Inconsistency keeps people on their toes, or just frustrates them and keeps them from ever checking this little website.
Our Gaelic football club is now in its final preparation stages as the All Asia Gaelic Games approaches (Sept 25-26), and after a string of injuries to our veterans, we look to our young rookie class to carry us in competition. Kind of like the Patriots, but not really.
We were recently approached about writing for a new website in town called the Shenzhen Standard. The website is supposed to serve as a platform for business information and news regarding various aspects of life in Shenzhen. While it is still in its nascent stages, we have begun putting out some articles for them, mostly pom-pom waiving about how great China is and why Shenzhen is China's next hotbed for innovation, development, money, bla bla bla. Our involvement on the site has raised some interesting ideas that I'd like to talk about somewhere.
First, I'll be honest, I have reservations about the site. It is all good and fine, and has good goals, but I was initially bummed out by the blatant advertising not even thinly-veiled as news popping up everywhere within its pages (especially the homepage). Now this may sound pretty tame from a distance, but it is something that represents a greater shortcoming within the entire expatriate community out here. Now, I hope this advertising thing is short lived as expats like ourselves work to fill the website with meaningful, thoughtful content. This website is not alone either, there are a handful of expat run websites around shenzhen: Shenzhen Party, Shenzhen Stuff, etc, that are designed to help integrate East and West and create constructive environments for social networking and the like. The problem is not China.... it's the expats themselves. Poor moderation, low standards for quality, blatant disrespect for China in some cases, and a general negativity/hostility that is off-putting to many people, Chinese and foreign alike. I'm not saying this about the standard, but I feel with a name like that, it should hold itself in high regard, put only the best content forward, and keep things as professional as possible. I believe the same should be true for all expat run entities in Shenzhen and abroad in general. We have a responsibility, more than our fellow Americans back on home soil, to represent ourselves, our jobs, and our countries in the best light possible. Or hell, we should at least try to avoid looking the ignorant bastards that are so often portrayed in our own media (cough cough Q'ran burning).
I may be sounding a bit hot-headed, but I honestly believe that this kind of personal accountability is extremely important out here, especially in our increasingly transparent world, where internet personalities are universally accessible. Some times it is good and important to have a sense of humor, retain a biting wit, engage in a bit of jovial bashing, but know when to turn it off and put your serious-pants on. yeah... serious pants, what of it?
I'm having issues posting pictures, so no pictures of pants for display purposes... damn.
The second issue is much more minor and I'm guessing pretty well known. China cheerleading falls into a similar category as the last rant, but is one that is very important out here. Foreign dissent against China is not illegal per se, but not something I would recommend for anyone living out here who doesn't have some sort of diplomatic our NYT-level journalism clearance. This of course creates a double-edged sword for China. Let's say you have a foreign VC entity looking to get into the Sino-party that is Southern China. These guys are smart fellows, they read the news, they see the potential pitfalls that await as they've read in WSJ,Forbes, and various other financial news outlets. But even these highly esteemed news sources are subject to this cheerleading as well. The real picture is very hard to obtain without eyes and ears on the ground. I recently came across an article about doing business in Nigeria, and how, in an effort to show respect, someone will always say yes when asked if a particular task is possible. This is also true here, though perhaps not to the degree it is there. China-savvy people will have a general sense of this, but it is so difficult to understand that true nature of business-direction and action out here. We are dealing with our first handful of Chinese clients, and even as we show progress, competence and even surpass expectations, we are left scratching our heads when things do not go as discussed/agreed upon/signed upon. Frustrating? Absolutely. Important? Even more so.
I'm accessing this blog via a crappy tunneling website, so I cannot post photos or links. Shenzhen Standard can be found at: http://www.shenzhenstandard.com
