Beijing Diary 9th Nov 2008 “Life is what happens to you while you are making plans,” I believe John Lennon once said, and in the last twelve months fatherhood, Olympics, a start up, trying to keep the Duke of York entertained and marriage have made me change my plans and kept me from writing this diary. 
Amity Huan Huan James celebrated her first birthday party at the XYZ art gallery, oblivious to much but the enormous chocolate cake and the clown; for Wei and I this was a milestone in our relationship, our second anniversary. I wrestled for 6 months with the reality of fatherhood including diapers at dawn, impossible to button up baby outfits and not being who I used to be, but Wei has been a guiding light to the concept and reality of a fun and happy family. Fortunately we share many basic parenting philosophies such as not having the baby sleep in the bed, a common practice in China, and accepting the sweet and the smelly parts of parenting. Wei works with the art gallery, and thought it would be fun to have lots of toddlers around the contemporary paintings; I nervously checked for chocolate fingerprints after the last of the diaper brigade were wheeled out. The police and army brigades have also left the streets of Beijing post Olympics and as the winter leaves turn auburn the city is becoming a pleasant place to live. A revised vehicle restriction policy is keeping 600,000 cars per day off the roads and a policy of moving from coal to oil fired power stations could also be contributing to the clearer skies. It could also be that factories shut down for the Olympics are finding the global recession has created a perfect economic storm from which they can’t recover. In Beijing huge office buildings are now being completed but there is very much a post Olympics sentiment in the market and both residential and commercial landlords will, I hope finally taste their own medicine. I prescribed myself a dose of diversification in the last year, investing into an internet marketing company and launching the British Business Awards. Eggplant Digital was founded by 2 very bright but under funded British lads and so it made great sense to restructure their UK company under Singaporean jurisdiction and use our China company to house their team. Eggplant Digital (www.eggplantdigital.cn) was able to make a significant contribution to the marketing of the British Business Awards (www.britishbusinessawards.cn) which I proposed to the Chamber of Commerce in November 2007. A year later on November 6th 2008 over 380 people attended the gala dinner. As Chairman of the Awards I was seated next to Prince Andrew with the role to keep the Duke of York interested enough to postpone his planned early departure, an event which would have embarrassed the British Ambassador Sir William Ehrman, Cheng Si-wei of the National Peoples Congress and the Deputy General Sun of the Ministry of Commerce. 
At dinner I asked his Royal Highness what he found most remarkable about China. “The level of transparency in the way that they share their problems now” he stated. Cheng Si-wei replied that the leadership had learnt a great deal about the benefits of openness during the Sichuan earthquake earlier this year. They realized that they could not contain the news and embraced the idea of showing the human face of China. International reaction with aid and support had vindicated their policy. No one at the table pursued the topic. The Duke was bemused that an owner of a Rolls Royce in China would be obliged to take the same test as a truck driver due to the length of the luxury car, an issue that I had to confess had not affected me yet in my endeavours. 
Perhaps I should have rented a Rolls Royce to take Wei to the registry office to get married. A monk at a temple in Shanghai told Wei’s mum that the 30th October was an auspicious date to get married - the only issue was that I learnt of this on the 24th. I had already submitted myself to the British Consulate for the ‘Certificate of no encumbrance’, which cost a princely RMB1450 and took 45 days to process (Wei’s American letter took one day and cost RMB200), and am very much in love with Wei but had hoped we could get hitched after the Awards. However, the auguries of an orange robed mystic are not to be challenged. Wei and I hurriedly took the mandatory ‘together photo’ at a local Kodak shop and proceeded to the registry office in northern Beijing. We arrived at 11:45 am and woke up the blue suited official, a pair of lifeless China miniature flags clothed in plastic adorning her desk. For a kings ransom of RMB9 the Chinese Civil Administration glued our Kodak moment into red booklets, stamped our documents, and muttered something about the need to notarize our vows outside of China to be useful. By noon Wei and I were married. ‘They must often change who would be constant in happiness or wisdom,’ wrote the Chinese sage Confucius. I presume that he wasn’t referring to one’s wife, but the last 12 months have brought constant change with lots of happiness. I wonder what happened to the wisdom. Manzou Jim
Amity Huan Huan James celebrated her first birthday party at the XYZ art gallery, oblivious to much but the enormous chocolate cake and the clown; for Wei and I this was a milestone in our relationship, our second anniversary. I wrestled for 6 months with the reality of fatherhood including diapers at dawn, impossible to button up baby outfits and not being who I used to be, but Wei has been a guiding light to the concept and reality of a fun and happy family. Fortunately we share many basic parenting philosophies such as not having the baby sleep in the bed, a common practice in China, and accepting the sweet and the smelly parts of parenting. Wei works with the art gallery, and thought it would be fun to have lots of toddlers around the contemporary paintings; I nervously checked for chocolate fingerprints after the last of the diaper brigade were wheeled out. The police and army brigades have also left the streets of Beijing post Olympics and as the winter leaves turn auburn the city is becoming a pleasant place to live. A revised vehicle restriction policy is keeping 600,000 cars per day off the roads and a policy of moving from coal to oil fired power stations could also be contributing to the clearer skies. It could also be that factories shut down for the Olympics are finding the global recession has created a perfect economic storm from which they can’t recover. In Beijing huge office buildings are now being completed but there is very much a post Olympics sentiment in the market and both residential and commercial landlords will, I hope finally taste their own medicine. I prescribed myself a dose of diversification in the last year, investing into an internet marketing company and launching the British Business Awards. Eggplant Digital was founded by 2 very bright but under funded British lads and so it made great sense to restructure their UK company under Singaporean jurisdiction and use our China company to house their team. Eggplant Digital (www.eggplantdigital.cn) was able to make a significant contribution to the marketing of the British Business Awards (www.britishbusinessawards.cn) which I proposed to the Chamber of Commerce in November 2007. A year later on November 6th 2008 over 380 people attended the gala dinner. As Chairman of the Awards I was seated next to Prince Andrew with the role to keep the Duke of York interested enough to postpone his planned early departure, an event which would have embarrassed the British Ambassador Sir William Ehrman, Cheng Si-wei of the National Peoples Congress and the Deputy General Sun of the Ministry of Commerce. At dinner I asked his Royal Highness what he found most remarkable about China. “The level of transparency in the way that they share their problems now” he stated. Cheng Si-wei replied that the leadership had learnt a great deal about the benefits of openness during the Sichuan earthquake earlier this year. They realized that they could not contain the news and embraced the idea of showing the human face of China. International reaction with aid and support had vindicated their policy. No one at the table pursued the topic. The Duke was bemused that an owner of a Rolls Royce in China would be obliged to take the same test as a truck driver due to the length of the luxury car, an issue that I had to confess had not affected me yet in my endeavours. 
Perhaps I should have rented a Rolls Royce to take Wei to the registry office to get married. A monk at a temple in Shanghai told Wei’s mum that the 30th October was an auspicious date to get married - the only issue was that I learnt of this on the 24th. I had already submitted myself to the British Consulate for the ‘Certificate of no encumbrance’, which cost a princely RMB1450 and took 45 days to process (Wei’s American letter took one day and cost RMB200), and am very much in love with Wei but had hoped we could get hitched after the Awards. However, the auguries of an orange robed mystic are not to be challenged. Wei and I hurriedly took the mandatory ‘together photo’ at a local Kodak shop and proceeded to the registry office in northern Beijing. We arrived at 11:45 am and woke up the blue suited official, a pair of lifeless China miniature flags clothed in plastic adorning her desk. For a kings ransom of RMB9 the Chinese Civil Administration glued our Kodak moment into red booklets, stamped our documents, and muttered something about the need to notarize our vows outside of China to be useful. By noon Wei and I were married. ‘They must often change who would be constant in happiness or wisdom,’ wrote the Chinese sage Confucius. I presume that he wasn’t referring to one’s wife, but the last 12 months have brought constant change with lots of happiness. I wonder what happened to the wisdom. Manzou Jim