Mid-Autumn Festival, fall in the 15 of the eighth month for Chinese Calendar, one of the 3 traditional holiday for people to reunion and get together, because the it's full moon, so, Chinese thought this is a day for the whole family to be together; as for moon cake, it comes from another ancient story, it was uses to hind the slip of letter in Ming Dynasty to inform all the rebels when to take their weapon and fight with the early Ching Dynasty -- Ming, rule by Han , but Ching was ruled by Man -- the difference race coming from east north of China.
the day before Moon festival, I was out in the afternoon after the lunch with Amos, this is the scheduled day to oust the manager, I am thinking not to be in the scene and having COO take care of it. the day before, I met the management company for the Software Park and arranged the " the worst case scenario ", obtaining the security director’s access number and inform the GM of the management company the routine once the red alart announce or the siren rings. COO called me by 7 pm and said to me the mission completed, she was clamed and accept this arrangement, everything was handled with care.
lunch with Amos, I learnt that Chen's -- another elementary school classmate internet company will be terminated soon, Amos been putting himself in the company helping it truing around for 6 months, but the effort was not pay off; coincidentally, the potential investor who happen to be my EMBA classmate, it's a small world, Ams is a very detailed person, thanks to his finance / auditing background, he always explain things in details when it come to conversation, this is fine with me, but not everyone in this world have enough time to learn all the details, he shall develop skill for focusing on most important thing and to response to one subject in 3 minutes; reconcile on matter is fine, sometime he will add up his options , this is fine as well as long as it didn't relate to value, you can hardly judge a person by his or her reaction to certain things, the instinct reaction is basically a camouflage or a oversize overcoat to protect he or she not to be hurt in the first place; in some cases, subconscious don't really matter, Amos is too serious in observe Mr. Chen and jump to the assumption that a lot of bad thing developed.
I spend the evening somewhere downtown, the moon shall be high up in the sky;
Thursday morning, the Mid-Autumn day, I call for morning Ping Pong session, we -- 4 persons spend another sweaty morning, I am doing pretty good , wind half of the session, I was a little bit lost when hitting Sam's wire serve, and I lost a few games, then I know the games is a combination of " strategy, reaction and skill ", I shall be smart enough before hit the ball hardly, to overcome my fear for Sam's serve, I decide to counter it with fast ball, this is a " one hit wonder ", if I make it, I win the point and vice versa, when taking this new tactic, my confidence regain and controlling almost all the games until the break time .
Lunch in Mulan with M. my old friend and colleague from Hawaii, M and I jointly set up the entertainment company in Taiwan back to 11 years ago, at that time, the parent company decide to terminate the licensee agreement and establish its own subsidiary, M come from New York with Wharton double master degree and speak very good English , as an American, he is the few person I met who really into the Taiwanese culture and build up strong relationship with people in Taiwan ( he even married with a Taiwanese lady ), I remember 11 years ago, we strolled on the street and found the new building in one isle and set up our new office there, we recruited every staff since them and sequence with code / number, he is No. 1, I am No. 2. up until today, No. 3 and No.4 are no longer in the world; the good days are we -- the late comer in the market gradually turn ourselves to the No. 2 notch in the very completive entertainment industry; as the performance was so bright, he's been chasing by lot of recruiting firms and after service 4 years with me, he move to his next level and become executive in the Asian Pacific Region serving for another mayor player; we -- indirectly become competitors, yes, there's time when the competition take place , it related to the talent war, pricing competition and raid for qualified executives; our relationship sours, even sometime I transform the feeling to the movie God father and told myself " this is only business ", but it won't easy, when the war for talent settle down, no one win the battle but the artist -- gain better treatment, package and become tougher to handle; we met after the mess, I accept his apology -- even now my wife warm me, never forget such a lesson , and we seeing each other occasionally; his depart from entertainment industry is not a big surprise to me, but his next venture is not clear for outsiders, the lunch we did it an affirmation of friendship, he in on his way to Beijing attend another Wharton classmate's wedding -- who I acquainted as well; we didn’t touch anything about business, topics surrounded by children, family, mutual friend and the current status.
we brought Fruit to Bruno -- a family style Italian restaurant to smooth her feeling toward her little brother, the boy and girls gesture in the family always happen, who gain more attention from parent , who's jealous about what, the show going on almost every day, so, we compensate Fruit with a parent and her along dinner , she is overweight, but watch her eating, you really detected that she enjoy the food so much and feel so happy when eating, how to balance it? her weight surpass her mother already, at grade 5, this is a little bit to much for her. but, what can I do?
I took Friday off to give myself a long holiday. me and my wife drove to Bali visitor an old friend, we did it a few times a year, we talk to him, and he will never talk back, he's been gone for almost 8 years, when chat with the administrator in the shrine, I surprised to know that after he is gone, none of his friend visiting him except us, I first word come out from my mouth is " He must be very lonely ", we stay short as usual, as it's quite early in the morning, I suggested to my wife why not visiting the archeology museum -- Shesanghung which I pass by a couple times before ? when we pay a visit to prehistory museum in Ping toug, we are interested in where did Taiwanese come from ? when the decision made, we drove from Bali to the museum, I am impressed by the architecture, so impressive, post modern and great combination of material and components, the very special spectacle is you can follow the stair way outside the building to the top of the museum and to overview the seashore of Taisum river and enjoy an outdoor capriccio with the knock-out scenery, the stairs was built on the dune shape roof, in the center of the building is a rectangle main construction which lean to the ocean 17%, this is a symbol of worship the sea and the never turn back lost of pre-historic heritage in Taiwan. we spend 2 hours there, the museum educated us the most important civilities in the history of Taiwan -- the Shesanghung discovering prove that people in Taiwan ( don't exactly know what race they are ) knows how to make iron and use the iron made tools, it depart the stone henge and become more civilized if we may put it. it was a quiet visit in the beginning before the tour buses send in hundred of students, the museum no longer be elegance, high school student is too young to appreciate arts or museum, they are here to fix the assignment or simply treat it as one of the outing, they don't really learned, grow ups like us and a much stronger motive to know what we don't know, appreciated what we can't produced. ages and experiences tell the difference.
the Black Shop offers great Taiwanese Deep Fried Rib as usual, this is an old restaurant located somewhere in Taisui, a restaurant which I enjoy the rib back to college days -- 25 years before, the shop become even popular today, even in weekend like today -- Friday, the crowed packed the restaurant, it seems everyone come to Samsui must come and taste it,
in the afternoon, we hide ourselves in a second-run movie theater, the high hope for Matrix 2 is a disappoint one, we spend like 6 hours in the dark room, this was not healthy, should not do it too often. my wife forget the crab we bought in Samsui and having dinner in the night market.
Sound had a assignment quarrel with his mother, I am the problem solving person, thanks god, I did it. This is a long weekend.
I order a 12 ounce rib eye last night at Ruth Christ, if I am right, I haven’t eat steak for a few years and didn't return to Ruth Christ for quiet a long time; this is the " get together meal " with COO and In-san, we have such a casual meal every 2 months, I will introduce the restaurant, and we enjoy the good food and play the role as gourmet in Taipei; I don't exactly know how to build up relationship with Japanese, so, I follow my instinct and do it naturally, I treat them equal and fair, be honesty and be openness, as the get together session went for couple of times, now we are really relax and enjoy the conversation during the meal; last night, we share something about " our wife ", we found the character among them are totally different, COO said his beloved is a tough woman, straight forward and express whenever she feel it; In-san's wife always curious about his whereabouts, sensitive in his activity, asking for details, compare these situation, I am really a lucky one, no matter how late I go home for any reason, warm welcome is what I received; my wife is a smart and understanding lady who not only win my body but also my heart. then we exchange the information about how we know our wife and how the relationship is developed, In-san asked us to bring our wife for next gathering, I have to discuss with my wife first, as English wasn't something she commend well and something will make her feel lonely and isolated, I try not to put her on an inferior or embarrass situation, this is not over-protection, simple base on the mutual understanding, they are so kind to suggest our next meal if all the wives comes. shall be conduct entirely in Mandarin, well, I will let her know and see if this arrangement find her OK with no bad feeling.
another classmate called to confirm the attending of reunion, a doctor, who if I remember grow up in a humble family, but finally make his way to success and become a doctor, we chat for about 10 minutes, I think the ball is rolling, I will to inject a few sentimental flavor to urge classmate attending this reunion on their agenda.
Ruth Chris, maintain it's quality in food and service as usual, the only few restaurant developed the same tip system in Taipei, we follow the American way, and do receive the service we expected. it's been there for decade, there is a reason to survive and success. Trader Vic is our side project, I bring them up to 9th floor and check the restaurant, the original place invented / introduced Pinacorala, well, when did I taste it last time ? Shall be 8 years ago, shall come up sometimes.
Young entrepreneur -- I met him 2 years ago as we are EMBA classmate, after then, I heard some news about him, this few months, we developed a new relationship, via his introduction, I get to know the dominate player in our industry and via him, I know a few of his business links with few of my associates; he is young, 36 years old, controlling 6 company doing Real network, streaming server and content platform business, his forehead had a deep skin line between his eyes-- according to Chinese face reading fortune telling, he shall be a man of ego; but he is mature, sophisticated and efficient, knowing how to handle conversation with governmental body, with elder people and to grant his help leveraging his relationship in Taiwan, I overheard that his family have strong tie with the Prime Minister Yu, maybe this is the reason why he was choose to sit on the board of CHT and vitalize his business in varies industry; Karaoke box is an old trick, it impressed me a little, no matter how savvy the machine is, the key will always be " How many songs you have, how fast you manger to get the newest one and where you locate your machine " I saw a lot of people invest in this business , but all failed, this is not an ideal machine to control the sing along industry -- the derivate from the recording industry and gain its popularity among Chinese / Japanese speaking territories; I always think there's a line between the audience in West and East , people in the east -- say Chinese, love to sing with the song and sing / show off in front of others, western tend to be appreciated with the song -- thy listen, enjoy , participating in concert , but not sing the difficult lines; this is why " Ballad " become so popular in Chinese speaking community, they are simple, easy to learn and sing in the Karaoke bar, this sub-community generate a decent revenue and industry for last 10 years; in the west, it didn't happen yet, culture is one thing, the songs itself is another limitation, unlike Beatles, they are too popular to be lonely, the minus-one is easy to find, for new and coming talent, they have their own identity in the market, how fans can really imitate all the tones and sounds they interpreter in one song ? so, this is a line there, young entrepreneur knows little about it, the machine can be global device, but the content -- will decided the deaf or alive for the initiative.
GM for GTG sending the Middle Autumn Festival gift pack, in additional to the fruit basket, there are 60 health club tickets, this is a great gift as we -- the Ping Pong team is suffering in finding the right place to exercise and don't want to spend too much money on the game, 60 tickets will make us play the game for 12 times. a lot of saving and a great president; Mr. Wang - GM send his regard to me so kindly and inform me that he didn't expect a simple requirement -- helping her daughter find the proper career in the job market to me is a mission to fulfill; I am a man of word -- a good attribute also a bad habit; simple reflect to her what she want and advise her doing the right thing independently, this is all I can do, maybe accompany her to the animation company and let her know if she really want to work here, this is how it looks and what expertise she better equipped; since then, I know nothing about the development , but wish she will find her own way and refer to what we jointly drafted road map; daughter to the father, the gesture always there, she's been out for study for more than 20 years and independently become a grown up, Mr. Wang didn’t follow the path, this is why he worried, I may worried the same level, or even harder if my daughter -- Fruit follow the same step;
We had a lunch appointment, I don't know the purpose but to spend time consulting for her career won't be trouble to me, I am not expecting any return, but to have the sport club tickets is the best I ever dream of. Yes.
the meeting with the dominate ISP is an interesting one, we been targeted as a potential competitor and threaten the carrier - based conglomerate; I took the hostility as a compliment and value is high, a new coming in the market for less than 2 years become the No.2 player and get attraction among all industry, I am proud of being shoot; handling conversation with 2 senior ( in both seniority and age ) executive; I am very careful, play humble and innocent; open my mind and answering question to my limit; thanks to my parent company who build the giant brand as an enlarge umbrella, cover my from big sun or heavy rain, I take this giant umbrella with me and approach all the potential business opportunity; the leverage of brand not only come from consumer perspective, but also from the industry you encountered with.
when the appointment letter presented in my coming in folder, I am surprising happy, appointed by Executive Yuang / Prime Minister to be the commissioner of Culture and Creative Industry Development Committee in Taiwan is really a honor for me, with no political party favor, no governmental relationship and solid background, I am thrilled to be identified as the consultant for the prestigious country restructuring plan -- as the DPP administration provoked , 2 major industry parallel developed as next hero industry in Taiwan - one is high tech, the other is the CACI, I really don't know the decision process and didn't receive any prior notice. I share this good news with my colleague, my company and my family; I made a copy and bring it home, I would like to share this honor with my father, as a traditional Chinese, this is a big deal for my family, a recognition granted by the highest ranking administration in Taiwan; this is an important milestone for me.
toning, me and my wife watched another great DVD - the twilight of Samurai , a story talking about the Samurai’s life in the 17 century in Japan, a very elegant and humility movie, it represented some of the late `17 century’s value and culture in Japan, by telling an simple but detail life for a Samurai, we glace the life of pre-modern Japanese.
I took the early flight back on Sunday, got up around 6:00 and arrived at Pu-Tong airport at 7:00 am, the Draganair lounge is quite comfortable, it connected with the gate and will full amenity of shower and light meal, I browse and response to mails cumulate for days.
Hk airport is the next stop over, I make it a routine to eat at the Cathy lounge whatever transit in HK, the lounge provide one of the great noodles in town, It become so popular, so the Taipei Cathay lounge follow the same way, offering Taiwanese noodle when the renovation completed last year; you will met a lot of people at the lounge, there's no exception today, first I met Eva Hsiao -- who she don't know me, then Harlem pop up with his latest manager -- a long time acquaintance, we chat for a while and discuss the possibility for representing his mobile right in China -- a potential development I just discovered the day before; then Sunny appear, the transaction give him a great chance to explaining the management conflict happened month ago , in that cast, force me to drop all the preparation for a new business model developing and impact on resource deployment; I am too ease to accept apology, well, anyway, We people in the world if for making friend instead making enemy; I am not complaining, a very short lounge encounter, less than 20 minutes, a lot of thing happen, we all took the same flight back to Taipei.
I secure the night with wife , we went for a Cantonese ding sum restaurant located in Shemending, a young place equivalent to Shinjuku in Tokyo, the restaurant is a very old one, probably one of the oldest restaurant introducing HK tea ding sum to Taiwan 20 something years ago; this is the first time my wife visit here, when I told her I came here when I was a high school student, she was astonished. how come a student can afford to consume such a fashion restaurant ( compare for 20 years before ), we order some ding sum and on fish head cuisine, it cost me less than 1000 NT, this is one of the less expensive tea restaurant in town I believe. after dinner, we go for the movie : Black Pearl and the pirate of the Carrobine; another great movie, it's so entertaining, I am very in fond of the line , the story and the outstanding performing of Johnny Denp; as this is a Disney production, it we replace all the role in the movie with animated characters, it works, I mean, you will feel the same impact as seeing a Disney animation film, how a surprise discovering; I do enjoy the joy and fun the movie release, humor, human and Hugh excitement.
it will be a busy week before Mid-Autumn festival ( High-moon festival ), I recalled in Shanghai seeing everyone carrying moon cake or buying moon cake in front of the bakery shops, reading newspaper and know that the sales for moon cake in Shanghai this year is drops, due to the abnormal weather -- hot and lost of appetite - a health concern, but I still seeing people line up for moon cake, I am wondering how many moon cakes I will receive this year, I measure it as the level of popularity in my career as thermometer, it tells the different, a interesting way to measure your importance.
【Blog 9/4-9/6 1】
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?
