Shanghai trip is a 4 days story, this time, a combined mission for obtaining the mobile market and to set-up the connection for China Mobile value chain development, I took a very early flight in order to catch up the 4 o'clock appointment with French Telecom giant - A' company, I was a little bit exciting that I may take this opportunity to know they through the introduction of K.W. I was happy a little bit too early , when met with 3 executives from A, I found they are more interested in me then K.W., by then I was realized that I am the chess in the game, K.W. leverage me and the S-company umbrella before finalize the meeting , so , A semi- official , semi-private trip explore to A-company on the day of landing. We exchange information during the session, it's a preliminary meeting, nothing constructive were built, I bring my tech consultant - Chu Fong with me, who graduated from Qiao-Tung ( Communication University ) and earned Cisco data engineer certificate before graduation - up to now, there are less then 100 people were certified by Cisco. The meeting finished by 6 pm, we were starving, original plan is to done our dinner near by Pu-tong , considering the traffic peak, and I do identify one very good restaurant - Lulu, unfortunately, we got on an amateur taxi who drove down the tunnel which force us to Pu-She area, we end up eating in one Cantonese restaurant - thank god it's Chinese.
This is my second time staying at Garden Hotel , a legendary place with history , the euro art deco style impressed me, I manage to get a garden view room right out of the elevator, it's a neat and clean room, compare with modern hotel such as Grand Hyatt or Westin Shanghai, I enjoy Garden, as it become one of the Japanese chain, so , the detail of service adapted, a very rare qualify service experience in China.
The night is always young in Shanghai, if sleeping is not your concern, then you may dispose you life quiet easy here, lust, plush, glamour, Shanghai - the metro of all metros. In Pu-tong , when walked out of A's office , a local beggar approach us, I didn't donate any spare change as K.W did , at first, I feel uncomfortable when notice the contrast between hardware ( construction ) and software ( people )are so obvious, I feel sad, but when digest what I observed , I suddenly draw to a conclusion that it happens everywhere , to take NY as an example , homeless can easy be seen in Manhattan , so, what's the difference ?
Following morning, I had a breakfast meeting with Chu, and to learn his idea toward the potential collaboration with CMS , he understood all the situation and mature enough to seal his mouth yesterday and didn't disclose any relevant information to K.W. But, we got the picture today and will draft a rough plan early next week, I went to Shanghai book town ( building ) by noon, it's a weekday but inside the book shop, crowded and packed, all walk of life mix in the reading hall, it's a 8 stories building and you open your eyes seeing everyone's reading , no matter this guy dress like a blue-caller man or the lady next to him sense a scholar, they all reading , maybe it's the heat wave drove these people into the air- conditioned room, but, every one's reading. I bought 3 books and 4 local artists' music CD , in the late evening , I finish reading the little book which minguei send me on Wed. titled Obvious Adam , a book wrote in 1916 and re-published by the son of the author in 1995 . A interesting novel with simple but powerful meaning - tell everyone what they know and make us of your observation, be obvious about what you are doing , I read in through in one of the local Cafe' when done my dinner in one of the all you can eat restaurant, it cost me 50 RMB to fat my body and another 20 to rich my soul. I went back to Garden and write down what I want to say to minguey, as it's early , I try to re-arrange my Clie and come up with a master plan template via the palm software - though manager - a project alike software helping me keep my everything and be discipline.
【Blog 9/4-9/6 2】
The nightmare hit me at night, this time they running on my chest, I have to wake up and swept them away, I turn on the light to avoid the dark and fear, the lights are on throughout the night.
We did Japanese breakfast together in the early morning , Chu , Ding-ding and me , Ding ding mentioned that we first met in the same hotel, same restaurant, but to have lunch instead , that's 2 more years ago, now we had a plan, the triangle for the mobile development plan, it took 2 more year to come down with a play to follow. Ding is getting married on Sep.27 , I learned that marriage is a big deal in China - mainly for the sake of parent , Face problem come along with Chinese for thousands of years , we heritage this tradition and can't get rid of it , it transformed from time to time , but the bones behind the skin are all the same - value and culture calculated by monetary measurement, ding is a modern woman, but you can only bite a few silk from the web , no way to escape from the network. So, we had a plan to perform, to follow and to dream, the bonus is to market me as another product , as I wrote down how to be obvious in China, writing is a quick way , I may developed this further by ding's assistance - she even configure a sub-title - Master-Monster, see what happen. I don't follow the original plan to Su-cho but exile myself at Xiantende - the old Shanghai converted New city landmark , now the trendy spot for both local and tourist, I spend 2 hours in Starbucks reading - The meaning of things , some ideas coming from the book inspire me, such as moralise are usually hypocrite so to speak. I prepared myself to a local rock bands show case in ARK - live house in Xiantende area, 5 bands from Shanghai and Nangjing showcase their works for 30 minutes each , I haven’t been to any of the same activity for a long time , but I can still smell the young spirit , the guy with a fat belly is kind of a media people , should be with some degree of reputation , I see a lot of people saying hello to him and send him CD samples , a few manager or record label promo staff was there , the mid-30 lady shall be either a manager or associate with rock scene in Shanghai , the guy with beard is weird , he might come for a joint only , I saw him roll the maharani and share it with the mid-30 lady , when rock music must associate with woman ( sex ) and drug and why they dare to publicly perform it ? I mean, this is China, some people selling DIY CD sample or demo , the crowd is not fan , maybe the bands are relatively new to them , 4 or 5 punk dressing kids doing pogo, but I can't feel that they enjoy the music , I was mistaken as a foreigner when people speak English to me , it's bad , am I look strange or old or both? I love the second band Fatiaotung from Nangjing , energetic and good commend of body language , I left during the 3 band ( actually it's a one man band ) performing. The opening band glass buckle singing 4 English songs out of their 6 songs repertoire , I don't understand what are they targeted , they shooting nobody, yes . Some young turks flying all over the venue expect someone to send more looks. I am physically too old to be there , of course, nobody knows who you are and the history you co-wrote for the modern Chinese pop music industry.
Huai-Hai Road as busy as usual , when manage to stop on taxi back to Garden , the traffic is terrible , when arrived , I asked why so jam in weekend ? The answer is , this is the peak hour , weekend begin at 4 pm , yes, this is new Shanghai , everybody is going out for something, it's a movement, the tide is high , it will push you somewhere ahead and wash away the foot print behind you, it's like how efficiency the tear down old houses - no to concern if the building keep some history , it was buried. New Chinese - I don't like this terms, am I a old school ? No, I am rocking roll still.
【Blog 9/4-9/6 3】
I fail to deliver my personal message to Sound - my son on 28th of Aug. - his first day to elementary school. Sound had unique charter , which sometimes get him in trouble , I remembered once his did something wrong , I recalled it a trivial issue, but he don't want to commit the fought, this result to a serious confrontation between him and her mother , the story turn ugly , he was beaten up and causes bruise in his leg, even he suffered from physical pain. He don't want to apology. I witness the whole thing but didn't interrupt the educational process , although mis-conductive maybe in place , but I don't want to let Sound aware of any double standard, after all , me and my wife discussed how to bring up Sound, we arrange Sound to see a Kid psychology specialist, the doctor firmly advise us that Sound's symptom develop a ADHD syndrome, a new experience come to our world , if the doctor is correct, then this no cure yet problem will take up most of our time to accompany him go through all the difficulty, this is about 1 and help year ago, the diagnosis of ADHD is an educational process to the parent rather then the kid. Since then , my wife seldom punish him physically but try every effort to make Sound pay attention to certain things.
Why I wrote this ? Because my wife may start a war with Sound's teacher - according to her, a hysterias woman who is notorieties by performing irrational reaction to her student, a teacher in the school watch list classified as problem teacher, what if Sound had a big fight with his teacher, this wide but possible guess worried my wife a lot, it seems my little one will encounter a tougher grown up then others, I don't want to stereo type any one, as my wife is a strong woman, conflict seem will arrive anytime.
A correct explanation to traditional Chinese holiday / festival, such as mid-Autumn festival is fall on the 15 of the eighth month in lunar calendar, have you got it?
posted by Roger @ 9/08/2003 07:24:00 上午
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