Transcriber: Jenny Lam-Chowdhury Reviewer: Tatjana Jevdjic
Hi! My name is Jen and thank you so much for joining me today
to walk on a journey to make sense of China.
So, to start, I'm going to show a picture of Napoleon,
and for all of you who came to a talk about China,
well, you might be a little bit disappointed right around now,
and I felt that it's only just to talk about the Eastern perspective
by first talking about the Western insight.
And, in fact, Napoleon actually said in the 18th century
that when the sleeping dragon awakes, the world will shake.
Boy, was he right!
And, in fact, you might be even wondering who am I to talk about China.
After all I'm not expert, but there is a little bit of Chinese in me,
having been born to a Chinese family 22 years ago,
I lived in Hong Kong for 10 years and came back to Vancouver.
And this summer, I was actually really interested and curious about my heritage
and instead decided to go back.
And I worked with Credit Suisse in Hong Kong to start,
representing Chinese local companies who want to go into the foreign investment markets,
as well I worked in Shanghai with DDB,
where I was representing Western brands who wanted to go into China to tap the new market.
And, when I was abroad, I learned the importance of mobile communication
to the point that not only do your friends text you,
but companies would actually text you to remind you to change your water filters.
So throughout this presentation, if you have any questions or comments
with regards to things that I may be saying,
I welcome you to text me, so I can personally respond to them afterwards.
Now, having said that, I do realize
that to fit a country with more than 1 billion people into an 18 minutes talk,
well, is really nothing short of ambitious – and I recognize that.
So, today, let's actually dive into some of the less obvious issues
than what you might be able to find on the Internet
because there's not a word of the doubt that China's very much been in the limelight recently
with headlines like these.
So much so, that much of what the Western media portrays
has been through one of three avenues: main street media, movies and televisions.
And of all these three sources,
China's constantly been painted into one of two buckets of images.
The first is that of... well, you know, it's a third world developing country,
a lot of social instability –
And in the second one is constantly the one where –
"Aaah, it's kind of a black box and I don't really know what to quite make of it."
And in both of these instances, it's consistent that there's an almost underlying consensus
that these six themes keep popping out, being the pillars of any conversation around China.
Now, some journalist may even go so far to suggest that
these are the very same six reasons as to why China will just be a temporary phenomenon
and will not become a threat to any global economic power play.
But is that all there really is to China?
I mean if you look at companies like Google, Ebay, Ford... they certainly will say so
– I mean look at their unsuccessful entries into the Chinese market recently,
due to various PR or operations scandals.
Well, imagine this – you have been invited into a housewarming party,
and I think we can all agree that, in addition to bringing a bottle of fine wine and a friendly toaster,
it's common courtesy that you wouldn't go into the apartment
and start re-arranging the furniture pieces
or commenting on how poorly the layout of the apartment has been designed.
This is the same analogy that my manager and director in Shanghai challenged me with.
Because upon landing in China, getting off that plane,
I had the very same biases that the Western media has painted for me.
So before I move forward, I encourage you to leave the shoes at the door,
step into a new room of ideas, and try to get to know China under a different light.
Because after all it's easy to forget that China is only really 30 years old,
despite its 5,000 years of history.
The reason why I say that is that much of the economic reform
has only happened in the last 30 years since the early 1980s.
What you can see is the fact that it's only 1991 that the Shanghai Exchange Market opened,
it was only less than a decade ago that McDonald's opened its first location in China.
All of it pointing to the fact that, well, 66.3% of Chinese people would say
that they're really quite happy with how things are going back home.
Even still, an additional 12% would even say
that they're very happy about how things are going back at home.
Now, with this new attitude in mind, let's revisit some of the issues
that the Western media constantly portrays,
because for every single story, there are two sides to it.
The first story is that of 'the great firewall', or censorship.
Now, what most of us take for granted, like Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Google, Gmail –
all of that is banned in China.
And I'm sure some of you in this room might even say,
"Wow, is there really a point to even go on the Internet in such an environment?"
When I was travelling to Beijing
I actually decided to check in into Foursquare when I was at Tiananmen Square,
and the application on my iPhone would consistently 'crash' on me
every single time that I tried to check in.
Before you get overly concerned about the Internet landscape in China,
keep in mind that for every single website banned,
there's a pretty much a Chinese equivalent to that very same website.
In fact, I would even argue that this is an environment
that the Chinese government has created
essentially, to nurse the companies domestically,
to have them all the time that they need
to build market share and to build know-hows
before they're pitched directly to compete against their global incumbents.
If you were to look at the top ten richest people in China,
more than half of that list would consist of Internet start-up entrepreneurs
that got rich based on this environment.
Twitter made headlines at the beginning of summer
for having made its first 75 million users mark.
Well, guess what? The fourth ranking social media site in China called Renren,
actually surpassed 128 million a year ago.
Of course, the other commonly associated 'C' word with China in Communism,
and while I'm no political science student,
I'm not going to stand here and lecture in front of you about that.
However, my family has been a product of that progression –
in that much of my family actually had been stripped away
of everything that they had during the Cultural Revolution,
and my grandparents were forced to leave my father and his siblings behind in the PRC
to pursue a new life in Hong Kong.
Or even, when I was working in Shanghai, I was delightfully surprised
to have the postman come up to pick-up my parcel
that was supposed to be sent for circulation,
and instead, by routine practice, he would open up the parcel
and actually see what's inside the box and determine whether or not it's fit for circulation.
So when I was sick, I wanted a bottle of Pepto-Bismol
and my friend actually couldn't send it because the postman deemed it as inappropriate.
Well – how do I make sense of that?
What I'm arguing is that it's actually a pretty impractical and outdated view of China.
While it's a communist state on paper
and the political party leading China is called the China Communist Party,
really in effect the society is quite capitalistic.
Chinese citizens are encouraged to buy and sell lands without worrying
about the fact that the government is going to take it away at any point.
Chinese citizens are encouraged to start their own businesses,
so that they can actually channel their funds to either saving accounts
or to invest in stock market, without worrying about the fact
that the Chinese government will take away your money at any point.
In fact, the issue of state ownership being a key quality of the communist environment,
if you look at the statistics, more than 150 state enterprises now
are actually related to the Chinese government directly.
This is a drastic decrease from the 90% of enterprises back in 1978,
to be now less than 50%.
Even more so, in such an environment, the Chinese government has actually suggested
for its top leaders to find foreign managers to come in and run the state enterprises
as an indication that the Chinese are ready to meet global competition and to play by the rules.
Now, the third issue is that of Corruption
and in a fast growing economy it's hard to escape not talking about this one.
And, in Shanghai I was actually delightfully surprised when I was walking along the streets –
there is a certain hour, during a certain week, in a certain neighborhood, on a certain street,
that you would find porn vendors coming up with their little carts
at that indicated time and indicated location.
This is because the porn industry is heavily regulated and banned pretty much in China,
and the vendors have paid off the police to not patrol in that area during the pre-alloted time,
so that they can go about running their business.
Or even, when I was being pick-pocketed on the street in Shanghai,
I was told by the 17-year-old girl who took my iPod to dare me to take her to the police,
because it's pretty much evident that the Chinese government has paid off the police
to tell them not to investigate in pick-pocketing incidences
because, well – to be frank, they just happen too often.
Now, this is again – think of it
as part of China's 30-year-old birthday's coming out party –
it's just going through a huge phase of progression to be competitive
against global rivals as well as meeting Western Standards.
In fact, the anti-corruption conference is actually happening at the end of November in China
as a means for the Chinese government to challenge its local representatives
to step up and to meet Western Standards.
So much so, that if you look at the statistics, more than 5,000 companies
have been accused by the Chinese government of corruption in the last year.
And this, is part of the Chinese government stepping up for global competition.
This is a bit of a fun one –
If you're walking around Beijing or if you're walking the streets in Shanghai,
you will see this all the time,
and it's so funny because it's almost like a photo scavenger hunt.
We're all familiar with the brand Lacoste, of course, and –
you would literally find on the streets in Beijing that there will be a Lacoste store,
and right next to it, it would be the replica of the Lacoste brand –
And some of the examples of the names would be, Crocodile since 1982, French Crocodilian –
and my favorite one is Clio Coddle,
which, to be frank, I don't understand how that derived from crocodile.
Or, the fact that this summer when Apple launched the iPad –
I was delightfully surprised to find iPad replicas the next day on the street of Shanghai
selling for only 140 dollars – and granted, they work just fine.
So, what do we make of it?
I argue that this is just a screening mechanism –
again, part of China's mechanism of breeding its companies to be globally competitive.
Think of it as the survival of the fittest idea.
What you're looking at is the Facebook equivalent in China called Renren
and, in fact, it's been so successful in gaining market share
that there's virtually no other social networking site
targeting just at the college market, like Renren has done.
And, you might look at all of that and say, "Well, China is kind of backwards –
Culturally, is not competitive to what the Westerners are doing
and I don't really know what to make of it."
Being a Chinese it's fun to bring home a boy to meet my family
because my dad will ask to see his palm
to determine the ultimate fate of not only him as an individual,
but of us as a couple. (Laughter)
Or, if you were to look at this picture –
at the back, you would actually see examples of paper currencies
that Chinese families would sit around the tables and make
before they visit their ancestors at their graves.
Think of it as – well, a transfer of wiring money from life here to afterlife,
so that our ancestors are taken care of.
And I'm looking at the audience and I see a couple of gentlemen with unshaven faces.
Well, guess what? If you were in China,
you wouldn't be buying a lottery ticket today because that's unlucky.
Or, the next time when you're going to have a bowl of soup for dinner or lunch with noodles in it,
if you accidentally cut a noodle short into pieces
before it completely slurps into your body, that's bad luck too.
It's just different – it's a bi-product of 5,000 years of history. It's just different.
It's not that Western values are superior to that of the East;
it's not that the Eastern philosophies are behind; it's just different – it's 5,000 years of history.
Besides, it's quite neat to know that some of the things that I believe in and that I practice
were also believed and thought about by my very same ancestors.
You're looking at a website
that's a typical layout in a Chinese community.
Now, for us Westerners we're used to looking at a website
and seeing a lot of white real state, fancy icons, colors, clarity – think Apple.
In China, researchers have actually shown that the more white real estate there is,
it means that there's less credibility and validity to the content that's actually on the site.
So, it's is very common for you to look at a website where there are layers of information,
where you spend hours just figuring out how everything is organized –
And when a Chinese sees a website layout like this... they rejoice.
They think that this is quality content... It's just different.
And it's hard to talk about an economy that is gaining so much traction in the world,
without, of course, addressing the issue of pollution.
I got a personal experience of this when I was in Beijing hiking up the Great Wall.
And I can literally take two fingers, take a swipe on my skin on my arm,
and I would see a layer of black dust on my fingerprints.
Granted, when I first got off the plane
I thought I was secreting some kind of foreign substance
and that I needed to check myself into the hospital – clearly not!
But what I want to share is that
China is actually thriving to be an icon for green.
Some examples... think of the Shanghai Expo taking place in Shanghai this summer
with the theme of "Better city, better life".
It's a showcase to the world of what green living could actually look like.
Tell me another city in the world that you can think of
where they turn off their iconic skyline to save energy – well, Shanghai does that.
Every night without fail, at 10 pm they turn off the skyline
to which people come and take pictures of it as tourist, to save energy.
To even build on that –
the Chinese are working on building a network of eco-cities
to showcase to the world what it means
to have self-sustaining complexes.
Imagine if China can actually provide the solution
to end global warming and climate change.
It's certainly taking steps towards that.
And forgive my oversimplification,
but if you were to look at the next 25 years – where is the money going?
First of all, the Chinese have invested 15 billion dollars
to jump start its own automobile industry and electric cars.
15 billions dollars in 16 state-owned enterprises over 20 pilot cities
to free not only China from oil,
but to free the rest of the world from oil.
This also lays the foundation to the network of trains and airports that they're building.
Did you know that the Maglev,
which is a train connecting the Shanghai airport into the city center,
is actually the world's first commercialized magnetic levitation train.
Or, the fact that the Chinese have invested heavily in the jump start of their stem cells research as well,
buying DNA sequences from foreign institutes to jump-start its own industry.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, this is modern China.
And modern China is no longer going to be the manufacturing backyard to the rest of the world,
so long are the days of 'Made in China'
and instead, is moving into a new paradigm
of 'Innovated in China', quoting the words of the Prime Minister himself.
And this opens up an opportunity for the generation like ourselves sitting in this room,
who are naturally curious,
passionate about the surroundings in the world.
This opens up an opportunity to not only change the life of one person,
but the opportunity to change the lives of 1.34 billion and beyond.
To leave an impact not only for one country,
but to leave an impact for the rest of the world and the global economic powerhouses
of where the conversations just go.
For us, that are naturally curious,
this is an avenue for you to think of new solutions to old problems,
and we should all get excited about that.
And the Chinese are welcoming to these kind of solutions
and I challenge you to see if there's new way for you to take part in this conversation,
and to write a new chapter in the new world's history.
And hey, guess what? Maybe we would be part of the story
that's being told for generation to come.
And with that, welcome to China,
and maybe even for some of you, welcome to your future home.
Thank you for joining me today and if you like to continue the conversation,
feel free to follow me on Twitter,
there's a list of China's shakers and movers that you could follow,
that might suffice your interest.
Thank you. (Applause)