Foreigners no longer king in China - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson

The position of foreigners and their companies in China is changing and causing much of debate. Changing realities, concluded the panel of the China Weekly Hangout, after a few leavers too their case to the media, no reason to complain. But China veteran Bill Dodson was still shocked when he did not get his annual visa renewal after nine years, he tells Kera news. 

The Kera News:

Bill Dodson began his career in China as a consultant helping foreign companies set up businesses. He says 10 years ago, they were treated like kings. China welcomed all kinds of foreign firms, and it provided tax breaks and other incentives because it needed the investment and know-how. 

"I was in the city of Changzhou ... and the government official told me, 'You see this plot of land here? If your client comes here, we will give him the plot next door for free,' " Dodson says. "You would never hear that now unless you were in the deep interior of China." 

That's because China's needs are changing. 

Coastal cities are no longer interested in pumping out cheap products that line American big-box stores. They want to climb the value chain. 

Dodson just wrote a book about the phenomenon, titled China Fast Forward: The Technologies, Green Industries and Innovations Driving the Mainland's Future. 

"If you're in clean tech, you are good, you are in an encouraged industry," he says. "That means they will break down walls to bring you in. If you're just pretty much a regular Joe trying to make a living because this is where your life is, it's different." 

Every year, Dodson extends his residence permit for another 12 months in China. This year was different. After living there for nine years, his permit was only renewed for another three months. 

"They said, 'We have to check out if your company is a real company first and then we'll extend it,' " he says. 

Dodson relies on the permit to live in China legally with his Chinese wife and their young son. He's not sure why he didn't get an automatic yearlong extension, but he sees it as a sign of the times. 

"The complexion of things here for us expats is changing," he says. So has the competition from the Chinese.

More in Kera news.  

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

More about the position of foreigners in China in this session of the China Weekly Hangout.
The China Weekly Hangout is organizing a session on energy security with Terry Cooke from the Wilson Center and Richard Brubaker, assistant professor sustainability of China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) on Thursday on September 27, 10pm Beijing Time, 4 pm CEST, 10am EST. Interested? Get more information here,or register here.

China's brain drain to the US - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson

Not only hot money is leaving China, the country suffers from an ongoing brain drain to the US, writes China veteran Bill Dodson on his weblog. China is failing to foster its innovation incubators, he says. And the parents of those brightest might follow suit.

Bill Dodson:

China, in other words, is suffering a brain drain. One Chinese parent told me that university lecture halls in America in which his daughter is enrolled on the east coast are seeing up to 60- and 70-percent matriculation by Chinese nationals. Of course, the parents of the students pay international rates for their children to attend schools abroad. 

They are paying for an education system that emphasizes participation, personal initiative and application of knowledge over rote learning and slavish adherence to authoritarian diktat. 

Chinese nationals – or at least their children – are maturing in innovation incubators Chinese society does not, cannot and does not want to foster. 

And those Chinese go-getters ain’t going to be returning any time soon to their homeland in the Mainland. One of the big reasons is that mama and papa have every intention of joining their offspring State-side.

More on Bill Dodson's weblog.

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Next week the China Weekly Hangout will organize its first virtual get-together and discuss why also foreigners are leaving China. Interest? join us here.

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Why internet filters block China's development - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson

Mostly China's internet filters are seen as a nuisance, not really as a blockade of the outside world. That stopped for China-watcher Bill Dodson in July, when his internet connection in Suzhou stopped working all together, he explains on his website. 

Bill Dodson:

The best we could all figure was there was a confluence of events that forced the powers that be (PTB) to bring internet traffic to a standstill while they cleaned forums, blogs and Weibo “tweets” of messages that were not in the CCP’s best interest at the time. Those included that day: 1) the indictment of Bo’s wife on murder charges; 2) Qidong’s pollution protest going viral; 3) and Beijing releasing an update of number deaths in flooding weekend before. 

I remember sitting during the internet downtime thinking about what it would be like to be a researcher in China who depended on the internet for news and analysis of the latest discoveries in my field, and for communications with colleagues around the world about ongoing projects...

I write in the final chapter of my latest book China Fast Forward how the internet and open science will provide a wealth of scientific discovery that just may usher in a new scientific Renaissance. The key is an openness of discoveries that benefit public interests, a sharing of information, and collaboration across disciplines, including the arts and sciences. 

It’s a shame China’s PTB may have the country miss the train again, just as it had 400 years ago when Newton (who the young man in the BBC story quoted), Copernicus, Bernoulli and other geniuses were re-figuring our world.

More on Bill Dodson's weblog.

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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China's Olympic team needs dreams, no targets - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson

The lower-than-expected achievements of China's Olympic team in London 2012 triggers off much soul-searching. China veteran Bill Dodson believes the country needs to break away from the current Soviet-style program, he writes on his weblog. The athletes need dreams, no targets.

Bill Dodson:

China’s system is based on the Soviet model of cull ‘em and cuff ‘em while potential athletes are very young. There seems to be no choice for candidates. And therein lies the nub of the problem with the old system. Athletes are ground down until there’s no longer any point – to themselves, to their grueling efforts, to the very sport. The system treats them like graphite pencils put through the sharpener until all that remains is rubber eraser. They become over-trained, over-stressed, robotic, eventually. 

Precise where precision counts, but otherwise mechanical in their execution. This is especially apparent in team sports like volley ball, basketball and international football (soccer). And highlighted by uncompetitive strategies that tried to skirt the rules (as in ping pong), instead of living up to the spirit of the Olympics. 

The one thing, though, that consistently stirred me and inspired me throughout the Olympics was an expression of Heart. However mawkish, I was genuinely transfixed by some of the victories of the American and British athletes. For the most part, those who won and lost competitions on the teams really really wanted to realize their dreams. And therein lays the difference between the Chinese athletes and the rest: the Chinese had goals to meet – just as their academic counterparts have test results to realize in the dreaded gao kao (university examination); the rest have dreams to make reality.

More on Bill Dodson's weblog

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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China's lack of innovative power - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson

This time the author of ZDnet got China veteran Bill Dodson really angry. China is not an inevitable innovative power, he argues on his weblog. "Only death is inevitable."

Bill Dodson

Another dumb title comes from ZDnet.com. The latest story envisioning China running victory laps round the track of advanced society is entitled, “China takeover as tech innovation center inevitable”. 

Everyone knows the only thing inevitable in life is death. Now, through creative accounting and offshore tax havens, not even taxes are inevitable. Hence, a reprehensible and terribly misleading title for an article completely based in conjecture. 

The writer quotes analysts of the Thomas Friedman school of China Modernization. As much as I admire and have been inspired in my own writing by Friedman’s work, he’s simply plain wrong in equating the numbers of engineering graduates and the amount of money thrown at infrastructure as more than sufficient to seal China’s fate as an Innovation Nation. 

What analysts who are easily impressed by big numbers are missing is the context in which all this activity is occurring. China is not an incubator for disruptive – or transformational – innovation. Incremental innovation, yeah, sure. I trip over those sort of jury-rigs and tweaks and reverse-engineered bits every day here in China... 

Dumb comparisons between countries and regional ecologies do not help clarify what really needs to happen in China for its brightest and most energetic people to truly change the world.

More in Bill Dodson's weblog.

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.  

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Why China is not set to become an innovative country - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson

A KPMG report on China's innovative strengths went viral an suggests the country's disruptive power will change the world. China veteran Bill Dodson advises on his weblog the researchers to have a closer look and disagrees with their optimistic take.

Bill Dodson:

Closer examination – that is, living and working in China – shows that most of the engineers that have graduated university have only the most abstract and theoretical notions of the subjects in which they’ve received their degrees due to the stultified education system; and that standardized testing in China does not reflect the degree to which test-takers are able to solve real-world problems with creative approaches in dynamic, heterogeneous conditions; and the companies setting up R&D centers are multinationals here to localize their product lines for the domestic markets and are loathe to expose their most precious IP to the Chinese elements. 

Further, most design engineers in China are insulated from the marketplace by their marketing and purchasing departments: marketing doesn’t wants to and still can play it safe while China’s consumer market grows; and purchasing is charged with ever greater pressure for “cost-down” from suppliers who theoretically are a great source of inspiration for new products and materials. 

Instead, with stalling domestic and international markets, companies are playing safe with innovation, making most of it incremental at best, revisionist at its most uninteresting. 

In other words, the statement that China has fostered an environment for disruptive technologies rather smacks of an accountancy that would like to be a consultancy to any of the businesses popping up in China with its new-found cash and the appeal of nearly 1.5 billion shoppers.

More at Bill Dodson's weblog.

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch, or fill in our speakers' request form.

On Thursday we organize the next Google+ Hangout on China. When you are interested, you can pick one of our planned subjects, and register for our broadcast here. 

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Buying a mobile phone in China - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson

China veteran Bill Dodson got his mobile stolen and took to opportunity to investigate China's fast changing and competitive battle ground for mobile hardware. A report from the shopping mall in Suzhou on his weblog. Bill Dodson:

Instead of just going back to HTC I decided to check out other brands, including domestic labels. For those who have never been to a Chinese mobile phone market, it is very much like a bazaar. Sales clerks could be selling socks and knit caps for all they care; which isn’t to say they don’t care. Instead, in general, sales staff are young, energetic and talkative, for the most part. They go to great lengths to find you a phone that matches your requirments, instead of bending your requirements to one brand. Sales staff at mobile phone bazaars typically hawk several brands, and have no resistance to placing on high-gloss glass counters phones from several competing makers. 

I checked out Motorola and Samsung phones, and took a glimpse at Sony Ericsson’s offerings. The Nokia stands seemed rather lonely, if not well staffed. It was clear Nokia was putting a great deal of attention on the China market. However, the Microsoft squares didn’t seem to stimulate much interest in the shops I visited. Motorola, surprisingly, seems to have begun a resurrection, of sorts; however, I found the version of Android and accompanying apps loaded on its phones uninteresting. 

Samsung was very strong, especially with its Galaxy offering. Its cameras were amongst the clearest, and it had the fullest line of phones with cameras mounted on the face of phones, to take advantage of apps like Facetime, to ease video calling. 

The Chinese domestic brands had breeded like rabbits since I had last bought a phone at the end of last year. Now, in addition to ZTC, Huawei, Konka, Dopod, Amoi and Lenovo were phones from online service providers: Tencent (with its QQ phones); Baidu, the Google knock-off; Qihoo 360, Netease, Xiaomi and even Alibaba. Handling these smartphones, however, was a disappointment. 

At the price point of about 1500 rmb the resolution of the cameras on the phones was sorely lacking, while their implementations of Android expressed a sense of arrested development. Of course, they were not meant to go head-to-head with the Samsung Galaxy or Apple iPhone; but were instead meant to meet demand at the low-budget end where students and country folk find their finances more constrained than the middle class. 

However, Samsung, Motorola and Sony Ericson makes at the low end were still more rugged and feature-rich than domestic brands. 

At one mobile phone market in Suzhou I wandered to the HTC exhibition, which was the most crowded in the large room. I spotted the model I had bought for myself six months before. It was a staggering 30% less expensive than half a year before. 

Now, still less than the compact model I had previously bought, were newer models that were black, thin and sleek. The HTC One V was one of them. 5 megapixel (self-focusing) camera; half the thickness of an iPhone; 3.7 inch display; Android 4.0.3. Matte black. Very cool. No. Awesome. 

I wanted one. 

And at 2,300 rmb (just under US$400), it was a great value.

More at Bill Dodson's weblog.

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Who is doing the dishes in China? - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson

Real men do not clean the house in China, but who is doing the job? China veteran Bill Dodson analyses one of the country's lesser known dilemma's on his weblog. 

Bill Dodson:

The Economist Magazine recently ran a piece on the amount of housework men in America and the UK perform each week: one survey suggested American women spend on average an hour a day scrubbing, vacuuming and shopping, compared with barely 20 minutes for men. 

Anecdotal evidence here in China suggests men do even less than their American counterparts. One high school student told me her father doesn’t do any housework. He is, though, a talented cook, she said – when he cooks. Nevertheless, the student’s mother’s cousin’s auntie does the cooking and cleaning and looking after the student’s two-year old brother... 

Certainly, relatively cheap domestic help in China eases the burden of housecleaning. We ourselves have an ayi come in three mornings each week to help around the apartment. She looks after our son on occassion, too, when she’s on duty. Even I – despite having been raised by a mother who insisted her sons do housework – do enjoy relief from the most onerous chores, though the place still needs a proper cleaning at least once a month. 

It was when our ayi recently took a health leave that I discovered my wife’s own abilities at housecleaning had atrophied somewhat. It was also during that time, I think, she was somewhat relieved I’m not a real-man in China.

More on Bill Dodson's weblog.

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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China's low energy efficiency - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson

China is using most energy in the world, not only because of its booming economy, but also because of its low energy efficiency, writes energy specialist Bill Dodson in the China Economic Review. The good news: China's officials know they have a problem to fix, and look for ways to do so.

Bill Dodson:

The average energy efficiency in Chinese buildings is relatively low, at about 50%, Li Bingren, chief economist of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said in late 2010. Even if that standard rose to 65% by 2020, Chinese buildings would still use 50% more energy for heating on average than developed countries with similar climates. 

Lighting, heating and ventilating buildings uses more than a quarter of the power China generates, Li said. An additional 15% of the country’s energy is used for manufacturing and transporting building materials, and for constructing homes and offices, according to the Worldwatch Institute. Energy efficient approaches to building materials and construction could greatly reduce this voracious appetite for energy. 

To a country that is one of the world’s largest importers of coal and oil, energy efficiency matters. China’s current energy plan, with its emphasis on the supply side of the energy equation, is akin to pouring an increasing amount of water into an expanding bucket full of holes. State media reports as early as 2006 claimed China would not be able to meet the energy demands of its buildings in 2020. 

Energy efficiency would provide a way for China to reduce its use of fossil fuels without expensive outlays in alternative energy sources. Saving a kilowatt of power costs just a quarter of the amount used to generate a new kilowatt, said Barbara Finamore, founder and director of Natural Resources Defense Council’s China program. The NRDC estimates increased energy efficiency could cut China’s growth in energy demand in half by 2030.

More in the China Economic Review.  


Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Gap's failed effort to localize - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodsonn

Localizing your products is the mantra for all consumer products entering the China market. China veteran Bill Dodson discovered the local retail store of Gap uses that mantra, but has no clue what it might mean, he writes on his weblog.

 Bill Dodson meets a Gap buyer:

She acceded, “We see Uniqglo as our competition. They are doing extremely well in China. Interestingly, in New York, Americans claim their clothing is too little,” she laughed. Of course, we both agreed, Americans tend to feel constrained by East Asian sizes for clothing. “We admire the variety of colors Uniqglo has, for instance, for polo shirts. The Chinese will buy theirs, but don’t consider buying ours – even though ours are cheaper!” Still, I asserted, GAP had work to do to localize their products. 

“You know,” I said slyly, “1969 was a bad year in China.” 1969 is the latest ad campaign for GAP jeans and shirts. The idea is to elicit the idea of the fun and freedom of the era in AMERICA. Some of the clothing even brandishes a 1969 logo next to the GAP trademark. In China, the Cultural Revolution was in full swing in 1969 and no one but Mao Zedong and the most righteous of the Red Guard were having fun. 

She hesitated, rolled her eyes. “I know,” she said. “But GAP’s plan is to rationalize it’s offerings around the world so that a store in New York City will have the same as the store in San Francisco and in Shanghai.” 

Though its children’s lines are a hit in China, it looks as though GAP will have to go full circle on the localization issue before they’ve figured out this latest historical mis-step.

More on Bill Dodson's weblog

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.  

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Double standards for foreign companies - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson

Scandals seem to be hitting foreign enterprises more than ever. Partly because Chinese authorities on a local level apply double standards, tells China watcher Bill Dodson on his weblog.

Bill Dodson:

A Western electronics manufacturer told me he recently visited a Chinese domestic factory that used lead in its manufacturing processes. “You could literally see the lead in the air!” he exclaimed. I had never seen lead in the air, and didn’t know it was possible. 

“Oh sure,” he said, “it’s red. You can see the stuff floating red in the air.” He added, “The owner of the Chinese factory asked me about safety measures to control lead emissions. He was clueless. That’s because inspectors call him the day before to tell him they’re coming over; he cleans up the place, reduces production capacity; then pays them off. They’re all happy.” 

The GM told me that in his country the inspectors show up announced at factories to perform safety and environmental audits. “I’ve even seen them waiting in cars near the factory site, watching how the plant handled waste.” Fines in the United States and Western Europe, as well, tend to be prohibitively expensive relative to the amounts Chinese transgressors must pay.   

In the case of Johnson Controls in the Shanghai municipality, the company has chosen to fight the local administration’s findings. Few if any of the surrounding battery makers have been told to shut down. The provenance of the lead effluence is questionable, as all the companies in the area except Johnson dump their waste into local waterways that eventually make their way to a central water processing facility. 

The GM in Jiangsu province told me that residential sites encroached into the industrial zone a couple years before, against zoning regulations. “Now,” the GM told me, “there are residences within 500 meters of those battery factories.” 

“Johnson Controls is fighting the ruling on principal,” the Jiangsu GM told me. “We work with those guys sometimes, and so we know they reach for the highest levels of waste management. “

More on Bill Dodson's weblog.


Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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Ambition: getting filthy rich - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson

American youngsters want to become lawyers or accountants, but Chinese all want to become financial traders, China watcher Bill Dodson muses on his weblog, after talking to his neighbor's daughter. Where is this country heading for?

Bill Dodson:

It seemed most of her classmates intended to study finance. I wasn’t clear though if her classmates reasons were the same as the young lady’s, or they all simply suffered from a collective lack of imagination about future possibilities. 

Actually, I recall having a similar conversation with a young professional several years ago. She was working in the commercial real estate industry, which she enjoyed. However, after the birth of her child, her parents were giving her pressure to work in the financial industry. “Look how much money your classmates are making,” they stressed. She seemed close to relenting when I spoke with her. 

With labor trends for the educated in China gravitating to the acquisition of money for money’s sake, the future of China as an innovation nation becomes problematic. Perhaps, instead of admiring China for making breakthroughs in new sources of energy,  the world will look on at China’s Wall Streets as “innovative” financial products lead the world into yet another round of depression-era soul searching.

More at Bill Dodson's weblog.

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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Fake eyelashes hit China - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson

Profound changes are sometimes illustrated by very small changes, like fake eyelashes, China veteran Bill Dodson discovered in his favorite Starbucks in Suzhou, where his favorite waitress underwent a change, he reports on his weblog.

Fake eyelashes seemed to have fluttered into the fashion scene in a big way here in China about a year ago. They’ve apparently been popular throughout East Asia for years, starting with young Japanese girls. Slight women with slight features suddenly were able to bat eyelashes that were large enough to fan a pharaoh cool. 

In the West, false eyelashes are a sign of – well – fake. Something a woman wears for fun: to a party, to a disco. But not to work. Still, in the Chinese woman’s exploration of her sexuality and how the rest of the world has been interpreting femininity since World War II, fake eye lashes are the height of fashion for twenty-somethings that have few – how to delicately put it? – distinctive attributes. 

The Wall Street Journal recently wrote: “Ironically, despite high levels of short-shortsightedness, a new trend is catching on across China: young hipsters who opt to wear empty plastic eyeglass frames as a fashion statement. That way, their fake eyelashes can stick out unimpeded, and they avoid having to peer through glass lens that fog up when walking outside on hot, humid days."

More at Bill Dodson's weblog

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

The China Speakers Bureau will start in a few weeks time interviews, China-debates and other exchanges through Google+ Hangouts-on-air. Here for more information.

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Minor effects from US tariffs on solar panels - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson

Much ink has been spent on the effects of newly imposed US tariffs on solar panels from China, even a trade war seemed an option. But industry analyst Bill Dodson sees only minor effects, if any, he tells NPR's marketplace. China might use the panels domestically. 

NPR's China correspondent Robert Schmitz:

Rob Schmitz: Chinese solar panels make up half the American market. Those made in the U.S., just a third. The new tariffs are set at between 3 and 5 percent of the panel's cost. That's so low that some U.S. solar panel manufacturers say it may not impact the American market. 

Bill Dodson: What it will do is perhaps accelerate China's own plans to develop its own solar projects here in China. 

Bill Dodson is an industry analyst in China. He says the threat of tariffs has already spurred the Chinese government to invest more in solar infrastructure at home. 

Dodson: It was clear to them that a counter-measure they could take that would take the heat off any trade friction would be to develop their own domestic market for solar power.

More in NPR's market place.

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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Even Chinese do not want "made in China" - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson

Chinese brands are associated with cheap, chintzy and unaccountable, even for the Chinese writes China veteran Bill Dodson, author of the upcoming book "China Fast Forward", on his weblog. Chinese brands are looking for a clean Western image.

From Bill Dodson's weblog.

A British friend who works at a Swedish lifestyle luxury brand maker in China told me how sales for their top of the line wares are not taking off the way they are in other countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Sales have been through the roof in South Korea, Japan and Thailand. China, though, is so-so. 

“The problem,” my friend told me, “is the Chinese with money read the label and see ‘Made in China’. If they’ve already bought one of our products, they return it; if they haven’t bought it yet, they return it to the shelf. 

“They simply don’t trust the quality of products made in China, and don’t understand how something made in China could be so expensive.” My friend went on to tell me that despite the designs being cutting edge and the highest quality fabrics used in clothing lines and the best materials in their appliances, the company is struggling to reach the sort of tipping point in purchases amongst China’s nouveau riche as they have in other Asian countries.

More in Bill Dodson's weblog.

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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Why India is no competition for China - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson

China veteran Bill Dodson visited India and tells on his weblog how relieved he was when he could return to China. It will take a while before India can compete with China, he writes. Bill Dodson:

 The Indian government’s lack of will in bringing even the rudiments of sanitation, infrastructure and utilities to its people after all this time is criminal, given the energy and initiative of its people. 

Any competition the media promotes between the economic development of China and India is bogus. There is not and never will be competition until the Indian government truly shows its concern for its citizens by building basic infrastructure for ALL to access, no matter the socioeconomic level. 

Despite transgressions against human rights and corruption on a systemic scale in China, at least things have gotten done and the quality of life for most of the country’s citizens is far beyond what it was twenty years ago. Now when I encounter a frustration in China, I mutter to myself, “At least it’s getting done”. 

I look forward one day to saying as much about India.

More on Bill Dodson's weblog.

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.  

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The story of a US$ 2,000 purse - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson's housekeeper - or ayi - has a US$ 2,000 purse. On his weblog, the China veteran dives into the story of the purse and the spending habits of China's noveau riche.

Bill Dodson:

My wife said excitedly,” The woman who the ayi works for has a rich boyfriend. The man is already married, and has a lot of money, the ayi told me. He bought an apartment for the woman. He gave the woman the purse as a gift. The woman said it was ugly, and gave it to the ayi.” I could believe someone else thought the bag unattractive. 

I nodded, paused a moment. At least the story made sense, given what I’d heard about the spending habits of the nouveu riche in China. Certain circles of society in today’s China are awash with so much money men can afford second wives and hideous bags that are hideously expensive. 

The woman was likely annoyed at the man – probably bacause he also had to pay attention to business and to his wife – and was so spoiled she thought nothing of giving the bag to an ayi. I’m sure she was looking forward to replying to the man when he would one evening ask, “Why don’t you ever bring that purse along that I bought you? You know the one: that lovely Dolce & Gabana bag.” 

Then she would respond, “Oh, I have too many purses; I gave it to the ayi.” 

“You what?!” he’d splutter, spitting out his Cuban cigar. She would flash a faint smile. 

Ah, love in the fast lane.

More on Bill Dodson's weblog.

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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Teaching civility - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson

China veteran Bill Dodson discusses with a Louis Vuitton expat how she has to organize civility boot-camps for staff in China, while in Vietnam, Thailand, Korea and Japan that seems to be part of the culture. From his weblog:

She told me how LV shop attendants in China have to go to a 3-week long boot camp to learn everyhting from putting on make-up through how to serve a cup of water on a tray. She gave me the example of a worker at one of the stores who spilled the water she was meant to serve to a customer at one of the shops.

The staff member put the tray on the ground before sopping the water from the floor. LV has 40 stores around China, and is planning at least another ten by year’s end.

We talked about why China’s sense of civility towards customers wa different from that of say, South Korea or Japan or Thailand or Vietnam. I attributed Vietnamese service levels in restaurants to the French influence during the country’s colonial period.

Thailand, she said, has a higher level of service than China because of royalty, in which people from a young age are inculcated to be super-courteous to those of higher stations in the country. She believed China would have once been that way, and thought the Cultureal Revoultion had been the main culprit in breaking down a social sense of consideration towards others.

More at Bill Dodson's weblog.

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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Poor services in China - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson

China veteran and author Bill Dodson remembers in his weblog his encounters in hospital hell and a nurse, as a lively example of the poor services in China, one of the subjects of his upcoming book.

Bill Dodson:

The nurse who changed my dressing was a battle axe, and managed to use the tweezers with which she was armed to such effect. She was heavy-set, with glasses, nearing the speed barrier of 40-years of age that seems to sour so many faces. 

She was so barbaric in her attendance and devoid of empathy that I shouted at her through the pain she was uneccesarily inflicting to pay attention to what she was doing. She tore the bandages from my fingers without waiting for the peroxide to do its work, impatient to get back to text messaging on her mobile phone. One of the fingers began to bleed again. 

I took the first new wrapping off myself, for her to redo, she had swaddled it so poorly. Admittedly, the doctor at the same hospital who had changed my dressings just two days before was careful and considerate, a real gentleman. The contrast could not have been greater... 

I devote an entire chapter of my book “China Inside Out” to the services dilemma in China. In my upcoming book “China Fast Forward” (Wiley, Spring/Summer 2012), I focus on the challenges the leadership has in staffing and training employees for the services outsourcing sector Beijing wants to grow. 

And as for my demonic nurse: I hope – as Dante would have had it – she retires to the seventh circle of Hell, where former patients take turns changing dressings on her that reflect their own injuries, and changed in such a manner as she recalls the original incident. Again and again.

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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