In an early issue of Wired magazine, famed technologist Nicolas Negroponte reflected on what he termed modern multimedia and what we today might call Interactivity, Cross-platform operability. One of his points was that in the future (like today) multimedia would need to be able to have, "fluid movement from one medium to another, saying the same thing in different way." For some reason this got me to thinking about China and the Chinese language and I wondered what Mr. Negroponte would think of each. Based on the article here is my fictional inverview with him:

BCH: How do you see the development of multimedia in China?

NN: Well from a fundamental standpoint, China should be at the forefront of the multimedia revolution. Multimedia is intuitively part of daily life here. The written language. Chinese characters are at once both visual and aural/oral. Take for example the character for knife. Here you have a charcater that requires one to move simulataneously from a visual domain (the character looks strikingly like a knife) to the acoustic domain (saying oral pronunciation of the character) to the text domain (reading the romanization of the character and the pronunciation) and the mental domain (understanding the specific tone used for the character). This movement from domain to domain would must likely occur thousands of times a day to a normal Chinese person and so I would risk a guess that the idea of multimedia resonates albeit subconsciously in the Chinese society.

BCH: Hmm, interesting. Do you see any concrete examples of this resonance?

NN: Yes. Last night as I flipped throught the channels on my hotel TV I realized that more than half the movies that stopped on included Chinese subtitles. The results of this are that most Chinese that watch TV regularly are experience what Marshall McLuhan would say hot and cool media stimulus. Hot in the sense that watching movie emphasizes one sense that of vision with very little actual involvement in filling in the details of the moving images and cool in the sense that reading the characters requires more effort on the part of the individual to understand what is going on. This then is the multimedia at its best. So for all these reasons it wouldn't surprise me if China would eventual be the leader in the development of multimedia.

Now, I've never met Negroponte and it is very likely that I may have a garbled understanding of both his and McLuhan's theories of media but on one level it makes sense, at least to me. The reality is that I see no actual proof of it. It looks to me that the kings of multimedia continue to come from the West. But it's just a theory that popped into my head after reading that article. Perhaps it's all yet to come.

(continued from last post)

After some time ... Mr. H had us huddle together with the goal of hammering out a full-fledged company with marketing strategy, business development plan, profit schedule and product line as well ... all with no input from the person with all the information: Mr. H. It was like that game SimCity ... just make it up as you go. In essence, he wanted to create a "model" US focused company down to the Starbucks coffee they would serve and the American lawyer (me) in his employ.  His hope was that Big C would think that he has such deep experience in dealing with the US market that they wouldn't hesitate to give him the contract. Then once he had the contract he would have enough capital to go on and actually complete the contract.

After about an hour of this we broke for lunch and Mr. H asked me if I would be interested in the job. I said no. I also said that it would be best to take a different approach to getting the contract. I rather suggested that he forego creating this model company because any multinational worth anything will see right through his scheme (What I really wanted to say is that straight up lying is not going to cut it) and focus on the success, the experience and the knowledge he has had in his dealing in Asia and Europe. I told him that just because he has no experience dealing with an American client doesn't mean that they will not hire him if they feel he is qualified and he is qualified. Mr. H was non-plussed with my advice.

One last note (which gave me the title to the post) ... at lunch I asked Mr. H how he was able to start (and become successful in) his company. His story was as eye-opening as his attempt to get the Big C contract. It also gave me insight into how many Chinese companies get there start.

He was hired right out of college to the sales department of a state-owned import-export company. After working there several years he decided he wanted to branch off on his own but he needed capital and clients. He solved that problem by basically poaching the clients he made working at the import-export company. As for capital: he basically ran his company from his desk in the import-export company drawing a salary, making use of the company's resources (cars, dinners, gifts) to fund his personal initiative. If company officials knew or cared they didn't make him aware of it. So with no risk (financial or legal) whatsoever, over several years, Mr. H was able to build his company until it could sustain itself without the "shield" that the import-export company unknowingly provided it.

At that point, he simply quit the job at the import-export company ... registered his own with the relevant authorities, rented a space elsewhere and continued doing what he had been doing over the last several years. Ten years later he's in the running for what I perceived to be a multi-million dollar contract with a top US company.

Wow! I thought. I don't know much about starting a business in the US but it can't be that easy. Anyway, after the lunch I left. I haven't seen my friend since that time but when I do I'll most definitely ask if Mr. H was able to get the contract. And if he did my next post will be: Who Runs US Companies Doing Business in China? Are They Kidding?

About two ago I got asked by a friend if I would be interested in some freelance legal work with a local entrepreneur. Naturally, I agreed to at least meet with the person and see what "freelance" legal work was all about. We three met at a ritzy Japanese coffee spot and after some small talk we got down to business. The entrepreneur, whom I'll call Mr. H, was in his early-mid fifties and ran a small outfit that found buyers for machine parts but was now expanding in actually producing the parts himself for sale. He had some mid-sized clients mainly in North Asia and some in Europe but nothing especially eye-popping and nothing with a US company ... which is why he was interested in me. Somehow, some massive US multinational, which I'll call  Big C, had become interested in perhaps doing some business with him and were due to arrive the next week for a due diligence/meet and greet. He wanted to hire me as his corporate counsel, English teacher to his staff and all-around business consultant. Shocked (but not so much) at the audacity of what he hoped to get out of me I agreed to a second meeting at his office the next day. I knew something was fishy though when the bill came he couldn't find his wallet which left me (the potential employee to foot the bill).

His office was located in one of the city's prime locations for office buildings (which struck me as odd for such a low-level player) and as we rode up in the elevator I began to think perhaps I was a bit too harsh on Mr. H after all. But as we exited the elevator and moved on to his office I knew I should have been harsher. It was a nice office ... the only problem was that it was a mess. Books, files and papers were scattered everywhere and construction guys were running in and out. I asked Mr. H what the deal  was and he told me that he just rented the office a week ago and was rushing to get it set up for the meeting next week. I asked why doesn't he just use his old office and he said he wantedso much to impress Big C to get the contract that he thought it best to get a new "model" office. Ah ha ... no wonder the office locale.

I was then introduced to his staff which consisted of three 30-something women and his wife (an ex-PLA officer). They all (except his wife) had big titles like VP of Marketing, VP of Business Development and Senior Engineer but that as I spoke with them it was clear that their titles did not reflect any deep expertise. I learned that the Senior Engineer and VP-Business Development were just hired a couple of weeks earlier and the VP of Marketing was brought over from his other office.  The two new hires knew very little about the company, the product or the business plan or what exactly they were doing there and the VP of Marketing was brought over because she worked in Sales. (Can a sales person be a good marketer?) the market.
(to be continued in the next post)

In the HBO TV series True Blood, what makes the main character Sookie Stackhouse so unique is that she has the ability to listen to people's thoughts. While many people would die to have a similar ability, Sookie herself sees it as more of a burden and  nuisance that has kept her from living  a "normal" life. To hearing  all the nasty thoughts of all the people is just to tiring and troublesome.

I, for one, absolutely agree with Sookie. You see, after many years of mind-numbing practce ... I've aqured the uncanny ability to "hear Chinese".  Most people in China,as with Sookie's abilty to the people of Bon Temps, don't know ... don't believe I have this skill. The benefit/burden of this is that they speak there mind unaware that I understand what they are saying. Example in point: I went to the store yesterday and upon entering, the one clerk said to the other: Aiya! Xia si wole! Ni kan ... jinlaile yige heiren. Aiyo! ... Tai hei le! Exin! (translation: Whoa! Scare me to death! Look ... a black guy just came in. Whoa! He's too black! Disgusting!)  This was all said within earshot. Indeed, I was the only one in the store. This is not the sort of comment I think you'd make if you want someone to be your customer. More interestingly, even though the clerk totally dissed me, when I checked out, she smiled at me like we were old childhood friends. Although I was dying to let on that I knew exactly what she said ... and perhaps give her a little of what I think about her ... I resisted that urge (like Sookie learned to do from an early age). I mean what could I really accomplish by confronting every single person with wack thoughts, er... comments. But it is indeed a daily battle with me nowadays to resist that urge. Just makes me wonder, what would Sookie do?

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Li Pengyi, a delegation member and vice president of China Publishing Group Corporation, said happily that China had sold nearly 900 copyrights here. But he complained about the coverage. “We don’t feel we’ve been hospitably treated,” he said. “China sent more than 2,000 people to Frankfurt. And now this barrage of criticism.” Zhao Haiyun, spokesman for China’s General Administration of Press and Publication, said that instead of focusing on literature, the media had focused on human rights and censorship. “The German media are very biased,” he said.

This was an interesting article about China's showing at the Frankfurt Book Fair. And I just love the quotes above ... I mean considering how uber-bias the Chinese media is and how inhospitable internationals can be made to feel in China ... it's most  interesting to hear that Chinese officials would level these comments on others. It just proves the hypocritical theme that underlies much of Chinese contemporary culture. It should give Chinese officials pause to consider that while they may be able to control "the spin" within their borders ... it's a rough and tumble world outside and China rules don't apply. Who does China think it is and more precisely why does China think that everyone (not from China) will kowtow to it's demand. Culturally, if they want to sit at the big table they need to recognize this.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/world/asia/19books.html?_r=1&hp

Last weekend I met up with an old friend and he took me over to his cousin's house. His cousin is about 16 and in the throes of preparing for next year's examinations which will determine what high school he goes to, which in turn will greatly effect which university he will go to. To put it mildly he's a bit stressed but Sunday was his day off and he was quite relaxed and talkative. Like many teenage boys around the world he is into sports. My friend told me that he is most particularly into basketball. But I had no idea how much he was into it until I saw his room. As you walk to his room you are greeted by  a life-sized poster of Kobe Bryant holding an award and showing off his phat championship ring. Then as you pass through th porta,l your eyes are confronted by another five or six pictures of Kobe in various action poses, slam dunks and fierce stares. But that is not the end of it. Standing at the door while scanning to the left, your gaze is met but smaller posters of Dwight Howard, Kevin Garnett, Dwayne Wade, Shaq and Jason Kidd. Amazingly, there was no Bron Bron. I mean, if I didn't know I was in China, I would think that I was in Suburbia, USA. But what really was interesting to me was not the posters on the wall but the kid's knowledge of basketball, basketball stats and more specically his knowledge and ease at understanding the African-American culture that underlies much of what is the NBA. Again, we are not talking about a well off kid from Beijing or Shanghai but a poor kid from the countryside going to middle school in a small, dusty, industrial city in the Chinese Northeast. Still, it is not to say that American culture is being imbibed unadulterated by Chinese youth. It is not. The fact remains that it is being discovered through a Chinese prism that adds an intersting layer "China" onto it ... call it "Amarican culture with Chinese characteristics" (more on this later). But still, my guess is that China will be a very, very, very  interesting place when my friend's cousin's generation comes of age and power.

I've been back in China for about 2 months and I have been dying to post to my blog but the Great China Firewall has been an awesome obstacle. Enter Posterous. I read how you can post to your blog via e-mail and so after many attempts (more on that in a later post) here I am attempting for the umpteenth time to post. Sure hope it works.