Pudding and Chopsticks

I realize that it has been awhile. I can remember when I was all worried about work and trying to find a job. Now it seems like I can’t find time to do anything but work. Take it while you can I suppose. Within the work I usually take breaks to do what have you. Sometimes it involves watching a movie. The other day I rolled over to my local dvd store to purchase a new flick. What did I find finally. That’s right ladies and gents, Avatar..

There are times when I remember why I am here. Rampant copyright infringement. Awesome. Being a creative I shouldn’t condone such actions as copying someone’s work. However, there is no way that this country is going to stop. So, get your money up front and when in Rome do as the Romans.. Man, I hope this thing works.. If not I’m out a 1.50$. Dratz..

Things I’ve learned part 3. Face.

The concept of is super hard to understand. I don’t even get it all. It’s like, not wanting to be embarrassed. So don’t do anything that’s embarrassing nor do anything to embarrass others. Something like that. Also it’s a game. You can give people face. Let’s say that you are negotiating with a Chinese person. They want to seem like they have power or what have you. You get the price you want but yet you have to give them something in return. Like, they get to control a little more. Something. This gives them face. Even know you don’t care about whatever you gave them, they do. Now they feel like they won something and didn’t just get argued with.

If they have a son that goes to the States for school. Lots of face. Going to Beijing University, lots of face. Face is like a social status tab. Hell, everyone seems to keep track of it..

It gets interesting. I’ll tell you why. In the States we don’t care about this at all, if any. Yes we are embarrassed but not to the extent of people in Asia. This face issue causes problems, here’s how.

I need something done. I ask someone if they can, oh I don’t know, to make me a American style suit. The tailor guy would be like. Yeah sure.. No problem. Maybe he has never made a suit this way before. But he sure is not going to tell me. I come back and it’s trash. Why, because he has never made an American style suit, doesn’t know how and didn’t tell me because he would lose face. So now I would have a crap suit and lost a bunch of time.

So that’s just one part of face. I don’t want to appear wrong or incapable. I’m sure I will write more on this when I have a little more time.

Peace.

I’ve been busy. I apologize. So before I get knee deep in my day I’m going to write part two in this little series. Probably the next this that comes to mind is patience. Nobody has it here. Or it seems that way. Probably because everyone wants to get theirs. I’ve decided that the best way for me to explain these things is to write a small example. Short and sweet. So here is part 2.

I saw a guy the other day riding a bike. I had stopped at the edge of the sidewalk to wait for the traffic to stop. It was 5:30 or so. Tons of traffic. I waited patiently for the cars to get the red light so that I may cross. Why because it’s common sense to me. What did the guy do? He barreled out into middle of traffic. He caused a massive traffic jam, stopped the left traffic from going right, cars where swerving around him, this caused an accordion effect, basically one dude f ed an entire intersection because he wanted to cross the road.  A minute later he decided that it was a bad idea and back up until he reached the sidewalk.

He didn’t care about the hundred people driving there cars, he just wanted to get his. Get across the road. Did it matter that he inconvenienced anyone. Nope. Because in China, unless you are his personal friends, you don’t exist. If someone wants to cross the road, or make money. It doesn’t matter who it effects, they’re going to do it their way. I can’t explain, it’s hard, but THIS happens with everything. Driving, walking, waiting in line, business. They want to get from point A to point B, how they do that. Well, doesn’t really matter. I had read a blog post today about how the PRC is getting raw materials.

I quote “As the major purchaser of many raw materials, China believes it should be able to dictate purchase terms, without negotiations. Iron ore is a good example of this. China formed a buyer cartel (in violation of its own and foreign anti-monopoly law), which demanded a single price from its suppliers, with no room for negotiation. This “hardball” approach is being considered for other industries where China is a major purchaser of raw materials.”

They broke their own law to get theirs. Hell half the time they don’t enforce the laws they have until it benefits them directly. That’s ok, let all the foreign companies do whatever they want. Then something happens, like, tariffs or some junk. Oh hey that law we’ve let you slide on.. We’re going to have to enforce it now.. Bam.

So hopefully you get the drift. Maybe maybe not. I’m going to try to put more thought into this and not write off the cuff. I want to, however my time lately have been limited. Until next time.

Peace.

First. Thanks you for checking out the blog. A friend posted a link on FB about it. Thank you. If anyone has suggestions about what you would like me to write about by all means email me. I’m friendly. So on to today’s lovely topic.

I guess that I should reflect upon what I have learned while living here for the past 8 months. So I am going to start a series or something to that effect on things you learn here in the PRC. Now if I could only find that paper, I wrote them down somewhere, dang, hold on.. Ok found it. Alright. These aren’t going to be the usual oh gee, remember that the power outlet is 220v and not 120v. These are going to be more introspective and personal things along with a few tidbits of info. So lets start.

Part 1, deceive and be deceived.

If any of you know me personally, you know who I am and how I act. I’m quite, shy, humble, and honest. I like to think that’s the way people see me. My family has raised me well. So the last thing that I want to do is deceive people. Then I found out what business really is. I would say that there are different levels to this deceive and be deceived idea. Whether you have a powder stash and don’t want anyone to know, to the I am trying to get money out of you, I think those are two different things. Everyone deceives. Here in China, a lot of people deceive. It can be a face issue. I don’t want to look bad in front of my friends or employees. Or it can be a negotiating tactic. There is a lot more negotiating here then in the states. Here is a little story that I read in a book. Mind you I am paraphrasing but you’ll get the picture.

So this dude is a warrior, kills people. He goes to this village and makes friends with the head guy. He walks through the village with this bad ass sword sheath, gold and what not. So he drinks with this guy and they have fun and do whatever dudes do a thousand years ago. I’m guessing drink a lot. So they have a bite to eat and drink by this river. If the head guy knew who this other dude was he would never hang out. So the warrior guy is like, lets trade swords to show our friendship. The head guy was like, hells yeah, your sword handle is bad ass. Then the warrior guy was like, how about a little spar for fun. The head guy is like, sure why the hell not. So the head guy pulls out the sword and find that it’s made of wood. Total fake out, so the warrior guy kills him and does a dance or whatever warriors do.

We as westerners see this and are like. Damn he totally faked his ass out. Yep, is that ok, well no.. In Asia, as far as I know, they feel that the warrior was smart and tactiful. Therefor awesome. So it’s ok to deceive people here. How does this apply to modern China, well, I’m trying to think of a way. I suppose that if I wanted to take photos for someone and they’re photos they had were good, I could say they suck or something. Then get the job and take the cash. I here stories of companies setting up, looking good, foreigners come here check it out. It’s all good, they give them some investment money. Then all of a sudden the company is gone. What happened? Well, the company never exsisted. It was a fake just to get the investment from the foreigners. After they got it, bam, they left rich. Is this right, well it depends on how you look at it. I suppose if you are Asian, and I am making an assumption about this, then maybe it’s ok, because you are showed you are smarter then the investor. In American eyes, not cool. So I suppose it depends. Would I ever do anything like this, no. I don’t want anything done like this to me therefore I wouldn’t do this to anyone else.

So deceive and be deceived. Whether it’s good or bad, it happens everyday all around the world. I guess that you notice it more here in the PRC. Either that or, I am getting to know what business means. It could be the same in the States, I don’t know for sure. I wasn’t really into business when I was there. Not like I am now by any means.

Next time I will pick another random topic. Which one, well your guess is as good as mine. Til then.

So yeah. I didn’t do much for New Years. In fact I didn’t do anything. Oh well. I did get a chance to do something the following days. First, I went shredding again. Second, I ate Korean food. I know awesome, right?

Welcome to the indoor snow park place thing..

Heyoo. So yeah, no goggles. But whatever.

Gee, We don’t stand out much do we?

Rental boots, board, pants, I drew the line at the jacket. Snowboarding is awesome. Some bros showed up decked out in Burton acting all cool. Girls and all. Heck if you didn’t know any better you would think that they were from Breckenridge. That’s alright though. I had to put the kabosh on that. Some butters, back ones, and a three off a bump of snow and bam.. Learn how to shred son..

So we found a cool place to eat. Consider it the Ponderosa of China. All you can eat Korean food for 50 元. Not to shabby. The only problem is that, well, not really a problem but, you cook your own food on a little grill deal. Totally awesome. What’s not is the fact that all the food is out on a table to go grab, for everyone. So when the nice thin sliced meat comes out, some F face takes the whole plate. The plate that is supposed to be for the whole place. He snags it all. Thanks F er. You have to wait around till the good meat comes out. Then take the whole F ing plate. When in Rome.