Lost in Translation

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I've successfully completed week 1 in my new job, and weekend 3 in Shanghai. I even learned two new things, just on the walk to work! Lesson 1: if you choose to wear a wool business suit in Shanghai during the summer, make sure you bring a towel. Alternatively phrased, don't wear a wool business suit in Shanghai during the summer. The temperature might feel fine when you first walk out the door but the humidity really wears you down and you get very sweaty, very quickly. Lesson 2: Umbrellas are a mandatory accessory, regardless of the weather. On Monday of last week there was a torrential rainstorm, which I'm told was the worst they've seen in 100 years. So you can imagine how I felt when I arrived at the building where my office is located - first day on the job, and arriving soaked in a combination of sweat and rainwater. My conclusion at the end of the walk is that overdressing in the summertime can really dampen your dapper.

The people at the office were very welcoming and hospitable. Most of the people who drive to the office were late because of the weather, but I was ushered to my desk by the lady who will be providing admin support to me. She was kind enough to have plenty of stationary already prepared, as were my phone line and network connection. I was looking forward to some fast internet access as it's painfully slow at the hotel. I go through a lot trying to post all these photos to you, my loyal readers. I was taken out for lunch that day by some colleagues, and we went to a great Chinese restaurant at Le Royal Meridien hotel. After being in Shanghai for a week, finally my first foray into "real" Chinese food in Shanghai. Over a hearty meal of dumplings, rice, noodles, pork, and soup, we had some great conversation about the work environment here, and how it's commonplace for people to go out as a group to any of the dozens (or perhaps hundreds) of restaurants in this area for lunch - which is great for me because my office is located in a spot surrounded by restaurants serving almost any kind of cuisine. Interestingly though, despite the amount of great places to eat I saw a lot of people ordering lunch from KFC and McDonalds (both of whom deliver here). I am actually very surprised at how many fast food restaurants there are in Shanghai, and in speaking to colleagues and friends I'm told that Western fast food is still a relatively new trend and that people welcome the departure from more traditional Chinese food.

This brings me to another observation that I alluded to in previous posts. I think that as China is developing so quickly, it is taking up the "Western-style consumerism" of which we are so self-critical much faster than the rate at which it was adopted in the West itself. Put more simply, consider the explosion of commercialism and "fast-food/MTV" culture that we in the West have experienced over sixty years in the post-WWII era, and compress that into last 20 years or so of China's opening up after years of Maoist isolation. The result, to my eyes at least, is a pop culture where cigarette smoking is everywhere (including bathrooms), Chinese pop singers unknown to the West enjoy mega-celebrity status on par with Jessica Simpson and (once upon a time) Britney Spears (who inhabit their own branch of Madame Tussauds just two blocks south of my hotel), Western brand-name stores are ubiquitous, cars clog the streets (and the air) and celebrity endorsements still aren't corny. While there are many around the world who would criticize this as "Westernization" or "consumerism run amok", from what I can see the people here genuinely welcome it and I suspect even consider it to be a prerequisite for being a modern industrialized society on par with the G7. While recognizing that Shanghai is not a good representation of the hundreds of millions of people living in more rural areas, I do think about what the long term implications could be of tens of millions of people smoking regularly and eating KFC (not to mention driving cars that pollute the air). That said, I also think it's unreasonable for many of us to expect a country like this to remain closed off from the world, relegated to watching the rest of the world develop while they drink green tea in robes by a pool of koi (not that I'd mind doing that every now and then). This is a country with a great deal of ambition and those who are concerned about the long term implications should express it while at the same time supporting that ambition, rather than publicly lament it.

My digression above was talked about over lunch as my colleagues were very curious as to what we in the West are hearing about China these days, and whether I thought the Olympics would help the rest of the world get to know their country a little better. As I said, there is a great deal of ambition here but I should also add that I've been struck by the degree to which they care about what the rest of the world thinks about them. To the Chinese, I get the impression that they view the hosting of guests as an opportunity to both please and impress them. This was certainly clear by the way I've been treated by our hosts here, but when I speak to locals about the Olympics you can tell they also want to please and impress on a much grander scale. Everyone knows that the Olympics were China's "coming out party", where they wanted to show the world that they are a major player at the global level. The difference in attitudes here and in the West, though, were that at home this coming out party was perceived in a much more cynical way that probably should have been. Rather than a subtle way to rattle a saber, locals here seemed to view the grandeur of the Olympic ceremonies the same way that a dinner host would lay out their best (pardon the pun) China and silverware for the guests. Perhaps the Chinese government had a parallel agenda, but don't all politicians? I think China's Olympic message was lost in translation when communicated to the West, for two reasons. The first was literal - Chinese is a highly nuanced language where "words" are comprised of characters that often represent concepts rather than the subject of communication. For example in English when we say "Canada", it's a very simple reference to my home country. In Chinese the characters representing Canada are 加拿大, which (and I ask readers to verify) I understand to mean "add-take-big". I'm not sure how this combination of concepts represents my country, but you can see how even a literal translation into English requires further context - for example it could relate to some sort of historical event that gave Canada the character which is best expressed by the Chinese in these concepts. Again I'm interested for any Chinese-speaking readers to comment.

The second reason why I think the message was lost in translation is the lack of collaboration between people on an individual level (because of the language barrier), and via the media (since the only "media" in China are controlled by the Communist government). As a result the only real way we "hear" from the Chinese is via government sources. Imagine if rather than hearing about Canada through movies, artists, news media, friends and business colleagues, people in the rest of the world only heard from"the Canadians" via press releases from the Prime Minister's Office. They'd get a very different picture of what we're all about, and not one that I imagine would be very accurate. Artists reading this will of course rightly say this proves their point about why government cutbacks to supporting emerging artists are a bad idea.

I realize the above posting seems like a bit of a diatribe and I hope I haven't caused to many rolling eyes or yawns. That said I think it effectively characterizes my first week, both at work and outside the office, in interacting with the Chinese. Maybe it's a little too philosophical but I thought it would be more interesting to you than describing every task I do at my desk. If I did that, this post would have been a lot longer and would have ended up with the same conclusions anyway. I'm going to write another post in the next couple of days to describe my weekend, which I think deserves its own posting (thanks to a great time with some old highschool friends!).

No photos today. Hope you enjoyed reading!

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