About China blogosphere, travel, and entrepreneurship

When it comes to dealing with those in power in China or in the West, it can be a real… nightmare, if you’re not ready for it.

In the West, most of us assume or have come to terms that your boss is just about as equal as you are (although he or she still holds a slim yet commandeering lead over you). If your boss messed something up, he or she is expected to own up and say that it was a bad or stupid move. In China, the boss is just about always right — well, sort of. Criticism of a boss at just about any level is risky business: at best, you get stared at; at worst — wait, was that a pink slip — your pink slip?

Authority is more pronounced at the level of those in power — in public office. Having met the person who is supposedly there to nix all instances of Chinglish (to the tune of “Love road is the responsibility of everyone”) just today, I felt that it was real hard to keep an air of equality during our hour-plus-long conversation. To me, the incoming visitor, the lingdao (领导) or head wasn’t exactly un-accommodating (I loved the tea, by the way), but he had his agenda (of course I can’t blame him — do realize that the guy has a job on his hands). But can you say exactly equal treatment — every inch of it? Did I not sense an aura of “I know my bit, I’m just telling you” — that was just a tad more weighty on his end — and that I felt?

Authority sometimes falls flat on its face — of Chinglish signs that some guy at the top failed to correct…
Contrast that with Switzerland, where urban legends tell of the average man in the street approaching a Federal councillor or congressperson in a tram (or “streetcar”, if you must…) and telling him how Bern should be run. Or the case of a Federal official surfing the Internet — “just like that”, like the average Swiss citizen, of which I was a witness to. Or, better still, a meeting with the head of Macintosh Users Switzerland, where we were given total equal treatment. MUS is about 1,500 in headcount; BeiMac just managed to sneak over 600. Yet there we were, on totally equal terms; the scene, “old man versus young guy”, a scene where in China the “old guy” is supposed to “indoctrinate” the “young guy”, was one of complete equality.

Authority is a tacky issue. Yours truly prefers a very Swiss version, especially in the BeiMac user group which he runs: a semi-unwritten rule has it that 50 members (already!) can form a recall and put that to vote. If the President has to go, well, so be it. The President is always held accountable for big boo-boos, and he dresses just like any other guy in ordinary meetings.

Spot the President. No, seriously. Turns out he’s just another ordinary guy in the pack…
It’s not that only Swiss citizens in China can afford to get more “human-ish” as in more like the average man in the street; nope, there was a clearly well-reported case where even the former Mayor of Beijing, Wang Qishan, got a bit more “Swiss” (so to speak) than the average capital-ist expected. Word has it that Wang actually apologized for some policy botch-up (which one I forgot) over the airwaves, on radio. The average man in the street’s response in the street: What a nice mayor, saying stuff near and dear to many a citizen’s heart.

See, sometimes it pays to be human — even if you’ve all the “power joysticks” (so to speak) within your reach.