goodbye china!

And thus we move again. Out of China this time and back the to the UK...

More information about what I’m up to in the UK when the time is right.

32 more days before I leave, my boss freaked out when I handed him the resignation letter. Ah well, what can I say... I mean I like china, but there are always better things in life to look forward to. Call me what you will, itchy feet, irresponsible, a man who can’t grow up to settle down. But hey, I’m getting a lot more out of life than you, you and you over there! I was reading Channel News Asia last evening and that was enough to reassure me of what I’m doing. I really don’t want to have my life reduced to movies, Saturday night clubbing, mindless complaining and then a few years after, leaving the planet in a Singapore Casket funeral.

So what are my thoughts about China? My opinions are really just very surface. Not even if a person has been here 10 years, you can never say that you know China well. Sure, on one hand they may be rude, unhygienic, self centred, untrusting and very casual, but hey! Singapore was exactly like this not too long ago too!

On a business perspective, I’m still not too sure about dealing with a real local Chinese firm. Their work is far too casual and quality control is almost lacking. But that really is because that’s what their society is all about. The motivation for working is propelled by money, not passion and that can be very dangerous.

It is a society that is driven by effort, not results. A factory girl working 24 hours and producing little results is praised more than the one that does her regular hours but has helped in identifying production flaws and increased productivity. Then again, it’s not fair to just say that China practices this very bad culture. It is something that is commonplace all throughout Asia. Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore... people in these places all believe in working hard, pointlessly. I am very disagreeable with this habit. I mean, if you see a colleague working like a mad hamster, you would feel compelled to stay at your desk too! And what are both of you doing all this time? Well, writing blogs off-line can be one. MSN could be another. Even if you have your work open on the screen, you could be just poking around and not doing any real work. So what is the point really?

Now, what if you had a system, that gets you in trouble if results are not produced, and required you to get off work at 6pm everyday? Think that’s a stupid idea? Not at all, it’s actually a new policy that’s practiced by foreign companies setup in Asia and it draws results better than never before. If you must work overtime, do it alone, do it at home. In a modern workforce, work is very portable and there really is no real reason why you must do it in the office anyway. At least not after office hours.

Argh, sorry mates. My thoughts are straying all over the place. A Tuesday morning after a bad breakfast and strong coffee doesn’t really make for conducive thinking.