Just returned from a trip from
It was amazing to see improvements in soft infrastructure in
However, the hard-infrastructure hasn’t kept pace with the growth of the economy in
posted by Rao Talasila @ 7:02 AM
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I landed at Chicago’s O’Hare airport after a long 12-hour trans-pacific flight. “Welcome back”, said the Immigration Officer as she flipped my passport and waved me through. Coming back to the U.S. at least one year has become a ritual to cure my homesickness. No more stumbling with my language here, everyone speaks English! (well, almost…). And I love the big wide-open spaces, clean air, and good service.
This trip was basically a friends and family trip allowing me to stop by the Midwest and the bay area. Loved the skyline of Chicago especially during the evenings. It is projecting a city that is big, gentle and mature. Compared to the Chicago skyline, Shanghai skyline looks aimless without a sense of uniformity of message or theme. My wife chimed in and said that the Shanghai skyline needs quite a few decades before it can match the maturity of a true skyline like Chicago.
As I was driving through the cornfields of the Midwest, the confirmation hearings for Judge Alito, for the Supreme Court, kept me company over NPR. I have new respect to the system that allows such an open process. I was transfixed by Senator Kennedy’s grilling of Judge Alito, where the Senator took direct shots at Judge Alito’s past. Amazing democratic process! I guess I took this process for granted while I was in the United States. Only after I came back, I found new respect for the constitution and the system.
I saw the movie “Tommy Boy” a comedy by Chris Farley and Dave Spade. The movie reminded me of the job losses happening in the Midwest due to emerging manufacturing economies such as China. I think the middle class families in America are getting exposed to the full-brunt of globalization. I think it is a painful transition. But hopefully there is light at the end of the tunnel.
A lot of people in the US are not aware of the tremendous transformation that is underway in China. Most of them still think China as a brutal communist regime in a 3rd world country. It is often hard for them to fathom that the living standards on the eastern board of China are almost western-standard like.
In the bay area I went to see a good friend of mine from my college days in India. His 8-year old son said he loves China. When asked why he says, “all my toys are made in China. So it must be a nice country”.
I loved the level of good service in America. If I had to extend my car rental, I just had to call the toll-free number, punch in my contract number, and can extend the car rental day by a day. If need further assistance, I get to a Customer Service Agent and he does the rest. Wow! What a service….
posted by Rao Talasila @ 4:39 AM
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“圣诞节快乐 (Merry Christmas)” said HFH as he hung up the phone with me. HFH is as Chinese as one can get. Even he has started adopting foreign lingo. Not to be outdone, when I was walking out of the office I wished our Office Manager “Merry Christmas”. She was all smiles and beaming end to end. I was surprised how much Christmas is becoming a secular mainstream activity in China. Last year I didn’t see this kind of hoopla over Christmas. Right now even in interior cities and towns in China, restaurants and stores are bedecked with pictures of Santa, and his elves.
It is sometimes funny how fast Chinese adapt to western traditions. Just this year, my wife was “arm twisted” by her high-school friends to organize a Halloween party in Shanghai. Apparently, they heard so much about Halloween in America, and they wanted us to organize one this year so that they can learn more about it. So that weekend, I went to the nearest Carrefour to check out if they start selling any Halloween paraphernalia. Lo and Behold, there was one rack, albeit a small one, that was dedicated for Halloween stuff. Many of the buyers were eagerly looking at what I am going to pick up. Arguably, they didn’t have a clue what to do with the masks and other gear. With painstaking details, we organized the Halloween party to the gold standard American-style. I explained to the Chinese kids about the trick-or-treat concept. They thought it is weird. The kids were happy stuffing their pockets with candy without making much effort unlike their American counterparts. However, this being China, I can bet that next year, one of the guests is going to organize a better party than ours. Chinese are fast learners!
posted by Rao Talasila @ 9:04 AM
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“2008 will be the year of the start of decline of Microsoft”, predicted STL. He said he has so far been very good at predictions in the Technology industry. He said he correctly predicted the slow death of Sun Microsystems. STL pointed out that Microsoft is having extreme difficulty in releasing new Operating Systems and also that Microsoft has been unsuccessful in every marketplace where it cannot parlay its monopolistic advantage. I tend to agree with STL on this. Everyday I curse at how slow my Windows XP machine has become. Suddenly the machine freezes up, sometimes the Microsoft Excel has weird cursor problems which can only be solved by a reboot. Now there are tons of viruses and security holes all over Microsoft products. It is getting out of control. I dread reinstalling Windows XP as I have to reinstall all the other applications. I have to waste a day or two of my work.
I tried switching to Linux last year. I was very happy with except for its inability to sort out my wireless card. The lack of a good English-Chinese dictionary hampered my work. The last straw was that it wasn’t easy to type in English and Mandarin at the same time in Linux Fedora Core. I thought Linux Fedora was not yet ready for someone with my kinds of needs. I reluctantly switched back to Windows XP. But in the past year, I received so much abuse from using the abominably pathetic Windows XP. I am now ready to give Linux another try. STL was suggesting Ubuntu/Kubuntu distribution of Linux.
I am waiting for the day when a real contender can give Microsoft a run for its money. Currently I am using Firefox Web browser which is ten times better than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Once I started using Firefox, going back to use Internet Explorer certainly feels like going back to the stone ages. The world deserves better alternative products than that produced by the bloated uncompetitive Microsoft.
posted by Rao Talasila @ 8:42 AM
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“Is it a dog?” I asked the passenger in my cabin compartment on the train to Shanghai. DLS nodded as she cuddled the 2-month old puppy in her lap and trying to hide it from the eyes of the train attendant. She was taking the puppy to Shanghai knowing dogs are not allowed in passenger compartments. She said it is her 6th dog. “You must be kidding”, I loudly muttered. I was even more surprised when said that her other five are big dogs and that she lives in Shanghai. I thought she must have a big house to have five dogs in a place like Shanghai. She proudly said, “I love my Dogs and given an opportunity I will have even more dogs”. She said that she is the only daughter of her parents, and her parents allow her to do it whatever she likes. “Ummm… another spoilt little Empress”, I thought to myself.
This is the 20-something generation in China that grew up as the only child in the family doted by their parents and grandparents. They all grew up in an environment where the economy was always growing, didn’t face that many hardships in life, always got whatever they fancied in life. They appear very narcissistic, and have very few skills sharing things/life with other people. Her mobile gets a SMS every 10-minutes. She types something quickly on the mobile, and then snuggles back to the puppy. Really weird…Because of lack of social skills they find it easy to build relationships with pets rather than humans. At least, they are still the Masters with the pets. I wonder how these kids will look like when they grow up, and the impact they have on the society.
posted by Rao Talasila @ 7:33 AM
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My nomination for the Toughest Job on the Planet with wide-reaching implications is the President of China. The current occupant is Hu Jintao. Before, I didn’t really give that much notice to the challenges that people like Hu Jintao face in ruling a diverse country such as China. Now that I am on the ground in China since 2003 and had the opportunity to travel the length and breadth of China (in a limited way) and meet a lot of people, I am now coming to grasp the challenges facing Hu Jintao.
Hu Jintao inherits a country growing economically as if there is no tomorrow. Corruption at the government level and at the communist party level is rife. Most people around him do not even know how to spell the word “ethics”. He doesn’t have that much control over the provinces. Each provincial head acts like a feudal lord. There is no outside authority that can keep his Communist party in check. In spite of the improving living standards, the divide between rich and poor is growing fast. In the past, the growing divide between rich and poor was often a prelude for bloody revolutions and change in dynasties. Now Hu Jintao is racing against time to bring some semblance of equitable and sustainable growth before time runs out. I am sure in his mind, he knows that a one-party rule for a country growing like this is a recipe for disaster. The country has grown too big for any one-party to rule, and laying claim they represent the people. Surprisingly, the taxi drivers all over China are singing the same song that one-party rule is bad. I am not sure if this is because the taxi drivers are getting information from non-traditional media outside of the reach of the Communist party, or is it a result of the media campaign by the Central Government to buy the people’s support in reforming the party?
In October I posed some key questions about the sustainability of the country to TRR. TRR was a former leader during the Cultural Revolution. He served out house imprisonment to atone for his doings during this nasty period. He said that during Cultural Revolution, they all thought they were doing the right thing. Looking back he regretted all the damage done by his rhetoric and actions. He told me something I haven’t heard before.
Looks like TRR has connections deep into the party’s thinking.
posted by Rao Talasila @ 6:40 AM
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“Haath Ooper Utaav” said, HSC, in flawless Hindi. That’s how he used to yell the command to any suspicious looking person on the India-China border recalled HSC, while he was patrolling the India-China boundary on the Tibet-side. HSC wouldn’t reveal more than this about his period working on the boundary. HSC is a sweet Chinese gentleman who studied Hindi for the love of the language, Indian movies and literature. He felt bitter that the only time his Hindi became useful was during the war. I can sense a tinge of sadness when HSC recalled his days during the war between India and China in 1962. n spite of the drubbing India received during the 1962 border war, I felt sad when I heard about HSC’s story.
HSC is a nice gentleman who spoke better Hindi than me. The only excuse I had for my pitiable Hindi was that I grew up in a small town in Southern India and that there was no environment for speaking Hindi. Even though he hasn’t used Hindi for the past 16 years, I was amazed with his diction, richness of words he used. Admittedly he also forgot a lot of Hindi. So we communicated with each other with a mix of Hindi and Mandarin. Amazing… This can happen only in China!
On the same day, I met AEC whose father also did some time in Tibet during the India-China war in 1962. However AEC brushed off the 1962 incident as an aberration, and was looking forward to the future. He said he is very bullish on prospects of trade and improved economic relationships between these two Asian Giants. He said he has been to India many times as a Speaker at Conferences and sees lots of potential between these two countries.
I think only since the past 8 months I started seeing people recognizing the potential of economic activity between India and China.
posted by Rao Talasila @ 5:56 AM
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One thing I noticed is that there is intense dislike between people from Beijing and Shanghai. I haven’t seen this kind of intense polarization anywhere else in the world. I have seen folks from Bombay throwing jabs at people in Delhi, and New Yorkers throwing jabs at Washingtonites. But this pales to the intensity of dislike many Beijing’ers feel about Shanghai folks. Such feelings extend even to the foreign expatriates living in Beijing. They abhor the quality and lifestyle of expatriates living in Shanghai.
Ask a Beijing native why he dislikes Shanghai folks, and out comes the answer, “they are shallow. They only care for money”. Ask a Shanghai native, and he would say, “Beijing’ers are great talkers. They cannot deliver on their promises”. And so on… These were exactly the same comments I heard the first time I was in China in 1997. Attitudes haven’t changed since then, but have hardened.
As a Chinese-speaking foreigner I have the advantage of being able to ask sensitive questions to people anywhere in China. I generally do take advantage of my travel time to talk with local Chinese. On the train ride to Beijing, the cabin had just another passenger. Great I thought! I can chat with the passenger. Turns out he grew up in Jilin (northeast china), now works in Beijing. He told me that JiangZhe region (Jiangsu and ZheJiang provinces near Shanghai) people are hardworking. They do any job that they are capable of, irrespective of small or big. On the contrary, the northerners want to only do jobs that they feel is up to their social standards, in other words they are more concerned about maintaining “face”. I asked him why such a difference? He said that JiangZhe region is relatively small but with a large population. The cultivatable land is small. So they have to do whatever is possible. On the other hand, people in the North do not have to work so hard because land in North is abundant. He also pointed out that the cemeteries are very large in the North whereas they are very small in the South. Looks like this gentleman was very objective in his viewpoints and didn’t harbor any jealousy/dislike towards the southerners. I asked him which place does he prefer to live. He said he prefers the North as he is comfortable in the environment where he grew up in. He said he liked living in Zhejiang but was very uncomfortable going through the winters without central heating, and with the muggy summers.
He had a high regard with the Chinese leadership. He said that after the liberation, the leadership of Mao Zedong didn’t know that much about economic development. These leaders were the outcome of wars, so they didn’t have a clue on running the economy. They took the country back by a few decades by implementing disastrous economic and social experiments. But he says the current leadership is very different. They are very much focused on economic development.
posted by Rao Talasila @ 12:56 AM
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posted by Rao Talasila @ 12:37 AM
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My experiences and observations from living and working in China
