Today I took a taxi out to Intel's huge complex to hear G's talk on
the scheduler- that's what he's been working on and giving this talk
is why he's here in Shanghai. It was a really good talk- I can tell
that for 2 reasons- 1) it was in the main session of a 250+ conference
room and 95% of the attendees were actually paying attention and
engaged in his talk. Usually at these sort of things half the people
are on their laptops reading email etc. 2) It was very well structured
and had a good summary at the end, and encouraged people to join in
the open source project and help with the scheduler. It's exciting
that G's been able to spearhead this project, and he's made lots of
connections over time here in Shanghai so it's likely that we'll be
able to visit again. Intel has like 600 employees here in Shanghai-
their office is in a Silicon Valley style development about an hour
outside the city. I think Shanghai might be the most recently
developed city I've ever been to- everything here has been built in
the past 15 years. All the highways are brand new, the subway is brand
new, all the streets are fantastic and there are trees planted
everywhere. All of the street signs are in both Chinese and English,
all the subway signs as well, all the highway signs, basically
everything is written in both languages so it is really easy to
navigate. Plus there's no faffing around (good British word) with
stuff that was retrofitted into an old system (read London here) and
is all squirrelly and stuff. Chinese culture in some ways is more
similar to American than we are to British- although we don't have the
whole face saving thing, many root values are the same. Efficiency,
convenience, and economy are 3 big ones that we share that aren't
shared with Britain. We also both value good service. :) But of course
independence, freedom, and justice are not as high a value here. But I
think they could be eventually. The fact is all the talk about China
rising isn't just talk- they will soon be at the forefront of the
world economy, and they got there because of American money and
following our lead. Don't get me wrong- there are a lot of problems,
but I think the president is right to change tactics from the American
style "beat them with a big stick until they agree" to a more Asian
style Guang Xi (relational) approach. If you have good guang xi with
people, you have a huge influence over them, and that's how Asia
works. Anyway enough about politics- if you want to be a global player
in the next 15 years you must learn Mandarin, period. :) In a similar
way that people all over the world have been learning English to give
them an advantage in a global market, smart Westerners will start
studying Mandarin because if you can speak Mandarin (and read it) you
have a market of 1.6 billion people at your fingertips. Native English
speakers who also speak Mandarin are like gold dust. So I better get
more serious about studying Mandarin. :)
I had a great time at the market yesterday- good bartering takes like
30 minutes or longer, so I didn't make it anywhere else. But I walked
away from all 4 purchases feeling satisfied with what I paid, though
of course I could have gone harder and paid less. I aimed for about
30% and got it, and they whined a bit but they took it, so I could
have gone lower anyway. ;) But that's fine. I'm about to practice a
few Chinese phrases to use in the market today- the head of Citrix
Shanghai office is taking us all for dinner and some shopping in
another local market, and I hate to rely on people to translate (it's
not needed but Chinese friends feel they should translate for you,
it's hospitable.) Last night after the market I met G at a local
family's house for a pr meeting- our friend from Ann Arbor who we
worked with in the Chinese group is here for a few days doing some bbl
training for local leaders, and it was great to meet and pr with them
all last night. It reminded me that life in Asia really isn't that
strange- it seems strange on TV or in the media, but it's just not. :)
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