I went to Ikea today and bought a little over RMB300 of small stuffs. Spent over 1.5hrs although I knew exactly what I wanted to buy. (Sidenote: Aline, yes the place is big). Ok, where I wanted to buy only a couple of things, I ended buying a dozen. Haha! It’s life. I had already done a first trip the other week.

My visa procedures are practically over. I should get the passport with the residence permit in it during the week. It’s taken me some 3 weeks to get it all over.

It’s been a long time since I posted anything. Been busy/lazy/whatever ….

I am now in Shanghai, feeling darn cold. I will spare the rants about Air Mauritius’s lack of Chinese music and movie channels not properly identifiable. There is no HK destination on the list of flights.

I moved into a small apartment, which is not bad, although the toilet/bathroom could be better, and the kitchen’s got no window, meaning that the apartment would for hours smell of whatever I cook. Will decide whether or not to get satellite channels later. There is already a satellite dish affixed, courtesy of former resident.

I got internet back on, although I have to leave the darn modem on all the time. If I shut it off, the laptop has problems connecting to it for the first 5-10mins. I tried changing the network name and password of my wifi modem, but there was apparently a problem, and the password is no longer recognised. I tried resetting it, but that doesn’t seem to be working. WTF? No wifi for the moment, need to connect my laptop to the cable directly.

My HP laptop’s fingerprint scan recognition feature’s gone bonkers. Can no longer use it to log in or redo new fingerprint scans. The laptop’s only a few months old.

I still haven’t bought all my stuff. Too lazy to go out in the cold knowing I would have to fight to get a cab back home afterwards, while carrying awkward bulky stuffs.

Went to a bath/sauna/massage place last Friday. My friend, who is a flight attendant, had dropped by in Shanghai and we decided to go there as soon as she reached her hotel in Hongqiao. It was then around midnight, and after picking her up, we went to the place. Left there after 3am, went to sleep around 4am, then got up at 7am to get ready for work. Felt so sleepy on Saturday (I work full day on Saturdays). I dozed off several times in the afternoon. Good thing not much to do that day.

I now enjoy having a daily drink of Caffe Latte by Suntory. Best drunk cold. Doesn’t do much to your sleepiness.

Oh yeah, I did a physical test as part of the visa procedures, and among other things the diagnosis was:
Suffer from high blood pressure (well, that’s not surprising)
Fatty infiltration of liver (whatever that means)
Abnormal liver function (WTF? I am not a heavy drinker, what abnormal FUNCTION?)
Hyperlipidemia (i.e. likely to suffer from bad cholesterol)
Abnormal electrocardiogram (Didn’t precise what abnormality)
Abnormal cardiovascular system (WTF? Why no details?)
Just reading it makes me wonder if my time’s almost up in this life. Haha.

Looking for a gym in my neighbourhood. Part of my new year resolution of having a better lifestyle and be more fit. Didn’t find any interesting gym on the net. I should walk/bike around looking for those not on the web, but too lazy for that. Best option is to go to Xujiahui’s Physical (on 5th floor of Metro City, just above Xujiahui metro station). However, it is not that big and if I go there after work, the place would be packed and difficult to find free machines. I am considering going there early morning. Get up at 6am, arrive there at 7am when it opens, do an hour of exercise, take another shower, then get to the office by 9am. Feasible in THEORY, except that I know I’m so lazy.

Work has been slow because Mauritius office is closed till January 8th, so I can’t get the information I need to work.

I still have to open a bank account. My passport is currently at some governmental office where the work certificate thing is being processed. Should get it back tomorrow. Then, if there has been no problem, it will be a trip to the PSB to get my residence certificate, and I will be hassle free for about a year (I think).

So what are the news? My mother’s trying to feed me like one tries to feed a turkey before Thanksgiving. :D (Moi ki ti croire mo pou kapav plati ventre ene ti p :P)

Forgot about how bad traffic in and out of Port Louis can be. Got to work late 3 days in a row while trying to figure out the best route to get to work. Ok, first day I left home around 8.45am, when I was supposed to get to work around 8.30 ;) Anyway, now I’ve decided to go Mt Signaux then at Bel VIllage turn left to Pailles. Not going to be on the motorway directly from Caudan. One good thing though, more drivers seem to have adopted the ‘defensive driving’ method. More polite compared to Chinese drivers. Something one of my Chinese colleagues mentioned to me yesterday.

Also read about the government’s schemings. Nothing has changed. The latest outburst about tourists having to pay for Ilot Gabriel moved the focus away from the debate about Pamplemousses Garden no longer being free as from next month. The protestations about the island not being free + being poorly managed (some endemic trees have apparently been destroyed) have led to the government stating that they don’t have the fund/resources to protect and maintain these sites, and that the demande de bail’ was done in due form. Well, I don’t know much about these things, but I am quite surprised to see that more than half a year had gone between the company’s request to undertake the ‘bail’ and the submission of their plan for Ilot Gabriel. Aren’t companies supposed to have a thought out plan before submitting such requests?

Anyway, since the weekend, it has been our dear PM accusing and being accused of being racist. What’s new about that? Our dear politicians have been using the race card for years, if not decades. It’s just like the waltz that happen everytime before/after elections. Parties merging, making alliances and then deciding to break up to court their previous ‘opponents’. And one wonders why so many people have little faith in the governement (whoever might be ruling the country).

I have also learnt to get used again to the water shortages meaning no water supply for several hours a day (and practically all night). Almost no water/electricity shortage in China in the big cities of Beijing and Shanghai …..

Still seething with one of banks charging my bank interest income at source. Will be withdrawing a big lump and take it with me to China on my next trip. Now I have to figure out the Tax return and fill it before the end of the month to claim a refund. Plus I never got my tax refund from some 3-4 years ago. :WTF: :(

I just heard from a Mauritian who’s currently in HK that it’s no longer possible for Mauritians to get an F-visa through visa agents there. That’s really bad news. Like many people here in China, we are here on an F visa (business visa). This does not allow us to work officially, but many people prefer this as it’s 6mths (instead of a max of 3mths for L-tourist visa). Furthermore, some people do work with the F visa which is more grey in that area than an L visa.

Anyway, even though I’ve never worked in China (whatever visa I had), I was planning on continuing this business of making a short trip to HK to extend my visa every 6mths and have peace of mind for that period. If it’s L visa, we’re not going to have more than 1mth visa. I won’t be able to stay in China if that’s the case.

I do hope that my job offer gets formally approved and completed soon. I’ll be in deep trouble if my visa expires beforehand. I will probably end up with the unattractive option of a fast marriage to a local to be able to stay here otherwise.

Culture Difference
What the heck! This topic again! This is not plague! This is not a curse spelt by the invisible evil witch! This is not the joke played by the demon! It’s all in your head! Your respectless head!

I wasn’t going to start my article this way, you know? I was going to start with stating the current situation and people’s views on it. I was going to give a few examples in my or other’s multinational companies and was going to some how come out with a perfect sollution. But I don’t know…when I opened my blog editting page, I just can’t help losing cool.

One of the things my boss bries so loud about is called “Culture Difference” and obviously he blames it all on the Chinese. He and his American coworkers have dealt with Chinese people for some time and are mostly uncomfortable with it. My boss is crazy about it. He wants to hair consultant and shrink for himself claiming trying to seek out a way to deal with Chinese emplyees. He seriuosly have a problem working with us.

I admit there are a lot of demerits in Chinese people about the way they work. I myself, as a Chinese, didn’t like some of our Chinese vendors’ way of work. All little things, here and there, indicate China is not quite up to the American standard. For example, the way we communicate is not clear and the figure is not accurate. Whenever you ask a vendor to give you a certain answer, they don’t give it to you directly. As a Chinese and I know why—they don’t know it either. They provide service but not professionla service. They only provide a little bit service. That’s far from American expectation and of course people from the developed country laugh at Chinese. But they don’t know the reason why Chinese are like that. They don’t care to figure out. One thing is for sure, and it’s the rule for all service providers: we make sure we give what we are paid for. These Americans rush into China with a goal of cost saving by hiring cheap labours. Haven’t they heard the saying: One gets what he pays for? 1/10 of American salary end in 5/10 or even more American standard service is already good bargain for the US employers. And they complain about bad service in China. One can say that when he is not CHEAP.

And another thing is respect. You make fun of Chinese culture just because most of the cases you employ them, not being employed by them, you can make fun of them whenever you want. Have you ever met a kind boss? No! Have you ever met an American boss before? Hell No! Peae. If in most of the cases, Chinese people are the employers, I met the americans all speak manderin with a Beijingnese accent. And probably some of them will be proud to speak some Shanghai dialect.

My boss is very frustrated about Chinese employees and want to solve it. It seems like he’s make moves, doing some thing, trying to improve the situation by hiring consultants. He’s doing it in a very professional way, but not the right way, excuse me. It all comes from the heart. If you want to learn about Chinese: how they think, how they feel, you will quite down first. You should be a good listener first and be modest rather than being the loud “American”. Chinese people value relationship, especially friendship. It’s the worst quality to betray a friend. Once you have the trust, you have it always. If you let them into your heart, you are in theirs in the same time. But Americans don’t care. They pretend to care about Chinese by talking to some consultant. If you want to know Chinese, talk to your Chinese employees. Whe an employee quit, give her a resignation interview–it’ll be more honest and straight forward than an entrance interview. Spend more time with the employees, you will learn Chinese culture has a lot of merits. You will understand it. And Chinese people live longer and it has something to do with the mentality.

A couple whose marriage is going down might want to talk to a consultant, but if they don’t care or love each other any more. What’s the point of “doing it in a professional way?” the consultant helps nothing in a relationship. They might give you suggestion about how to communicate or what to do, but we can sense whether it’s heart-felt or just techically “dealing with us”. If a couple has gone this far as to see the consultant or the shrink. They trust is gone. If a third party is involved. It means you can’t handle it yourself. What to do then? As in a lot of cases, Mary and John divorced at last.

But Mary and John will find their true other half later. They don’t have to stick together. They tried. It didn’t work out. We live only once, Chinese people want to work for Americans who respect their culture and care about what they think and I believe Americans want to hire Chinese employees who want to learn and work hard to live up to their standards.

Well, she does bring some nice points about how, as foreign investors, we expect too much from the locals.

As I mentioned before, I went to a recording studio where a friend of mine was having a session for her job. She had to have some people (mix of foreigners and locals) discuss a theme, then some English speakers to read some English articles.

I tried to be relax, but you could sense the stress in my voice at the beginning, when I was reading the articles…. That was my first time. And no need to say I pronounced several words wrongly, meaning we had to redo these sentences again and again.

At the end of the day, it was an interesting experience and didn’t go too badly. Whether I will be called in again, I don’t know. But I will remember this trial.

I am registered with the Beijing office. I have been there twice, the last time being yesterday (Saturday). There are 3 people working there, on Saturdays only one of them work half-day. The difference between the Beijing office and the Shanghai office, is that the SH office is larger and has many people working there.

Also, when I was in SH, a fair amount of the seminars were apparently held in English; in BJ it seems like most of them are in Chinese, which I am not really willing to attend. (I asked one of the people in the BJ office, and apparently very few of the registered BJ members are foreigners).

The ACCA Beijing office sends me a couple of internet mail/publication. One is a monthly ACCA Beijing Newsletter in English where you get a recap of events the office organised during the month. It is in short and simple English, and contains some pictures. So it is easy for everyone to read and understand.

However, it also sends me a Finance & Accounting Newsletter. 财会信息快递. It is completely in Chinese and has no picture. I had not even read the first paragraph that I felt despair and if it was a real paper magazine, I would probably have thrown it in the direction of the bin. So hard to read. And I am not talking about the BJ office’s website that is completely in Chinese. :~(

It made me realise that despite my weak stabs at it, I am not confident enough to try and decipher Chinese documents. I am not talking about the Chinese textbooks that you read when learning the language, but the boring stuff that even in English you don’t really want to sit down and read.

I have decided that as from next week, I will try and write my posts both in English and Chinese, so as to try and maintain my level of Chinese. It will probably be full of mistakes and weird phrasing structure, so those who can understand Chinese, please do not laugh at my writings.

After getting back home, I asked another friend in Beijing via MSN to check why I couldn’t recharge, and she later replied that the service provider was doing some maintainance and that the recharge service was out that day from 5.30pm till next day 8am.

Saturday, I went to have lunch with some relatives in Beijing. My mum had asked me before to go and see a distant cousin of mine as he has some contacts there and could probably help me in finding a job. Well, we met for lunch, together with 2 other cousins, and got to know each other. The thing is, he knows people and can probably help for making business, but finding me a job is completely different. He recommended me stuffs that I already knew - that is need to be able to speak good Chinese, need to get to know people who are of the same field of me, attend conferences, etc… relating to that field, and make contacts (guanxi). Oh well, more or less back to square one. I’d better keep checking out with my own circle of acquaintances.

Saturday night, after watching Liverpool eeking a disappointing draw with Blackburn, I went back to my favourite ‘ma la tang’ joint. It was around 12.15am but I was surprised to see some 15 people out there chatting and drinking (plus about the same amount at the other joint opposite the street). But then, it’s true that Saturday night there would be people out late at night. Lamb skewers sure taste good that late, and the beer to wash it down was nice too.

I plan to move to Beijing at the end of this week, where I will be spending the next few months taking mandarin courses and looking for a job there. Now, many people have been (more than) a little surprised. If for learning mandarin, why not stay in Shanghai and do it there? I mean, there are Chinese language schools in Shanghai also.

Well, true enough. But I feel I really need a place where most people speak mandarin all the time. In Shanghai, you can hear Shanghainese everywhere. I am not saying that they can’t or won’t speak mandarin. But you don’t feel the same. Plus I often watch a couple of channels that have Shanghainese dialects… Certainly won’t help my mandarin like that. That’s why I also rejected moving to Guangzhou in the end. As I understand, the influence of the local dialect (Cantonese) is even more noticeable. Furthermore, I love the Beijing accent, more precisely the ‘er hua yin’. I have missed it so much.

As for work, I have a reason which I prefer not to disclose for the moment. This week I need to pack my stuffs, get a train ticket to BJ, figure out the luggage consignment system…. I hope I don’t lose anything when I arrive in BJ.

Picture taken from The Beijing Page