Much like the Marathon flame figures at the Beijing Urban Planning Exhibition Centre, EASTWEST is taking on the appearance of being in the running for business in time for the Olympics. This week we concluded the first press briefing without external assistance and received enquiries from companies that have heard of our Beijing presence, but I have to admit that by midweek I fell into the 33% of office workers in China who believe that they are suffering from burnout. A visit to the Planning Exhibition restored my excitement at being in Beijing, as it illustrates a broad vision for a worldclass city, but also brought a reminder of the contests others are facing. After the initial differences of living in a new city, work becomes the defining characteristic of life, but for me looking out over the assembled journalists, and past the conference table at the traffic whizzing by on the third ringroad,
I felt a sense of delight as if this was my first ever conference. Ben and Judy had done a superb job of attracting 23 journalists from government and independent publications for the Coding Technologies media roundtable.
I had decided that we would pursue a strategy of not paying for attendance, knowing a number of the journalists for some years I believed that they would not ask, but I was not sure of the others. The night before I was concerned that my principled stand could lead to an empty room and an angry client, with howls of ‘you don’t understand China.’ In the event the media came, they saw, wrote, and within 24 hours we had coverage and even compliments from the press on our management. That evening I went out and it was as the evening progressed I realised that I had been carrying a lot of stress about my ability to actually get work completed in China without a Chinese partner. After a quiet dinner with Mark Day of the MPAA, I went to celebrate Jamaican Independence Day where Edward Lau introduced me to His Excellency Wayne McCook. Jamaica and China established diplomatic relations in 1972. Wayne McCook is the first Resident Ambassador working to increase the US$400m imported to China in the form of aluminium, bauxite, and coffee while Jamaica imports manufactured goods and in 2004 even set up a Chinese Multimedia Language Laboratory. This week Richard Robinson, a consumate networker and entrepreneur, handed me a book called
‘Never Eat Alone,’ which essentially talks about building networks like a one man telecoms company. (There's also a
"Never Eat Alone" blog.) By the time that I had shared with His Excellency the fact that my father was a Caribbean literature expert, and two of my sisters were born in Kingston, I felt that I had built the most tangental of links to His Excellency, but I also felt the exhaustion of eight months of stress and seemingly never dining alone. I went home and slept, unable to wake up in the morning, in spite of not drinking any Caribbean grog. According to a Hudson survey published this week, ‘along with booming business expansion and fast social transition, job burnout is pervasive in the Chinese mainland.’ (1) I read some years ago that the founder of Netscape used to take naps in the afternoon, and at the end of this week found myself escaping for 2 hour ‘recharge breaks’ which I thought were discreet, only to be told by one caller that Judy had told him I was not available because I was sound asleep next door. Fortunately it was Rob, my friend, who received this answer as I then fielded a call from the BBC who is apparently exploring the benefits of an agency in China. I have yet to meet a potential client who is concerned about our work-life balance strategy.
I imagine that there are not very many people in the Beijing government who are getting much rest judging by the expansive models that I saw on Sunday at the Urban Planning Exhibition, even if they are not spending much time on translation. The sign at the ticket counter read ‘The inflammable and fragile staff is prohibited to be stored. Please carry the valuable staff by yourself.’ (Here's a link to the official
Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall website. No English there at all - at least not yet - except for the company's name.) The young ticket assistant looked neither combustible nor portable, and so I paid my RMB30 (US$3.75) proceeded alone to the 5 storey building to explore the plans for the Olympic city. On Tuesday 8th it will be two calendar years until 08.00 on the 8th Month of the year 2008 when Beijing becomes the centre of the sporting world. There is a model of the new international terminal, a 3D and 4D movie rendering of Beijing (I couldn’t think what the 4th D would be) and a scale model that covers some 100ft2 illustrating the Olympic village to the north of Beijing.
As with many aspects of Beijing, the intention is super, but the complete experience is marred by inattention to detail on the inside, and the reality of China outside in the street. Each district within Beijing was given its own space to demonstrate a vision for their future, and Chaoyang with its population of 2.52m was described with ‘overwhelming development posture, as if the rising sun that is containing infinite hopes and vigor’ designed with ‘organization mode city planning, plate mode economic development.’ Apart from these illuminating phrases the exhibits didn’t display a cohesion or consistency, either a function of exhibition inexperience or an indication of the multi-agency planning taking place. I found it somewhat ironic that SOHO had contributed a ‘house of the future’ as of course after AIC 14 that is all that these buildings will become. Stepping out into the street, having been impressed by the vision for a global city with glass and steel buildings and modern transportation, I wondered how they will make all this run within 24 months. Outside McDonalds a beggar, with a wrist twisted like the leg of broken bird, was pecking at empty plastic bottles, drinking dregs when he could unscrew the tops. A few yards away a poor creature with full body burns and severed arms tried to upright his begging cup with his blistered lips; I was at once horrified, repulsed, and maddened. There are stories of people damaging children at an early age to create income later in life, and I prayed that this soul had not been the victim of some mercenary torture. Within sight of the vision for the Olympic city are people existing with a different kind of race, one that I am sure will not be featured in the live broadcasts in 2008. NOTES 1. Source:
"Deal with office overload," LIU JIE, China Daily, 31 July 2006 2. Many thanks to Michael Switow, who is carefully maintaing this blog.
Much like the Marathon flame figures at the Beijing Urban Planning Exhibition Centre, EASTWEST is taking on the appearance of being in the running for business in time for the Olympics. This week we concluded the first press briefing without external assistance and received enquiries from companies that have heard of our Beijing presence, but I have to admit that by midweek I fell into the 33% of office workers in China who believe that they are suffering from burnout. A visit to the Planning Exhibition restored my excitement at being in Beijing, as it illustrates a broad vision for a worldclass city, but also brought a reminder of the contests others are facing. After the initial differences of living in a new city, work becomes the defining characteristic of life, but for me looking out over the assembled journalists, and past the conference table at the traffic whizzing by on the third ringroad, 
I felt a sense of delight as if this was my first ever conference. Ben and Judy had done a superb job of attracting 23 journalists from government and independent publications for the Coding Technologies media roundtable. 
I had decided that we would pursue a strategy of not paying for attendance, knowing a number of the journalists for some years I believed that they would not ask, but I was not sure of the others. The night before I was concerned that my principled stand could lead to an empty room and an angry client, with howls of ‘you don’t understand China.’ In the event the media came, they saw, wrote, and within 24 hours we had coverage and even compliments from the press on our management. That evening I went out and it was as the evening progressed I realised that I had been carrying a lot of stress about my ability to actually get work completed in China without a Chinese partner. After a quiet dinner with Mark Day of the MPAA, I went to celebrate Jamaican Independence Day where Edward Lau introduced me to His Excellency Wayne McCook. Jamaica and China established diplomatic relations in 1972. Wayne McCook is the first Resident Ambassador working to increase the US$400m imported to China in the form of aluminium, bauxite, and coffee while Jamaica imports manufactured goods and in 2004 even set up a Chinese Multimedia Language Laboratory. This week Richard Robinson, a consumate networker and entrepreneur, handed me a book called ‘Never Eat Alone,’ which essentially talks about building networks like a one man telecoms company. (There's also a "Never Eat Alone" blog.) By the time that I had shared with His Excellency the fact that my father was a Caribbean literature expert, and two of my sisters were born in Kingston, I felt that I had built the most tangental of links to His Excellency, but I also felt the exhaustion of eight months of stress and seemingly never dining alone. I went home and slept, unable to wake up in the morning, in spite of not drinking any Caribbean grog. According to a Hudson survey published this week, ‘along with booming business expansion and fast social transition, job burnout is pervasive in the Chinese mainland.’ (1) I read some years ago that the founder of Netscape used to take naps in the afternoon, and at the end of this week found myself escaping for 2 hour ‘recharge breaks’ which I thought were discreet, only to be told by one caller that Judy had told him I was not available because I was sound asleep next door. Fortunately it was Rob, my friend, who received this answer as I then fielded a call from the BBC who is apparently exploring the benefits of an agency in China. I have yet to meet a potential client who is concerned about our work-life balance strategy. 
I imagine that there are not very many people in the Beijing government who are getting much rest judging by the expansive models that I saw on Sunday at the Urban Planning Exhibition, even if they are not spending much time on translation. The sign at the ticket counter read ‘The inflammable and fragile staff is prohibited to be stored. Please carry the valuable staff by yourself.’ (Here's a link to the official Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall website. No English there at all - at least not yet - except for the company's name.) The young ticket assistant looked neither combustible nor portable, and so I paid my RMB30 (US$3.75) proceeded alone to the 5 storey building to explore the plans for the Olympic city. On Tuesday 8th it will be two calendar years until 08.00 on the 8th Month of the year 2008 when Beijing becomes the centre of the sporting world. There is a model of the new international terminal, a 3D and 4D movie rendering of Beijing (I couldn’t think what the 4th D would be) and a scale model that covers some 100ft2 illustrating the Olympic village to the north of Beijing. 
As with many aspects of Beijing, the intention is super, but the complete experience is marred by inattention to detail on the inside, and the reality of China outside in the street. Each district within Beijing was given its own space to demonstrate a vision for their future, and Chaoyang with its population of 2.52m was described with ‘overwhelming development posture, as if the rising sun that is containing infinite hopes and vigor’ designed with ‘organization mode city planning, plate mode economic development.’ Apart from these illuminating phrases the exhibits didn’t display a cohesion or consistency, either a function of exhibition inexperience or an indication of the multi-agency planning taking place. I found it somewhat ironic that SOHO had contributed a ‘house of the future’ as of course after AIC 14 that is all that these buildings will become. Stepping out into the street, having been impressed by the vision for a global city with glass and steel buildings and modern transportation, I wondered how they will make all this run within 24 months. Outside McDonalds a beggar, with a wrist twisted like the leg of broken bird, was pecking at empty plastic bottles, drinking dregs when he could unscrew the tops. A few yards away a poor creature with full body burns and severed arms tried to upright his begging cup with his blistered lips; I was at once horrified, repulsed, and maddened. There are stories of people damaging children at an early age to create income later in life, and I prayed that this soul had not been the victim of some mercenary torture. Within sight of the vision for the Olympic city are people existing with a different kind of race, one that I am sure will not be featured in the live broadcasts in 2008. NOTES 1. Source: "Deal with office overload," LIU JIE, China Daily, 31 July 2006 2. Many thanks to Michael Switow, who is carefully maintaing this blog.