South China Morning Post says that tommorow is the last day of Guangzhou International Fair
I have a sudden urge to change my plan and go and look what is it like to be in China the country of Mao and to see how far they are on their Long March.
Grabbed my passport and go downstairs and meet James , Concierge
-Homme a tout faire- in my hotel.I say James this is my passport make sure tomorrow I go to Guangzhou and see how the Fair look like.
He says: Sir, express visa needs at least 24 hours, assuming I solve this problem all trains and flights are over booked already.
I answer I did not ask you to tell me the reason I ask you to fulfill a mission.
Your mission is to get a visa and to send me to Guangzhou.
If you can do that I will give you a good tip.
I leave my passport and go to my room.
30 minutes later the phone rings.
James asked me to go to lobby.
He says Sir I booked you on the morning flight to Canton(as it was called at that time) with a group as individual flights are not allowed to China.
At the evening you will meet a Guide in a lobby of a hotel and you will pay the money to the
guide and follow the group to train station to come back to Hong Kong.'
That night was a sleepless night for me.
The morning we took off from Hong Kong, I had a feeling it was not a pilot who was flying this plane, It was a US GI flying this Ilyushin as if it was a Jeep.
Landing the Baiyun Airport that looked like a Military Airbase.
The eyes of passport checking officer is saying we do not like foreigners capitalist but we need your dollars so I let you pass.That was the cold feeling in my back made me thinking maybe wrongfully.
A smooth trip to the Fair Ground by Taxi, and I was there and see the first sight of ingeniousity of the Chinese people.
Many colorful handcrafted gift and decoration items made from things who are valueless things that are thrown away here becoming beautiful objects.
I just think Oh! these people can do something out of nothing.
And I meet some Iranian merchants who said we wait the last day to buy hand made silk carpet
because in that day we can write the price we like in the sales contract.
I just think in that way every customer will become a sales agent for CHINA INC., that will come later into being.If that will happens one day I decided to be there and to see that with my own eyes by staying here.
I will receive the last lesson of the trip after passing the deserted station in the group and boarded the steam train to Hong Kong.
A lady in Wagon Restaurant sold us the ticket and asked us to go to the buffet were there was 4 different dishes.
Not knowing what to eat I decided to sample those dishes after tasting them at my table there was other 4 dishes.
You could see a Telephone Booth sized kitchen and flames ,smoke and steam making the cook a ghost like creature.
He after 30 minutes cooked 16 different dishes.
I was received a last slap like lesson and thinking that the Chinese people are very talented people despite a very modest look, they have a very rich knowledge and superior ethic of work
that just consider the work as a mirror of their personality.
I was full of admiration for China that stayed with me till today 29 years later today.
and promised my self to learn to the best of my ability their history their culture and to enrich my self with a missing link of being an enlightened human being in me.
I had to wait till March 1998 22 more years for that chance to come to my way.
That will be in another posting
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Marble Vase Taipei 1976
I am in my hotel I go out from lobby carrying the box containing the marble vase I bought that day for sending it by post.A bell boy run after me. He says ,Sir in Post office they can not speak English and the forms are in Chinese, let me go and post it for you ,you can wait for me here.
He runs away with my box . After 2 minutes he comes back with a receipt.In Chinese. I just think there is no post office in the world that can process my box so quickly and came to conclusion that my box was stolen.Until I went back home I was almost sure my box was lost.When I was finally at home my box was waiting for me.I learned also another lesson that they can do things much faster than us.
Aftter the shirt and marble vase story ,I start to believe ,these people are magicians they can change the time factor at will.And maybe impossible is not a Chinese word.
He runs away with my box . After 2 minutes he comes back with a receipt.In Chinese. I just think there is no post office in the world that can process my box so quickly and came to conclusion that my box was stolen.Until I went back home I was almost sure my box was lost.When I was finally at home my box was waiting for me.I learned also another lesson that they can do things much faster than us.
Aftter the shirt and marble vase story ,I start to believe ,these people are magicians they can change the time factor at will.And maybe impossible is not a Chinese word.
The Magicians of Taipei
In the hotel I am staying I walk at the lobby around 1 am and Tailor shop is open.
I tell to the guy , its pity I am leaving 5 hours later.
He says who told you that we can not deliver your order in 5 hours.
My suspicious mind made me decide to go to my room and come back with a shirt I bought
in New York with very different finishing.
I give him the shirt and tell him that I have conditions.I say no down payment and if your quality
does not meet my expectation, I have the liberty to refuse your delivery.
Instead of being angry, he says. Are you working in textile business?and add, it seems you know a lot about textile business.I receive my first lesson in face saving. In fact I insulted him by openly
showing my lack of respect directly.He decided not to defend his right of not being insulted.But being wise.I received my first lesson in marketing if customer insult you in the price he pays he also buys the right of doing so.
At 6 am in morning, the guy deliver my 5 shirts and I am ashamed of my suspicious attitude.
The quality of fabric and workmanship is just perfect.
So that was the secret of their success to do a very good job and ask just a small price for it.
And everybody will like you and be your customer.
I am in my hotel I go out from lobby carrying the box containing the marble vase I bought that day for sending it by post.A bell boy run after me. He says ,Sir in Post office they can not speak English and the forms are in Chinese, let me go and post it for you ,you can wait for me here.
He runs away with my box . After 2 minutes he comes back with a receipt.In Chinese. I just think there is no post office in the world that can process my box so quickly and came to conclusion that my box was stolen.Until I went back home I was almost sure my box was lost.When I was finally at home my box was waiting for me.I learned also another lesson that they can do things much faster than us.
Aftter the shirt and marble vase story ,I start to believe ,these people are magicians they can change the time factor at will.And maybe impossible is not a Chinese word.
I tell to the guy , its pity I am leaving 5 hours later.
He says who told you that we can not deliver your order in 5 hours.
My suspicious mind made me decide to go to my room and come back with a shirt I bought
in New York with very different finishing.
I give him the shirt and tell him that I have conditions.I say no down payment and if your quality
does not meet my expectation, I have the liberty to refuse your delivery.
Instead of being angry, he says. Are you working in textile business?and add, it seems you know a lot about textile business.I receive my first lesson in face saving. In fact I insulted him by openly
showing my lack of respect directly.He decided not to defend his right of not being insulted.But being wise.I received my first lesson in marketing if customer insult you in the price he pays he also buys the right of doing so.
At 6 am in morning, the guy deliver my 5 shirts and I am ashamed of my suspicious attitude.
The quality of fabric and workmanship is just perfect.
So that was the secret of their success to do a very good job and ask just a small price for it.
And everybody will like you and be your customer.
I am in my hotel I go out from lobby carrying the box containing the marble vase I bought that day for sending it by post.A bell boy run after me. He says ,Sir in Post office they can not speak English and the forms are in Chinese, let me go and post it for you ,you can wait for me here.
He runs away with my box . After 2 minutes he comes back with a receipt.In Chinese. I just think there is no post office in the world that can process my box so quickly and came to conclusion that my box was stolen.Until I went back home I was almost sure my box was lost.When I was finally at home my box was waiting for me.I learned also another lesson that they can do things much faster than us.
Aftter the shirt and marble vase story ,I start to believe ,these people are magicians they can change the time factor at will.And maybe impossible is not a Chinese word.
First Trip to China from Brussels 1976
I am waiting at the airport for Sabena flight to Tokyo via Anchorage in Alaska.
At that time no Airline can fly over Soviet Union .
The airline cancels the flight due to mechanical failure.
And decide to take all the passengers to Metropole Hotel in Brussels which is an old Palace next
to Mannequin Piss, Grand Place.
I ask the airline if I can .stay at home. They refuse my demand .
Next day we fly to Anchorage the weather condition force the pilot to land to Fairbanks a small
airport covered with snow, the plane refueled .We land to Tokyo Airport 48 hours after I arrived first to Brussels airport.
I went to New Otani Hotel
which is famous with its garden and it is Cherry Blossom season time and I am delighted to see this.
The next day a Platinum Pen Factory
send a Black Limousine with a Black Capped driver to pick me up.
I am very impressed to be treated like a Minister at the age of 26 years.
When arrived to Factory from president to youngest manager a row of bowing heads were
welcoming me at the gate.
I was received in a meeting room where everybody fixed eyes on me and listening my presentation.
I have the filling that most of them do not understand English at all but at least they showed
me how a foreign visitors received welcoming faces by being just serious as if they listen a scholar teaching them some of the most serious subjects.
At the end I just asked them the question I wanted to ask them since I arrived in their
country.
I asked can you give me the secret of your success.
They just made some noisy breathing sounds as usually Japanese will do in similar circumstances when facing an embarrassing question.
And they say in very small speed letting the words come out one by one:
Before we want to do something, we check every step many,many,many times.
After checking so many times the possibility of mistake is almost zero.
China Welcome
What is China for a westerner after a long journey.How to describe for any body who has just arrived here.How to explain this with very simple language.
Let us first start the Chinese Writing , they are like drawings
And Chinese eyes reading the Chinese writing, works like a camera making still photos one after another.
So we must also see how Chinese think when they often use step by step words.They read step by step ,write step by step so a Clever Chinese person can be genius without being fast thinker, fast talker.
When you read this than you must let your western value systems at home for any other things you do here.
Anything you plan, think long term and use step by step approach
Patience is very important here, when somebody talk loudly in a public place before you are angry , look to local people how they react just do the same
in no way you are able to change so many things here.This things are also changing step by step
in no way you are able to change so many things here.This things are also changing step by step
-Giving Face is very important and making lose face of somebody is the worst mistake a foreigner can make.To make a mistake is forgiven but the mistake of making lose a person's face is unforgivable.
To steal is a crime.But to tell to a thief I see you stealing is a worst crime than stealing.
That is very difficult to explain to a westerner even you let him stay in China for many years.
Let us face the fact if you are somewhere between Japan and Turkey , point your finger on the map
anywhere if you want to get alone with Greater Asian Culture you must take gloves in hand wear
them and than you deal with the people.
What is all about this?
It has its root to respect the human dignity.
A person who commit a fault or a crime already had his dirty laundry exposed to all to see.
You definitely no need to humiliate him further.
To steal is a crime.But to tell to a thief I see you stealing is a worst crime than stealing.
That is very difficult to explain to a westerner even you let him stay in China for many years.
Let us face the fact if you are somewhere between Japan and Turkey , point your finger on the map
anywhere if you want to get alone with Greater Asian Culture you must take gloves in hand wear
them and than you deal with the people.
What is all about this?
It has its root to respect the human dignity.
A person who commit a fault or a crime already had his dirty laundry exposed to all to see.
You definitely no need to humiliate him further.
-Anytime you are angry , disappointed with your Chinese partner ,with your workers, with your factory, you have to blame your self.
In case the other party and not you at fault , blame your self for not preventing that happening.
Blame your self for not being using Chinese eyes , either you have them or or not using others who have eyes to detect identify and select the right partner.
How you can use a Latin letters eyes to read Chinese letters?
This is not only valid for text reading its valid for anything from wife choosing to manager selection in China
China is about living with others in peace and harmony, the words that you will hear often here.
This is possible by sharing meager space, and tolerate many other unpleasant things that
a westerner may see here when he passes the things from westerner eyesight.
In case the other party and not you at fault , blame your self for not preventing that happening.
Blame your self for not being using Chinese eyes , either you have them or or not using others who have eyes to detect identify and select the right partner.
How you can use a Latin letters eyes to read Chinese letters?
This is not only valid for text reading its valid for anything from wife choosing to manager selection in China
China is about living with others in peace and harmony, the words that you will hear often here.
This is possible by sharing meager space, and tolerate many other unpleasant things that
a westerner may see here when he passes the things from westerner eyesight.
-Everything is easy,must take step by step approach painstakingly slow for us.
But that is also one of the many secrets of China becoming world power.
My last of observation to conclude this chapter will be how Chinese do things compared to us.
We just do things by doing them.
Chinese do the same things by not doing them .
Well that sounds not clear to you.
I understand if you think so.
Let me give some examples.
When Chinese couple divorce, they divorce without divorcing.
They will keep the outlook, visit parents for important festivals.
They change the country without changing it.
If you argue that this country is not changing you are right.
If you say this country is changing you are also right.
Well a western person will ask how two totally opposed statements can be
true at the same time?
Well there lies the peculiarity of Chinese mind.
This mind do not believe in right or wrong.
This mind believe everything is half right half wrong
Sometimes right sometimes wrong.
And this mind says.
Gee let me wait and see.
When this is done, this mind can discover the third dimension of everything
and profit for not being sure at the beginning.
Let us go one more step regarding to take a decision between two possibilities.
When somebody do something bad in China to another person , the reaction is
I must give retribution in western mind, as such crime deserve punishment.
Chinese will think if I react what do I win what do I lose, If I keep silent what do I win
what do I lose.
When one think this way regardless of his or her ethnicity and cultural background
the conclusion is most of the time the same.
I just keep silent see what benefit I may obtain from this silence.
And most of the time we all benefit from this reserved silent attitude.
That is what I discovered in my first visit to China in 1976 and still see the same thing now.
I invented a name for this which I am not sure to be correct but lets call a cat A Cat.
I will call it the third dimension of human intelligence which exist in all East Asian
Cultures.
After this ending point , my next posting will go to way back to the day I start my trip to Orient
But that is also one of the many secrets of China becoming world power.
My last of observation to conclude this chapter will be how Chinese do things compared to us.
We just do things by doing them.
Chinese do the same things by not doing them .
Well that sounds not clear to you.
I understand if you think so.
Let me give some examples.
When Chinese couple divorce, they divorce without divorcing.
They will keep the outlook, visit parents for important festivals.
They change the country without changing it.
If you argue that this country is not changing you are right.
If you say this country is changing you are also right.
Well a western person will ask how two totally opposed statements can be
true at the same time?
Well there lies the peculiarity of Chinese mind.
This mind do not believe in right or wrong.
This mind believe everything is half right half wrong
Sometimes right sometimes wrong.
And this mind says.
Gee let me wait and see.
When this is done, this mind can discover the third dimension of everything
and profit for not being sure at the beginning.
Let us go one more step regarding to take a decision between two possibilities.
When somebody do something bad in China to another person , the reaction is
I must give retribution in western mind, as such crime deserve punishment.
Chinese will think if I react what do I win what do I lose, If I keep silent what do I win
what do I lose.
When one think this way regardless of his or her ethnicity and cultural background
the conclusion is most of the time the same.
I just keep silent see what benefit I may obtain from this silence.
And most of the time we all benefit from this reserved silent attitude.
That is what I discovered in my first visit to China in 1976 and still see the same thing now.
I invented a name for this which I am not sure to be correct but lets call a cat A Cat.
I will call it the third dimension of human intelligence which exist in all East Asian
Cultures.
After this ending point , my next posting will go to way back to the day I start my trip to Orient
从终点出发
对于一个长途跋涉来中国的西方人来讲,中国意味着什么?初来乍到,又该如
好了,让我们来开始关于中国的文章。
中国人的眼睛,能够阅读中国的文字,象照相机一样,一个接一个的读下去,所以,当中国人常用一个接一个的汉字的时候,我们必须明白他们的思维方式,他们一个字一个字的读,一个字一个字的写。一个聪明的中国人要不是一个思维敏捷,言语流利的人,那他就是一个天才。
当你读到这里,你必须明白,在这里,你不应该用西方的价值观来看问题:当有了计划,必须长时间的去思考,循序渐进的去完成。
在这里,忍耐很重要。当有人在公共场合大声吵闹的,你正要大怒,那么你应该看看周围当地人的反映,你决不能改变这里如此多的事情,事情,总是一步一步的改变。给人面子是很重要的事情,而让人丢面子是一个外国人(在中国)所做出的最糟糕的事情。做错事情尚可被原谅,但是让人丢了面子就罪不可恕!偷窃是犯罪,但是告发偷窃是比偷窃更加严重的犯罪。这种事情对于一个长年呆在中国的西方人都难以解释。还是让我们面对事实吧,如果你在日本和土尔其之间的某地,在这里,如果你想真正的融入伟大的亚洲文化,请万分谨慎的和亚洲的人们打交道。
这一切都是为了什么?这都源于对人们尊严的尊重。犯错的人的错误已经众人皆知,所以,你不用再去羞辱他。当你生气,对你的中国同事,你的工人,工厂感到失望的时候,你必须先自责。一旦另外一个人犯了错误,那么你应该自责,因为你没有去阻止他。你也应该自责,因为你没有用中国人的的眼光去看问题,没有从中国化的角度去发现并选择你正确的伙伴。
你能够用读拉丁文的方法去读中文吗,不能。这不仅仅是阅读不能,选老婆,选经理,同样不能。
中国现在是和谐社会,这个词到处可见。也许这意味着分享几兆的空间,或者,在一个西方人眼里,是人们可以忍受他曾经历过的种种不快
任
在这一篇文章里,我最后要讲的是,中国人做事的方法和我们的对比。
我们做事情是在”做”,中国人做事情不是在”做”,这可能听上去不是很清楚。
我来举个例子,一对中国夫妇离婚的时候,他们象没有离婚一样,他们仍然保持着过节看望对方父母的习惯。他们改变这个国家象没有改变一样，你可以说这个国家没有改变,也可以说这个国家改变了,你都是对的。西方人会问,两个截然不同的观点怎么混为一谈呢?然而,这就是中国人的思维特性,这种思维是,不谈绝对的对错。对任
这种思维告诉我们说,等等看吧。
当这种观点确立以后,人们对一件事情有了第3种看法,那就是从一开始就不确定。让我们进一补在这两个可能之间下一个决定,当一个人受到侵害的时候,西方的观点就是以牙还牙,中国人的观点就是患得患失。当一个人这样想的时候无论他的种族和文化背景是什么,他都会有这样的结论。大多数时候,这种保持沉默的状态会使人受益。这就是我1976年第一次到中国来发现的东西,现在仍然如此,我为这种做法写一个概括性句子:我不是很确定这只猫叫什么,但是我们还是把它叫做一只猫吧。
我也会称它是东亚文化中的第三层智慧。
最后,在我游历东方诸国之后,我会写下下一个帖子。
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