Undead Astronauts

So I havent posted in a while. The last few weeks have been very busy for me. I’m switching jobs, out of this Chinese law firm into a British risk management company. The nature of the new work seems very interesting, its call business intelligence and investigations. Essentially what that means is that they look into a company to see whether or not they are doing bad things. The bad things may include fraud, bribery, forgeries, falsifying documents, nepotisim, stealing company assests, etc. The clients the company would serve would usually be foriegn companies who wish to do business in China. They might not trust their Chinese business partners, or their suppliers, or even their own China branch managers and employees. The methods the company uses to investigate may include conducting interviews with relevant parties, doing audits on their documents, going through their emails, chat logs, other communications, visiting their facilities. Sometimes the client would be a country government who believes that the company has violated some kind of anti-corruption or anti-bribery law. The biggest example would be the US Foriegn Corruption Practice Act (FCPA). Last year the FCPA fined Siemens over 1 billion dollars. Apparently siemens had an elaborate system set up to bribe foriegn official. When they were discovered, Siemens cooperated to disclose all their actions, the discolsure along costed another 1.5 billion in attorney and consulting fees, all absrobed by Siemens. Apparently even though Siemens is a German company, the fact that their corruption scheme at one point funded some money in USD through a US bank, it was enough to give the US jurisdiction over the matter.  So basically a lot of international firms are now worried because its very easy to fall under the big umbrella of the FCPA. And as China is filled with corruption, the business has a lot of potential here.

That being said, I have been trying to negotiate the contract with the new place while keeping it a secret from my current firm. Sometimes it gets awkward because I always have to sneak out during the middle of the day to meet my headhunter or attend a meeting with managers from the risk management firm. But the final signing should be this Friday. And from there I will inform my current firm next week. That will be a giant mess as well.

interesting read.
http://www.slate.com/id/2217001/pagenum/all

Speed Dating

Last saturday I went to a speed dating event with Manuelo and another female friend who was Dutch Chinese from Holland (“dc girl”). The event rules stipulate that you have 8 minutes to talk to a girl, after 8 minutes, you rotate to the next girl. from 7:30 to 10, you should be able to talk to about 20 girls. I got there at around 7 and met my dc girl to first have a light drink while waiting for Manuelo to show up… (more…)

Double Decker bus heading into the city. I was disappointed that no one tried to hang onto our moving bus with an umbrella.

I believe this man has just received a call from his triad to participate in an upcoming street brawl.

For many of us, we grew up watching movies filmed in Hong Kong. Some of the names that immediately come to mind are; city hunter, police story, hard boiled, and various Wang Kar Wai films. For those of us who’s never been, its not just a city, but a nostalgic fancy and a fond impression. From our favorite childhood movies I remember the cramped streets, the city harbour, the triad gang wars. But on this occassion, I was lucky enough to actually travel to the place of my youth for the very first time. There I really walked on the cramped streets, traversed the city harbour, and I firmly believe I also witnessed many triad related activities (note the man on the cell phone above and the pollice boats below). (more…)

Last night I had dinner with a friend here. Lets just call him Manuelo . Manuelo  is Chinese, 27, worked for a while as a engineer in China and is soon going to the states for a graduate engineering program.

During dinner, the topic for its own mysterious reasons turned onto prostitution in Asia. Manuelo confided in me that he has paid prostitutes for service 7 time in his life. Naturally, here I am posting Manuelo’s experiences on our blog. The stories were just too interesting.  (more…)

Last night I went to a bar called Sasha with several friends. There I met this girl who worked as an analyst for Wexford, a hedge fund in New York. She was visiting Shanghai only for a week and was originally born here like me. We had an instant connection.  She was a very passionate and intelligent girl. And from the moment we met to the time the gathering dissipated, we talked non stop.

Our topic? the quarter-life crisis. The reference was originally derived from a mid-life crisis, but I believe that times have changed for many of us. There is no mid, there is no quarter, personally, the questioning of purpose and life began as early as middle school.  And if I am correct, will go on til the end of my days. There is no quarter-life crisis, there is no mid-life crisis, there is only crisis. Or better yet, there is only the constant struggle to understand what can not be understood. That’s life.

It was interesting to find that so many more people are beginning to feel the dissonance. As one person began to confess, so too did many others join in. One by one the room fell like dominoes.

After being here for 3 weeks, I am beginning to understand some of the finer points of working for a local Chinese firm.

Authority and status is very important here. Its always crucial to know your place in the firm. For instance, every attorney here is referred to by their last name and the attorney title (Chen “lv shi”, Li “lv shi”, etc). Unfortunately for the accountant, she is simply referred to directly as ”kuai ji”, or “accountant”. Her name isn’t even mentioned, but she doesn’t seem to mind. The cleaning lady is referred to as “ah yi”, which means something like auntie. I have tried to ask everyone to simply call me by my first name instead of the full ”lv shi” title, but i now feel that in doing so, I may have reduced my status and authority in this firm from attorney to perhaps an assistant or intern. 

Of course this all makes sense. The US is founded on individualism, and we like to be distinguished by our person rather than our current placement in life.  We don’t like generalizations because we find them limiting. But China is a place of structure and tradition, and understanding your place in that structure allows everyone to save face, lest you tread upon the toes of a superior.

So the logical way to think about working in China should be to 1) know your place then 2) do your job.

Of course situations occur when doing your job may require you to abandon your station; such as when you are proposing certain changes to the current business model or concept. Well tread lightly when you do so. While in your mind you are only thinking about improving the company, your superiors may perceive it as an effort to undermine their authority by uprooting the work they have done. Chinese employers are often extremely defensive and very slow to change due to this.

I have noticed that Chinese employers often allow a certain leeway to a foreign who looks distinctly un-Chinese. I believe in this case the Chinese employer feels that because the foreigner is not really a part of the Chinese social structure and therefore nonthreatening. In this case the Chinese employer might even manage to get to know the foreigner as an individual person rather than just another minion. Its all about expectations. If your boss expects you to be a part of the structure but you don’t adjust well, then you are going to struggle. If the boss doesn’t expect you to be a part of the structure, then you are suddenly free to fully utilize your own creativity.