About China blogosphere, travel, and entrepreneurship

I just got introduced to that great big labor world recently — or pulled out of the job market, rather, with my recent gig at the Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall. It kind of fits in well with my passion in Beijingology — or the interest in the city of Beijing.

Having worked there for about a full week, I’m beginning to spot the differences — the gaps — between the average “tu sheng tu zhang” (土生土长) Chinese co-worker who never left the PRC and the rather Swiss me. Here’s a run-through in no particular order:

• The Swiss uphold the law like you’ve never seen before. Frequent reviews of work ethics and work codes are frequent for your Swiss David Feng. In contrast, the vision of “laws first” is surprisingly absent in many a Chinese fellow co-worker.

• Mainland men appear to be commandeering, always in firm control of the situation and sometimes coming close to (heaven forbid!) “trampling” (so-called — note the presence of the quotation marks!) on the ladies. To them, men are above women. Swiss men, however (especially for your Swiss David Feng), treat everyone as nicely as possible and try to neutralize any possibility of being “above” women.

• Productivity is key with the Swiss. The Swiss spend much of their time working, while locals can at times “take it easy” and just hang out when there’s not much to do. To your Swiss co-blogger, work time is strictly work time (the odd tweeting excepted).

• The Swiss are serious, but they also get a bit humorous at times. Locals giggle a bit, too, but more often than not, the Swiss sets those fellow co-workers off.

It would probably take me until 8 AM next morning to finish the entire list, so I thought I might give you a little starter. For those of you from Western Europe (in particular), all of this might be a bit familiar to you (as in what the rather Swiss me actually “does” at the workplace).

We all speak Chinese. We can also speak a bit of English. We’ve the same job — make sense of Beijing for incoming guests. Yet even here, there’s a gap — between the way a Swiss does his work and the way the average Chinese finishes the tasks given.

Swiss, Chinese, or wherever you may be from — have a great start to the new week!

In traditional China, women were locked inside the average compound and were never allowed outside the “2nd gate” (they had many gates inside the compounds at that time). In modern China, though, we see our “female comrades” (to quote a Mao-era “pop phrase”) just about everywhere, some looking outright gorgeous, some looking biz-like.

It’s the biz bit that I’m into today. Carly Fiorina may not exactly be omnipresent in China’s biz world, but what cannot be stopped (fortunately, for an equal society) is the move of women into the workplace. It’s no longer a case of a young lady waiting for her man after graduation or women locked in homes, caring for the baby (although that is still pretty commonplace in China). No, we’re talking about business leaders who are women.

There’s a big reason why they’re in the biz, by the way: yours truly just happened to join tracks, ideologically (so to speak), with another Mac compatriot, Guy Kawasaki. In his The Art of the Start, he realizes the bits and bobs that make women special when it comes to starting up a great new biz — and I quote:

My final tip is that you ask women — and only women. My theory is that deep in the DNA of men is a “killer” gene. This gene expresses itself by making men want to kill people, animals, and plants. To a large degree, society has repressed this gene; however, starting an organization whose purpose is to kill another organization is still socially acceptable.

Hence, asking a man about a business model is useless because every business model looks good to someone with the Y chromosome. For example, Sun Microsystems wants to kill Microsoft. When is the last time you bought a computer based on whom the manufacturer wanted to kill?

Women, by contrast, don’t have this killer gene. Thus, they are much better judges of the viability of a business model than men are. Don’t agree with me? The book The Darwin Awards provides irrefutable proof of women’s greater common sense. These awards commemorate “those individuals who have removed themselves from the gene pool in a sublimely idiotic fashion.”

For example, in 1998 two construction workers fell to their demise after cutting a circular hole in the floor while they were standing in the middle of the circle. The Darwin Awards contains nine chapters about the stupidity of men, and one chapter about the stupidity of women. I rest my case.

The David Feng version is a little unlike the Guy Kawasaki version, which (especially if you read the last bit) implies that all men are stupid and nearly all women are supposed to be super-smart. But to kind of balance the Kawasaki quote, David Feng presents a real-life example: Ketty, the former secretary (and still a powerful Standing Committee member) of the Beijing Macintosh User Group.

When Ketty came in back in September 2005, the entire Membership Congress took the risk — a very smart and sensible one at that — at electing a total dark horse candidate who had just nominated herself at that very meeting. Like someone who knew the horse off by heart, Ketty leapt into the group as the newly-elected secretary. Barely younger than the President (then at around 23 in age), Ketty turned out to be a massive driving force behind the group, which had more than double in membership by the time she left in June 2007.

Ketty immediately found out about the power of the press, summoning even reporters from the mainland mouthpiece People’s Daily to the 4th BeiMac anniversary meetup. The group went on Beijing TV as it celebrated its 4th year in existence. Ketty was an able diplomat, linking up with fellow groups in Beijing, and flew to Hong Kong to meet fellow Mac group leaders down there. She was able to silence just about any controversy, especially in executive meetups. And her English was on par with that of the President.

To David Feng, having such a powerful secretary was a blessing. The icing on the cake: this was a lady. It showed that a great group needs great leaders — men and women.

One of Ketty’s final acts in office was to co-host with David the 5th anniversary meetup of the user group. It turn out to be a resounding success, with about 90 people in attendance. The entire event was lively from the start, and continued to be lively until the meeting ended about three hours later. Not only did the two make great hosts, but they — along with the membership — lead a great team.

If Ketty and Guy’s examples are any indication, it’s that women are just as important as men in the workplace. Maybe this isn’t picking up so quickly in China as is the case in the West. But at least there’s one indicator that it’s big in China — in David Feng’s plans about corporate establishment, one of the fundamental principles is that one of the top execs (or more) — have to be women.

And that’s a good and fair thing.

Please mind the gap between China and the West…

• The West: The mic is more “for everyone”. Everyone has a chance to speak.
• China: The mic is for those “with the credentials”. Expertise and professionalism preferred.

We’re not talking about the egalitarian mics you get at KTV parties, where just about everyone has the right to pollute the ears of just about everyone else in the booth. No, we’re talking about something a bit more pro than just mimicking Stefanie Sun or Jay Chow; we’re talking about things such as public speaking or hosting big events.

Beyond than just grabbing the “voice roll” (which is what the Chinese word for the mic, 话筒 (huatong) breaks down into), we’re also talking about participation when it comes to anything speech-related.

The West: Everyone Can Speak

In the Western World, just about everyone can speak. There’s less on the “exclusivity” of the speaker and more on interaction.

When I went to Macworld in 2006, I was “immediately” a speaker at both a Mac user group event and at the conference itself (in the form of the user group lounge). This kind of told me: “credentials” or “experience” is not necessarily as “big” as it is on this side of the planet (as in China). As long as you’ve quality content, it’ll be fine.

In the West, you’re more likely to be discovered as a previously undiscovered talent. If you can pull it off with good Keynote slides (yours truly has a natural allergy to Microsoft PowerPoint — for revolutionary, ahem, Macintosh reasons), and if you’re engaging to your audience, you’ll be called time and time again. The mic’s yours if you can perform in the West. Additionally, when you perform in the West, you allow the audience in — there’s quite a bit of interaction.

As is the case anywhere else, though, experience in speaking in front of the masses will help you out in the West. But even if you’re missing that, there’s sure to be a mic there for you. I mean, I got started at age 10 when I was visiting London and when I started brainwashing people at the Speakers Corner at Hyde Park about my “astronomy discoveries”. I had amassed quite an audience in about 5 minutes — a dozen or so people.

Mom says I was born to perform.

China: Credentials or Experience Preferred

In the Sinosphere, not just “anyone” can grab the mic and yak on for hours on end. You must be a “noted personality” or have the experience to make it.

Probably because China is less individual-based and more a collective community (this was the case as early as back when Confucius was around, so it’s not really a case of pre-1949 or post-1949), people have got to be known in circles. The way I see it, you are discovered first within your own circle, then you spread to other circles, and you work yourself around in ripples.

Regarding the interaction: to describe the audience as “deaf-mute” would blow the whole thing out of proportions. I’m not saying that there aren’t the odd speech sleeper (sans the snoring!), but the Chinese are much more used to the guy (or gal; let’s not forget the ladies holding up half the sky!) hogging up the mic for your average 90-minute lesson in university. I once — in essence — suffered through a whole semester of zero-interaction lessons when the teacher was fixed in one position and one position only for the whole 90 minutes: it looked something like this:

• Eyes: fixed on the monitor
• Hands: fixed on the mouse (with scroll wheel no less)
• Lips: fixed on the microphone

She’d maintain this posture even when I was sneaking a secret peek into my Lonely Planet guidebook to Hong Kong. Just about zero questions were asked throughout the whole lesson. I kid you not…

If the speaker in China has experience or has like a wardrobe of titles, accomplishments and “stuff like that”, all of that is likely to end up on the promo flyers given to the masses en masse before the speech. Wearing many hats certainly helps in this part of the World.

Speaking in China is probably not all that much about being entertaining or jazzy. It’s more the case of an info session (or if done badly, an info deluge or info dump). Of course, if you’re entertaining, you’ll stand out probably even more than in the West.

People will come to like you when you do that.

Sorry for the late post — just got in as Wednesday wounded up my time (as in timezone). There was one big thing I noticed today when we (as in the thesis team) had a reunion; out of all the folks in the team, I was the only freelancer. And I was the only one doing what I wanted to do — and getting paid for this.

See, that’s the thing. For too many Chinese folks out there (especially for those “born local, grown local”), the first thing that they want to do — is to remain “alive”. They need to earn the money. They’ll have to accept the fact that they have to go through what is considered in the West as cruel and unusual punishment to get the money. As a result, many a modern resumé (by that I mean the resumé of the average guy/lady in their 20s) can easily span pages upon pages — they give up on their present job and look for new ones faster than you shift gears in your average auto.

The Chinese, by the way, have reason to do this: they’re more “reality-based” and are less likely to spend time what I call the “ideological ivory tower”. Folks like me pursue what we want to do (regardless of the econ results; it’s a miracle that I’m paid at all to do what I do, in the eyes of the average local), but folks in the Chinese world pursue what makes their ends meet.

There’s a saying that in the mainland job world, women are used as men, and men are used as livestock. That’s probably too grotesque and graphical, but it’s — well, how can I say this — true. Keeping people in the office over weekends, forcing them into millions of meetings, and making the receptionist stay until late (because the boss is there) — these are the things that many a Westerner probably won’t really come to accept, but many a local do. They “have” to, to some extents; this is how they get paid.

Freelancing is probably not viewed with a negative predetermination; the reason why freelancing hasn’t taken off in China lie mainly in two possible reasons. First and foremost, you have to make ends meet, and you need the money to live to the end of the month. Second, the “traditional bits” in the average Chinese, plus the relative “newness” of freelancing, has meant that few people get to try this new job — or collection of jobs — or few people even have a chance to freelance.

Yours truly, by the way, doesn’t think he’s a freelancer. He thinks he’s a multi-gig guy working from 8 AM in the morning to 11 PM in the evening. Now the only thing that prevents him from being a full-time 8-to-11-er are those Spanish lessons in the morning…

But seriously, can learning a new language be considered as a detriment to productivity?

Meg Stivison is a former Jersey girl now living in Beijing. She moved to Yantai, Shandong province in 2006, with plans to spend a year teaching ESL and exploring a new country, but got hooked on the amazing pace of change in China. She’s fascinated and amused by the clash of East and West in everyday expat life, and is pleased to join the discussion at CNReviews. Meg has written on computer gaming and game culture for Bleech magazine, WomenGamers.com, and others, with a personal blog at Violet Eclipse. (Sorry, China residents, it’s on Blogspot, if you have trouble, try using this link instead.)  I’m pleased to have Meg guest blogging on CN Reviews — I am a Meg fanboy! - Elliott

Instead of learning to ask where the bathroom is located or what time the train leaves, my most vital Chinese questions are “Where’s the net cafe?” and “How much per hour?”When I lived in Yantai, the net bar down the street was my link to my friends back home (and, uh, WarCraft), but it was completely different from the air-conditioned hangout with wifi and coffee drinks back home. Chinese net bars sell computer time by the hour, and most also sell juice, soda, candy, snacks, and instant noodles, the Chinese equivalent of a Hot Pocket. You can also buy cigarettes, smoking isn’t just permitted in net bars, at times I think it’s mandatory.

The library-like silence of an American net cafe is gone, replaced with the usual thousand-decibel cellphone conversations, Tudou or Youtube videos, and shouts from the boys playing CounterStrike. It might not be the most conductive environment for working, especially when compared with the headphones-wearing crowd back home, but the cheery shouts of videogame victory don’t need translation. It’s familiar background noise to a gamer far from home.

My local net bars in Yantai and now in Beijing, are almost entirely populated by the stereotypical young, male gamer. Young men in desperate need of a haircut, staring blearily at the screen for literally hours or even days on end, is a familiar sight from my college days. Gamers ignoring the outside world are hardly unique to China, but the situation is especially focused in China.

First, Chinese teenagers spend their weekday evenings doing homework for the next day, and cramming for exams. Weekends are a little better, but there’re still hours devoted to homework and exam cramming, as well as squeezing in any extracurriculars like English class or piano lessons. There just isn’t enough time to kick back with a few hours of blowing up your friends online!

On a national holiday, my studious friends have an uninterrupted vacation to get some serious gaming in. The intense attention span that students used to cram for exams is now turned to World of WarCraft. I can’t blame them… I definitely spent my share of spring break and winter vacation time sitting in front of the computer. But a few days of solid gaming, coupled with a steady diet of candy bars and instant noodles, can take a physical toll.

Why aren’t there girls? Is it the smoke? Is it the trash-talking over shooters? I wonder if home computers are up to the task of blogging and QQ, but gamers (usually male) need the net cafe’s PCs for system-intensive games, and the chance to blow up their friends in person. I have seen women in ‘net bars, even playing games, but like girl gamers in the US, they’re a rarity.

The packets of sunflower seeds replacing a tall cafe mocha is just decoration. For a gamer in a strange land, a teenage boy wolfing down his snack in a hurry to get back to his game is a recognizable scene. There’s no culture shock in the virtual world, or the gaming subculture. Some things, it seems, are universal. What’s the Chinese word for pwn?

I recently discovered these infographics by Yang Liu (hat-tip to Global Voices, OneManBandwidth, and Adino Chang). Sorry if you have already seen these, but I’m going to zhuanzai (repost) them anyway!

Sense of Time

We posted about this topic earlier on a CN Reviews Mind the Gap post about Chinese and Western attitudes toward time. I think unreliable transit and unpredictable traffic are more important reasons for why people are late. Availability of low cost labor is another reason why time (especially other’s time!) is less precious.

Queues

I love this diagram! We also posted on Chinese and Western attitudes toward queues earlier. Tip: when in line to pay for something at the cashier’s window, follow the diagram on the right, and hold the correct amount of cash firmly in your hand and shove it into the cashiers window. Wait patiently but do not yield until the cashier takes your money and hands you the change and your receipt.

Parties

I guess this represents the difference between a cocktail party and a Chinese banquet. I personally find the blue diagram more efficient even though I am really an introvert at heart. Also, the idea of a “power lunch” is different in the West vs. China. For example, in the Silicon Valley scene, you might eat at Il Fornaio, Buck’s Woodside, University Cafe, and “see and be seen.” But in China, the equivalent might be getting a private room with a lounge at a well known restaurant, and eating with business partners in privacy!

Opinions

This is a stereotype that may be more true in some areas than in others. When I met with my company’s engineers in Beijing, I thought they were pretty blunt and direct. I did not know whether to be blunt and direct back, so I opted for the more indirect approach. So its dangerous to apply this stereotype with all people. China is changing!

Way of Life

This may be a general pattern, but I’ve found Chinese in the generations born in the 70s and 80s to be extremely individualistic and diverse. So I would like to learn more to see if Chinese society is moving closer to the West.

Contacts

Hmm. I think the insight here is that there may be more types of relationships in play in Chinese society. Its widely recognized that you do best working with people that you trust, especially when you are in a less predictable legal and institutional framework. You would rather work with the person you trust than the person that is “best” at whatever you need done. This results in the diagram to the right! Example #1: I invested in a friend’s company, and the partnered with his wife on a consulting project. Example #2: Our chief search architect’s niece is running our Beijing office. Not something that is as common in the West.

Handling Problems

Does anyone else see differences toward the approach of problem solving? Is it true that Western people confront problems directly while Chinese people avoid (or circumnavigate) problems? And which approach is better in what situation?

Transportation

The private automotive industry in China is just getting started, and the car represents freedom, independence, individuality, and progress. We wrote about zijiache, or self-driving, which is a new trend in China. Meanwhile, environmentalists like Al Gore are winning the Nobel Peace Prize and American neoconservatives are advocating “energy independence” as an alternative to restructuring the Middle East. So this picture is pretty accurate, don’t you think?

The Boss

We just posted on the topic of authority in China vs. the West. The question for Western-trained leaders is: how do you adapt your leadership style to fit the expectations of your employees? Is a consultative, egalitarian leadership style viewed as weak and ineffective?

The Child

I’d love to talk to my friends who were born after the One-Child Policy and ask, “Were you surrounded by your 2 grandparents or even your 4 grandparents? ” Maybe the picture needs to be corrected: a child surrounded by 4 grandparents and 2 parents. For more of these infographics, check out the original post at Adino Chang or Yang Liu’s website.

Chinese New Year eve dinner has been the most important event of Guo Nian (过年，celebrating the new year) for a few thousand years. I remembered that people were all talking about dumpling (饺子, Jiaozi) on TV for CNY dinner since I was young. And if you happen to read any history about Chinese New Year, you will know Jiaozi is almost a “must-have” food on the new year eve. But in fact, my family never have Jiaozi for our CNY dinners, and I am sure that I haven’t eaten Jiaozi until I went to middle school. This is not weird if you understand how diversified Chinese food culture is.

This year, I did a small survey by asking six people (including myself) who are from difference provinces of China a same question:

“What are the must-have three dishes in your families’ Chinese New Year eve dinner?”

to satisfy my curiousity about FOOD: a. are all other people have Jiaozi for their CNY dinners? b. If not, what do they have for the dinners?

Before I announce the result of the survey, here is my answer as a Cantonese:

1. Chichen (白斩鸡， baizhanji)

2. Soup (老火汤， lao huo tang)

3.Sweet dumpling (汤圆，tangyuan)

Curious as I am? Check out the Chinese New Year Food Map I’ve created below.

| View | Upload your own

What did you have in celebrate the Year of Rat (Mouse) this year?