Welcome Back

It's been almost (or maybe more than) six months since I last wrote here. Why? The Great Firewall blocks my access to Blogger, Facebook, Twitter (who cares...), and Youtube. OF course, I can't access any websites with nudity (not like I would anyways...) either, but I'm not keeping score.

The picture above is from a temple in Hong Kong. My mom and I took a tour of the island while she was here and i would say this was my favorite part. The week before, we went to Xi'An to see the Terracotta Warriors. The picture of me looking thoughtful with a sword was taken outside of the government run warrior factory. You can buy a warrior for just over $2000. Don't be surprised when you see on in my future house. The second picture is the main warrior burial site. Seeing them in real life was awe inspiring, and began to make more sense when I learned that the 8000 clay warriors and their tomb was ordered to be build by the emperor when he was just 13 years old. If you were a teenager with seemingly limitless power, what would you order your subjects to do?

A brief update: my previous boss L left Vaupell in February, right after my whirlwind trip around China. It turns out the implications of this "administrative adjustment" are overwhelmingly positive. Stella (the dog) is coming up on her first birthday, is fixed, and almost through with her false pregnancy (thank goodness). I'm much better adjusted to China than when I previously wrote here, and don't miss home nearly as often.

This last weekend, I took a trip to Zhuhai to see a girl I've been dating for a few months and, thanks to her, stumbled upon an underground go-kart track - it is awesome. At my best, I finished the course in 1:01 minutes. After ten minutes of whipping around turns, accelerating until I thought the engine would explode, and drifting around corners, I was drenched in sweat, exhilarated, and ready for more.

The racing den, as it ought to be called, is dimly lit and would be considered illegal in the US. There is one exit, which would likely be considered a fire hazard by American standards. Descending into the drivers lair is an ominous experience if there are racers on the track: engines rip and tear as they are pushed to their limits by teenage and young-adult racers hungry for an adrenaline fix. For 40 RMB (about 5 US dollars) a racer can commandeer a vehicle with low center of gravity, steel bumpers around the edges, and a top speed of at least 80 mph for ten minutes - as long as you drive in the right direction, there aren't many rules. I don't remember the last time I had so much fun.

New Friends and Stability

Things are going well for me – allow me to explain. In the last three weeks, I have been in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Liangyungang, Qingdao, and Xian. Of those areas, one is a special administrative region, two are municipalities directly under the supervision of the central government, two are located in special economic development zones, one is the birthplace of China’s favorite beer, and another is the oldest capital in China: home to the legendary terracotta warriors of the Qin emperor. Why are these cities of interest to me? It all has something to do with the Chinese aircraft industry.

As of yesterday, I’ve got a new friend living with me at my apartment. Miss Liang, Abo’s wife and CFO of RCS, recently bought a dog at the meat market (I’m not asking any questions) for her daughter, Jiayan. Twelve years old and unimaginably cute, Jiayan spends weekdays at a boarding school almost an hour away from where her parents live. For the past few weeks, the puppy has been hanging out with the security guard at our shop. You wouldn’t have known had you sent the puppy two days ago, but it has puffy white fur and a brown face; she’s about the size of a plump housecat.

As a reminder that she really belongs to Jiayan, my coworkers named her Xiao Yanzi, which means little swallow in Mandarin. After trying it out for a few days, I decided to call her Stella instead. The name seems to fit.

I ran a low-key propaganda campaign for the past week or so with some of the staff at RCS to support my request to bring Stella home with me during the evenings and to let her hang out in my office at work during the day. My lobbying proved to be quite effective with the only condition being the pup should be around on Friday afternoons when Jiayan returns from school. Seeing as I’m at work already when she shows up, it’s not much of a compromise.

On the ride home in our company driver’s car yesterday, Stellaleft a warm puddle of pee on the floor mat at my feet just as we drove up to my apartment complex. The driver graciously agreed to clean it up, even though I offered to help. My new resident, the little swallow, after a long walk, some dinner, and an hour long shower transformed from an unruly, dusty, gray fluff ball into a cute, fuzzy, mostly-obedient friend. The learning curve is steep, but Stella is learning to obey, heel, wait her turn to go out doors, not chew on everything, and sleep alone all through the night. Today, she chilled out in my office all day without barking, whining, or getting upset once. I think once I get rid of her flea problem, she’ll be a pleasant and emotionally healthy companion.

One thing I have observed that I, as of now, only know to react to as strange is how almost every Chinese person interacts with my new friend. Almost all of them do one of the following things: making strange whistling and clicking noises, slapping her face in a manner she clearly does not enjoy, grabbing her roughly by the legs, tugging on her leash, making strange shrieking noises, jumping up and down, or talking to her in the most obnoxious manner I have ever seen a gaggle of women coo at a baby. I’m not ready to draw any conclusions about what this behavior may suggest, but it certainly is interesting.

Before I came to China to work for Vaupell, I had thought about having a dog but originally ruled it out as impractical. This situation is almost a perfect arrangement. I have no commitment to the dog if I need to move to another country, I don’t need to take care of it when I travel, and I still have the opportunity to build a relationship with her, have a companion here, and most of all, I’ll always have a friend to hang out with after work. It doesn’t hurt that she’s terribly cute as well. There’s something irresistible about a dog with uneven floppy ears.

The second picture attached to this post is of Luxun, a friend of mine who works at the shop here in QC. My original intent for this picture was for it to be a marketing shot, but I got to thinking that it wouldn't hurt to show you all a little bit of the shop. We both graduated from college in the same year and were born in the same year too. His best spoken English is "let's go," so all of our communication happens in Chinese. It works out. We're planning to hang out maybe this weekend. First guy friend in China - booyah.

Long Hours

Vaupell has been keeping me busy-very busy. I am grateful to be up to my eyeballs with work to do while so many in the US and China struggle to find work. I am better at my job than I was a month ago which may have something to do with the long hours I have been putting in. This is not a complaint. I have a routine that is working, am almost always on time, and as of this week am managing stress effectively. On Sunday, I will head to Shanghai with suits and ties with the mission of keeping quiet and listening. I won't say too much more about it, but know that I am excited for this trip. My Mandarin has improved so much since I have been here that I chuckle at how littl I spoke when I arrived in September. My boss L and I are getting along well and I consider him as my closest friend here. My train from Kowloon, HK is about to arrive in Shenzhen. The plan is to meet for dinner with the logistics/shipping associate whom is helping me set up logistics forthe rework project I am managing on the China side, then try to make the last bus back to Shajing. It's looking like I'll stay in the city and catch an early morning bus back to work. Time to cross the border. More later, I miss you all.

The Deal

While waiting for my ferry from the Hong Kong International Airport to Fuyong, Shenzhen, I've run across somethin I'd like to share. The BBC has employed a journalist named James Reynolds to live in Beijing and blog his observations about China. In short, it's a lot more thoughtful and insiteful than mine.

After years of studying, researching, and experiencing China a big why thought has risen above the rest of my unanswered questions: how does the Communist Party manage to stay in power? This post by Mr. Reynolds offers a suggestion that I can get on board with: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/jamesreynolds/2008/11/the_deal.html

If you're interested in traveling a little further down the rabbit hole, I suggest you take a look.

I can't say that I've ever had a Chinese person explain the arrangement so clearly to me, but it seems to fit in with the behavior I observe.

Culture Shock

In the past, my notion of culture shock revolved around the notion that it only manifests itself when one crosses imaginary political boundaries. This weekend in Shanghai, I refined my belief about this strange human phenomenon.

To be very clear, I still experience culture shock living in Guangdong province, though it comes in spurts. Usually, it occurs when something happens and I find myself feeling confused. I mean, completely baffled by what I have just witnessed. I define culture shock as being completely stopped in my tracks because what I'm experiencing is so foreign to the situations I've trained myself to react to regularly.

Culture shock hit me in Shanghai this weekend. The biggest contrast appeared to me when contrasting two experiences I had; one took place in the Shenzhen Airport, the other in the Shanghai Hongqiao airport.

For this trip, I attempted to buy my ticket on eLong.com; after that day, every foreigner I spoke with each told their own horror story about why such a choice is foolish. To guarantee my security, eLong asked me to send a photocopy of both sides of my credit card and a photocopy of my passport via email or fax. Like hell I'm doing that in the US, not to mention in China.

Upon arriving at the airport, I was not surprised to find that my ticket was not available, i had no choice but to miss my flight and pay an extra 350 RMB for a new plane ticket. In the middle of my phone call to eLong to figure out what the hell went wrong with my purchase (the problem was that I refused to send them my identity theft package), the non-English-speaking airline worker behind the counter (who spoke some god-awful dialect of Mandarin that I struggled to understand and whose words ratatatted like tommy gun fire) hung up my phone call and demanded I buy a new ticket. I lost it and exploded in a rapid-fire slurry of English that appeared to terrify and confuse the airline workers. People in positions of authority in deep China (like Guangdong), are used to telling people what to do and getting what they want. We Americans are a little different. In the end, I realized I had no choice but to buy a new ticket, find the nearest bar (unfortunately they only serve beer in the Shenzhen airport), and wait. By the way, my new flight was delayed two hours due to weather problems, simultaneously; another flight to Shanghai by a different airline took off twenty minutes after my departure time. If it smells like funk...

In Shanghai Hongqiao Airport, everything ran smoothly. The security guards and airline staff were polite, helpful, and not argumentative or manipulative. This is the changing face of China; it is alive and thriving in Shanghai. The element of culture shock can be broken down into one simple element: in shanghai I can expect demand excellence of people and expect results without excuses or complaints. The same holds for Hong Kong. Whether this phenomenon exists as a result of Western influence, I am not yet certain, however; I do appreciate it.

The other small aspect of culture shock I experienced in Shanghai was the speed at which conversation between a group of Americans progresses. It's almost schizophrenic compared to conversations I have over lunch here. Life moves fast in cities the size of Shanghai, but I couldn't help but notice the way all four of my CET Alumni fluidly dove between topics and skillfully interjected witticisms without over-monopolizing talking time or derailing the flow of conversation. Especially, the fact that a woman was freely sharing her thoughts and opinions as well as unabashedly showing off her talents in a group of man stood out to me when compared to the realities of Guangdong life.

Yes, in our lifetime, we will observe China systematically and effectively copy most of the West's technology and ideas such as gender equality. However, the elephant in the room, and the place where China is truly innovative, is at the high levels of their massive bureaucracy and economy. To the best of my knowledge, no government has ever managed to control such a massive economy so successfully in the iron-fisted fashion favored by the CCP. It is clear that China can not sustain the speed and quality of their economic development without the West's technology or help, but can its government maintain its autocratic control over Chinese people who are increasingly saturated with Western thought? I say it can not be done. The Window to the World park in Shenzhen will only stymie the curiosity of their population for so long.

High Blood Pressure

Things about China that annoy me:

The people above me with the singing water faucet!!!!! I actually yelled at the ceiling tonight and banged on it with my umbrella. Yeah, it got that bad.

Sporadic internet bandwidth. Sometimes I can only load the first page of my blog, sometimes Facebook stops working, sometimes, Skype shows me being online for hours after I have signed off. It is a mystery. Are my emails being blocked, or is nobody writing to me? I may never know.

No matter what I do, the food here seems to make me fat. Is it the rice? Is it because most everything is cooked in peanut oil? Or is there something wrong with my beautiful white body that causes me to turn this food into fat instead of staying as skinny as the brown people around me do? Le sigh.

The spitting. Although holding a license to haulk the biggest, nastiest loogies I want as I walk down the street in public is liberating, it quickly looses its charm when someone right next to me does it!!! Gross!!!

This next one has nothing to do with China: Have you ever noticed that those irritating (and sometimes funny) chain emails that get sent to you all seem to be written by the same person? I have.

Unpredictable quality of DVD movies. I mean, the only cost 60 cents. I expect perfect audio and video on all 5 of my Harry Potter discs.

Chinese people have no problem with lying. It makes for a good exercise in gathering facts and doing research, but damn I miss Anglo-Saxon Judeo-Christian inspired truthfulness.

Apartments don't come with heaters. I froze for two days while I had strep throat before I could finally crawl to the grocery store and buy a couple of oil heaters. It's nice now, though!

Some pharmacies require a prescription to buy Amoxacillin, some don't. All I can say is, I am thankful for the ones that don't.

Why did my camera stop turning on this week? Who knows, but it's a great excuse for a trip to Hong Kong!


In case it seems like I'm having a bad time, I'm not. I've been working on this list for a while, so enjoy. I'll write something positive next time. I'm pretty sure I will have high blood pressure by the time I leave China. I can't wait to come home to a place where EVERYTHING WORKS!

Back in the Game

A week ago, I felt like public enemy number one. On Wednesday afternoon, everything came to a head. It started with a Skype chat with my boss Larry.

"It's time to buck up Spencer!"

To put it lightly, I was resentful.

Part of my job at Vaupell is managing the molding, assembly, logistics, and communication of a project for one of our US divisions. What that basically entails is making sure materials arrive on time, prices get negotiated, and parts get out the door when they're supposed to. It's been a bit hectic, as I'm new to injection molding, management, project management, China, Chinese language, Chinese culture, Chinese people, Vaupell, the Chinese company we JV with...you get the idea.

I thought this would be pretty easy. All I've got to do is tell people to do their job and they'll do it. Right?

Wrong.

The learning curve has been steep, but I finally feel like I'm making progress. I worked 14 hour days Wednesday through Friday and Monday-Tuesday. Saturday was intense as I spent most of my time negotiating with our Chinese partner Abo on...well lots of things. The Chinese negotiating style is not exactly what we westerners are used to. If Abo didn't get the answer he wanted from me he used one of two tactics: getting angry or changing the subject and coming back to the contested issue later. It took a lot of patience, but after about six hours of talking, he got his managers mobilized, agreed to open the shop on Sunday, and got the assembly line moving. It was really quite remarkable. Finally...I can relax, but with one eye open.

Despite a few hiccups this week, things are moving along smoothly. I've forefited my trip to Beijing for the Beijing Aerospace Tradeshow (which I hear is a flop), but I feel good about having my project on track and soon to be back on schedule and meeting ship dates/quantities. All that's left now is my accounting project; I still have four and a half days until the big boss comes into town and wants to see results.

On Monday, I felt a lot of pressure and didn't see any end in sight to the seemingly endless stream of problems, uncompleted tasks, and cultural frustrations of living abroad. Today, I'm back in the game. I haven't had a lot of time for fun this week, but presenting a well structured, thorough, and organized report to my CEO next week will be worth the sacrifices.

After he leaves, I've just got one more week until I drop two sleeping pills, hope for a business class upgrade, and settle in for a long flight back to Seattle on December 19th.

I can do this.