What I learned about China
My previous experience in China prior to the MBA trip was limited to a packaged tour and spending time with my parents in Shanghai for three weeks. The MBA trip has exposed me to the business side of China and a wide variety of people living in China (business people, students, ex-pats, shop keepers).
The business aspect was very interesting. When ever the question, “Have there been any mistakes or failures you made that you would have done differently?” was asked to business owners the answer was always something along the line of “I have never made any mistakes.” I personally found this answer baffling because an American business person will always give an amusing horror story. My take is that it must be a cultural taboo to admit failure or that the person does not want to “lose face” by admitting to a mistake.
Business in China is done in a different manner than in the United States. What is usually relegated to middle management or junior executives (meetings with local government agencies or another firm) needs to be attended to by an executive in China. The “important” persons from both parties must meet otherwise the other party will lose face. It seems that being an executive in China can be more exhausting and requires much more socializing than what is required out of the American counterpart.
Surprises in China
- There is a wider use of credit cards than I had imagined. The use of credit cards appears to be stronger in China than in Taiwan. I was under the strong impression that only the wealthy use credit cards. However, it turns out the average middle-class person can obtain credit cards fairly easily (according to Claire) and uses them (as I observed while shopping).
- Living conditions of university students in the dorms is “harsh” by American standards. The dorms do not have air-conditioning, which I thing is bordering on inhumane, despite the high heat and humidity. The dorms also do not have dryers and students hang their clothing to dry outside their windows. Each window has clothes drying right outside and is a magnificent sight to see.
- I saw a Vertu phone store in a shopping mall. Vertu is a line of super expensive cell phones from Nokia. I have never seen a stand-alone Vertu store in the United States (a quick scan of the Vertu website shows that there does not appear to be any stand alone stores in the US) so I was very surprised to see one in China. I happened to speak with a Nokia engineer at English Corner and he said that China is the largest market for this line of phones.
- Some local Chinese were clearly amused by my fellow tall Caucasian students. On several occasions there were requests by random people (usually a group school children on field trips) to have pictures taken with the “Caucasian giants.” I even snapped a picture of a Chinese person taking a picture of my two of my classmates posing with
- The blatant mark up for tourists even though the signs clearly state a cheaper price was annoying. At the Bund in Shanghai a food stand even tried to charge Claire and me extra for a bottle of water. The personnel would not lower the price to the price on the sign even after Claire explained that she was a local Chinese person.
- I can become tired of Chinese food. Back in the States I rarely eat fast food or junk food because it is unhealthy. However, in China I have never been so happy to eat Oreos, McDonald’s, pizza, and French fries.
Conclusion
My favorite part of the trip was rooming with Claire. I learned about habits, beliefs, and society by spending much of my time with her. A large portion of the young generation of China is still very conservative.
I realize that we only visited the developed first and second tier cities, which does not represent all of China. We did not visit the interior where most of the poor reside and much of the country side rebellions take place. I think the trip would have been more complete with a look at how the poor live in China (it would be very different than how the poor in the Sates live). But time, budget, and logistics would not allow for such a detour on this trip. It would also have been interesting to see how we would react to a visit to the country side.
