Sunday, July 27, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Black people, not welcomed
If you are black, you better stay home at night during the Olympics. According to The South China Morning Post, Bar owners in central Beijing say they have been forced by Public Security Bureau officials to sign pledges agreeing not to let black people enter their premises.
The reason is rather simple, the local authorities have been cracking down on blacks and Mongolians in an attempt to stamp out drug dealing and prostitution ahead of the Games, the proprietors said. So this is not something from The Onion. They are actually doing it.
Well, I guess One World, One Dream does not include the black population.
The reason is rather simple, the local authorities have been cracking down on blacks and Mongolians in an attempt to stamp out drug dealing and prostitution ahead of the Games, the proprietors said. So this is not something from The Onion. They are actually doing it.
Well, I guess One World, One Dream does not include the black population.
Friday, July 18, 2008
A Museum for Jackie Chan, are you Kidding me?!
Somewhere in Shanghai, Jackie Chan is going to have a museum named after him! The museum will house props and costumes from Chan's movies, photos and other memorabilia. I don't get it, is he dead yet?
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
I♡...
I♡NY sign is everywhere around the world, now you can also find I♡SH on the street here. But don't be surprised when you see people wearing I♡BJ, BJ refers to Beijing, not what you thought it was, pervert!
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Amuse my cat
People here are definitely getting more creative, or maybe just bored... This is what I found on taobao.com (same as ebay.com, just more popular here). The above service is called 逗招老 (dou zhaolao, zhaolao is the name of a lovely kitty). For 0.13 rmb, the owner will entertain zhaolao the way you wish. According to the seller, the price is based on the complicated calculation of his costs. Hmm... I wonder how.
Source: http://auction1.taobao.com/auction/item_detail-0db2-5913a42feee842736d439df0a1ce984a.jhtml#
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Photo of the Day: Ziyi Zhang need to reconsider the marriage thing
Some told me that Ziyi Zhang's new rich boyfriend looks just like that farmer who took the pic of the famous fake tiger. Here's the pic. See the resemblance?
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Book of the Day--One Billion Customers
If you wanna do business in China, make sure you've read this--One Billion Customers by James McGregor. I will write a review after I finish it, so far it's good. Below are some of the classic lessons from the book. Fatigue, food and drink are negotiating tools. If your Chinese counterpart wants to finalize a deal after Mao-tai-soaked banquet, it is better to throw up on the contract than sign it.
Foreign business people who come to China often have too much goodwill, too much trust and too little patience.
Never joint-venture with government entities unless you have no choice. Then understand that this partnership is about China obtaining your technology, know-how and capital while maintaining control.
If China requires that you joint-venture, get a majority stake, control the board and install your own CEO, CFO and HR director. If you don’t trust your CFO like your mother, give your mother the job.
Don’t mistake language ability with business or management competence. The savviest and smartest Chinese managers often don’t speak English or have a Western university degree.
China is all checks and no balances. Chinese government anti-corruption drives are not cynical exercises. But the effect is minimal because the overall system is almost incompatible with honesty.
China has returned to its traditional symbiotic relationship between the merchants and mandarins. Officials clear the way for business. The business people pave the way for officials to accumulate assets.
If you decide to sell your soul and succumb to China’s corruption, get a good price and focus on charity work in your old age.
China’s modernization is aiming at “rule by law” not the “rule of law,” so relationships and personal power reign supreme.
Don’t rely exclusively on the law in China. You will lose. Use laws and regulations to enhance political and business arguments in favor of your position.
Avoid the “slobbering CEO syndrome.” Don’t fall for China’s brilliant use of its huge size and 2,000-year tradition of manipulative political pageantry to intimidate foreigners into accepting unwise deals.
Education is China’s greatest strength and greatest weakness. The Chinese are great memorizers, mathematicians and scientists who run tedious routines. But the rote education system leaves many weak on powers of analysis and leadership.
China’s rush to get rich is accompanied by deep distrust of the system, and anyone outside one’s immediate family or circle of close friends. This has created a business environment that is steeped in dishonesty and in dire need of transparency and fair dispute resolution systems.
China’s greatest management challenges are to create organizations that are not dictatorships, to treat others as equals, to accept responsibility and to share information, all behaviors that have been almost absent.
China is modernizing, not Westernizing. The country’s goal is to modernize but retain the Chinese “essence,” which it is still struggling to define.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Islands to Return to PRC by End of Aug 2008
After over 70 years of dispute, Heixiazi island and Yinlong island are announced to be officially returned to the PRC's jurisdiction by the end of next month. Instead of having a big return ceremony like what we had in Hong kong and Macao, this time we got nothing but a snippet of news in the conner of a newspaper. The reason is rather simple--in the meantime PRC lost to Russia the dispute over Kuye island, whose size is twice as big as Taiwan. Ironically, not many people have ever heard of that island.
Source: http://www.zaobao.com/special/newspapers/2008/07/taiwan080706n.shtml
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Olympics brings joy to lives
But nothing can compare to what my friends in Beijing have to put up with. Look at the pic above, that's what happens every morning outside a random Beijing subway station. Imagine what it would be like when the Beijing government starts to impose the new road restriction during the "Big Event". According to the Game Committee, cars with odd-numbered license plates will operate on one day while those with even-numbered will operate the next. Some suggest just getting a second car.
The aftermath
Believe it or not, the new version of "WA" story given by the Guizhou provincial government has sparked off a new pop phrase on the Chinese internet —"I'm here to do push-ups". This follows the “I don’t give a $@*&; I'm just here to buy soy sauce” expression which started sweeping the internet a few months ago.Apparently some real estates company is trying to join the bandwagon. The poster in the above pic from Nanjing says,"Housing prices not taking a dive – it's just doing push-ups".
Apart from that, Guangzhou TV host Quzhihang (区志航) is gaining popularity by posting a set of pics on his personal blog of himself doing push-ups in his birthday suit by famous Chinese landmarks, such as the Greatwall in Beijing, Lujiazui in Shanghai and the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Guangzhou. Below are some of the pics, enjoy!
Sources:
http://cache.tianya.cn/publicforum/content/free/1/1362661.shtml
http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4d1b21a90100a6as.html
Lisa Road: A Journey into Lisa's Head~~
My friends have been telling me for years that I should write a blog about all the fun stuff in Shanghai. Yet, I find it difficult to actually get down to doing it, for having your own blog means having to update it all the time, which sounds like a burden to me. Anyway, finally here I am, writing my very first post. Hope you guys will find it interesting and please leave a comment.
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