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Kirstof is Off the mark about China Education

2011-03-08T08:19:30Z

NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF: "The real strategic challenge isn’t Chinese fighter aircraft. It’s China’s focus on education."

If I had kids a Chinese education is not what I would want for them. I do appreciate that over-all, Chinese culture values education as a concept. But the actual methods typically associated with Chinese style education, are not my cup of tea --rote memorization, dictatorial teaching styles and a very black and white view of the world.

In many cases those teaching methods aren't much different than even in the comparatively "permissive" U.S. I think, en mass, in the U.S. we are just as likely to romanticize these methods and make them OK by calling them "tough love" or "traditional values." But this narrow view of education is tripping us up. We need to broaden the meaning of education to include technical training, Unschooling and simply encouraging people of all ages to really dig in and pursue their interests rather than feeding them to school systems that train how you how to work in a factory-style workplace or how to "get a job." Our economy is no longer supported by producing widgets and as China's economy grows it won't be either.

My prediction is that both the Chinese and American middleclass will suffer under a "jobs mentality." We do not want to build a society on people who rely on "a job" for emotional and economic happiness. We need everyone to take a little time to get to know themselves (even just a little) and passionately go after their real interests. That gives a person purpose and self-confidence where looking for "a job" limits the ability to enjoy life and be productive in a more general sense. Also it makes people less vulnerable to politicians that promise "jobs" when often what it takes to create jobs, are tax breaks for the already affluent who in turn do little to really improve the lives of everyday people.

Education should not be limited to course work, memorization or jumping through hoops to get a degree. Education is keeping an open mind and a life long process.

Attack of the Chinese Mom

2011-02-04T19:52:29Z

The Wall Street Journal article "Why Chinese Mothers are Superior" got me thinking. How are Americans so easily ruffled by even the idea of Chinese superiority? Yale professor Amy Chua and WSJ craft provocative headlines to grab our interest but this one really hit the spot some how.

The smackdown on Western style parenting had 81K+ Facebook "likes" one day and 145k+ virtual thumbs-up, the next. A scroll through the article's comment section shows a debate over the relative importance of Chinese vs. American contributions to the world. It feels like a "Tastes great!" "Less filling!" Miller Lite cat-fight, but largely without the humor or fun.

I did like a comment pointing out that the Chinese invented beer. That got four recommendations. Thank goodness.

A friend brought to my attention a Chinese-American's counter point to the article. I really appreciated Jean Hsu's blog posting in which she reveals that not everybody finds happiness in achieving external goals that may bring only a since of prestige and pride for your teacher, boss or mother.

It's natural to want to be on the winning team. For reasons either in our nature or nutured, it seems most of us wants to yell, "we're number ONE!"

Forget about all this, "can't we all just get along?" or "We're all in this together" kumbaya, mumbo-jumbo. Right? I mean, after all, the Chinese have, in fact, developed a fancy fighter jet and at a rate that is faster than we expected (btw, isn't it a bit arrogant that thought the Chinese would be slower?). The sky is falling and our, "permissive western" parenting is dooming us Americans to leave the world's VIP section.

The debate over parenting styles, east verses west, is both exasperating and fascinating. And yet it feels so dated --been there, done that. It's like so 1997 for me. And the not so sexy conclusion that I've come to is that we're all pretty much the same; people are people and politics are politics everywhere.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Wai!Hello? Don't stop reading.

So the question remains, will professor Chua's brood contribute to society in a way deemed meaningful by WSJ readers or will they end up under-achieving and/or on "Celebrity Rehab"? And by the way, who's to say that landing a slot on "Celebrity Rehab" isn't something rather impressive? After all it is a sign of fame and possibly a small fortune --something of which the Chinese are so famously fond. Oh and Americans too. Hmmmm......

Mobile Mating Game is Big Business

2010-11-09T06:54:30Z

We've come along way baby, since Nokia's "Snake" and BlackBerry's "Brick Breaker" games. Not only can you divorce yourself from the people around you, by playing games on your mobile phone, you can also meet people just as anti-social and escapist as you because now venture capitalists are pouring cash into companies that mix dating with gaming --such as Burlingame, Ca based Aurora Feint.

According to a generic, mildly credible sounding company (Future Source Consulting), by 2014 the mobile gaming market will be worth 10 billion dollars. Woo hoo! More proof that people really don't want to do anything. As currently mobile gaming is worth just under two billion U.S. dollars.

The same technology that makes mobile gaming possible is the same kind that makes mobile working possible --but who wants to hear about that? It's reassuring that I am not the only one that would rather play Ms Packman than staple together another TPS Report.

If you're one of those industrious types, a genuine hardworker and/or really have talent as a game developer or artist, perhaps you can win yourself an IMGA or International Mobile Gaming Award. The French organization, now in its 7th year, will be announcing the 2010 winners in February of 2011.

Futuresource expects smartphone ownership to grow by 50% in 2010, achieving 270 million units worldwide --so get cracking! All us Homer Simpsons out there don't have anything better to do anyway.

Chinese High Speed Hype

2010-11-01T04:59:15Z

The new highspeed bullet train opened in Shanghai looks impressive --even if the female train attendant uniforms and the Chinese character font look frumpy. Still, I can't help but be skeptical. I hope the thing doesn't shoot of the tracks or fall in disrepair within six months.

When it somes to articles about the new Chinese super train, readers online seem to fall into one of three catagories:

1. Team China

2. Gloom-and-doom America

3. Buyer Beware

Americans are having a hard time with no longer being number one for absolutely everything. And the Chinese, as well as some Westerners who feel they can benefit from China's rise, are buying into the hype about just how uber swell China is these days.

Yes, China is turning into a real economic, political power house. Yes, the Chinese market has the most delicious potential for prosperity. But it's my belief that it's not all rainbows, pandas and Friendship Stores. So color me "Buyer Beware."

Though I naturally tend toward the critical, I have been trying, of late, to take a more balanced view of the East-West debate. There's good parts and bad parts about each political system and the over all quality of life in either China or the U.S. I think both countries are about equally corrupt and equally enchanting.

But let's face it, taking this more measured view is boring. No worries, the Internet is full of hyperbole.

Judging from what I read in the comment sections of articles about China, a vast number of Americans are feeling defeated. They're sitting on the bleachers shaking their heads. They're feeling like America is just too far behind to ever catch up with these Chinese wonder kids. And the Chinese who leave comments online, are unfailingly uncritical of China --jumping up and down with a giant foam "#1" finger screaming "we're number one!" To further fan the excitment are U.S. and Canadian expats (among others) living in China who seem to see themselves as part of the excitment. They've given up on the West and are ready to ride the wave of Chinese greatness, right along with a billion or so of their new Chinese compatriots.

Having lived in China and Taiwan for several years and living in L.A. now, I'm sitting on the sidelines wondering how it will all work out. I was in Taiwan during a 7.3 magnitude earthquake and saw how poorly the modern apartment buildings held up (having been built on empty soda bottles and old newspapers) and I recall friends in Beijing having to pay a kind of protection money to their local neighborhood mini-mafia so they keep their tiny shops open. The U.S. with our shoddy New Orleans levee and various Madoff's are no less opportunistic.

Hopefully the new bullet train and the behemoth damn built to power it will stay in tact, long enough for me to fly over there and go for ride. I am, after all an American. It's all about me and my backyard, where I don't want any high speed trains shooting past making it hard for me to hear my cats-on-treadmills Youtube videos.

Real iPads to Go on Sale in China

2010-09-14T19:01:07Z

Can Apple really pull-off selling the iPad in China for almost a $100 more than what you would pay for the same base model in the U.S.? The iPad will go on sale in Chinese Apple Stores on September 17th at 10 AM. But so what? After all, the iPad is made in China and you can get both a straight up rip-off of the iPad for less and even a superior version of the iPad for even less.

I guess this is where we find out how vain Chinese people are and we learn about the strength of marketing. After all, you can go to Alibaba.com today and order a custom pc tablet that will leave the iPad coughing in the dust. Though you might have a harder time impressing your friends at Starbucks when they see your slightly thicker "aPad" that can multi-task, read Flash and navigate you via GPS.

Logically, there's no reason for a anybody to camp out for a product unless it's stuffed with money or drugs. But that's not why people buy, is it? Almost all sales are emotional. And as far as I know, Chinese people do love brands like everybody else. They love the awesome-by-association effect --just like most everyone else.

When I was in Taiwan McDonald's held a special promotion in which you could get a limited edition Hello Kitty doll with each meal. The line started to grow the night before. I was shocked to see women well into their 30's staying up all night to get a Hello Kitty doll. Perhaps because the doll was free in addition to being limited edition is why these people were willing to sacrifice their time and comfort? Still, it amazes me.

Chinese 3D Express Coach Wants to Straddle You

2010-08-02T21:34:25Z

Baby, you can straddle my car. The Chinese bridge bus or, straddling bus or 3D Express Coach, looks a bit awkward at first but as you watch the video you start to fall in love with the monster. Perhaps because the presenter, Song Youzhou, is so earnest and well meaning.

Song starts the presentation by talking about the problems with traditional buses that you do and don't notice; congestion and noise as well as pollution. This creation by Shenzhen Huashi Future Parking Equipment (phew!) is fully electric and each bus only takes a year to contruct and get working, verses the three years it takes to build a comparable subway line.

Within in twelves months you can go from the noise of modern life to the cool Muzaky-Enya-esque life of a bridge bus. And don't worry about a milk truck slamming into the back. The bridge bus sends out warning signals for drivers to move to the next lane. And if you've ever been to China you know who well drivers pay attention to the warning...

Oh. Hmm...

Judging from the positive comments on www.umiwi.com, Chinese people are loving it! One guy says, "really admire you! Want your ideas to come to life as soon as possible, love green transportation..Looks like a somethng out of a Tom Cruise film, cool!"

I think he meant to say the bridge bus looks like something out of "Minority Report." That movie, unlike Tom Cruise, is getting a lot of love these days.

But something tells me that if you show this video to an Art Center alum or a city planner, there's going to be a much more sober take. He or she would start with the renderding quality of the explanation video and it would be a blood bath from there.

What do you think? Half-baked or ready to rake?

Cathay Pacific In-Flight Hotness

2010-07-16T04:20:30Z

I always liked Cathay Pacific airlines and now I have Skytrax ratings, Megan Fox and a the Cathay's recent decision to improve their service to make me even more confident in my thinking. The Hong Kong based airline announced that they will outfit their entire fleet with state of the art broadband, 50 megabytes Internet access, mobile phone voice and texting service as well as live TV by early 2012. Megan Fox, inexplicably, Tweeted about this upgrade today and all along Skytrax has rated Cathay Pacific a "5 Star" airline.

Cathay Pacific has chosen to upgrade their Boeing airplanes with in-flight electronics done by Panasonic Avionics. Both Lufthansa and Virgin airlines will be using Panasonic Avionics products as well, though only on a limited number of their planes. Cathay, will make the service available on their entire fleet, for all classes, including their regional airline, Dragonair.

No word yet on what on how much Cathay Pacific will charge to use the service. Perhaps there will be enough advertising opportunity such that the service could be "free" of charge? We shall see.

It seems airlines that serve Asia have to step up their game as mainland China's airlines strive to improve. Currently China's three largest air carriers, Air China, China Southern and China Eastern are ranked as only "3 Star" airlines by British based research firm Skytrax. But according to Air China Senior Vice President He Li, they are looking to significantly improve their service standards in terms of seat comfort, catering and in-flight entertainment.

Cathay has good reason to take such a sweeping step. China's domestic airline passenger numbers may more than double to 700 million a year by 2020 from an expected 266 million this year, according to Liu Shaocheng, director of policy research at the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

In the 90's I flew around Asia quite a bit. Airlines like Singapore, Thai and Cathay Pacific showed me how nice air travel could be and made me grumpy about the sagging quality of U.S domestic flights ever since. I enjoyed the cleanliness and the newness of the planes, the good food and, discrimination issues aside, the hot flight attendants. Just like mobile phones, airlines were one of the more advanced features of Asia that I enjoyed. They felt like "the future" to me. They were in stark contrast to enduring the daily relics of squat toilets and swarms of noisy mopeds.

And of course not all Asian airlines were great. I recall Air China, based out of China, and China Air, based out of Taiwan, were both sub-standard when it came not just to safety records but also basic in-flight service. Both felt outdated and utilitarian like some kind of stiff re-enactment of what in-flight service might have been like in the 1950's.

It's my observation that there exists, in Chinese culture, a basic knowledge vacuum when it comes to customer satisfaction. The Chinese mentality feels like, "if you're not super rich or famous, what makes you think you deserve a smile or even a clean seat?" The pilots' take-off style made it feel like we were flying to the moon; from a slow runway taxi to flooring the gas pedal. Flight attendants tossed out dried squid packets and rationed soda. Passengers were just an inconvenience.

But that's so "10 years ago." Right?

If Cathay Pacific's continues to stay ahead of the trends and focuses on keeping their loyal customers happy, they should be able to thrive. But there's no doubting that China based companies are starting to catch on to the importance of great service. Though it remains to be be seen if they can do more than just provide lip service.

Smartphones Make Strange Bedfellows

2010-06-22T21:17:20Z

Just because we're addicted to smartphones doesn't mean we're switching off the TV or putting away our laptops. This according to Initiative, a global media communications company, that did a study and found that 76 percent of us worldwide use our cellphones to busy up downtime.

More people are using smartphones and more of those people are getting smarter about how to acutally use the darn thing. So now it's not just the super nerd from IT that knows how to tackle his iPhone. Over 80 percent of smartphone users have downloaded at least one app. The percent of Chinese users to do that is nearly nearly 100 percent.

It's funny. People aren't replacing one device for another, they're just adding more like scoops on an ice cream cone. The highest level of multi-tasking occur, according to the Initiative study, while watching TV, listening to the radio and travelling - all at 50 percent. In addition, 39 percent use mobile Internet while at a computer, and 34 percent while reading newspaper and magazines.

It's basically a marketer's dream. You can reach somebody with an Android phone 24/7. The study didn't mention the percentage of people who take their mobile phones to the "powder room" but I'm sure it's not small. Apparently we basically cuddle up with our mobile devices, kiss it good night and let it greet us first thing when we wake-up --63 percent of smartphone users check their phone in the morning.

Gimme an iPhone at Any Price?

2010-05-25T18:46:53Z

Foxconn, the massive manufacturing arm of Hon Hai Precision Industries Co. which makes electronics for Apple is in the news again for yet another worker suicide. The iPhone and iPad manufacture employs around 800,000 people of which about 300,000 work at the Shenzhen factory in mainland China. That's were the recent spate of suicides have occurred. Within the past 5 months there have been, depending on what you count as suicide, 8 or ten of what WSJ says “people falling off” buildings. Oops!

While any suicide is tragic, statistically in China, from what I can find poking around the Internet, about 13 in every 100,000 people will kill themselves. So all in all Foxconn is below the average. And if you look at one of the comments on the Wall Street Journal site on this issue it's just the way things are. If you work for a company for money then whatever happens, happens.

When I lived in Taiwan (which I think culturally is very similar to mainland China) it seemed a day couldn't go by without news of someone jumping off a balcony or in front of a train due to lost love or poor grades. I just couldn't believe people could get so worked up over grades. Jumping off your apartment balcony seemed so gruesome. What about drugs and alcohol??

There's just such a juxtaposition because Taiwanese and Chinese culture are so much about keeping emotions hidden that they'd rather hit the concrete than yell at the wall. But I suppose it's more complicated than that.

Depending on where you look on-line people are either outraged and ready to quit buying Apple products or they're just angry at “the media” for not looking at the actual statistics. But I feel like if we are emotionally honest, and aren't billionaires with factories to maintain, then we have to realize that this recent outbreak of suicides at FoxConn's Shenzhen factory is sad and does coincide with the launch of the iPad. I'm not saying it's a direct cause but perhaps there's a correlation relating to the market pressures and a drop in margins and thus even harsher controls over workers.

To discount the deaths, is to be like Fox anchor Brit Hume saying, a week or two ago, “where's the oil?” in reference to the BP oil spill in the Gulf. Yes suicide happens but c'mon, an average of one and half suicides a month in one company? Something's up.

The most recent worker to kill himself, Nan Gang, was 21-years-old. He wasn't a child but barely an adult. In fact, most Foxconn production workers are between 18 to 24-years-old. Again, those are not technically children but awfully darn close. It would be one thing if they were just working for minimum wage but when they're also jumping off the top of the building it doesn't just seem like the school of hard knocks anymore.

In my mind 18-24 year-olds are supposed to over using their iPhones and iPads not working over-time to make them. And it seems it's those young kids born after 1990, that are helping the Chinese economy grow so strong.

On a marketing level, I wonder what would be the breaking point for Foxconn and Apple? I wonder about the line between production and retail. So let's say these 8 or 10 suicides at the factory are just a fact of life. Average. What if the amount doubled? Would it really impact sales?

When you think of the marketing message that seems to come with Apple products as this cozy, cute , fun way to enjoy life it suddenly doesn't seem so friendly anymore if you have to push the image of a 21 year-old iPhone maker jumping off the factory roof. Let's hope the monks, invited by Foxconn, can help keep those 18-24-year-old Apple product makers at their work stations.

Ugh.

Chinese Cartoon on FoxConn Response to Suicides

2010-05-25T01:01:30Z

From Gizmodo:

This comic shows the high building of Foxconn with a signboard put on top saying:

"Suicide is Forbidden, Suicide is harmful to health".

And the man (representing Foxconn) pointing at the signboard says:

"We have tried our best"

and the man with white costume says:

"Perhaps it's a Feng Shui problem."

U.S. Mobile Commerce Statistics

2010-05-19T23:59:49Z

Excerpt from Nine Multimedia:

Here is some interesting data from an article called “One in Five U.S. Adult Consumers Now Using Mobile Commerce”:

o 1 out of 5 people have used their smartphone for mobile commerce.

o 17% used their mobile phone to buy apps, ringtones or other content for their phones.

o 6% admit they received coupons and discounts.

o Another 6% purchased physical goods or non-mobile related items.

o Blackberry and iPhone users are the top customers of mobile commerce.

o 34% of Blackberry users and more than 50% of iPhone owners made purchases through their mobile phones.

o 50% of the mobile content purchases were made through their carrier.

o 34% bought something using their bank account or credit card.

o The biggest group of consumers is among the ages 25-34

According to the latest publication of the Mobile Marketing Association, mobile commerce is becoming “secure and trustworthy”. Tom Marchesello, leader of Nine Mobile, could not agree more: “People will eventually realize that nothing is more secure that mobile commerce.”

iAd Advertising Platform Double Dipping?

2010-05-04T18:12:51Z

Excerpt from Philip Elmer-DeWitt Apple 2.0 Blog

Most mobile ad networks charge either a set rate per 1,000 impressions — the so-called CPM. Or they charge a rate for each time a customer clicks on an ad — the CPC.

Apple's (AAPL) new iAd advertising platform, according to a report in Monday's AdvertisingAge, is charging for both. Marketers who want to reach iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users through iAds will have to pay $10 per thousand impressions plus $2 per click.

"Apple is reinventing mobile ad pricing," write AdAge's Kunur Patel and Michael Learmonth, "and not in a good way."

For example, AdMob, the mobile ad company whose acquisition by Google (GOOG) is being scrutinized by the FTC, charges $10 to $15 CPM on average, but doesn't add costs per click. If advertisers buy CPC campaigns, AdMob's rates are 15¢ to 30¢ per click.

In addition, because Apple hasn't released an iAd developer's kit, creative directors will need Cupertino's help to build their ads — a service for which Apple is charging top dollar. For agencies spending less than $1 million on iAd buys, Apple is charging $50,000 to $100,000, according to agency executives. That's about twice today's going rate.

Disposable Cellphone Led to Time Square Bomb Suspect

2010-05-12T16:00:30Z

Excerpt from POLITICO (Washington)

- The number from a disposable cellphone led FBI agents to the suspect arrested Monday night for allegedly driving a car bomb into Times Square on Saturday evening, according to a senior official.

"They were able to basically get one phone number and by running it through a number of databases, figure out who they thought the guy was," the official said.

A huge law-enforcement force tracked the suspect through the afternoon and evening. He was arrested at 11:30 p.m. at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. The vehicle identification number had been removed from the bomb-laden 1993 Nissan Pathfinder left in Times Square.

But investigators were able to lift it from a second location on the vehicle, and used that to track down a Connecticut man who said he had sold the Pathfinder for cash about three weeks ago. The man had offered the vehicle on Craigslist, and FBI agents were able to recover the number from a disposable cellphone that had been used by the buyer.

Bo Yi-Qun Slide Shares China's Mobile Internet Facts

2010-05-04T17:37:03Z

Just checked out a verrrry interesting slide show put together by Bo Yi-Qun, Vice President of Mobile Internet Great Wall Club which gives an amazing overview China's mobile Internet marketing space. In fact the numbers are shocking.

I know China has a lot of people but when you read statistics comparing U.S and Chinese Internet user numbers and profit margins it just really drives home the vast difference in scale. How many synonyms can I come up with beyond staggering? Stupefying? Astounding? Mind-blowing? And so on... that really make me wonder how any creative or non-traditional, non-Chinese company could be profitable in China.

The numbers sound impressive. Chinese Internet service portal Tencent has 900 million subscribers (the population of the entire U.S. X 3) 400 million active users and 40 million people actually paying for services. Tencent makes 70% of their revenue from virtual goods, 20% from mobile applications and just 10% from advertising. In 2008, the date listed for the data, Tencent's market cap was 40 billion dollars. That makes Facebook's 200 million active users with an all advertising business model and only a 15 billion dollar market cap look like a wimp getting sand kicked in its pimpled face.

I, personally, still don't understand the appeal of virtual gifts. But if Tencent was really making 70% of it's considerable revenue from pretend flowers and teddy bears, I think I'd better wake the !@#$ up. It's no wonder Facebook tries to FORCE me to buy a fake $1.00 birthday beer for my friends every chance it gets. Clearly Facebook is not going to be able to survive on ads alone. Keep your eyes open for Facebook “Linden dollars” and even banking! Eeeek.

Additionally only 2.3% of the Chinese people have credit cards, where as well over half of Americans have AT LEAST one card. The most popular way to make a purchase on-line, in China, is via Alipay the Chinese version of Paypal. The company calls itself, "China's leading independent third-party on-line payment platform." It's so convenient you can add money to your Alipay account at a bank or a post office. Could you even try imagining doing that at a U.S post office?

The Great Wall Club also shows that Chinese Internet companies operate with healthy margins, averaging around 30 to 40% whereas U.S. companies average around 7% margin. It's like China is some business utopia on the brink of taking over the world. But so far it seems you have to be a local to enjoy this kind of deep margin and steep market growth.

Arguably even Google can't hack it (heh) in China. The spending power of the average Chinese is not strong enough. So for Google to save face and recoup loses they company had to scream "human rights abuse!" and pull up roots --or at least threaten to.

I would be interested to hear of some real successes among foreign Internet companies in China. I have yet to see any examples outside of traditional inventory based businesses like Walmart, Costco, McDonald's, KFC or Dominos as models for how foreign companies might do well in China (HINT: sell cheap “food”). Maaaybe Swedish, low-priced clothing maker H&M? Maaaaybe. And I have to wonder if the big ad agencies like Ogilvy are actually just bleeding money hoping that one day the tide will roll in with fat, juicy margins. Because right now it seems like China is saying "Branding-Shmanding! Gimme an imaginary fortune kitty cat, nevermind the ad"

P.S.

Procter & Gamble CEO Robert McDonald recently commented, "the spending per capita in China is only $3 a year on Procter & Gamble products."

McDonald compared that to the U.S., where P&G products lead in over 25 categories, with per capita spending of $100 annually.

China Mobile to Carry Kin

2010-05-03T20:25:48Z

According to hacker Conflipper, Microsoft's Kin mobile phone will be carried by China Mobile. Aren't the phones in China already about 1,000 times more advanced than the Kin? Kinda feels like Zune part two.

Chinese Wealth Gap Growing

2010-04-03T21:58:18Z

Visual Economics has a great chart depicting the Chinese wealth gap which continues to grow. It is estimated that the Chinese Communist Party will need to maintain a 10% level of growth to keep China from having mass revolts. The average Chinese city dweller makes $2,500 a year while a villager makes just $775 per year. Meanwhile China was ranked 2nd in the world for its number of billionaires --64. So the massive stimulus package enacted last year by the Chinese government was sorely needed.

Ogilvy Chinese Mom Study

2010-04-03T22:02:58Z

Ogilvy study shows that Chinese moms are more than stereotypes!

Shocking, I know.

China's population of working mothers is more than the entire population of the U.S., 320 million. Mothers are a critical force in Chinese industry and buying power. They are very important not just to their children but to hungry marketers.

image via mia

Google Sends Netizens to Hong Kong Servers

2010-03-22T19:25:46Z

Wow. Quite a brilliant game of chess Google is playing with the Chinese government. Now if you live in Mainland China and want to get real, uncensored results from Google's search engine you can. Your results might be slow because you and all your fellow truth seekers will be accessing servers set-up in Hong Kong. Furthermore you will be able to see which Google properties are being blocked by the Chinese government and to what degree.

It looks like Google is having a hardtime saying good bye to one of the largest and fastest growing on-line markets in the world. Last night when I looked at Baidu it said Google will be focusing on the Korean and Japanese markets. Hmmm...this is pretty interesting.

China's 957 Million Mobile Internet Users by 2014

2010-03-22T08:02:50Z

China will have 957 million mobile Internet users by 2014 according to eMarketer. Can you even get your head around that? China's total number of mobile subscribers will be nearly 3 times the total U.S. population. That is incomprehensible for me.

Of course a lot people think the mobile market, in general, will turn out to be highly fragmented. There are and will be even more operating systems.

That is one monster of a market. I wonder in what year we will stop calling China an "emerging" market?

Who Moved My Chinese?

2010-03-30T01:24:25Z

How did I decide to study Mandarin and live in China for several years? I point to three main things: growing-up in the 1980's, a 7th grade classmate and our home decor.

Wooden Buddhas smiled at me from the coffee table, vases with dragons carved on them posed as book ends, a miniature gong complete with paddle entertained me and loads of Japanese made electronics and table wares fed me and recorded my life. As an officer in the U.S Navy, my dad bought all these things overseas during Vietnam. My childhood was filled with knick-knacks from asia. I treasured them.

And then, by the time "Purple Rain" hit the charts, I was in middle school making friends with a Vietnamese classmate. Phuong sat next to me during home room period. She was trim and serious with shoulder length, shiny black hair and straight bangs. Her penmanship was impressive. All mistakes were carefully rubbed-out, the eraser bits briskly flicked away, her jade bracelet clanking against the faux wood Formica top.

Sometimes, after school, I would go to her house. Her family -- mom, dad and baby sister-- lived in a small, two bedroom duplex. Always coming and going were several uncles that were not much older than us girls. They would interrogate me to make sure I was a good enough influence. Nobody else's parent or guardian put me through this kind of test. Going to Phuong's place exposed me to a wonderland of all things foreign -at least to me.

Their house usually smelled sort of like chicken with some unknown spice mixed in. Her parents worked nights leaving Phuong to take care of her 2-year-old sister. Her mom would leave dinner waiting for them in a sauce pan on the stove.

The kitchen was full of surprises. Leaning against the bottom cupboard were the biggest bags of rice I had ever seen. Fifty pounds of rice in one bag; this was amazing. I had never stopped to realize that a culture which eats rice at practically every meal would therefore keep very large bags of it around. Then there were the stainless steel chopsticks. They stood drying in the dish-drainer to be used again, just like a fork or spoon; not to be tossed in the garbage with take-out boxes and fortune cookie wrappers. On the kitchen table were bags of eucalyptus flavored Halls cough drops which Phuong offered to me like candy.

They may as well have been the “Addams Family”. Their life and daily routine were fascinating. Besides the different food, the numerous teenage uncles and arduous work ethic, there were harrowing stories. Phuong said she and her mom nearly fell off a boat a few times while escaping from Vietnam. She recounted the dangers of refugee camp life and casually dropped in Vietnamese mythic stories complete with dragons and sea ladies. It was sensory overload that captivated me and made me want to learn more about Asian culture in general.

In the 80's, Japan was THE Asian country to worry about. The Japanese were technologically, financially and even culturally kicking America’s butt. A kind of group hysteria permeated the media. The Japanese were taking over. We Americans just couldn't resist their clever Walkmans or reliable cars. The yen was pulverizing the once mighty dollar. And then, before we knew it, the Japanese were on our shores buying our skyscrapers.

I had to figure out the secret to their success. How did they become this economic power house? How come everything they produced was so cute? At the very least I wanted to be able to speak to our new masters and find out who came with the idea of edible paper made from rice.

I never went for the Saniro Hello Kitty, Keroppi stuff. Instead, I used my allowance to buy Japanese art books, a print of Hokusai 's The Great Wave and stacks of origami paper. I chose to do book reports on Daoism. I felt deeply upset by the images on TV of Detroit autoworkers smashing Japanese cars. To me Americans looked like sore-losers.

My high school began offering Japanese shortly after I entered. It felt like the class was specifically for me. I figured I would soon be discussing the Samurai use of hara-kiri in fluent Japanese. Everything was falling into place perfectly. On registration day, I made a bee-line for the sign-up table. Japanese was my first stop.

But, that year students with last names "H -K" landed the last rotation for class sign-ups. By the time I got there with my "J" of a last name, Japanese class was full. I begged. I pleaded. After all, two of my friends had already gotten in. But, I had no luck. No amount of standing there in disbelief could change the situation. Japanese was too popular. I would have to wait until next semester to begin my studies.

Right next to the Japanese teacher, was Mr. Taylor, the Chinese instructor. Mr. Taylor, was also my social studies teacher. He was a kind of stereo-typical Birkenstocks wearing, VW bus driving, Oregon, tree hugger. Tall with sandy brown hair and glasses, he was cool, a lot like "The Dude" from The Big Lebowski. Other than maybe from backpacking along the Yangtze, I do not remember how he knew Chinese.

His Chinese class was wide open. I would be one of only three students. He seemed so needy and I did have a hole in my schedule to fill. So, grudgingly, I opted for Chinese. I figured I'd just dabble until there was an opening in Japanese. But I felt left-out and like I was being forced to take a lesser language. China just wasn't as sexy as Japan. Nobody feared China. It was just this big communist country of Mao suits and bad teeth.

My dad offered another perspective. China, he explained, was on its way up. I did have faith in my dad as a visionary. He had helped me pick stocks in economics class. His selections, Harley Davidson and Compaq Computers, won me the top spot on the chalkboard. Perhaps studying the language of a country with a billion people in it was a good thing.

And so it was me and two other students who looked like brother and sister in my first Chinese class. Those too were so blonde. They were like two glasses of milk. The guy was OK but the girl was irritating. Chinese is what's referred to as a tonal language. The Mandarin dialect has four tones. The first is flat, the second rising, the third dipping and the fourth descending sharply. This girl, with each tone, on each character would bob her head accordingly. To just say "Beijing", was a production. She would dip her head quickly down, pause for a half second, and then quickly snap her head back up to mimic the "v" shaped third tone. Her voice would crack and elongate as she said "Beeeeei" and then, she would hold her head up high, almost seeming to squeeze together her ass cheeks, to achieve the higher, even first tone "jiiiing!"

When Mr. Taylor taught us Chinese characters he, himself, was quite a character. His touchy-feely ideas about the world were not checked at the classroom door. During one of the first lessons, he taught us "peace" ("an"). To some degree Chinese characters are actually little pictures of things and ideas. Standing at the blackboard, bouncing on his socks and sandaled tippy toes, he drew the first component part, woman ("nu"), which looks like a person with a big belly . Mr. Taylor revealed that for some reason "and don't take this the wrong way,” he said “but the Chinese see a pregnant woman under a roof as a symbol of peace." Then he completed the "peace" character by drawing a roof radical over the female and proceeded to apologize for agreeing with the notion that a woman with child under a shelter is emblematic of harmony.

Along with the head bobber and the hippy, I continued on in Chinese class. I was actually enjoying myself. As the class progressed it felt like we were being let in on a secret language code, like when I was little using a magic pen to reveal invisibly printed pictures. By the second semester, the democracy movement in Tiananmen Square was big news. I was excited that I understood a few characters relating to this breaking, international story. Characters like "tian" (sky) "an" (peace) "men" (gate),were very familiar to me, but I had barely just begun.

As a westerner, learning Chinese was and is incredibly time consuming. It's not like learning French or Spanish where at least the alphabet looks the same. To learn Chinese you need three sided flashcards for: meaning, pronunciation and characters. Our text book, the Practical Chinese Reader, smelled like mold. It was drab -all black and white. The situations that "Palanka" and "Gubo" got into were strange. These people didn't go to the discotheque or shop on the Champs d’ Elyesee. They chastised themselves for how poorly they wrote Chinese characters and landed in the hospital if they were fool hardy enough to sleep at night with an open window.

I began to despair. How was I ever going to get any good at this totally and completely foreign language? There was no Internet, no Amazon.com. The bookstores had nothing in the way of Chinese study materials. Except for Chinese phrase books, there was nothing. I felt like a bit of a freak. Why bother? I mean Chinese people, a lot of them anyway, can speak English. I considered quitting.

But I had a mission. I wanted an inside look at a totally and completely different culture. I wanted to be able to read a Chinese newspaper and dig deeper into their mentality. The Chinese had sealed themselves off from the world during the Cultural Revolution. And knowing a little about America's tendency to meddle in foreign governments, I was awed that China was able to block U.S interference. Plus I still had to find the answer to the burning question of how one culture's cough remedy could be another's dessert? So I kept at it.

After high school I studied Chinese on my own. I hired a tutor who named me Zhang Aili (it sounds like my English name). She drank tea with the loose leaves in the cup. An occasional leaf or two would float onto her tongue and she would scrap them off with her front teeth as she ran through the textbook drills. I worked in a Chinese restaurant slinging everything sweet-n-sour. Customers would order "Man-dare-ion beef" and "King-Poo Chicken" everybody wanted extra sweet-n-sour sauce - a pinky red goo I grew to detest. I travelled to Taiwan to study for one month in the summer. It was so hot and I was so unable to fend for myself in terms of buying water and ordering food that I fainted my third day there. I wanted to leave immediately, scrap the whole mission. But trying to navigate my way back across the Pacific any sooner– considering all the communicating that it would take to get a ride to the airport, change my plane ticket and ask for a refund on my classes made me think I should stay. All that, plus an unhealthy fear of failure, motivated me to get back up. A big swig of Taiwan’s Hey Song brand Sarsaparilla and a red bean ice cream bar revived me.

Once I survived that I did just fine. I figured out how to take the bus and one of my instructors, an older woman who wore a qipao every single day, showed me how to order lunch from the street vendors. I passed on the “stinky tofu” (“chou dofu”) and stuck to noodle soups. My Chinese gradually improved. I stopped saying, second tone, “xie xie” which means “shoes” in favor of forth tone, neutral tone “xie xie” which means “thank you”.

After that, I entered the University of Texas at Austin and majored in Communications and Chinese. In each of my Chinese language classes I was one of only four or five non-Chinese students. Most of my classmates spoke Chinese at home but could not read or write. They were practically asleep in class while us noobs struggled.

I purchased the Oxford University Press Concise Chinese-English, English-Chinese dictionary at the UT bookstore. That little red book became my sidekick. It went with me to Beijing in 1995 where I bought multiple copies of Mao’s “little red book” as novelty gifts. My concise dictionary went back to Taiwan with me after graduation.

I narrowly qualified for a scholarship from the Taiwanese government to continue my studies at the Mandarin Training Center in Taipei. The guy ahead of me in qualifications was disqualified for not being American. So I suited up in his place. My dog-eared Chinese dictionary and I stayed in Asia for several years going back and forth between mainland China and Taiwan. My little dictionary stayed by my side as I kept reading, writing, talking and watching a lot of Chinese TV. I never gave in to my desire for one of those electronic dictionaries. That trusty, compact, paper brick is still on my bookshelf today.

Now, some twenty years later, I claim a certain level of fluency. I have heard of numerous people, usually friends of friends, who have studied Chinese for two years and are “fluent.” I have spent two decades dialed in to Mandarin and I still speak funny. Don’t get me wrong, I get all kinds of crazy praise from Chinese people. But see, regardless of your level, if you are Caucasian or just NOT Asian, a Chinese person will compliment you on your Chinese. It’s a nice double standard from which my Chinese American friends do not benefit.

I can eaves drop on Mandarin elevator conversations as well as skim a Baidu news forum and understand the comments. When I eat in a Chinese restaurant I can surprise the waiter. And if I get seated by a group of Chinese speakers, I get as annoyed and disappointed by what they talk about as I do with English speakers.

Mission accomplished.

The book Who Moved My Cheese? warns readers against being rigid and slow to accept change. My pursuit of knowing more about the kind of culture Phuong and her family left behind sent me on a path. I thought Japan was the way to go but, as fate would have it my trail lead to the Middle Kingdom.

To be flexible and adapt to a situation does not mean you have to relinquish who you are or give-up what you want. When I went for Chinese it was a "plan B" but it ended up working out just fine and actually morphed into a plan A. So I may not have followed my passion right then and there, because the Japanese class was full, but I did honor and pursue what, at the core, was genuinely interesting to me: people, language and culture. I intend to continue doing just that.

I don’t know where Phuong is and Japan is in as big an economic crisis as the U.S. I have kept a few of the trinkets my dad brought back. They remind me to pursue my interests wherever they may lead. In my case it is the people and the culture more than the the "p's and q's" of Chinese that matter. As far as translating Chinese goes --there's an app for that.