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.