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” 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 -- who has worked in China for 30 years, is responsible for anti-piracy in China and is my neighbor in Soho -- 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.” 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.
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 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 (State Administration for Radio Film and Television), the ministry that Frank Yao works for, limits the number of American movies entering China to 20 per year. The various ministries involved have negotiated royalty payments of 87% leaving the 7 Hollywood studios with 13%, compared to 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 Immodipys. NOTES 1. 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. 2. 2004 reports indicate that the average manufacturing wage is $54,000 a year. Source:
ThomasNet.com 3. Myself, Rebecca, Allen (Mckinsey consultant) and Vivian (entrepreneur). 4. See Beijing Diary 19th of February
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” 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 -- who has worked in China for 30 years, is responsible for anti-piracy in China and is my neighbor in Soho -- 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.” 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. 
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 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 (State Administration for Radio Film and Television), the ministry that Frank Yao works for, limits the number of American movies entering China to 20 per year. The various ministries involved have negotiated royalty payments of 87% leaving the 7 Hollywood studios with 13%, compared to 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 Immodipys. NOTES 1. 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. 2. 2004 reports indicate that the average manufacturing wage is $54,000 a year. Source: ThomasNet.com 3. Myself, Rebecca, Allen (Mckinsey consultant) and Vivian (entrepreneur). 4. See Beijing Diary 19th of February