Luxury Chopsticks

This week marked the first time that I was not pre-occupied with operational things, except installing the washing machine, and upon my return from Singapore I was greeted by a clean and tidy SOHO and felt that life is getting good. I landed 2 months ago to set up a Beijing office and finally I have a working office, started legal proceedings and completed EASTWEST China’s fee paying project, this time in Shanghai.

I decided to work with Ken Lee, the chap who endeared himself to my by his observation that snow on my arrival in China was a good omen, and started proceedings to set up the Representative Office. There is a reasonable list of required items with the China business operating as a subsidiary of the Singapore Company. An indication of how many ministries will be perusing my Registration documents, Bank letter of good standing and personal resume, was given by the requirement to submit 12 colour photographs. The process should take four weeks and cost RMB8,500. Ken was the only accountant who wanted RMB; a shrewd move as I watch the US$ depreciate daily in spite of two American congressmen being in Beijing to threaten a 27.5% import duty on China unless it revalues the currency.

It seems that China and the Chinese are now going to have to wrestle with wealth, and the Government announced on Tuesday 21^st its plan to impose a consumption tax on disposable wooden chopsticks, wooden floor panels, yachts, and luxury watches as of April 1 of this year. 15 billion pairs of disposable chopsticks, the eating tools dating back for 3,000 years also called kuaizi, are thrown away every year.

I amuse myself now with looking for Chinese words with identical Pinyin spellings and the same of the four tones; Kuai (4^th tone) also variously means quick, piece, meat chopped, middleman, a unit of money, and happy – hence shengri kuai le (happy birthday). Of course the Chinese character is different but really context is so important to understanding Chinese. I have been considering restarting Chinese classes now that the day to day operations in the office are nearly complete. I still have an intellectual fascination with the characters, am anxious about the inability to not be in command of the company that will be set up here, and want to be able to enjoy events that aren’t specifically for expatriates.

On Friday I went to see a Chinese production of ‘The Playboy of the Western World’[1], and sat through an Irish turn of the century play as good as deaf. The play, a comedy in 3 acts I was later to learn, centres on a young man who gains favour in a small village by claiming to have murdered his abusive father. Seemingly inconsequential, it struck me that this was a challenging play to stage because it strikes at the heart of the Confucian reverence for elder men, especially the father. Here were young Chinese actors and actresses dressed as workmen and massage parlour harlots acting out filial infidelity and sexual promiscuity. It may not sound like a big deal sitting in London or New York, but for Beijing it dawned on me that the amateur group were brave for their play selection and overtly sexual displays on stage.

Their urban anonymity reminded me of the book that my father has recently published[2], in which he analyzes a British Victorian society suffering from ‘cultural schizophrenia’ – a period depicted in literature at once in love with the romanticism of the rural past and passionately embracing the modern urban reality. As I landed in Shanghai, China’s most modern metropolis, for the Asian Public Real Estate Association’s inaugural conference, I was to see the comparable pace of change in China to that which transformed the UK during the industrial revolution.

The APREA conference is our second fee paying project managed out of the Beijing office, with full support from the Singapore team. David Turnbull, former CEO of Cathay Pacific showed photos of the transformation of Shenzen, across the border from Hong Kong, from farming land to tightly stacked urban maze of concrete, steel and tarmac. “To feed all the Chinese people, the small farms will be consolidated and the farmers moved to high rise complexes like this,” said the avuncular Mr Turnbull.

The massive urban development in China means more good business for the delegates at the conference and indeed for me, but as mentioned previously is having a social cost. Presumably a number of the 78,000 civil disturbances recorded last year are the result of this transformation, and the loss of a physical connection with the earth and a forced embrace with the concrete future. With wooden chopsticks considered a ‘luxury’ it seems that the rural poor will be paying yet another price for urbanisation.

 

Footnote: requirements for a Representative Office

The application letter (to be singed by General Manager or Chairman of BOD), please provide following information
Name of the RO, both English and Chinese.
Registration Place of RO (can be extracted from rental agreement)
Name of the Chief Representative and representatives
Business scope
The intended operating period of the RO (normally 3 years)
Photocopy of the Headquarters’ Business License
Photocopy of the Credential Letter issued by the bank of the HeadquarterOriginal Appointment Letters of Chief Representative and Representatives issued by the Director or General Manager of the Headquarter
Identity certificates (Passport or ID card) of Chief Representative and Representatives
The resumes of Chief Representative and Representatives (including education background and working experiences)
12 Photos (2 inch, light blue background) of Chief Representative and each Representative
Office Rental Agreement (the lease term should be not less than one year)

 

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[1] J.M. Synge John Millington Synge (1871-1909)

[2] The Victorian Novel, Professor Emeritus, Louis James. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN:0-631-22628-1

2,791 Miles out of my comfort zone

I have missed writing the diary, a function of a rather stressful and purely self-imposed extraction from my comfort zone in Singapore. Moving three different apartments in as many weeks, missing out on more horse racing with the Queen, and moving 2,791, has me to question why, at the age of 39, I am embarking on another start up.<!–[if !supportFootnotes]–>[1]<!–[endif]–>

If I am honest it is less to do with ego this time than with a sense that I must keep challenging myself, or I will atrophy in the uber comfortable confines of Singapore. Arriving back from Beijing to Singapore two weeks ago I realized just how easy it is to relax in an environment where really all major decisions and threats have been neutralized by warm weather and omnipresent government control. As the latest elections in Singapore ‘heat’ up the main debate is happening on-line, but journalist Lee u-wen of the Today newspaper worries about Bloggers, ‘They're anonymous, they are eager to comment, but do they know the rules?<!–[if !supportFootnotes]–>[2]<!–[endif]–>[2] According the Parliamentary Elections Act bloggers ‘are legally not allowed to indulge in anything that can be construed as campaigning. ..Nor can blogs conduct "political advertising"[3]. ^{<!–[if !supportFootnotes]–>}Listening to Power 98 with fresh ears, I heard all the recruitment advertising for the army – I’d forgotten that one of the main stations is Singapore Armed Forces Radio. The patronizing tone, the false American accents and the absence of any issues being discussed on any of the stations reminded me immediately of the China International radio in Beijing – these two states are run in parallel lines and somehow the perpetual dumbing down reduces one to aquiesence.

As I moved out of my China-town apartment and into St. Martins Lodge, the stability of the Singapore political system seemed more of a guarantee than a threat. I bought the 3 bed apartment at the top of Orchard Road as a base for myself as I headed to Beijing, but I hadn’t envisaged the strength of longing that I would have for actually settling in. Sonya, one of the team at EASTWEST, urged me to organize a housewarming party, and as I watched Queenie face paint friends I knew that she was right to encourage me. Jim Littel, instrumental in the Beijing housewarming 2 weeks prior, observed that I have a habit of holding parties in empty spaces – and that’s kind of how life feels right now; 2 new spaces for new opportunities.

Some of my inspiration comes from the sense that I am not the first to do this, far from it in fact, and indeed I am sometimes embarrassed it has taken me so long. Singapore is the 7th largest trade partner of China. Temasek Holdings, established in 1975 to own and manage the Singapore Governments assets, has invested over US$4.2bn in China but this is dwarfed by the US$33.15bn in bilateral trade each year, although in fairness it appears that nearly 90% of that is Chinese goods being sold or shipped via the ports of Singapore. There are some 1,217 projects that Singapore companies have invested into China, and I guess that with my little venture we can make that 1,218, as EASTWEST is technically a Singapore company.

I mentioned my latest exploits to Daisy Goh, Deputy Director International Operations of the Economic Development Board, as we placed our S$5 bets at the Queen Elizabeth II horse races on Saturday. The British High Commissioner had kindly invited me. I thanked him that day shortly after he was knighted by the Queen, becoming Sir Alan Collins. I asked him if he had been slightly nervous kneeling before an 80 year old lady waving a length of sharp metal about his head, and it occurred to him then that he had been in some danger and it rather added to the occasion. Daisy and I were pleased to place winning bets in the US$275,000 Queen Elizabeth Cup, and I chose to see it as a good omen for my own race to get EASTWEST established in Beijing. Daisy is an interesting and well travelled mandarin of the EDB, having studied and worked in Paris and been responsible for negotiations with Lucas Film and other creative industry initiatives, and it was with pleasure that I accompanied her in the High Commission Jaguar back to town from the Kranji race course, overlooking the Straits of Johor.

On the drive back, Daisy echoed Ken Livingston comments, Mayor of London who said on opening Mayoral offices in Beijing and Shanghai, “I view closer relationships with China as the very highest strategic policy for London.”<!–[if !supportFootnotes]–>[4]<!–[endif]–> I took these words, and the winning of S$14 on the Queens Cup, to be encouragement as I boarded Air China 970 from Singapore to Beijing – this is the overnight flight that leaves at 00:15 and arrives at 06:00 and promises no sleep as the seats fit Asian behinds and the trolley dolleys wheel through when they should in theirs. It was only halfway into the 30 minute trip at dawn to JianWai SOHO, sipping my Starbucks latte, that I remembered that in order to reduce my luggage to a prudent 20.7kg I had stowed my tennis and squash rackets in the overhead locker. These were now en-route to Singapore no doubt. By the way – there is no English language phone number on the Air China website – not any, and certainly not for left luggage.

All this moving has resulted in me losing several things, and forgetting others, in a way that I have found disturbing not for the loss of a material possession but rather it has lead me to question whether after 10 years in the comfort zone I have not lost something else.

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Man zou.

(take care)

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<!–[endif]–>[1] Ever the eternal optimist, in researching this diary I discovered that if the fortune of Bill Gates was stacked in US$1.00 bills it would reach from Singapore to Beijing, 2,791 miles. Coincidence – or just a comforting thought – I know which I will believe.

[2]<!–[endif]–> http://www.todayonline.com/articles/107441.asp

[3]<!–[endif]–> ibid

<!–[if !supportFootnotes]–>[4]<!–[endif]–> Straits Times page 51 March 4^th

50,000 Lommodipys

Beijing Diaries. Vol. II. Issue. IV (26 Feb 2006)

50,000 Lommodipys

On closer inspection China is full of contradictions, counter currents in the tidal waves of change and culture. In my fourth week in Beijing I listened to Mr China, hosted an art exhibition and learnt that in spite of some signs of non sense, this place is opportunity in chaos.

About 100 expatriates struggled to find seats at the Bookwork café on Tuesday to hear “Mr China[1]” himself, Tim Clissold. This is a book about China’s “institutionalized confusion,” and we listened keenly to his accounts of spending US$400m on companies only to learn of managers building identical competitive factories with the proceeds, long negotiations with factory managers as Tim tried to give them pay increases, and was held hostage by workers fearful for their jobs. At the end of 4 years the New York investor’s money had drained away into the soil of China’s industrial heartlands. Uncharitably, as Tim expounded on the new opportunity being Chinese companies buying western ones, I thought that failure had been rather profitable for the Armani clad author, if not for those who had funded his China MBA.One of Tim’s leading themes is that China has the apearance of being illogical while foreigners abandon their senses when they have their passport chopped at the gates of the middle kingdom. Both appear to me at once true and false. Mark Day, Chief Representative for the Motion Picture Association[2] who has worked in China for 30 years, told me that the difference between Oriental and Occidental people is that Orientals exist on shame and occidentals on guilt. In other words that face and collective acceptance are motivators in Confucian societies compared to individual atonement in judao Christian ones. Therefore westerners, including me, come to a society that is operating on an equal but opposing philosophy and when they meet both are disorientated, both struggling to create order which is structurally impossible. Chinese behaviour seems illogical because it is driven by a different set of values, like that of the factory manager who resisted a pay increase because he lived in the same dormitory as his workers and acceptance was more important for his wellbeing than self aggrandisement.

I had similar degrees of confusion attempting to settle into Unit 0504 of Jian Wai SOHO on Friday – one month after coming to China. It doesn’t seem possible to have one worker labour at a task, and once the two cleaners had finished their 1.5 hours of work I passed them RMB40 (US$5) to settle the RMB35 (US$4) invoice. Twenty minutes later and must gesturing I relented and found another RMB6 so that they could return to me RMB10. Meanwhile a band of 5 men came to poke, point, consult, plan, discuss, agree, talk on walkie talkies,review and ultimately change the light bulb for the decking. It didn’t cost any more money to have all these workers, but there are so many people that a task for one person becomes overly complex and purpose for a committee.

Perhaps B&Q needs a committee to work on their signage, as they play their part to keep Chinese at work in their homes doing DIY. British retailer B&Q is one of the largest retailers in China, promising on their signage, “More than 50,000 Lommodipys to ofeeryou one-stop shopping[3].” Near SOHO is the Beijing branch, 1 of 48 stores which contribute GBP116.8m (US$203m/RMB1.624m) turnover to the Kingfisher Group with sales of these Lommodipys growing at 55.7% per year. I purchased a HAIER microwave for RMB279 (US$34) to complement the Hyundai stereo that cost a princely RMB190 (US$24). It seems illogical that these goods can be so cheap, but considering the agency cleaners cost RMB12 (US$1.5) per hour in the capital city, it is perfectly conceivable that factory workers in second tier cities like Xian are earning US$20 to US$30 per week – what one American factory worker would make in one hour[4]. The 50 to 60 people that came to my SOHO warming party on Friday are living the modern China lifestyle; a cosmopolitan mix of well heeled young Chinese and westerners aspiring to be the next Mr or Mrs China. Rebecca[5] kindly agreed to have a showing of her contemporary Chinese paintings by Tong Zhenggang and Yao Junzhong and sculptures by Yong Jie Pang. It has been a month since I got to China and this was a real milestone for me, one that required making a commitment to Beijing and starting the process of building a social network which for me, is soul food. As the days pass, the self doubt of relocation is transitioning to an awareness that the “institutionalised confusion” of China is something that everyone contends with, and that the feeling of chaos is like living next to a busy road – after a while you don’t notice the noise. Mark told me that SARFT[6], the ministry that Frank Yao[7] works for, limits the number of American movies entering China to 20 per year. The various ministries involved have negotiated royalty payments in excess of 70% leaving the 7 Hollywood studios with significantly less than the 50% that they receive in other markets. As I paid RMB10 (US$1.2) for the fully packaged DVD of the ‘non-approved’ “BrokeBack Mountain” at the store today, I considered that in the face of “institutionalised confusion” someone, somewhere can always get something done in China, even if it is not the person or in the way that one might have expected. After 4 weeks I have no pretensions to be Mr China, but I have invested in a few Chinese Iommodipys.

Man zou (take care)

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[1] ISBN: 0060761393

[2] http://www.mpaa.org – responsible for anti piracy in China and also my neighbour in Soho

[3] I include the handphone camera shot poor as it is simply to prove the retailer really had this sign. Apologies for the quality – I was stopped earlier from taking photos by an astute manager.

[4] 2004 reports indicate that the average manufacturing wage is $54,000 a year. Source: http://news.thomasnet.com/IMT/archives/2004/01/dispelling_the.html?t=archive

[5] Myself, Rebecca, Allen (Mckinsey consultant) and Vivian (entrepreneur).

[6] State Administration for Radio Film and Television

[7] See Beijing Diary 19th of February