steadily and the fact that i really wanted to see some friends and the post-olympic beijing, i decided to make the 26 hour train ride to the nation’s capital — where my china journey had really begun three years earlier.

what yangshuo left with me though was its uniquely pictureseque setting (there is a part of lijiang that is featured on the back of the 20 yuan bill), the random collection of people i met along the way from curious university students on holiday, young adults looking to the next stage in life through learning english, to native villagers trying to adjust to the changes that the winds of modernization brought. i still keep in touch with some of the people i met along the way there, and that always reminds me that life is about chance, fate and 缘分.

xinjiang and the chinese media

i try my best to stay as objective as i can when it comes to news and events, but it breaks my heart to see so many dead and injured in urumqi.  it’s amazing how quickly news travels through twitter these days, but having read some of the tweets that have come out of it, i have to say — please do do your own research, especially on issues as complex and sensitive as the uyghur-han chinese conflict, and realize what a politically loaded situation this is too. it’s much too easy in this day and age to create so many extensions of stories that get retold enough times to be eventually written down as fact. the sensational headlines that media so love to highlight do little to help the situation either.

that being said, i hope that the chinese media will take this opportunity to do some objective, well-rounded reporting — in both chinese and english. it really is dangerous to have two extreme camps of chinese media — the ultra-conservative who pretend that if they go through the days with blinds on, the events that are most sensitive, and often times the most pressing and urgent, will just go away, to the ultra-liberal and impassioned dissidents who become so enamoured with their own righteous quest that they lose sight of reality and the delicate balance between what is feasible and what is idealistic theory.

the state is right about one point in its ambitions of establishing a chinese al-jazeera — there IS a desire and unmet demand by those outside china’s borders to learn about the development of this waking dragon beyond gdp figures and numbers. if chinese media can deliver that, it will be an achievement that will have lasting rippling effects beyond the media into diplomacy, internal state affairs, and basic morale.

use the talents that are the huge media organizations to report on issues that only native chinese can do best — today, we see so many “china reporters” who have minimal  knowledge of the language and whose cultural knowledge of chinese society cannot match up to those of their chinese counterparts (and quite understandably so). no matter how brilliant and well-intentioned the reporter, it is especially difficult to report on issues as sensitive and nuanced as this without a solid grasp of the language.  there is so much more value added when you can communicate with the individuals on a personal level.  i am constantly reminded at what a powerful tool GOOD media is.

empirically, we have seen the success of publications like caijing, whose in-depth coverage of china’s economic progress has won them local market share and garnered international respect. but economics is only one part of the equation; true, china’s economic success has bought it some time as people indulge in their material whims.  but for a country like china to truly prosper, progress needs to be made on other fronts as well.

china’s novel in the 21st century is only just beginning — for the rest of the story to be fairly represented, its leaders need to recognize that achieving a “harmonious society” requires more than simply trumpeting stories that headline economic and regulatory legislation or fluffy, cultural feel-good stories. instead, lend some pixels to deconstructing conflicts that will inevitably surface in ANY society, no matter how prosperous it is — that is where the true demand lies.

i sincerely hope that the chinese media will take this opportunity and take steps to being the moderate voice that china, and quite frankly the world, desparately needs. sorry that this has strayed from the original xinjiang topic, but seeing all the internet hoop-la around this event has only stressed this point more.

jon huntsman jr. as next china ambassador?

so twitter-verse was abuzz this friday over news that current utah governor, jon huntsman jr., was likely to be making the move to beijing as the united states’ top diplomat.  while i haven’t really read that much into huntsman’s policies, he certainly seems well-qualified for this critical post. a fluent mandarin speaker, huntsman had spent time in taiwan as part of his missions trip with the church of latter day saints. with a background in business (his family runs the huntsman corporation, one of the world’s largest chemical distributors), philanthropy, and politics, huntsman may just be what the US needs to tread the waves that are the increasing importance of us-china relations.

furthermore, this gesture by the obama administration reflects the new president’s political savvy as well — upholding his promises of maintaining a bi-partisan state while making it difficult for a very strong potential republican 2012 presidential contender to make any concrete criticism of the obama administration over the next four years.

for the governor’s nine-year old daughter — grace mei huntsman — the appointment will also mean a move back home. grace was adopted by the huntsmans from china, who have also adopted another daughter from india.

of course, time will be the final decider of jon huntsman jr.’s story but for now, am looking forward to the developments this new appointment will bring.

Recruitment in China | 中国

Recently had the chance to speak with the founder of NewChinaCareer.com about opportunities and the current Chinese recruitment environment.  Here are some of his observations and insights, including some specific examples.

1. What is the typical demographic of job seekers who visit your site?

All are bilingual professionals from different disciplines. Many are trying to move to China, and while it’s not a big number, it’s definitely picking up.

For these individuals, my first recommendation is that they have to get on a plane and get over here. You’re not going to get hired remotely. You actually have to be here and do the face to face stuff.

2. What advice do you have for people looking for work in China?

When people send out their resumes or direct employers, put the home address as your [relative’s/friend’s] address in China to show that you have a local base. A lot of people will overlook your application simply by virtue that you don’t have a base in China.

3. What are the opportunities for business students?

Pretty limited, unless you went to work for a multinational like the big consulting/accounting firms and then get transferred over. Even if you do have Chinese skills, the most important thing is to have are the business skills.

Management skills are the primary thing … you can’t simply translate from the environment, and need to be culturally aware and culturally sensitive. Management skills are the most pressing requirement in China. In particular, project management in the software industry is needed.

4. Have you seen increased interest among your individual clients in learning Chinese?

There are more and more people doing that but learning the Chinese language in itself is not a major thing. In my experience it’s actually much more important to be culturally acute and to have business management skills.

5. Where do you see the Chinese job recruiting market going in the next year? Five years?

The Shanghai government recently held a roadshow for finance-related jobs that went to major cities like Frankfurt and London, which didn’t seem to be particularly successful. The idea that just because there are opportunities in China and economies are tanking in U.S. and Europe doesn’t mean that everyone can just go there and land a job. There are major management culture problems.

In the big state owned enterprises (SOEs), the Party still dominates, and the overall business culture is pretty difficult for someone from the West.

A lot of people may think that if you’re ethnically Chinese, going to China is easy but it’s not. If you’ve gone to the States, you may find a it really difficult to fit back in again – there’s a reverse culture shock. It’s not an easy thing to get back into the Chinese way of doing things.

If you look at some of the really good companies, the “white goods” company (e.g. Haier), they’re pretty good at branching into different markets.

other examples
Lenovo – if you look at Lenovo we’re still finding out what’s gone wrong there. There’s management structure problems that still linger today.

Alibaba — looking to hire 3,000 people outside of china this year. it’s a different kind of company than one that’s grown out of an SOE.

Companies that are more international from the beginning are going to be better when the economy emerges from this financial crisis.

6. How has the economic downturn affected your business?

For our particular business, we’re doing better than this time last year. There’s a lot of job ads. Companies are still recruiting, just not in the same volumes.

Other job boards like ChinaHR, Zhaopin, and 51jobs have been suffering quite a bit. There are cutbacks with 25% of foreign invested companies projected to lay people off during the next quarter. Compared to the rest of the world, however, the situation in China is probably going to be a bit more stable. For industries where there’s heavy dependence of Chinese economy on export markets, it’ll be a lot more bumpy.

7. How have the qualifications listed by employers changed?

The job descriptions have become more specific. Companies realized that they made a lot of mistakes promoting people above their abilities at a lot of Western companies.

About NewChinaCareer.com
The site has 10,000 – 11,000 jobs posted on average everyday. Most fall within the accounting, finance, consulting, and IT areas, with property management jobs on the rise.

Join the LinkedIn Group by clicking here.onal

hongcun & xidi | 宏村 & 西递

Hongcun - October 2008

So, I realized how long my Huangshan post was getting and figured I’d best break it out. Given my extra day in the area, I took my bus-mate’s advice on the ride to Tunxi and check out Hongcun and Xidi. Feeling especially lazy with the slight inkling that a cold was catching up to me, I decided to book a tour with the hostel, knowing full well that  I was exchanging a logistical peace of mind for a day of inflexible schedules, and being forced to visit one factory or another. 😛 I figured that a day with a Chinese tour group would be better than being forced to cut my trip short by some nasty cold.

And of course, I ended up wishing I had just gone on my own as soon as I saw these beautiful towns that seemed to jump out of history books and fairy tales.

Hongcun and Xidi are part of the Hui Minority Group, and each had architecture that was unique to their cultures and histories that traced back for centuries.   Neither had windows, and relied on skylights for light and fresh air as that was considred safer. Hongcun was the first stop — even with the masses of tourists, the town’s quiet exquisteness was unreal. Perhaps it was the weather that day, creating a layer of mist against rolling green mountains and hills.

Hongcun was known for producing academics, and the tour guide pointed out all the scholarly relics that had been passed on through time.

The next stop on the trip was Xidi — just a few miles down the road. There was a mountain biking tourney going on that day, and it was funny seeing the mud-clad bikers against the ancient gate that greeted visitors.  Xidi was known for producing politicians and statesmen, and people there were said to be the descendants of Li Shiming.

It would be in Xidi where I would meet Xiao Hong A yi (Auntie Xiao Hong); I stumbled into her home because I was curious about the possibility of spending a couple nights there in the future.  She offered a room in her home for rent for 100 yuan a night for room and board.

I ended up staying and translating some things for her (the entrepreneur in her is trying to start a website to promote her snacks outside of Xidi. This lady, who had no e-mail address, had the concept of a website! Globalization was truly beginning to come full circle). She explained how a guy who stayed with her from the States had started doing so, but he had left.

While we only sat and chatted for 15 minutes or so (stupid Chinese tours …), she left a deep impression on me. More than anything, she wanted to share her people’s culture and way of life with the rest of the world. She had no computer, but she seemed so wise and learned as she showed me her musical compositions, drawings, and works of art.

I also met her older cousin, Fu Rong Xing, who turned out to be an exquisite artist known across the country for his sculpture. He kept telling me about the “hearts of gold” of China’s rural farmers. It was funny because he kept insisting that I was looking for something, and that something was in China’s more rural regions. Funny how he could know so quickly …

They both invited me to stay for dinner and tea, but regretably had to decline as I made my way towards my tour van, where my tour guide was inpatiently waiting.

Before I left, Fu Rong Xing told me I should come back, something I had already decided when Xiao Hong A yi said her home was available. “Our stories are those that aren’t written in books,” Fu Rong Xing said as he guided me out of the town, “but passed from generation to generation.”

huangshan | 黄山

huangshan - october 2008

(october 23, 2008 – october 26, 2008)

I had never been to Huangshan before, and was surprised as I scanned train/bus schedules at how close it was to Shanghai. An overnight train ride, or a six-hour bus ride, would place you at the foot of the mountain that legends are made of.

Opting to enjoy what scenery there was from Shanghai to Anhui, I chose the bus ride.  My impeccable sense of timing had me leaving Shanghai on a day that was raining buckets, and the trek to the bus station resulted in a two hour bus ride that I swear was going to run over some poor person on more than one occasion (this is a general feeling I got most days though, and not unlike Muni at times).  My huge backpack drew more than a few stares as I left my family’s residential complex, and a couple kind, curious “nai nai” and “ye ye” asked whether or not I should be in school.

On the bus ride to Tunxi, a town at the base of Huangshan, I sat next to a middle-aged man from nearby Yixin, a small town in Anhui. He had been visiting relatives in Shanghai — the first time for him in 15 years. I just have no desire to go there, he explained simply. I have everything I need at home. The city is too loud and confusing for me.  Hopefully, the effects of mass urbanization will leave him and others like him with the possibility of still returning to his chosen lifestyle.

He talked about the dazzling lights of Shanghai, of the awe-inspiring construction, and about how glad he was to be going home.  And encouraged that I add Hongcun and Xidi, two cultural heritage sites, to my visit to Huangshan.

When I arrived at bus station in Tunxi, I looked for the hostel TripAdvisor had handily directed me to. After checking in, I went straight to the train station only to find that tickets to my next destination, Guilin, had been sold out for the day I had planned to leave on and a sleeper would not be available until the following day. Ah, the joys of traveling alone.

I bought my ticket and went back to the hostel; by then, one of the girls  I would be sharing the room with had come back. Her name was Wang Ye, and she was for a nearby city in Anhui.  A very quiet girl who didn’t look more than 25, she told me she was a doctor who was about to be married to her high school sweetheart. This was the trip she wanted to take as her last act of independence, she said.

There was something sweet yet sad about the way she said it — as if she looked forward to the life she had ahead, but regretted leaving behind an independence she never really experienced. We spent the evening walking in Tunxi, along the streets of the Old Town.

The next day I got up bright and early to make the 1-hour car ride to the actual mountain.  On the car ride there, I met a girl from Sichuan — Li Kun — who was also making the journey herself. We agreed to hike up together since our hostels that night were so close together as well.

And this is where we ran into the joys that is Chinese tourism — we wanted to climb up the backside of the mountain, and in the midst of the confusion when the van first stopped, we were ushered into another car and told we were going to the back of the mountain. We quickly realized that the empty scenic spots they took us to was not the mountain we were looking for and ended up in a heated argument with the driver. Thankfully, we were able to persuade the driver to take us back to the bus depot after threatening him that we’d sue (one American pasttime to make its way over East …)

When we finally ended up at the right mountain, we realized how tough the climb was gong to be. After seemingly endless steps, we were still only halfway from our destination. We both ended up buying a walking stick, and bought wild kiwis (they’re so good! I haven’t been able to find them anywhere elsse — they’re smaller than regular kiwis) to encourage us to go forward.

We met a couple porters on the way up, who were probably among the most fit people ever. They made the trek up and down the mountain twice a day since everything on the mountain (tofu, meat, vegetables, toiletries, cigarretes, etc.) is carried up on their backs.

By the time we reached White Goose Pavillion (why do English transaltions always have such funny sounding names :P), the famous Huangshan clouds had rolled in. These clouds are called “sea clouds” because of the way they come together and look like waves in the sea. I have seen very few scenes as peaceful as the one I saw that day, and could see what had inspired so many an ancient tale and poem.

The next morning, I got up early in hopes of catching a glimpse of the sunrise. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans and the clouds covered any ray of sunlight as the rain came down.  I decided I had come to far to not walk down and contemplated using my extra day to stay on the mountain. Sadly, the weather forecast for the next day projected heavier rain and I figured it was probably best to head down.

The mountain was actually just as beautiful in the mist, as leaves danced in and out.  Rocking out to my iPod, I made the slow descent down, taking as many detours as I could. By the time I made it down and back to Tunxi, it was time for dinner.

And there … I would be introduced to fuzzy tofu. Yes. Fuzzy. It had a taste like “pi dan” (thousand year old egg — again, one of those weird names that don’t really translate into English), only 10x stronger. I smiled politely at the cook’s wife as she smiled and chuckeld.

I got a foot massage for the first time after that, and listened as my masseuse told me about her son, relationships, love, and life. It was really interesting listening to her as she cheerfully described how she only went home on the weekends, and spent most of her income on giving her son an education. She talked about how her and her husband never fought in front of their son, wanting him to grow up to be optimistic and happy. I was touched by her story, especially the non-assuming, happy and carefree way she relayed it all. Life couldn’t be easy for her, yet she was so much happier than many who were more economically fortunate than her.

As I left Huangshan the next day for Hongcun and Xidi, I knew this was a place I would return to, a place where the gods came to paint in the sky.

corporate china

jing an temple-> the bund (10.05.08 through 10.17.08)

i showed up to work the first day of work at 8:00 a.m., only to find out the business day didn’t actually start until 8:30 a.m. so i sat in the lobby and looking out the window, saw the developments of the past ten years before my eyes.

my office building is right across from pudong, once the ugly duckling of shanghai. it was now transforming into a beautiful swan, home to many of the world’s largest financial institutions and has started to develop a culture quite its own. like the little community many of my relatives had decided to move to, it would have been unthinkable a few decades ago for many shanghai-nese to live in pudong. and now, it was to be the darling of the 2010 shanghai expo.

while i work in a large office in san francisco too, the team here was so much bigger than the 10-person team we had back in sf.  as one of the partners showed me around, i was amazed at how many people there were in the shanghai version of my group — 50+.

the first few days were spent adjusting to the routine there. my morning commute was as chinese as it could get, although i was fortunate enough to not have to be subjected to overly crowded buses on my short route to the office. making the ten minute walk from the bus stop to work, however, was a completely different story. streets filled with bikes, the sound of tinkering nails and hammers at work, the dusty air, spit left and right on the floor, a block with new buildings being constructed, another with the old bamboo laundry lines hanging out, and of course, the street vendors selling their dumplings, jian bing, and the like — yes, china and change. getting all the administrative tasks taken care of at work was a bit of a hassle; first, there was entering the building everyday and having to show them my passport. since the access key to the building is separate from the one to different floors, i couldn’t get to my work area for awhile unless someone just happened to be there. getting an access key took a lot of persuasion and assurance that i wouldn’t just run off and the lady at the help desk grudgingly agreed as i handed over my security badge in sf in exchange.

that was one difference i noticed between the large corporations and the home-grown chinese companies — while both are largely bureaucratic (overly in many instances in my opinion), foreign companies are more hesitant to change than their chinese counterparts. for example, chinese companies would be more receptive to trying out new IT security systems, for better or worse. on the other hand, foreign companies would undertake longer and more rigorous testing and analysis before choosing to do so. i think what partly contributes to this is that chinese companies, while they are terrified of losing face in the long run, are more bold and apt to take risks in the short term.

at work, i was lucky enough to have three great cubemates. i really liked the layout where there were no cubicles and high walls, just desks you shared which made it really easy to talk. reminded me of school again. life in the office was fast-paced, although i wonder if it’s really that much more work, or a different mentality. everyone was always running and seemingly on the go. despite this, i was able to make a few new friends. not the type of friends that you leave and will soon become mere acquaintances, but the type that you may meet many years down the road and there will feel like there was no gap, and conversation will just … flow.

there were two a-yis (kind of like hospitality staff) who took care of our floor — soo nice and always made sure the bathroom was clean, every light was on and working, etc. very much appreciated that!

the two weeks went by in a blink of an eye, and before i knew it, i was already saying my good-byes. while i don’t know when/if i will ever go back to the shanghai office, i know for certain that i would love to work there at some point in my life.  even our office reflected what shanghai represented and the type of people the city attracted — globally minded, diverse, inquisitive, well-traveled, and insightful individuals from all over the world. from new zealand to milwaukee, london and paris, the stories that everyone brought with them were so unique and different. and while everyone’s experiences in china varied, there was always that love-hate relationship, and the attraction to the change, uncertainty and excitement that the country represented. as one senior manager commented:

“if you want to build a company and be part of the change, come to china. come to shanghai.“

china chronicles 2008: part i

Looking back …

Since I didn’t have access to WordPress in China, I will be updating about my travels and experiences in installments. The reason for these entries are two-fold. One, I would love to share with you the events that have happened in the past five weeks that I’ve been gone from the Bay Area. Secondly, in a time as volatile as now, and where the word China conjures up so many mixed feelings, I feel that this is something that is more important than ever.

Of course, these entries will be interlaced with personal feelings and issues, but I hope that these stories may also reflect the pulse of a nation undergoing not only economic change, but a social and cultural one as well. Too often, I think we think of things — not only China — in black and white, when there are in reality, shades of gray near and far between.

Hello, Shanghai. Hello, home. (10.04)

I always love the feeling of arriving in any city, the excitement, the anticipation. But perhaps moreso, I love arriving in Shanghai most. The vast PuDong airport, as impersonal as it can be, also brings with it the first air of the construction work taking place in the city, the breath of change. Since my relatives actually live about two hours from the airport, I hopped on an airporter bus to make the trip across Shanghai.  Since my first visit back home in 1995, it seems as if there’s been endless construction. One skyscraper on top of the next, one apartment building after the other, each taller than the last.

Our “xiao qu” (little community) was a little less rural than the last time, with new roads and infrastructure clearly built within the last three years. Another Carrefour (kind of like a Costco + Target) had popped up a mere couple kilometers away. Perhaps what was most interesting was that ten years ago, none of my many relatives who lived there now would dream of living in the “xiang xia” (the “rural lands”). That would not have been considered Shanghai, but now everyone is clamoring to move there, in part for the relatively cleaner air, and also because Shanghai real estate has skyrocketed so much that it would be near impossible for most Shanghai-nese to buy anything anymore in the city’s downtown areas.
Home, however, was the same. It was so good to see my grandmother again.  She is turning 94 in a couple months but her mind is as lucid as ever.  I am amazed at what clarity and simple insight she has into situations. That and her genuine affection, care, and love she has for all of us.

Then came the fun part of convincing my relatives that I would be fine living on my own for a couple weeks in downtown Shanghai. And that I was perfectly capable of renting a room/apartment if I should so choose, instead of going to a hotel. I was met with a lot more resistance than I had expected as I listened to unending horror stories of the anarchic state of Shanghai. Which promptly turned into praise of how Shanghai was still one of the less chaotic cities … I guess generational and cultural gaps are only accentuated in times and situations like this, as one of my aunts proceeded to tell me “if only I were a guy …”

I concluded they had watched too much “Dong Fang 110” (basically like a 911 show), and assured them that I would be fine, and would take all necessary precautions to minimize risk as much as possible. It was, however, pretty touching to see how much they cared.

And so with these assurances, got ready to move to the heart of Shanghai for the next two weeks …