Expat Rumor Mill

Urban myths, legends of yore, and general rumors are par for the course over here in Shenzhen. The folks involved in all of this are not tweens on the playground spreading vicious rumors at recess, or the catty high school crowd ostracizing a nobody. No. These are the 20-50 somethings of Shenzhen, and what I would expect to be the expat community the globe around spreading rumors and tales. Though I would not expect it is a self-serving thing, but more a result of general naivete.
I will use myself as a glaring example. Shenzhen is growing, exploding even, and as such there are construction sites littered around the city. Everyone knows of China's withstanding goal to create a high-speed rail system to connect Hong Kong with Beijing, and the first leg of that will of course dart through Shenzhen. More than a year ago I was told by some 'expats in the know' that it would be opening in August of 2011, and would soon extend up to Guangzhou (the capital city of this province, and a manufacturing giant as well), to create a trip of Hong Kong to Guangzhou in one hour. And boy that sounds nice because dealing with customs and trains/buses here normally puts the commute into downtown Hong Kong at nearly 2 hours. A 30-45 minute trip into Hong Kong would be fantastic, and we are all excited to see it open, except for the fact that it will indeed not be open until this time next year. Sad.

I had unknowingly (see: naive) spread this false truth around to my friends, excitedly boasting my inside knowledge of the goings-on in Shenzhen. We all do this here: A new building in our district's CBD (central business district, of which Shenzhen has two) has a large tower going up with a strikingly simply figure and it is alleged to house the new Shenzhen Stock Exchange. It is an impressive building to behold and any expat in the know will be quick to point it out as you whiz past in your taxi. Another morsel of information is one gleaned from an American urban planner and engineer who is a consultant to the Shenzhen government. While he cannot divulge actual facts he will let slip that occupancy rates in the office towers here are abysmal at best and that the government buildings here are even worse.
All of these little factual/quasi-factual tidbits help expats here define themselves as having their finger on the pulse of the city. Everyone has a Chinese friend with "connections" and so on and so forth. The fact that I had been so quick to spread my little bits of information only show that I am no different, and when you realize this, you need to go back and grab a few grains of salt, and reconsider much of what is said here.

How much do we really know? I'd say next to nothing. As adults here, I think back to what I have talked about with friends before: the smartest ones are always the quietest.

Put some training wheels on it

Greetings from Universiade ground-zero. The games are finally ending, and soon the mess of collegiate athletes and their entourages will be whisked back to their home countries, clad in various metals/medals, and telling friends back home of the strange city in the South of China. And when that happens, maybe all the ridiculous bottlenecks will be gone, and we can once again use the damn impressive metro system that SZ takes for granted.

yep, html humor...

Anyway, the heat has settled in, promised only to stay for a few weeks and 2 months on won't leave or pay rent. Your New England summer seems to be back to normal with your heat largely normal at this stage, and we're pretty jealous of a good ol' summer back home.

The heat's up in many ways. Work is moving forward, and for what seems like the first time in recent memory, there is no ridiculous back-peddling and no heinous delays or abuses of our hard work and/or goodwill. That being said our team puts together some top notch work, and it seems we are now having to put training wheels on some of it to help shop it out to supposed equals who are inquiring about our clients. This can be frustrating, but I find it a benign bump in the road. I have always pointed to the "gray-hairs" that have allowed us to put their names on our products when we were feeling low or dejected. When two people as generally negative as OPJ and myself are living in a place we find less than ideal, it is extremely important to find any silver-lining you can. Little things like the training wheels are what I point out to my frustrated colleagues: This isn't a bad thing, it reiterates the hot-air we tend to blow around here.

Eh, another week goes by, but it's been a good one, and it's only Tuesday.

Dog Days

The term: doldrums is one that strikes different people in different ways, whether its a stagnant business cycle, social downtime, employment gloominess, etc, the term is an interesting one. I like that it was born away from but quickly became a nautical term, and also dig the fact that it is so frequently borrowed by men of business to describe well... business. Perhaps it is the CEO sailor who likes to think of his company as a small yacht being commandeered on new seas, or perhaps it is just that the word fits into the business world well, who knows. But looking into it a bit more, I found it nicely described much of the last few years for us as well.
Baffling winds, general calm, fits of rain and thunderstorms mixed in. A place one enters and has little choice but to stick it through until his sails can catch enough breeze to navigate away from this area. Fits of thunder and lightning awe, inspire, strike fear, and generate some winds, but can wind up knocking you into a new direction, a fruitful one even. It struck me.
Though the negativity affixed to the term may be an overstatement given our situation, it is still something that I will liken our time here too. A first trip through the doldrums should serve to educate, strengthen, and create a wiser navigator.

Now, if only the damn DHL guy will come to pick up a due diligence package, I can get on with this evening.

On a SIDE NOTE: The all Asia Gaelic Games are coming up in October, and it will allow me my first chance to visit South Korea (probably sans a disputed island trip sadly). With our soccer league and the Gaelic kicking back into gear, I have 3 nights a week playing some sports. Given the heat, thank God we don't play while the sun is up.

The NDA: sexy or lame?

Perhaps some of you may have noticed that this blog has transformed slightly in the scant few years since it began. In concept it would be a platform to relay exploits, tales of our business, and any whimsical anecdotes that I would deem blog-worthy. The business aspect has largely been missing, and that is the direct result of three little letters: NDA

The non-disclosure agreement is something that entered our lives when we first ventured into the consulting side of things some time ago. It has since morphed into a staple of what we do and the first thing that gets sent to clients and potential investors alike. Because of these agreements, I have little information I can or am willing to divulge on the interwebs where it can be seen by anyone, forever. Those people with whom I have the good fortune to chat with every once in a while will no doubt be in on what we're doing more specifically, and I like it that way.


To hit my point though, I find it amusing this NDA. I'm sure young twenty-somethings fresh out of school working for the big boys in NY are quick to bring into conversations that they cannot talk about their clients, or "we're under a strict NDA, sorry" as they beam about it inside their heads. I'll gladly admit I can understand the appeal. It's akin to being in on a joke, or being invited to a cool-kid party (that's what they called them right?) There is a bit of sexiness with it, and some folks out here and I'm sure back at home will ride the wave as long as it presents itself, and there is nothing wrong with that. What happens though to the people that are forced (I'll say forced out here since it seems appropriate for much of the expat social life) to interact with that person for an extended period of time? How quickly does the luster wear off, how quickly does the 'bull-shit' alarm go off? When does it simply become lame?

I'll say this, and I'm being cynical: We are all full of a lot of hot air here, nearly every expat in some regard and in no way to I remove myself from this, so as with this, I think everyone listens to stories from others with a grain of salt added, or perhaps several grains. The NDA-laced "I cant say who our clients are" story is one that while at the outset cool, quickly has people piling salt. For better or worse.

I still think it's a little cool.

If you can't make it look good, make it giant and paint it yellow

This was a wise bit of advice/injection of wit by an old high school mentor of mine regarding art. It was something that saved a final project from the depths hell, and perhaps something someone out here took to heart and turned into their modus operandi.

China has had the luxury to produce and manufacture art on a scale perhaps never seen in human history before. I would wager that nearly every piece of public art you've seen in a Best Western or Airport Hilton is a replication or poor original mass produced in artist factories and sent to their humble destinations to draw attention away from decaying furniture and browning walls. This extremely intimate relation with the world's art (both great and horrible) is evidenced in an art village here where one can purchase a hand painted Manet, and gleaming Mona Lisa, and the one of whoever it was painted Napoleon on his fantastic steed. I would further wager that it is this very intimacy that allows the government to quite literally vomit public art all over SZ in a last-second effort to give this soulless city a hint of class, of artistic flare, and I must admit that at every turn, their hidden intentions are glaringly obvious.

I will take a bit of down time this week and capture as much of it as I can on my Leica M9 (see: cellphone camera), and post it here for you to yay or nay in concert with me. I have never really held a high opinion of public art in general, and I will gladly admit my artistic eye and background is not nearly distinguished enough to critique anything above my own humble levels of ability, but really, the soulless way the art was put up made me sad.

We'll see how it is received, certainly a lot of it is big, painted red, and to give the Chinese-lily-gild: covered in string LED's

The BP Apology and Grand-Facading

It is a widely held belief that the majority of personal blog entries begin with an apology for not being more dedicated to the narcissistic pursuit of blogging about ones life. Excuses abound and really, no one cares. The millions upon millions of people who follow this ever-changing, fast-paced, super sweet blog-o-fun wait with bated breath for the next hot update on the hot and balmy South China city. It's true.

Please refrain from fan mail as Google is starting to bug me for hogging bandwidth.

True story.


The eye of the July storm was over us this weekend and the team here jumped at the chance for a little rest and relaxation. It has been one of our busiest and most productive months, and the team has been all over the globe spreading our message and turning people on to our clients. This will no doubt be a busy summer and we could not be happier about that fact.

Tonight begins the work anew, and the week will turn our team into pitch-men and the brief window that allowed us sleep will soon seem a distant memory.

What is interesting outside of work is the fact that Shenzhen will be hosting the Universiade games very soon. I have mentioned this event in the past and for those of you not versed in International quasi-olympic games that only the most seasoned obscura-hunting hipsters are privy to, the Universiade are essentially the collegiate Olympics. Well, Shenzhen is extremely proud to be hosting this prestigious event, behind Beijing and Guangzhou and has built a slew of stadiums and additional metro stops.
SZ has undertaken an enormous expansion and beautification project to make the city internationally presentable. The completed stadiums are truly beautiful, and the new metro system is impressive, though many of us here are frustrated with the updated 'security measures' (see: ridiculous bottlenecks), but something much more impressive has been going on. SZ has been spending at a breakneck pace to re-facade the city's less than impressive or slightly older buildings/store fronts/apartments. We like to quip that they must have important the geniuses behind Las Vegas and Disney. It's truly impressive and also saddening at the same time. I've never seen such work up close and personal: sheet metal flashing pressed and matte-sprayed to look like stone facade, entire apartments covered of their heinous tiled exteriors to emulate their cousin structures in the West, and all form of small town street lights and homey-feeling public decorations.
The part of this that bugs me is that this large sum of money has been poured in to make the city SEEM nicer, while not a cent has gone to improving the lives of anyone inside the buildings. Small ground level shops have had their businesses quite literally covered to make concessions to aestheticism and symmetry, being forced to temporarily close down or perhaps use the time to remodel and renovate as many have.

I'll leave it at that, but regarding the games, we're very curious to see what the city will transform into during the games. It should be exciting.

Plotting

A belated happy Father's Day to all. I sometimes find it quite difficult to get in touch with people back home, and I must apologize for this. I could excuse this shortcoming by stating that I loathe the spotty connection of my VPN, or mention my well-documented anxiety regarding phones, but these are weak at best when it comes to close friends and family. I will step up my efforts, I can promise that.

Back to China and the topic that has been at the forefront of our minds lately: our return stateside. As we continue to work, play, toil and explore, we find ourselves eyeing more carefully our return. OPJ and I have spoken at length about the preconditions for or return and are actively pursuing them. The more with consider the return, the more questions arise. It is not so simple anymore, there are myriad options to weigh, scenarios to consider, both here and when home. Where will home be? How will we transition? What becomes of the years here? What is the path we'll pursue? Will it continue together or has that tandem run its course?

I do not have answers at this point, but there are some positive developments from life here that we hope to incorporate into the life we see for ourselves at home. There is so much from our time here thus far that will positively influence our futures, there are also some faults, some prejudices, and some bias which we must seek to overcome in order to be better men, and to better serve ourselves and anyone involved in our lives from this point on. By addressing these issues now, we hope our transition home will be far more efficient and productive.

We owe an enormous debt to our families for the patience they have exercised, and it is something that we are aware of everyday, and strive to reward. Our friends and other relationships too have all felt some strain, and perhaps unlike many foreigners here, we sincerely wish to rekindle and replenish those relationships which we see as important in our lives.

When I graduated college I made a point to not say goodbye to anyone: Those who I cared for I would see again, and those who I did not care for never really wanted a goodbye anyway. I hope this will remain true as it has so far. Though perhaps that is a bit of optimistic or desperate youth still speaking.

Some photos to pass the time

I'm working on two posts about how China has altered my approach to some things, but find myself too lazy to begin editing and refining it at this point. Perhaps I am awaiting a more positive or uplifting epiphany, but it is something that I feel I am not alone in.

Anyway, on a boring and weather related note, it has been extremely humid and muggy, yet astonishingly clear and bright. With the Universiade games coming up soon, I wonder if the Red Dragon is busy clearing the pollution out of the city, or its just a nice occurrence. Anyway, enjoy some professional-grade cell-phone snaps from the apartment yesterday at sundown.