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 21st 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 (4th 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’, by John Millington Synge 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 ( "The Victorian Novel" target="new" by Louis James) 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. NOTES: 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)
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 21st 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 (4th 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’, by John Millington Synge 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 ( "The Victorian Novel" target="new" by Louis James) 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. NOTES: 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)