Xiamen

I wrote this in Xiamen on June 21st, but I'm only posting it now because blogspot is blocked from China.

Hello from Xiamen!

It's pronounced "Sha-men", so make sure you read it correctly. Xiamen is on an island just off of the coast and across from Taiwan. Our guide Scott believes it is one of the best candidates for an office. It's hot (though not as bad as Hong Kong), but the humidity is absurdly high. In all the time I've been in China I've only seen a few hours of sunlight. Apparently the East Pacific is in its rainy season.

I'm writing on a laptop in a hotel room, so you know the accomodations aren't too bad. Unlike Hong Kong the signs around the city aren't in English. Menus are only in Chinese. At this point we're completely dependent on our Chinese speakers. We handle cabs by giving them a business card or piece of paper with the name of our destination. As long you have the card for the hotel you can't get in too much trouble.

In theory I'm on a high-speed connection, and getting to gmail and my work mail is relatively quick. I did however make the mistake of trying to access Google News and CNN. Good luck. The government practices some serious monitoring of certain sites. When that happens you might as well be sucking mud through a straw. I gave up long before the sites ever loaded. Apparently intra-national connectionsare not as bad, but that doesn't help.

Today we met with an American who has been operating a business over here for many years. His vision like ours is concerned with being a blessing to the employees and the community in which the company is present. It was extraordinary listening to him, because he is on the same path but three steps ahead. I can't realistically go into the details here, but I look forward to talking about them when I return. Whether we locate in China or not his example and advice will be very precious. I know my coworker Hui was deeply impacted by his servant attitude in her home country.

There is one story from his company that I'd like to share. If any of you have seen the Japanese movie Princess Mononoke you know there is a scene where the ruler of Iron Town invites the young man at the center of the story to come see her deepest secret. In a small building separated from the rest of the town she has craftsmen working on newrifle prototypes. These craftsmen are lepers, outcasts that she has rescued and given dignity and an important role. If you can appreciate an animated movie it is the best example of what I saw today without being here yourself. This business owner has accomplished the same thing. He isn't willing to give money to beggars, "false help", as he calls it, but he will try to give them time and if he can jobs. Obviously efficiency is a big part of his business. He realized that these physically disabled people, complete outcasts in Chinese society, couldn't work fast, but they may be able to produce quality. As an experiment he has decided to try to produce a version of his product for a very high end market where production time is not a significant factor but workmanship is. These former beggars are now creating amazing handiwork, and are giving back to their community, reproducing the generosity of this business owner or steward as he prefers to be called. Don't be mistaken, he's a geek about his business. He knows and loves his product and works for profit (essential for any of this to work), but his purpose goes far beyond that.