Tonight the firecrackers are going off with a vengeance as it is the last night of the Spring Festival, and it feels like life is returning to normal both for the Chinese and me which I find, I realize, a bit disconcerting.
‘Western binary logic is predisposed to focusing on the measurable, bivalent terms of foundational Truth,’ according to cultural expert Stella Ting Toomey . Apparently this is where our reduction of everything into an ‘Object’ or ‘Subject’ is rooted. As the object of my life in China, the business, is getting better, so the subject of my life is becoming better and better. Returning from Singapore where everything works ominously smoothly, I found for the first time since January 2006 that everything in the China office works. This caused a new crisis - what to do with my time? I caught myself feeling a sense of loss that there are no urgent issued to solve, and it was not until the middle of the week that it struck me that we are entering phase II – building the business.
I went to a cultural awareness forum at which a Dane, Italian and Australian spoke about building a business with Chinese staff. The Italian cultural sensitivity trainer used the simile of the Chinese culture being like an Onion, not apparently because it can make your eyes water, but rather because it has many layers. A year ago I would have found this eye opening but instead found myself looking to see the reactions of the Chinese in the audience; implacable of course, part of Han Xu which is to be ‘reserved and not show emotion.’
I managed to lose my British Han Xu when I realised that I still can’t access money freely. To avoid the capitalization and taxation issues of paying money into the Company account I transferred money for staff salaries to my own Bank of China account. Apparently foreigners are only allowed to bring in US$50,000 of currency per year. It was unclear, through my limited Chinese, why I could only convert US$400 of the US$10,000 sitting in the account on this visit to the bank. As the Italian trainer had explained, Chinese culture places great importance on fitting in and occupying one's proper place (i.e., zun bei you xu; Chinese Culture Connection, 1987; Gao, 1996), and as I seem to be unable to bring in and spend my money freely it seems as though the place that the authorities want westerners like me to occupy is a frustrated one. The Australian consultant speaking at the event said that he saw cultural cohesion within organizations no longer as an east and west issue but rather a national one between rich and poor Chinese.
In an interesting way the Government’s policy is an illustration of the fundamental difference between cultural decision-making. In western countries there is a need for control and diversity, but in China the cultural more is for constraint and harmony . Constraint of the individual in preference for harmony of the whole is laudable, but that model manifested as communism failed to create prosperity and wrought terrible tragedy on China. Today as China allows individuals to accumulate wealth this is at once a cultural and national issue. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said last week, "We never view socialism and democracy as something that is mutually exclusive.” The laws that I wrestle with, many of which seem bizarre, are a manifestation of this tension between collectivism and individualism. It would be a complete lie to say that I calmly thought of this while being treated as a ‘wai ren’ (foreigner) instead of a ‘zi ji ren’ (one of us), but I had enough of my head about me to go the NCR cash point machine and withdraw cash from my HSBC bank in Jersey; sometimes it just feels good to score small victories.
As we are now 523 days from the Olympics there is the serious danger that we will be able to see success. EASTWEST has several big tenders in for contracts, not yet Olympics related work but if I can start to build a portfolio of clients and a team of 10 trained consultants this year I will have leapt many hurdles. I chatted briefly with the head of Adidas sports marketing for the Olympics – the official sports wear provider. On discussion it appears that it is more complex than that because each sport team and some celebrity sports stars have their own contracts meaning that they may be on court in Nikes and on the podium in Adidas shoes. The Chinese sports company, Li Ning, is not able to compete with the foreign brands. This could be seen as another case of western businesses creating ‘objects’ and ‘subjects’, and of another western cultural invasion. As the big contracts have already been awarded we will have to look for the satellite projects to build the business.
Meanwhile City preparations for the 1.5m anticipated visitors are moving ahead. This week the Government shut down the Beijing Coking and Chemical Works which will stop 1.8 million cubic meters of coal gas being pumped into the air every day. The plant was built in 1956 and I shudder to think of the emission controls there. The good news for Tangshan, a city in neighboring Hebei Province, is that they are getting some of the old parts to start up generation there. February reported only 15 ‘blue sky’ days, less than the previous three years, apparently due in part to these infernal fire crackers. I am not sure if there is a concomitant reported increase in sale of firecrackers. It was raining early this week and snowed this weekend, making it hard to tell if this was a real Beijing pea souper, or if it in readiness for the Olympics it is thinning to Onion.
Man Zou
Jim (jin bao)
www.jimjames.cn
