Pre-Flight Checklist

I am a lucky soul.  I get to fly home a few times each year to visit family and friends and forget the world that exists beyond the Pacific.  I also never have to deal with flying on or around the Thanksgiving melee and generally avoid the also-hectic Christmas flying season.

Flying is a marvelous human invention, and those who do it frequently have a culture all their own, with stories and traditions and etiquette that is passed from generation to generation.  In Shenzhen we are surrounded by many of these people, all eager to tell their tales and impart their sagely wisdom to younger ears.  The few expat bars that exist here are not dissimilar from airport bars in that they are frequented with regular travelers, often only in town for a week or so.  It's a weird little world meeting the random men and women (but really mostly men) that fly into Shenzhen multiple times per year to check on a factory, meet with a supplier, do something nefarious for Apple (I'll write on the world of overseas Apple people someday), or to check on a logistics operation.

These are the international warriors of the skies, and people for whom I have greater respect than the consultant who flies from New York to Kentucky every Monday for 3 months.  They have been to every international hub, have religious routines, and can fit their world into a set of carry-ons.  Conversations revolve around a 2 big topics: upgrade strategies and health/jet-lag issues.  The upgrades I'll leave out of this post, but the health one is something that is interesting.  We all seem to agree that hydration is first and foremost on the notoriously dry flights, which is an interesting story in its own right.  But general health is largely a topic that most people either deal with by way of vitamin C supplement or just resign themselves to a bit of the sniffles after 15+ hours in the air.

The holiday flight season comes with articles from all over about flying, and I came across one on a Gawker site this morning:  http://io9.com/5862234/why-flying-on-planes-can-make-you-sick-+-and-how-to-stop-it

It's more eye-opening than I had expected and definitely worth a read if you fly, or worth forwarding to someone who does.

Soft Peaks

2011: Where has it all gone?  Thanksgiving is next week and the local malls have Christmas tree-structures out and ready.  Pies and meringue and turkey and overeating are all what we should be thinking about but short of a few passing comments to each other, the Holidays are nowhere to be seen on our collective agendas.

The ball is rolling again over here in Shenzhen.  Growing up in my parents store, I learned the fickle nature of shoppers and the tendency for people to show in hordes.  Any businessperson I can think of desires a steady stream of work, as it is consistent, manageable and predictable.  The real world rarely affords us such luxuries, and we actually dig it.

That's all to report on now, look for me come December, I'm on an open trip back to the US at this point.

September Weather

After record temps in Shenzhen this fall, the weather is finally starting to get in tune with the seasons, however mild they may be here.  As the weather cools and jackets find their way out of closets, it seems that business too is cooling, even as we hunt for new clients and new opportunities.  The global economic situation has altered the investment strategies of even some of the largest capital firms as they rethink plans in China and the region.  Interesting and frustrating at the same time, but I digress from my main point of this little post.

I'll preface by talking about the gut instinct.  There's a fair bit of science and a heap of pseudo-science backing this as a more legit thing now that they've discovered a relatively large neural network down there. I can't back this up with citations so I'll relegate my comments to the 'crazy' sphere of the web.  Regardless, they say you cannot teach or train a gut feeling, but you can learn how to heed its warning.  We were recently made aware that a client had filed for bankruptcy even when their balance sheet was clean and they had a steady business model that was generating revenues that would give no indication of duress.  What we had no way of knowing, short of full disclosure by the company's chairman, was that the chairman himself had taken out 8 million USD in personal loans backed by the company, off balance sheet.  Yaayy.

I cannot in good faith say its a lesson we've learned because the deal had always been less clear than we would have liked, but a retainer can do wonders to calm the nerves.  Once that dried up, we poked and prodded, and 2 months later discovered this issue that I write about today. Would a strong gut instinct have prevented us from taking on this client: perhaps, but I'll wager that our experience through it has been worthwhile and that in hardships, new opportunities present themselves.  Our opportunity is now to structure an outright sale of this client, and in a shortened time frame as well.  We will continue to see how this situation unravels and are pushing to keep our ship upright.

On a side note, I've managed to compound several small incidents on the soccer field into a nice mural of bruises on the lower half of my leg.  I consider to be my painful homage to the colors of fall we so sorely miss out here in china.  Quite literally covered in all the most beautiful autumnal hues of purple brown red and orange.  Unfortunately this has rendered my leg  useless as a serious heel bruise combined with a lower calf collision has combined to seize up most of the goings on down there.  Fortunately! I discovered through an American friend a sports therapy place.  I would post photos but I feel a shot of a bruised leg with 15 needles hooked up to an electro-stim machine might stir up some of that gut feeling stuff I was blabbing about before.

Surprised?

I had to post this set of walking directions from Google maps in China as it is perhaps the funniest thing I've come across in the last few weeks.  Yep, that's how interesting life is right now, silly walking directions highlight a month so far...

Work grinds along, and our alluded to exit is drawing ever closer.  Yet without a clear date or a clear plan of action here, there is only preparation and speculation.  The only positive takeaway these days is the very pleasant September-like weather we are experiencing.  3 short weeks on the tail end of summer and beginning of spring are the only enjoyable moments as far as weather is concerned and it would be a shame not to spend all of it on some patio or lake.

OPJ and I miss home fiercely and are very excited for the trip home.  Given that Chinese New Year falls relatively early this year, there is a chance for an extended US trip this time, which would be delightful in spite of the fact that it will be the most bitter parts of the NE winter.

More upbeat posts to follow.

There is nothing new to report in the last couple of months.  We are working away, and that's really all there is to it.  The banality of this recent stretch is making our team look forward to the holidays and our respective trips back to the good old USofA.  A new client has forced my hand and required me to miss out on what would have been my third trip to the All Asia Gaelic Games in South Korea this year, and while it was something I was looking forward to, this business opportunity is equally interesting for me.
We get torn out here because of the general frustrations that I have laid out in previous posts conflicting with the "cool-factor" of the work we are able to do.  Add to that the seeming hand basket that the US is going to hell in, and the decision to return immediately gets muddied.  That is not to be taken as a declaration of my or our desire to remain here, as it is not, but it makes things tough.  I mentioned a while back an exit strategy, it is being updated, manipulated, molded and played with into something that we want to make sense.
The nature of the last few months has also focused our attention on the coming holiday season and our chance to return home to be with family and friends.  Chinese New Year will come a bit early and we may be afforded the luxury of a longer than usual stay in the States which we are weighing.  It would certainly be a welcome turn of events.

Sneaking Suspicion

We had a teacher back in high school who secretly rewarded proper alliteration. We have incorporated this ever so slight bit of whimsy into our company emails and correspondences. We're nerds yes, but I remain in nerdy awe of a fellow American out here who, along with several coworkers, only email and correspond digitally in haiku form on Fridays. So, we've already been one-upped.

Anyway, the VPN has been off for some time, making my navigation to the underground web logs of the West rather difficult. Summer is fading and frustration still sings in the ears of the young and hungry working in Shenzhen. I'll wager that frustration has never sang before...

I cannot report on anything interesting these days as the gossip is stale and I have largely removed myself from it, and work remains just that. The only glimmer is perhaps a new client that I am responsible for vetting, and it is the closest thing to an entirely China-play yet. We'll see what happens there as I continue to get on the due-diligence train.

I promise to be more interesting in subsequent autumnal posts, and rest assured I have not forgotten to snap photos of Shenzhen's lovely public art explosion, in fact, I'll load a couple that are trapped on my little cellphone:


These are just two of the lovelies that are around the city, both up very quickly, and one is invariably part of a fountain as well which is definitely a theme here with public art. The fountain is in COCO park shopping area and sits in the middle of a large sidewalk that once provided ample space for foot traffic and is now an eyesore and an impedance.

Along with the sculptures several flocks of plastic sheep that appeared one day as well, dotting roadsides in displays that remind me of the nativity sets that emerge on good Christian lawns come Christmas season. We're not sure of the significance of the sheep, but us foreigners love to speculate. More to come.

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.

In the Thick of it

Traveling from Hong Kong International is considerably more frustrating after midnight. I'll just leave it at that and let this post suffice as news of my safe return to China.

Our team was fortunate enough to be granted free passage to the 13th annual China Venture Capital and Private Equity Forum being held in SZ this year. It was packed with eager small businesses and budding financiers jockeying for limelight and space at the talks and events. It seemed to have all the makings of a proper forum, with great sponsors, lots of high end wine tasting, and some genuinely thoughtful sounding discussions.

It seemed to fall short of this, and nestled itself into a phrase that I've grown quite fond of out here: Not as advertised.

Our team split up and hit three discussions simultaneously, OPJ listening in on green-tech in China (of interest to us and one our largest client), his fiancee to a forum on the SZ Stock Exchange listings and legal matters (her cup of tea), and me to biomedical and biotech in China (relevant to one of our lazier quasi-clients). It was an exercise in patriotism for China, with prominent businessmen rallying the audience behind building domestic institutions to compete both at home and abroad. Not a soul mentioned anything about foreign and Chinese companies working together, which was oddly enough the title of the discussion. The highlight of the discussion involved one CFO of a major Chinese Biomedical discussing venture capital for Chinese Medical device makers and pharma.
He stated that because of the high risk involved with the industry, businesses would need to focus on "commercializing" the technology of foreign companies, and even joint venture partners in order to reduce the normal risks associated with investing in drugs and devices. Now, this has been mentioned many times by the foreign press, so I'm not making any huge breakthroughs here, but I was taken by how nonchalant they were about what amounts to outright theft of foreign intellectual property and patents.

This may be a dangerous thing to call out, but it seems to be a common and accepted notion here and one we will work to understand better for our clients.

Dies Caniculares

Thanks to a heat related delay at Newark (no-fooling, thicker air or some business) I have some time to post here and reflect briefly.

It's been a whirlwind 8 days in the US, and it is with some reluctance that I leave it behind again for the vast expanse that is China.

The wedding was beautiful, and it was an honor to be able to sing with such a talented group for two people I respect and admire deeply. Always good to see old friends, and I look forward to rekindling contact with them even while across the globe. If you're reading this and know someone who should be or might have an extra 15 minutes to kill every now and then, get em wise on this URL.

I'll continue checking in with developments about our work and any interesting things that will undoubtedly continue to pop-up over in the Big Red

Shooting yourself in the foot

I rarely if ever post articles, but with all the glitz and glam that seemingly surrounds this country, I thought this needed to be posted.

The Audacity of Chinese Frauds(Source: nytimes.com)

We have some private opinions on this country that have run contra to what the US media's tone over the last two years. The Wallstreet Journal has recently begun to change its stance, and it's now beginning to spread.

The article is from the New York Times, and if you haven't seen it, or are curious about some of the harsh realities out here, then I would recommend reading it.

2 Weddings & a Funeral

I'm pretty sure my creditors love me. 2 short years out here and this will be the second wedding I've flown back for. The funeral was real and terribly unfortunate, but today I am thrilled to be gearing up for a wonderful union.

It's scary in I will attend the first wedding of college friends, an undeniable marker of our continuing lives, and a pretty cool situation that I am lucky enough to be a part of. It also strengthens my determination to come back to the US permanently, and at this point in time I am very certain that I will return in a serious capacity within the next year and a half.

At this point we're all in, win or lose, and various other lame and overused cliches. I stand by my position that we should have come out here for 6 months, returned with a pilot for reality show, and come back to have this insanity taped and displayed to the TV masses. It could still work in some way, too much goes on here to go untold, and I want to give a shoutout to the Chinese who are reading this now and keeping an eye on me. No worries guys, I love it here. Street BBQ is great and I'm sure the Universiade games will go off without a hitch (speaking of which I'll go into greater depths about this Universiade thing soon).

Riders on the Storm

Facing East from our apartment yesterday

It's raining (not in a Craigslist kind of way), and that'll put a damper on spirits. Like anything though there are two sides of anything. Rain is a little depressing, but like a smoke-stack scrubber, the rain takes a lot of the crap out of the air, and during a morning stroll to the corner store yesterday, for but a passing second, when I inhaled, I could have sworn it smelled just like Florida: clean, humid, tropical... I came to when the waft from our stagnant border river replaced any clean thoughts in my mind. But is was nice for a second.

Like my patriotism, my ability to withstand smell has grown in my time out here, and it makes you appreciate more the small things that can lighten your day. Paychecks help too, and for every one that seems more certain, a sure thing from a month ago seems like a far-fetched fantasy now.

There is a hesitation here when switching lanes, for fear of instability of that free space, so too in business, there is hesitation on the part of our clients, for whatever reasons. They see youth and ambition, coupled with the ability to actually get things done, and they seek to exploit as much free labor as possible. Aware of this, we grind forward, not much else to do really. The rain comes in and reminds us things here can be nice when the garbage clears.

The high-heeled woman

I really wish I had photo testimony or better yet, video of some of the incredibly hilarious things that happen around here.
Updated: Found it! from a year ago, but this has happened two more times since this was snapped. It's at my apartment in the fountain by the lobby

Really, almost everyday something makes you stop and wonder about the human race. I suppose it is no different in the US where we take pride in making fun of our non-coast dwelling compatriots for being terribly dim.



Aside from crossing highways, driving into fountains, and using storm drains as convenient public bathrooms, the high heel best analogizes Shenzhen in its relation to China and the rest of the world. A large majority of the women here wear high heels, both for work and at play. It seems to be a poorly understood piece of footwear here as many simply do not have the knack for it, or have chosen to shun all conventional wisdom for wearing a vastly different shoe and continue doing what worked for flat shoes. The result is a very obvious change in gait, and a lot of stumbling/struggling/falling.
We began to notice it less, but then also took in a lot of the things we thought the Chinese were "stupid" for doing on a consistent basis (lack of any traffic rules, bicycles carrying goods down the wrong side of the road, and a general anything goes policy), and tried to better understand it. It is no news that Shenzhen is a city that is an infantile 30 years old, but I suppose we never considered that a majority of the people living here have never lived in a city before, and that in fact many are from farming communities or rather small villages. They are not used to the culture of urban dwelling, had little if any introduction into it, and have simply chosen to take what worked before, and apply it here, deftly throwing common sense and personal well-being into the wind. I am simplifying it and sounding a bit arrogant, but really, it is astounding how often you see examples of it.

People living here are like the poor girl wearing high heels not because she wants to, but because she should, just like living here. She choses to continue walking as she did before, rather than adjusting her stride and strike, and seems ok to struggle mightily, or perhaps ignorant of that fact. So too are the Chinese that move here from more rural settings.

I may sound like a stodgy British officer logging about how backwards the local conquered culture is, but we all seem to be in agreement here. Eh, we are no better I guess for eating at Macdonalds and drinking at Starbucks.

Full Plate

Our little blue planet continues its wobbly topspin and pushes this part of the world into its wet season. We have been graced a temporary respite from the heat, but the cost is a bit of cloud and rain. This season is starting to mimic our first summer, and I wonder how often the sun will grace us with its presence this summer.

The last few days some dormant clients have come back to life, and we found ourselves quickly with rather full plates. I suppose to any New Yorker, a few nights a month burning the oil until 2 or 3 am is standard, and to be honest, OPJ and I are not that far removed from that lifestyle either.

It's great to be busy though, I've got more than couple 15 hour flights coming up soon, so I'll have plenty of time to catch up on that pestering exhaustion thing.

Apologies for the photo-free post, I know text-only is not the most exhilarating thing to read online these days.

Precipice

I'm a broken record I know, and perhaps a bit of a softy, but when it feels like 93 at 1 in the morning I curse southern China and praise air conditioning.

How long can a person(s) stand at a precipice in life? 1 week? 6 months? 2 years and running? How do you know when to walk away? Is your contingency plan all you thought it was or just poorly crafted from the get-go.

In a past life I was a pessimist, but what artsy angsty teen isn't? Having just finished the Soprano's DVD set, I can happily reflect on the follies and errors of high school, perhaps even in college. Where do I fall now? Probably right in the middle of the 25-30 demographic that likes button-down shirts and the Daily Show. Probably pretty damn boring, but optimistic in this time of American uncertainty.

But I'm out here, working, procrastinating, reflecting, and pushing to minimize my regrets and take full advantage of what is available here. The young American gone East is beaten to hell. Everyone and their cousin has spent time out here it seems, not everyone is doing what we are, but plenty are.

Which is why we need to be the best.

Good talk, back to Excel for me...

On Edge

OJ returned from Thailand & Hong Kong yesterday, and we got back into the swing of things again. The time away has allowed all of us to recharge a bit, and personally reflect on the status of clients and their respective progress. It's all a bit concerning, but not enough so that we cannot remain cautiously optimistic.

I suppose it can all be chalked up to the fact that the boots on the ground are young. Yes we have the gray-hairs that can and frequently do go to bat for us accompany the group on trips and to meetings, but at the end of the day, the memos going out to clients come from the young guys. Our clients, like any I'm sure, want to get as much as they can for free. This is neither new nor novel, and you cannot fault them for that, it is perhaps our own mistake for not being more aggressive on these deals, and that is something that only time will allow us to do.

That being said, we are also growing weary of the "it's Asia" excuse for the long and drawn-out nature of doing business out here. Whether it be Chinese holidays, random vacations, or God knows what else, things here do not move at the speed of business you or I are accustomed to, and the excuse goes back to our relative geography. It's unfortunate, and if anything I think it is a crutch that too many foreigners here rely on to allow for unnecessary delays, or at the very least, allow for small delays to compound into larger ones without much loss of sleep. This may be a safety device; one that keeps people here a bit less stressed out. Not really my area of expertise, but it's enough to be noted.

There are politics at play (internal mostly) within our deals that I cannot elaborate on, but the line we walk is fine and the edge is ever-present, and if I had another lame analogy I'd toss it in as well to complete the triumvirate.

Cautiously optimistic, keep trudging along, head always up if someone is looking my way.

PS: came across this article yesterday in my Osama-bin found news binge. If you like dogs and American ninjas, you'll dig this: href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/05/science/05dog.html?ref=asia">Americas ninja dogs

Obligatory

It has been quiet here the past week as the May holiday came and went with nary a whisper. OJ was off to Thailand for some well-deserved R&R, and I took the time alone here to play a bit of soccer, play at-home doctor, and cook my very first steak (in China).

Also, they got Osama. woot.

Playing 2 hours of soccer with a piece of glass in your toe is not so high on the fun-scale, spending the entire following day trying to extract said piece of glass is even less fun, but the end result is a renewed ability to walk and continue playing sports. I'll just leave it at that. On a non-gross note, our new-look team is beginning to gel, and we are no longer having standoffish confrontations with our Chinese opponents. We've built up some solid street-cred and have even been asked to take photos with our opponents after games, and frequently get invited to play again. This is worlds better than before when I was playing angry parent, grabbing people by the arm and making them put down the bricks and rocks they gathered to pummel us with. Fisticuffs is ugly in general, but especially so out here, where our size leads them to think we have an unfair advantage, resulting in them seeking to gain the upper hand either with numbers and/or weapons. Yaay.

China is getting hot, work will ramp up again this week, and we begin our third and hopefully final summer out here full-time. Everything is going so much better than before, but as always, the ability to rest easy seems a bit further up ahead.

A belated Easter tale

To quote How I Met Your Mother: Jesus waited THREE days to come back to life. It was perfect! If he had only waited ONE day, a lot of people wouldn't have even heard he died. They'd be all, "Hey Jesus, what up?" and Jesus would probably be like, "What up? I DIED yesterday!" and they'd be all, "Uhh, you look pretty alive to me, dude..." and then Jesus would have to explain how he was resurrected, and how it was a miracle, and the dude'd be like "Uhh okay, whatever you say, bro..." And he's not gonna come back on a SATURDAY. Everybody's busy, doing chores, workin' the loom, trimmin' the beard, NO. He waited the perfect number of days, THREE. Plus it's SUNDAY, so everyone's in church already, and they're all in there like "Oh no, Jesus is DEAD", and then BAM! He bursts in the back door, runnin' up the aisle, everyone's totally psyched, and FYI, that's when he invented the high five. That's why we wait three days to call a woman, because that's how long Jesus wants us to wait.... True story.


So while I waited slightly more than three days to post this, it was enough of a departure from the norm that I will deem it still relevant for this place. Nary a Sunday passes here that we do not reflect upon the week and wonder where the time went, and how unfulfilling the weekend had been. As I do not check back through this blog, I worry that I will take another jab at a dead horse, but in SZ, there is little in the way of extracurricular activity. Weekends here remind me a bit of weekends in the last year of college: what do you guys want to do tonight? *shrugs* go to latenight? And everyone would away to the same basement party and partake of the same inane rituals that college students all to often partake of.

There is little difference here really, and our little tribe is reluctant or nearly unwilling to continue this way. So Easter provided a welcome departure from the norm, and a select handful whisked away to Hong Kong for the night to have dinner at an Italian restaurant, eat lamb, drink wine, and sit in a cozy place where if you let your guard down for a moment, you'd swear you were no longer in Asia. That was precisely the goal. A beautiful meal was followed with a post-dinner constitutional walk, followed by a small round of properly made (see: rare) cocktails and a sorely-missed session of good conversation.

This all sounds dull as hell, but I need to reiterate a point: at no point in that evening did I feel like I was in China, or Asia, or anywhere really. It was tunnel vision if you want to call it that. Think about the last time you were with a small group of people and you couldn't tell what city you were in because you were simply focused on each other. The venue you were at played a proper role of supporting actor, or hired help, always there and serving but never distracting its patrons from their evening. Now I sound like a snob. You know what, I'll take it, because it is so rare here.

There I've ranted.

Let's play catch-up

photo from Monday atop the Peak in Hong Kong

It is getting warm here again. Temperatures in the low 80's with humidity varying between awesome and awful: 40-85%. This will be our third summer behind the Great Firewall, the Largest Market, and a host of other deserving superlatives both positive and negative.
From car wash, to high-end detailing car care, to education consultancy, to summer education program to HR consultancy, to management consultancy to financial advisory firm in 26 months.

I sit in an apartment now, 50 stories above a maddeningly busy free trade port and international border. I get out of bed at a reasonable 8 am, have coffee and cereal across the table with Olivier, check emails, news, last nights sports scores. We create an attack plan for the day, usually someone has meetings in Hong Kong, I am still getting my financial sea-legs and as a result go through exercises with our clients books, draft memo's for clients and the internal team, and have a couple episodes of Family Guy or American Dad ready for when lunch arrives.

We worry about visas, our status as guests in this country are never certain, and we quietly talk about our fears as a small company/family out here. We stress over the ineptitude of various systems out here, a lack of professionalism on both sides of the coin, and a desire to be successful for our clients' sake and our own universal well-being.

Temperament, patience, diligence, professional demeanor, personal obligation, and disciprine.... payoff. If you do everything right, it will not always work. A scary thought

Six months have passed since I last visited this place, to scribe down my thoughts, reflect on my life out here, our experiences thus far, and where we look to move while in the pinnacle of youth.

I took an extended break from my public thoughts to grow, to be broken and rebuilt, to continue to discover more about myself, and to begin to realize the truly important things in China, New York, and at home.

Let's get back on this train, spread the word, and gather 'round to hear tales from a country that is recently, more important than ever.