Science faction

Regular blogging service will return as of.... right now. While in Finland, I just seem to be running out of time. Or, to put it another way, I am busy enjoying everything.

I returned to Shanghai on Sunday. When the plane touched down, as always, there were already several passangers on their feet, ready to grab their bags and get out of the plane. But this time we were in waiting for a little science faction show. Namely, several governmental healht inspectors "raided" the plane, and inscpected the planeful of passangers.

They were dressed to face plague, radio active waste, extra terrestial aliens, or... a planeful of possible swine flu carriers. And armed to shoot every one of us. Thankfully only with a some sort of thermometer. They came to every passanger, asked the passangers to close their eyes and aimed to the forehead.

Some persons were questioned, but I could not hear what they asked...

I was just thankful noone showed any symptoms, otherwise I can imagine we all would have been put to a guaranteen for a week. At least. And if they put the whole planeful of passangers to guaranteen, would they all get a private guaranteen? Otherwise the swine flu would spread IN the guaranteen.

Anyway, we were let to the country, and all is well.

For sale

I have already told you couple of times, that in Shanghai you can buy anything you could possibly want, like for example official receipts, live frogs, fake eggs or children. Or documents. Any documents.

Swiss James from I Spy Shanghai had noted an add providing an easy way to staying home "sick" for couple of days without loosing your salary (or job). Or you can simply choose to defraud your insurance company.

The world is your oyster, just pick your favorite sickness and contact "Michelle0924". The hottest thing in town, swine flu, might be out of stock right now, but she shoukd be able to get more next week.

P.S. I didn't find any babies or kids under the "Baby & Kids" section.

Borderline Hysterical Flying

I am in Finland now, arrived yesterday. Monday afteernoon, just when I was getting ready to leave the office a colleague of mine (non-chinese, not that it matters) said that "You must feel uncomfortable flying now, with the swine flu raging around and all. And through Germany! They have already confirmed cases."

To be honest, the thought had crossed my mind, but I was nowhere near the level of precautions of my other colleague who cancelled his family vacation to Malaysia, which was ment to take place in JULY, because of the swine flu. The flu is already in China, what does it help to not travel to Malaysia in July? Non of my business, of course. And I figured I haven't usually gotten a flu when I fly even there is always someone coughing and sneezing, so I have no reason to think I would now get this flu, just because it happens to be a very famous flu.

Where were we? Yes, I was leaving the office, and in the elevator I met another colleague, who asked rhetorically that I must have bought masks for the flight. "No, not really." "Think about it when someone is coughing just next to you. We bought masks for our family."

And so, they awakened the hysteria in me. I marched to the drug store and bought a packet of one-time use masks. What's the harm? I don't have to wear a mask, even I bought one. In the airport I noticed few passangers were wearing masks, but hey, this is China. In China, you can see people wearing masks anytime and anywhere. All the officers working at the airport had masks, though, so that much was new.

I got to the plane and left the packet of masks to the overhead compartment. I didn't see but a few who were wearing them. And the goddamit flu hasn't really been fatal outside Mexico. I think. I am not wearing the mask. Definately not.

A nice lady sat next to me. She doesn't look sick, I though. But then it started. People in all directions started coughing. Sneezing. Coughing more. Blowing nose. We looked at each other with my neighbour. Someone coughed just behind us. I saw her eyes growing in fright. We both felt the anxiety.

What if I get sick, and then I have to think back and wonder if I could have avoided the horrible pork flu just by wearing the stupid mask. "I know this might be ridiculous and hysterical, but I have face masks and I think I'm going to wear one" I said to my neighbour. "I'll have a baby in two months, I cannot get sick." She said with worry in her voice. "I have a whole packet of these things, so please go ahead and help yourself."

I have always - always- looked at people travelling hiding behind their masks a little silly. And there I was, with my pale baby-blue mask. Because they didn't turn the light off, I even topped that off and put on my eye-mask so I could sleep. My stupid eye-mask, which says "Genius at work", which I got from SAS flight. And then, because this combinations looked a bit more embarrassing than I can take, I put my baby-pink hood of my hooded-sweater on, to hide from the world. And I had my iPod headset on. I happened to get a glimpse of how I looked, from the reflection of the personal entertainment screen. Oh boy. Like some comical bank robber. Oh boy oh boy oh boy...

But I slept really well. Which I don't think would have happened without the mask. But I started wondering, what is the use of the mask, as I need to take it off anytime I eat or drink anything? Does it dimish my change of getting the darn flu by any degree? Or is it just to calm down some nervereck (=me) crazy (=me) passangers (=me)?

And what makes this embarrassment truly stupid is that as soon as I stepped out of the aircraft, I took the mask off. I could not imagine myself marching to the "Lufthansa Senator lounge" wearing it :o) And, in my connecting flight to Helsinki, I did a quick health check and deemed my fellow-passangers healthy, and forgo the mask. My hysteria was cured by then. I still have about 8 masks. In case it strikes again.

Keepin' up the appearances

My Past Saturday I went jogging. I don't run much outdoors during the winter months, but the spring is here, and the blissful outdoor runs in Australia awakened the need to run outdoors, despite of... everything.


I put on my grey running pants and my new old rose colored Puma sports top and was ready to go. Except that J. said: "You are not going out dressed like that, are you?" "I sure was going to." "Chinese women do not wear pants like that. Shouldn't you at least wear your sweatpants?"

Err... I am going out for a run. To a nearby park. We live in a city where people go out in their pajamas! We live in a city where some of the girls in office wear the so called "come f**k me boots" and skirts that end 30 cm above their knees. IN the office. We live in a city where neon pink sweat pants and golden pumps are a disturbing, but not a rare sight. And I could not go running in my clean, below knee-ending pants and top which doesn't reveal anything more than my arms? I should wear sweat pants for a run when it is +26 degreed warm? Oh. No. No no no no no.

Sometimes I have got to wonder goes on in the head of that man of mine.

Auto-mania

Once a year Shanghai hosts Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition. This year's show was held April 22-28.

I returned from Australia last Saturday evening. I left the hotel at 4:30 A.M. that morning, which meant 2:30 A.M. China Time, and arrived safely at 7:30 P.M. It was a long flight. Loooong. Long, got it? By 8:30 I had fulfilled my belly and curled up to the couch and I was merrily snoring away. Not literally, I don't snore, of course, but I couldn't keep my eyes open for 5 seconds and fell asleep immediately. Which is perfectly understandable, if you ask me. But then, there was J., who had been waiting for me. We hadn't seen each other in three weeks. And who was not tired. But very, very disappointed. "You can home and all you are interested in is food and sleep." "Err... yes. I'm sorry. I missed you too, but I am really, really tired."

Not quite the home-coming one would wish from travelling spouse. And what's more, I had one week, before I was going to be leaving to Finland, for almost three weeks. So, I decided to try and make it up for him. I told J. that on Monday I would leave office early afternoon, and we could do something nice together. "What would you like to do?" And this is how I ended up visiting Shanghai Auto 2009.

It's not that I don't like cars, I do. I might even say I love to drive a nice, powerful, car. But I am not that exited to watch cars. And I didn't think Shanghainese were either. I was going to be wrong on one of them.

We arrived to the site, and I went to get us tickets. The queue was well organised between railings, so that the typical chaos would be prevented. The queue even went quite quickly. But when the railings ended, everyone charged towards the ticket counters, and THEN you had to fight for your right to buy the tickets. I have gained some expertise with the elbow tactics around here, so in no time I had exchanged my crispy 100 RMB bill to two tickets.

Towards the autos we headed! There was a metal detector at the door. And it beeped loudly and flashed red for every single person entering. Not that the guards were the least bit interested. Maybe someone had forgotten to mention that they are suppose to check the belongings and the entering person if the detector-machine alarms...

There were ten halls full of cars and most of all, full of Chinese. I could have done with five. Or two. Even one would have been ok. But no, ten they had. We went through everyone of them, and I think I saw between 20-30 makes I had never ever seen before. Most of those Asian makes didn't offer anything that appealed my taste. And then, some of them had, bloody hell, directly copied London Cab and Rolls Royce. Cheeky, don't you think?

At some point I started a new hobby: taking pictures of men carrying ladies handbags. There were plenty. Only problem was, that with all that crowd, taking pictures was extremely hard: either you didn't have a line to the target, the target was too close, or someone bumped into your back just when you thought you got it. And they didn't just "bump into" you. They push you. They poke you. They step on your toes. They walk in front of you just when you are taking a picture. They try to push you aside to get a better view. And you can forget about "excuse me" or it's Chinese equivalent (if there is one, so far I have never heard it used?).

What was to be expected, but was still a little funny, was that everything was only in Chinese. So much for the international exhibition then... But what was really... Chinese, if you may, was that they had own sound-systems for each stand. Imagine walking into a hall, where you can see two girls playing violin on one stand. A group of dancers dancing on the next stand. And what you can hear, is Celine Dion from a third stand, so loud, that you (or that would be I, in this case) have to press your hands against your ears, if you are to survive there for more than few seconds. Then, the stand with the violin players wants their show to be noticed and turns up the volume. And the Celine Dion stand, which by now no longer has Celine, but some other record playing, responds swiftly and gives it all they have got. Ca-co-pho-ny. I, personally, wanted to tie those idiots' heads to the speakers, so they could reconsider whether the volume might be a little too much...

So, about four hours in this place, and we were both exhausted and headed home. Would I go back? Voluntarily? No, no way. Luckily, J. wouldn't either. Maybe next year I fill my exhibition quota with China International Adult Toys and Reproductive Health Exhibition. Or maybe not.

Towering over Shanghai

Shanghai's signature tower, the one and only: Oriental Pearl Tower

Shanghai World Financial Tower opened its doors some time end of last summer, August if I am not badly mistaken. We, and about 1,000,000 other Chinese wanted to visit the place. Due to some restricting factors, like for example that I have to work on weekdays, our options have pretty much been limited to the weekends.

If we are going to go through all the trouble getting there (it is on the other side of the town), we'd decided to pick a pretty and clear day. But once it came, we were off to the Tower. Which was a great idea, but someone else had thought about that too... The queue was so long we figured it would take at least 3 or 4 hours to get in. And once in, you'd propably be squeezed between all the enthusiastic Chinese. No thanks.

Firstly, we were optimistic and decided to try a little later, figuring the first weeks are the worst.

But every time we went back, there were more people than in the Shanghai railway station just before Chinese New Year. So we figured we would have to get there really really early one Saturday morning.

There were many weeks that brough us nothing but cloudy mornings. Then there were weekends I could not get that man of mine out of the bed before it was too late.

So, by early this year we still had not visited the new tower. We'd been to the Jin Mao Tower, which is just beside the new tower, but not quite as tall, and, of course, not as new. So while Jin Mao Tower offers you views from 88th floor, is now comfortable in respect of the crowds, you can get in without queuing, no one wants to go there. Poor old Jin Mao. Actually we took my mother there when she visited, as the queu to the other tower was... longish.

In March when my friend was visiting we decided we have to get her to visit the g** d*** tower. But again, whether was not on our side. Finally we went there on one Friday evening. No queuing at all and the night views were beautiful. I warmly recommend. Taking good photos, however, is difficult, as the windows are bound to reflect...

View from the Tower.

View from the foot of the Tower.

Jin Mao Tower in front, SWFC Tower behind it

There were no queues, but there were still people there. And from what I gathered, mostly Chinese tourists. Why do I thinks so? Well, because they looked Chinese and because many of them were secretly taking photos of us. Not very well secretly, as I noticed what they were doing, but nonetheless. Couple of young men came to ask if they could take a pictures with us. And then some one else came. And then a group of girls. I started to think they took us for someone else. Like, I don't know, someone worth photoing, maybe. ("Photoing" propably doesn't qualify as a word, does it?)

I wonder what they will tell they friends about this picture? "And here we are in Shanghai with two... well, two... two westeners."

Cultural differences

There are so numerous of differences between western and Chinese cultures, that I can only give you glimpses of what it means in practice.

Example 1.

Not so long ago my partner J. travelled to Thailand with his long time buddy. I couldn't go, since I was working, and even if I wasn't, I am not sure I would have gone with them. Perfectly normal to me: good friends travelling together.

But my Chinese colleague said to me: "Isn't it a little strange that those two man [J. and his friend] travel alone?" I had not idea what he meant, and he propably saw the questionmark-like expression on my face. "You are brave to let them travel alone together." What???? I wasn't sure if he was thinking about the abundand thai-ladies who make themselves available either for a monetary compensation or just to find a boyfriend or maybe that they would be somehow partying more than should be tolerable. "Well, I don't know... I am not worried how they will behave" I said, "I think I know what kind of person I have been living with more than 8 years now. And they are there to dive, on a small island." "No, but isn't it a little strange for two men to travel together? They must be really really good friends?" "I don't think it is that strange, I think most people I know have travelled with their friends." "Yes but two men sharing a hotel room?" he still said. I was perplexed, but decided not to ask if he was somehow thinking that two men travelling together would somehow find their hidden homosexual sides if they travel together (I find that rather unlikely concept, J. having started his dating life (with girls!) at the mature age of 13, and all), or what he was after.

I think the whole concept of friends is different in China, because the meaning of the family unit is so much more important than in western countries, friends do not play that important role to adults. Connections are everything, but close friendships might not be. This is just the way it looks to me. I might be wrong, and there propably are variances.

Example 2.

Again my Chinese colleague asked me if I am going to visit the homes of the two Finns positioned here in Melbourn in our company. It sounded more like which day you will visit them. By this time, I had barely met the said Finns for the first time, greeted them and exchanged few plesantries, and my colleague knew that full well. "Well, I don't I will. You know, I don't know them. And I think they have their family things and other things going on and they have travel and spend a lot of time away from their families as it is." "Oh, ok. I thought you would visit them. They are Finns." "No, I think we'll just have a dinner with them on Thursday, as the controller mentioned yesterday."

Again, not a big thing at all, but shows a totally different thinking. I would never ever expect to visit the practically almost strangers' homes, just because they are Finns. If I got to know them or immediate friendship is established, I might expect to have a dinner with them the next time, to cath up. But totally strange people? Just because they happen to be the same nationality? While we are 5 days in Melbourne? I don't think so. But I know Chinese do.

Example 3.

Background:

- I know the Chinese business controllers and and co-operate a lot with them. We talk often.

But if they have any -ANY- questions, they talk with my Chinese colleague. They ask things he does not know, and I have told that would be better to asked from me. But time and again, they ask my colleague who then asks me. Whereas a western person (normally) naturally prefers to ask from his own network / friends / people who speak the same language, but if you know they don't know the answer anyway, you ask from the person who does. Even if you need to use English. Which you use everyday in your work anyway.

Example 4.

A westerner (not me) recently had her first performance review discussion with her Chinese boss. And it was what she had expected. Unfortunately. Where as it is supposed to be an open discussion about both sides expectations and opinions, development plans and generally an opportunity to open up to your boss if you so wish, with a Chinese manager it had been nothing but a go-through of objectives that had been pre-defined by the boss (I think the meaning is to design the targets together). To questions those targets was not a question. To questions or discuss openly about some other changes in the organisation was cut down saying this is what management wants. And to end the conversation, the boss told that the number of expats will be cut down. Well, I am not an expat in the sense that I am working with a local contract here. "Well, anyway, we'll let you know about the changes." Like, WHAT? Was he indirectly telling that they will not need her anymore? Now, this only demostrates he is not a good manager to his subordinates. But in many cases the expectations of western subordinates and Chinese managers, Chinese subordinates and Western managers don't seem to go together too well.

I am thankful for having a western manager, and I am thankful for having a "western-understanding" and adaptive colleague. The small differences are needed to remind me to aspire open-mindedness... Seems to be a slow process and occasionally I think I am going backwards :o)