San Diego Who?

Ok, you know you've been out the the U.S. for too long when you start forgetting what NFL Football ( as opposed to British Football, or what we call soccer in the U.S.) teams are in what locations.  For the most part here in China, sports news is gathered from Internet sites. Streaming video of NFL games are non-existent,  and for that matter, news coverage scarce.  The NFL hasn't caught on in China, although they are big fans of the NBA.

As it was, the movement of NFL teams was difficult to keep track of on a good memory day.  For example ChinaFubar was born and raised in St. Louis, which used to be home to the St. Louis Cardinals NFL franchise, before them moved to Arizona and became the Arizona Cardinals.  Then finally the Los Angeles Rams moved to St. Louis, and all was well,  until the officials would make a mistake and call a penalty against "Los Angeles"  during a home game in St. Louis.  

Then, after the Rams were in St. Louis for only one season, I moved to Los Angeles.  Sold my Ram's PSL's, and was again, with no NFL team to cheer.  Still cheered the Rams, especially to their 1999 Super Bowl Championship with Kurt Warner at QB!  Great stuff, unfortunately, I was traveling in China at the time and of course didn't see the game.  Does the NFL really know how many viewers it looses because of their rules?

Now I call Arizona my U.S. home, at least that's what it says on my driver's license, and I'm again calling the Cardinals my home team, except now they play in Tempe.  And once again, they seem to be playoff bound in no small part due to the efforts of the very capable Kurt Warner.  Does anyone see a pattern here?  Is Warner Canton bound?  Should be, and not Canton, China either. 

But I digress.

All this movement and lack of regular exposure to the NFL was brought home last night while watching NFL on Bensports satellite at the local British pub here in Dongguan, One for the Road.  Not quite the same as in U.S., lots of British accents, and the game was only on one TV, with British football (soccer) on the other, larger screens. Plus the game, being on delay, was time compressed, and that just screws up the normal rhythm of watching an NFL game, as they cut out all the goings on between the end of a play and the snap for next play.  Kind of like watching an hour and a half of a highlight reel.

So I'm watching the game, and through the Chinese subtitles I can see that the Balti---oops, Indiana Colts are playing...some team from SD with what looks like a yellow feather as a logo.  At least that's what it looked like on the bottom of the screen where they show the scores.  So I'm thinking   SD....South Dakota??  When did they get a team?  And what is it,  the Yellow Feathers?  That's what the logo looked like.  After all, teams aren't named after the cities they play in now, but the states they play in.  Tennessee Titans,  Indiana Colts,  Arizona Cardinals,  Minnesota Vikings, etc.

Then, they finally show a close up of the team,and I realize "Duh, San Diego!!!   CHARGERS!  Doh!!  That's not a feather, that's a bad drawing of a spark.

That's when it hit me, the old limited memory bug.  The theory that the human brain can only hold so much information, and as you get older, at a certain point your brain becomes saturated, and for every new bit of information you learn, you forget something.  So, I suspect that some bit of the vast amount of knowledge I've picked up in the last few months caused me to forget the San Diego Chargers actually existed, and were not in actuality a team called the South Dakota Yellow Feathers.

Problem solved.  Except now there's another problem.

What bit of information did I now forget because I've "re-learned" about the San Diego Chargers.

Maybe my wife, good old what's her name knows.

A Very Strange Day

It's never a good day when you look at obituaries, and see someone you know, but it's really a strange day when you look the home town obituary and see that your father passed away.  And that's the only way you knew, because you happened to look at the obits that day.

So it seems that my father, whom I haven't seen or heard from since, Uh, maybe 1958 or 1959, passed away last Friday, ad the ripe old age of 78 or maybe 79.   At least longevity runs in my family, which is good to know. 

I don't know much about the guy,  just what I've heard through limited stories.  Served in the military in the late 1940's or early 1950's, MOS projectionist/photographer.  At one time I had a copy of his  honorable discharge papers, not sure what happened to those documents.  What little I do remember of him revolves around him running a hobby shop and playing with gas model airplanes.  I don't remember much interaction other than that. 

After he and my mother divorced, he bailed, started a new life and broke contact with us.  Apparently he didn't want to be bothered with "old baggage"  we were told by his parents to stay away from his live and we weren't welcome.

So, how to process all this.  Feel sad, sort of angry at what I missed.  My wife told me I should try and find him to establish contact, but I felt that he was the one that was continually hiding.  Not hard to get in contact with me, bankers from Nigeria can seem to manage.

So far the obituary reads, "Szabolcsky, Robert A. Fri., Jan. 2, 2009. Visitation XXX., 3-8 p.m. Funeral XXX., 12 noon at xxxx So. County. Interment National Cemetery

No mention of family, relatives, survivors, etc.  Somehow I wonder if that's how he wanted it.

So long Pop's, I never knew ya.

Happy New Year!!

Already it's January 1st, 2009, geez, where did the millennium go?  For ChinaFubar it was a quiet New Year's Eve, spent snuggling with Mrs. ChinaFubar and watching the festivities on Hong Kong TV. 

Currently sitting at the local pub having a post new year's lunch, and catching up with the New Year's Eve happenings.  Apparently there was the usual antics,  foolishness in the bathrooms,  people drinking mass quantities, etc.  Seems, as in the U.S.  New Year's Eve is "amateur night" here in China also.   But, some expats tend to be professional drinkers, so those dedicated souls consumed much more than usual apparently.

The pub itself is still showing the affects of the party, bits of silver confetti on the floor, chairs, and cracks in the bar.  Currently the barmaid is trying to get the confetti from on top of the flat screen TV behind the bar using a pool cue.

For ChinaFubar, this year has held a strange mix of events.  New jobs, no jobs, and moving around the country.  Looks like next year will bring more of the same.

It's said that an optimist looks to the new year ahead, and from the sounds of things in the news, it's going to be an interesting year.

The Recession's China's Fault?

Just reading an article from New York Times,  "Chinese Savings Helped Inflate American Bubble" which attempts to make the convoluted argument the reason for the current recession, which was basically based on the party of binge borrowing coming to a halt, is not because Americans borrowed so much, but because Chinese saved so much.  Thus, there was an excess of Chinese capital that was made available to banks and lending institutions and was used underwrite American consumption.

The article goes on to talk about how the  trade deficit gave China so much U.S. capital it had to plow it back into the U.S. economy in the form of purchasing debt such as Treasury bills and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debt.

While the article has the basics of the picture painted pretty well, I'm not sure the conclusion is correct.

Christmas in Dongguan

Well, it's Christmas Day in Dongguan, and rather than presents under the tree and a scene from the movie "A Christmas Story,"  I'm typing away on the computer, the wife's sleeping on the couch, where she was when I woke up this morning, (no reason why so far) and the construction workers are banging away downstairs on yet another apartment redecorating project.

To be fair, apparently there was a bit of holiday spirit, dare I say CHRISTMAS spirit in the air last night around town.  Concerts, recitals, the local expat school had their Christmas Pageant, and the mall next door had a show of some sort.  Actually the show was put on by a local auto dealer trying to drum up sales for Geelys, Suzukis, Great Wall, Chevrolet, and some other brand with a Mini knock-off. 

The show also included dancers, who while we were watching were doing some sort of dance routine that I think was supposed to be "sultry" but instead they just had a look of general unhappiness to be there. 

The whole display was capped off by a giant Christmas tree made of Snow beer cans. 

At least the PA system wasn't blaring out what is apparently the one Christmas music CD that is available locally.  Cutsey-sounding kids singing Christmas carols.  First 100 times it was cute, and put one in the holiday mood.  Second thousand times,... you get the picture.  This one has been playing everyplace from the Carrefour, Dongcheng Walking Street, Trust Mart, and the Japanese Noodle shop.  Sales must have been in the 100's for this CD.

Of course, not a lot of the local population really understands what Christmas is all about, mostly an excuse for a party and maybe exchanging of gifts, and an excuse for the vendors to run around to the customers giving day planners for next year.  I've also gotten a ton of e-mails from executive recruiters wishing me a Merry Christmas, and if I know of anyone looking for a new job to refer them and I'll be entered in a chance to win a 3000HKD gift certificate to some high end department store or another.  About as much chance of that happening as one of said recruiters actually placing someone in a job.

To be fair, seems this year there is an attempt by some folks here that actually understand the true meaning of Christmas to try and get the word out,  Even the local government sponsored English language news website "Dongguan Today" had an article about the story behind Christmas.  I'd link to it but it's been taken down already.

I know this all sounds cynical on my part, but for some reason the Christmas spirit has yet to descend on your able writer. Had a brief encounter with it sitting in Starbuck's a couple of weeks ago, but still waiting.  Maybe the sub tropical weather, palm trees and beer can Christmas trees has something to do with it.

I do have to say, as cynical as it sounds, from what I'm hearing back in the states there is more Christmas Sprit in our little atheistic city of Dongguan than there is in most of U.S.  Of course the current economy is playing a part in the reduction of holiday cheer in the states, but I'm hearing that political correctness has about wiped out the whole celebration of Christmas. I was in the states last year for Christmas, and I do have to say, more holiday spirit and "Merry Christmas" - NOT "Happy Holidays" here in DG land.

'Tis a shame really, 

MERRY CHRISTMAS.

And May Peace be With You and Your Family

ChinaFubar

The Cat's in the Kettle

Used to be an old China Expat Urban Legend about the expat wife shopping in the fresh markets in Guangzhou.  She comes across a vendor selling live cats destined to be someone's dinner later in the day.  This particular vendor's practice was to pick out the cat, break it's neck and plunge into boiling water to remove the hair.

Expat wife is horrified at the process, and takes it upon herself to at least save a couple of the cute little kittens from their inevitable culinary destiny.  She offers to purchase 2 of the more "cute'" kittens, but requested the stall owner to not boil them.

Stall owner complies and pulls the cats out of the cage, wrings their little necks and holds the now dead cats out to the expat wife.  Rumor has it she fainted.

Courtesy of Danwei, we received news that cats have now again become a popular dining staple,  Seems that stray cats from Nanjing province are rounded up by "cat fishermen" and shipped to a market in Dongguan, where they are sold to smaller vendors, and eventually wind up in Cantonese restaurants in the area:

According to Southern Metropolis Daily (Chinese Language):

At 3:37 on December 10th, the K25 train arrived at Dongguan East Station. About 1,500 cats had been sent on the train from Nanjing. Eight men wearing camouflage got on the train and started to move off the cages crammed with cats. Every time a cage landed on the ground, cats screeched in pain.

The invoice showed that this shipment contained 1,500 cats, and included a sterilization certificate and an animal quarantine certificate issued by official veterinerians.

The cats were loaded to trucks and sent to the Guijiang Three Birds Market, which is the biggest wholesale poultry market in southern China. Every day, more than 100,000 animals are sold here. From that market, the cats were distributed to other cities in Guangdong.

Around ten wholesale vendors are involved in the dog and cat trade. One of them, known as "Big Boss," spoke Mandarin with a Cantonese accent, while the others spoke different dialects.

Cats here are sold in cages to smaller vendors for 4 yuan per kilogram, which includes the weight of the cages and any dead animals. For smaller-volume trading, the prices are 9 yuan per kilo for medium-sized cats and 14 yuan per kilo for the bigger ones.

Following a man who bought some cats, the reporter arrived at a Cantonese food restaurant where cat is priced for 36 yuan per kilo. In the restaurant, customers ordered a dish called "braised cat," which cost 147 yuan. Describing the dish, the waitress said that cat meat has the medicinal property of "nourishing yin and boosting yang." The customers said that they wanted to try it because they were curious.

Cats are packed in cages (from Nalan Jingmeng's blog)

The reporter traced the source of the cats to suburban counties of Nanjing, where some people make a living catching cats and selling them for about 10 to 20 yuan each to wholesalers. These cat thieves are called "cat fishermen." A fisherman can catch about 20 cats in one night. A Nanjing-based organization which is committed to helping stray cats confirmed to the newspaper that there are far fewer stray cats in the city this year than normal.

In Nanjing, there is also a market specializing in the cat trade. Local police said that the market has been around for over ten years and that it doesn't violate the law.

Of course the Netizens in China are responding, with no small amount of anger, as China.org reports. In part:

Many people have condemned the eating of cats, claiming they are human beings' friends.

According to an online survey conducted by the website of Southern Metropolis Daily yesterday, 661 out of the 886 netizens who voted considered dining on cats "ruthless", while 207 said it was okay.

Almost 400 said they have never eaten cats, while 170 said they have or want to try.

"Tears cannot help welling up whenever the scene occurs to me that a pitiful cat is drowned in boiling water and torn apart as delicacy for someone. I just can't imagine how brutal people can be," Tang Xiyuan, a volunteer for an organization for stray animals in Guangzhou, told China Daily yesterday.

"Don't those who dine on cats remember that they used to play with cats in their childhood, and don't they remember how cute and friendly the cats are!" she said.

However, many other citizens seem to be more tolerant.

"I myself don't eat cats; but I don't think eating cats should be forbidden or condemned as long as the behavior is legal and does not cause diseases," Lin Jiaqian, a high school teacher in Guangzhou's Tianhe district, said yesterday.

"All the poultry and livestock are lovely when they are small; and it's equally cruel to kill them," Lin said.

The article goes on to mention:

An official with the animal hygiene supervision institute under the provincial health department, who preferred not to be named, told China Daily yesterday that his institution supervises chickens, geese, ducks, horses, cattle, sheep, donkeys, mules, pigs and dogs, but not cats.

"Unless they (the cats) are suspected to have caused an epidemic, I don't think we are in a good position to interrupt the business," he said.

Both the police and industrial and commercial administrators said they will not interrupt the business as long as the businesspeople can produce all the permits and licenses required.

"Eating or trading cats does not violate China's law," Zhang Yuanlong, a lawyer with Guangdong Fucheng Law Firm, said.

China Fubar wonders, with the lack of hygiene supervision of cats as food, will we be subject to the same sort of disease outbreak similar to SARS, which, if you remember, was caused by infected Civet Cats out of Guangzhou.

China Fubar can't also help but recall the parody of Harry Chapin's tune, "Cat's in the Cradle"

Neat Shoes

During this morning's perusal of the news,  a multimedia article from New York Times,  "Fashion on the Street - Some Imagination".  It's a multimedia slide show, so may take some time to load all the photos, you may see blank screen while the narrator/author Bill Cunningham describes what he sees.

While everyone's expecting a down year in the footwear industry, it's interesting to note that some companies are experiencing record sales or up years. Again, the key is to produce something that people want.  Fashion shoes are by and large an emotional purchase, and how those shoes are designed and marketed plays a big part in a brands success.

Those of us in the footwear industry do tend to complain, you rarely hear a person say "It's been great, never better"  always "Business is tough, hard to make anything"

And I've never met a factory owner who didn't complain the factory was loosing money.  Even when the factory was at capacity.

My feeling is, now's not the time to get too conservative. You're product becomes a commodity,  Every one's knocking off 9 West's pointed toe pumps, Expect to see all the mass market retailers with the same silhouette next fall.  How about using some imagination and trying something different?

Sure the consumer is in "pullback and retrench"  right now, but human nature being what it is, I suspect by this fall the consumer will get tired of being tight fisted, and splurge a bit. 

The past is done, the present is here, now it's time to look to the future. Wether we look at it positively or with an attitude of gloom and doom, can influence what happens next. Sort of the self-fulfilling prophesy philosophy.

My rant for today, thank you very  much for listening.

Back From the Dark Side

Well just in case you were wondering where I was at for the last month and a half since the last post, lets just say I was at the Dark Side of Shoemaking.

Lets just way working for a Chinese owned shoe factory was (and I say WAS) interesting.  Being the only Laowai was even more interesting, racism is alive and well in China.  Not out in the open, but there nonetheless.

I'm not going to go into the gory details as to what happened, but I will give some observations on the footwear industry from the factory side as it has seemed to change quite a bit.

There seemed to be a decided lack of footwear knowledge  on the part of some of the factory customer's staff.  Knowledgeable decisions that were at one time made by the customer's staff are now left up to the factory, and as any old "China Hand" can tell you, that's usually not a good thing. 

Despite the lip service given to human rights, codes of conduct and such, in reality, the main thing Major Customer cares about is getting the shoes in the shortest time possible, and if it means working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so be it.  I've seen this now working with 2 companies, so I suspect this is not an isolated deal.

And some new things I've learned from the experience

Merchandise managers usually have no clue as to what making a shoe is all about, but think they are experts in the craft.  (Actually I knew this from past companies, but this was proved out yet again.)

You can't run 650 amps of electricity through a 600 amp main box and meter.  Trust me.

Stir fry pork and rice gets boring 2 meals a day, 7 days a week.

GPS navigation systems in China generally work better than you would think. Even the copy versions.

When the boss puts his car up for collateral for a working capital loan, update the resume.

Viet Nam wasn't the answer.

Jianxi probably isn't either.

China's now putting McDonalds at the rest/fuel stops on the expressways.  The fall of modern civilization can't be far behind.

Learned a lot of other things, some of them even related to shoemaking.   We'll see what comes of this newfound knowledge.

Got Milk? File an Environmental Impact Statement!

So last night, I was on Skype with friend, fellow blogger, humorist and co-conspirator in many things shoemaking, China Charlie, and the subject of the melamine  milk scandal here in China came up.  Now China Charlie is currently semi-retired and sunning his buns in the Philippines, so he was asking what the impact here in China was.  Any my reply, recalling the time during my childhood when dinnerware made from melamine was all the range (anyone remember "Melmac" dinnerware)  replied that I was probably going to be passing a cup and saucer set soon.

In the last couple of weeks, I've eaten several bowls of cereal and milk, Snicker's bars (also probably made with melamine apparently) and Oreo Cookies (yep, melamine in the cookies and filling). I suspect there could be a sizable buildup of the substance coming on. 

Then we discussed the other nasty stuff we've probably put in our bodies.  Water in China?  We've both pretty much become accustomed to the local tap water, I don't even bother to boil it much anymore,  So, how about some heavy metal, mercury, cadmium, lead, etc?  Soup cooked in crockery bowls?  Not sure of the heavy metal content in that.  Tomato sauce in aluminum pans?  Sure,  I'm particularly fond of fish and clams, so lets add a bit more mercury to the mix please. 

Also, in my case I had a run in with cancer a few years ago, so add in a bit of what ever they fed me during chemotherapy, plus a healty dose of radioactive stuff.

We both decided, when ever we went to the "great beyond" that in all reality, we probably couldn't be brought back to the U.S. for burial, as the mortuary/cemetery would have to file an E.P.A. Environmental Impact Statement, and the cemetery would be at risk of later becoming a superfund site.

And we both wonder why we set off the metal detectors at the airport, even though we've removed keys, wallets, belts, cellphones,  etc.  I always try to pick the line with the prettiest female security person, if I'm going to be felt up, it might as well be by a female.  Last time through Shenzhen airport I was patted down by a guy who I think enjoyed his job a bit too thoroughly.  Lets just say  I almost suggested we just go to the local hotel.....

Ok, enough of this writing stuff, time to get back to my coffee (wonder what's in that?) and off to my job in a shoe factory, 

Ahh, the sweet smell of non organic solvents.

Gee, Not in Dongguan Anymore

Well, if you're wondering what's been going on about the lack of posts. seems life made a turn for the more interesting, and ChinaFubar is now for the most part steadily employed...

This could be interesting on several levels.  First, ChinaFubar's not working on the customer/trading company side of the business, he's working for a Chinese-owned factory.  Yes, I've gone over to the "dark side" and gone to work for a supplier.  I'm not naming names...This could wind up being "tales from the Dark Side" and filled with stories of what happens on this side of the business.

Second, I'm not in Dongguan anymore.  Well, at least full time anyway. This company has a registered office in Hong Kong (where my business cards show the company is)  an office in Dongguan, 3 factories in Fuzhou and one in Jiangxi province.  I'll split my time between Dongguan and the 3 Fuzhou factories, but for now I'm in Fuzhou.  That's another adventure.

For now, it's been real busy with finding out what's what, who's who and where's the westerner's bathroom!  And, weekends off??? Forgeddaboudit!!!  No more 5 or 5 and a half day work weeks, now it's 7 day work weeks.   And a short day is only 8 hours....What China labor law???  And "official" Chinese Holidays?  Uh, I don't think so....Seems days off are more governed by China Power and Light than calendar days, we get days off when there's no electricity at the factory. 

So stay tuned sports fans, for the further adventures of China Fubar and the Tale of the Lost Shoe Factory.

Not a Good Day

It's never a good day, when open your e-mail and the first thing that pops up are 3 e-mails with 2 words on the headers, and those 2 words are someone's name that you know is having the battle of their life.

In today's case, the 3 e-mails were from a friend and former co-worker of mine, sent to 3 of the various e-mail addresses I use and they all said the same thing on the header "Erik Purdom".

Erik was a great designer, mentor, and adventurer  and will be sorely missed by all who knew him.   He had been undergoing a battle with a rare stomach cancer, signet ring cell carcinoma.   A very rare and aggressive form of stomach cancer

What to say about Erik,  I never had the pleasure of working with him, but I did have  the pleasure of spending a little  time with him, although it was more of a social nature rather than work.  My first meeting was in a job interview with the now defunct L.A. Gear athletic footwear company, which lives on under license.  Had been meeting and interviewing with several people through out the day, and finally I get sat down in a conference room to interview with the designers.  3 guys come in, one of which was Eric, who was the Director of Design at the time.  And I'm thinking "oh great, a panel interview, this will be fun - NOT" 

And I sat, and looked at them, and they sat, and looked at me, and after about 20 seconds, I asked "Well, what do you want to know?"  And Erik say "uh, no, what do YOU want to know?"  And so the chat and chin wag was on the go.   I didn't take the job at the time, but did wind up going there a couple of years later,  Eric had left to start his own business, but a lot of the designers at Gear still kept in contact, with him, and he would stop by from time to time to pick up a couple of the design/development group to fly out to Catalina for lunch.  The old hundred-dollar-hamburger.

And so the adventure for Erik continues, as his blog says, "probably putting together his next Big Thing"

"So long Erik, we hardly knew ye"

Technorati Tags: Erik Purdom

Well That Was a Heck of a Birthday Party!

Got a great birthday party Friday,  they had a whopping big party in Beijing!  Actually, just coincidence my birthday is on the auspicious date of 08-08, and this year it happened to land on the opening day of the Olympics.

My wife, bless her heart, kept saying "but you're not excited about your birthday!"  Dear, at 53 you don't get all that excited about birthdays anymore.  Ok, maybe at 55 you get a little excited, you can do the senior's meal at Denny's, and you start qualifying for more senior discounts, (a buck is a buck), but after 50, you really don't make a big deal of birthdays.  50 is the big landmark, you get  your AARP card.  For you non-American's reading this, that's a sort of senior citizen's organization, American Association of Retired Persons.  And just to tick my wife off, I applied for joint membership, so at the tender age of (not all that old) she gets an AARP card too!. Fix her wagon.

But, I did sort of celebrate, treated myself to coffee and blueberry muffin at Starbucks, didn't do squat much around the house. And, best present of all, lunchtime job interview.  Looks positive, should have details finalized this week.  Job is in Fuzhou though, and I can't find much info about Fuzhou on the net, other then the usual touristy stuff.

Anyway, dinner at the local English Pub, "One for the Road" and watched the opening ceremony on their big screen TV,  Lots of locals there even though the pub is decidedly very British.  The local Chinese very attentive, sitting in the front, the expats, usual rowdy, noisy selves, toward the back. Bit of a contrast, but that's to be expected. 

And, did we all worry at all about the CGI Footsteps?  Did we even notice Lin Miaokethe was lip-syncing ?  Did we even see the "blue screen of death" during the torch lighting?

Not really!  The great part was the two groups in the same place enjoying the celebration. I think that's what the Olympic Organizing Committee had in mind of the spirit of "One World"

Hey, I Won the Lottery! and UFO's Back Home.

Well, it finally happened! I can kiss this place goodbye, I won the lottery!  At least I'm getting numerous e-mails telling me so. Too bad, I have to share with 5 other lucky winners, or I'd have the whole $500,000 to myself.  Who knew the Beijing World Cyber Olympics Games 2008 Lotto Promotion would pick my numbers and pick me to be one of the 5 lucky winners.  Great!  Now I can invest in some beachfront Property in Arizona!

Ah yes, back home where I understand the big news is the UFO landing in nearby Needles, CA.  Seems like a good story, "Men in Black" strange looking trucks and misplaced helicopters.  Combined with a person I know who claimed to pick up a couple of "sorta funny lookin and hot and sweaty  and stinky,  and couldn't understand anything they were saying" hitchikers.  Got scared of them and dropped them off in town.  Pretty sure they weren't aliens of the south of the border illegal variety, those are common enough to identify fairly easily. 

Gee, makes life in Dongguan seem down right boring... the big news here is... is....is.... well, we'll get back to you on that one.

And since this is "silly assed Sunday" I guess I'll post this video link, scammed from Imagethief.

And this my friends, is what happens when a blogger posts on a Sunday morning after too many cups of coffee. 

The Legend of the Ghost of "NB"

Ok, time for a break from all this Olympic Visa nonsense.  We're about to be inundated, worldwide, by The Olympics, and all the back stories, side stories, front stories and who knows what stories that will come of it.  But really, check the blogroll for some very good sources of information 

My only comment about the whole thing today?  The Visa Olympics.  No, not sponsored by VISA  but an Olympic event where everyone tries to get a visa to come to China, vs Chinese trying to get a visa to go to anyplace else.  Can be graded on "degree of difficulty"  I say this because I just had to make a trip to Hong Kong to get 6 months of bank statements and a "statement of bank balance" so my wife can get a visitor's visa to U.K.   I, being an American, can just show up, go through immigration and done deal. Her, on the other hand, being Chinese (even though she's a US permanent resident) has to jump through hoops and file copious amounts of paperwork.  I think we had it way to easy with the China Visa situation for a long time.

But I digress, had a little rant there. Sorry.

The real story today is the "Legend of the Ghost of NB".   This actually happened, I used to work for the company involved, and while I never met NB, I know some of the other players, at least the ones still alive, and have heard this all first hand from the folks involved.  I'm not naming names, some are still alive, and I think NB's wife is still around, and may not even know the whole story as of yet.

NB was one of those "old China hands" that used to inhabit these parts when China first opened up and started to be the world's factory floor. Back then, country managers and production managers weren't the MBA graduate, family man type, They were however, very capable, hard working, hard drinking, and mostly rough around the edges folks that just dealt with what came best they could. There were no books on how to do business in China back then, no blogs going on about the subject. These guys were the pioneers so to speak.

Dongguan back then was, for the most part, an outpost. No 5 star hotels, no "western" restaurants, no expat pubs, and the roads were suspect.  Expat's living in Dongguan either stayed at the Guancai Hotel or the Dongguan Hillside,   There were a couple of  disco's the KK club and one called BMW,  BMW was the most popular of the two, but is the source of another story.

Now NB was about in his late 50's we suspect, but because of the expat lifestyle, Johnnie Walker and chain smoking, looked much older.  It is said there are still bottles of  Johnnie Walker black label in bars in Southern China with his name card on them. He also had a "git er done" a coupled with a didn't give a squat what folks thought attitude that kept him sane living in this part of the world at that time.

He also liked women, especially the local grown Chinese ladies, and had a particular girlfriend that he took with him almost everywhere, company meetings, final inspections, etc.  NB was in the habit of doing final inspections late at night, girlfriend on one side, bottle of Johnnie Walker on the other. 

Eventually though, the reputation caught up with NB, and the VP of manufacturing, an Indian fellow, PR, decided enough antics were enough, and terminated NB,  NB apparently didn't take it well, and crawled pretty far into the bottle of JW that evening.  Legend has it he also had a particularly strenuous session with the girlfriend.  However, his health wasn't the best, and after the session, he passed away.  Differing accounts on his last words.  Either "I love you" or "I'm cold"

Now technically, he was no longer the responsibility of "The Company" as he was terminated earlier in the day, but the company did the right thing by dealing with the aftermath.  PR, who felt responsible  went back to India shortly after, and had to do some sort of cleansing ritual, involving shaving his head, to atone for what he believed caused the death of NB.  At this point I have to ask forgiveness, as I'm not up on Indian culture or religion, so I can't be more specific.

Now, old NB expired at one of the two above mentioned hotels, the Guancai.

And NB was shipped off to the states, his affects sorted through, girlfriend paid off, etc. and life went on.

Until one of the expat production managers, we'll call SW, who worked for The Company and as also staying at the GC hotel, heard a knock on his door late at night. When SW answered it, who should be there but NB himself, seemingly risen from the grave.   SW closed the door immediately.  And quit drinking.

Apparently, NB's ghost wasn't done, as he reportedly visited, over the next couple weeks, a German Tourist Couple and several Chinese visitors to the hotel.

What with the ghost running around and scaring the visitors, and the rumors that started flying, the hotel management had only one option. They called in a "spiritual" advisor, and had the ghost "exorcized" from the hotel.  All accounts seem to indicate it worked, as NB's ghost has not been seen again.

These days, the CG hotel is mostly a local place, Dongguan having grown to a much larger city, with expat pubs, several 5 star hotels, etc.  The KK club closed, and the BMW club was closed down when a high ranking party official's son was killed there, having the side effect of having all entertainment banned from China for a few months.

Some days, I miss the camaraderie of those times,  All the expats knew each other, we all stayed at the same hotel, and had breakfast together,  and usually drinks later in the evening.   We were pretty much "working without a net."

And with that, it's time to get down to Starbucks for a coffee fix. 

Maybe I don't miss the old days so much after all.

More Controversy about SCMP Story regarding Blacks Banned from Bars in Beijing

Ok, so a couple days after the story on SCMP "broke" the story about how the police in Beijing are asking bar owners in the Sanlitun bar district to ban blacks, there have been several follow up reports, some from the SCMP and some other investigative reporters.

SCMP still sticks to their story, with a follow up written by Tom Miller in Beijing, who writes

Police in Beijing's popular Sanlitun bar district deny they are conducting a racist campaign ahead of the Olympics, as another bar owner revealed he had been ordered not to let in blacks.

"They made us sign and chop a document saying we would not allow black people in [during the Olympics]," the owner said. "But no one is willing to say so because we'll all get deported ... and have our business shut."

Asked yesterday whether they had told landlords not to let blacks in bars, an officer at the Sanlitun police station had a one-word answer: "No."

The story goes on mention one bar owner who said blacks can still come into his establishment, but they have been asked to watch for people acting suspiciously.

Meanwhile Beijing Boyce made some calls and visited some bars in the district and found

- An owner said police met with Sanlitun bar reps and told them to monitor black patrons. He said the police told the reps that drug dealers are predominantly black in the area. He said the police did not ask bar owners to ban blacks.

- Several Sanlitun area bar owners said they had not been told by police to ban blacks or Mongolians.

- I also spoke to several people in the restaurant business and they told me they have not heard of police telling city eateries to ban people.

- Most interesting, two people working at one bar had different perspectives on the terminology used by the police. One said the police used “black” in reference to skin color; while the other said it was used in terms of bad elements (the Chinese character for “black” is part of a phrase used to describe criminals)

Beijing Boyce will be providing follow ups as they become available.

So, the question remains, is this just bad reporting on the part of the SCMP, a lot of misunderstanding of terminology, or another heavy handed tactic being used by Beijing police to "provide for the public safety" during the "No Fun" Olympics?

Blacks Not Allowed

Ok, now from the "Lets set the Civil Rights movement back about Oh, Say 50 years" department comes this little tidbit from the

South China Morning Post: (you may have to have a subscription to read this, as the SCMP is one of the few news sites you have to pay to read.

Authorities order bars not to serve black people

Beijing authorities are secretly planning to ban black people and others it considers social undesirables from entering the city's bars during the Olympic Games, a move that would contradict the official slogan, "One World, One Dream".

Bar owners near the Workers' Stadium in central Beijing say they have been forced by Public Security Bureau officials to sign pledges agreeing not to let black people enter their premises.

"Uniformed Public Security Bureau officers came into the bar recently and told me not to serve black people or Mongolians," said the co-owner of a western-style bar, who asked not to be named.

The local authorities have been cracking down on blacks and Mongolians in an attempt to stamp out drug dealing and prostitution ahead of the Games, the proprietors said.

A few months ago, police launched a violent sting on black men drinking in the Sanlitun bar district, and a notorious nightclub largely populated by Mongolian prostitutes was also shut down.

Security officials are targeting Sanlitun, which Olympic organisers expect to be a key destination for foreign tourists looking for a party during the Games.

The pledges that Sanlitun bar owners had been instructed to sign agreed to stop a variety of activities in their establishments, including dancing and serving customers with black skin, they said.

They have been allowed to keep copies of all the pledges except those relating to blacks, implying that the authorities are wary of charges of racism.

"I am appalled," said a black British national who works in Beijing.  "I understand that the government  is trying to stop certain illegal activities, but I don't think blanket discrimination is going about it the right way.

"Chinese people are prejudiced, but I would have hoped that the government would set a better example as it debuts on the world stage."

Calls to Dongcheng district and Chaoyang district public security bureaus, which oversee the bar districts, went unanswered.

The authorities' attempt to keep unwanted behaviour from damaging the squeaky-clean image of the Games is the latest example of heavy-handedness that critics say is killing the party spirit of the Olympics.

During the Athens Olympics four years ago, bars and nightclubs were allowed to stay open all night. But venues in Beijing that are not being shut down during the Games will have to close at 2am and maintain tight security.

"The officials told me to inform my customers that they must at all times carry their passports or ID cards," said one bar owner.

"Security is important, but Beijing is becoming a fortress, and that's not attractive."

Rumours that all bars within 2km of an Olympic venue will need to close remain unconfirmed, with many managers complaining that they still have not been told whether they will be allowed to open or not. Several bars have been raided in the past few weeks as local police step up a campaign of low-level intimidation, according to several witness accounts.

Bar and restaurant managers in Sanlitun have been instructed to remove tables from footpaths in a crude attempt to prevent fighting in the streets.

"The local police told us to get rid of the tables because they're scared that if too many foreigners congregate outside there could be trouble," said Song Xun , who runs a burrito joint in the area.

Local musicians say that a clampdown on live music risks stifling  Beijing's thriving cultural scene and giving Olympic tourists the false impression that the city is artistically anaemic.

Several popular live music venues have been shut or instructed to stop all outdoor shows, and club owners complain they have got used to strange new guests nursing a beer for hours and suspiciously observing everything around them.

"The whole music scene is angry and bewildered. It is impossible to understand how keeping tourists from seeing an open, culturally vibrant and diverse Beijing is possibly a good thing for anyone," said one well-known figure in the local music industry.

David Mitchell, a Beijing-based jazz musician, said it had become increasingly difficult for his band to find anywhere to play.

"It appears the local government is trying to control every aspect of the experience that foreigners get when they come here," he said.

"Everything is aimed at creating stability, but they don't understand that is precisely the unfounded prejudice that foreigners have of Chinese society - that it is a highly controlled and not a very cultural place. It seems completely self-defeating.

We've been wondering about the Central Government's motives behind all the visa restrictions, new rules and sudden changes, and I guess this brings it all to light.

On another note, James Fallow's gives us his "Final Words on Olympic Tourism"   and mentions that while the BOGOC's initial estimated a total of 500,000 foreign visitors to the Olympics, the working plans now call for 140,000 foreign visitors.  Apparently the foreign visitors have concluded that the Beijing games won't be much fun, and are waiting the four years until the London Games, when, according to Paul French in Shanghai, author of the entertaining recent biography of the old China hand Carl Crow "we'll all be in London where lots will go wrong but it will probably be quite a fun party with few restrictions and the police won't care that much if people unfurl banners in Trafalgar Square."

And so it goes in the Middle Kinkdom

I Can't Help It

Ok, I can't help it, I gotta do it. Sometimes headlines just beg to be made fun of.

On today's Yahoo Site:

Obama says New Yorker insulted Muslim Americans

If I was a Muslim American I would be insulted that Obama was portrayed as one of them also. 

In case you haven't seen the cover:

A take on the anti-Obama e-mails that keep springing up claiming he's a Muslim intent on converting the nation to Islam.  I remember when JFK was running for president, the rumor was he was going to build a direct tunnel to the Vatican. 

Ain't Democracy fun?

China Visa and the Employment Situation

Well, then, I see I've been very remiss in updating this blog, and for that I again apologize.  If you think this blog hasn't been updated for a bit, you should see my other website,  That's Dongguan.  Just found out last night that the remaining restaurant  in the Dongguan Dining section has closes.  So, the site contains a bunch of reviews on restaurants that don't exist.  Great Stuff.  My excuse for that one is I wasn't in China for 10 months to keep track of things.

Rest assured, Dongguan foodies and news hounds,  I'm in the process of re-working that site, to make it more user-friendly, easy on the eyes and more meaningful.   We have decided to re-name the restaurant review section "Needs to be Eaten" after my wife's comment after Hurricane Katrina.  CNN announcer was doing an interview with someone from the local Human Society, about the house pets and domestic animals that were left homeless, and asked the H.S. person "what do these animals (homeless house pets)  need"  my wife pipes up "They need to be eaten!" 

Now, down to business.,

One of my rare pub crawl nights out last night, and the main topic of discussion was the China Visa situation.  Now anyone who even remotely follows this knows the tightening up of the rules,  however unevenly applied, but it's interesting to see how it's hitting home in Dongguan and how it's affecting companies' business decisions.

First, ChinaFUBAR's been looking for work since his return to China in February, with limited results.  Factor's mentioned other than the "too experienced" "not experienced enough" and "you aren't fluent in English, Mandarin AND Cantonese"  is the new regulations for "Z" visas.  Basically, any company that's following the rules to the letter and wants their expat employees to have proper documentation in the form of "Z" residence visas and work permits,  isn't going to pay to have a new hire flown back to his home country, then sit for 2-3 weeks while the visa is processed. 

In addition, there are some rumors now that the local government is cracking down on who they will give "expert certification" to, and has tightened the Chief Representative Visa Policy.   Discussion last night was around an expat country manager from Germany, working for a large German athletic shoe manufacturer, who is now being transferred out because the company "has to have a local Chinese country manager"  We're trying to verify if the policy came from local government or if it's new company policy.  From what we understand it's new company policy put in place at the request of local government.

Will be interesting to see how this plays out, and if it extends to other companies as well.

As a follow up to my post of "Where Next"   the China Law Blog discusses "China Versus India Versus Vietnam at a Gut Level"  Mostly a discussion of pride of place,  makes the supposition that India cares more about pride of place than China.  Makes for an interesting discussion.

Now, back to "work" with me, time to find gainful employment.  I did hear last night that I'm publishing an English language magazine.  Interesting news to me!  I really need to get out more, I may be president of some company making a 7 figure salary and I don't know it yet.  AH, Rumors....

Rain, Karaoke, and Little Girls

Ok, first, I apologize for not posting for  a while, things have been very hectic around ChinaFubar's area of the Middle Kinkdom,  what with dealing with father-in-law, copious amounts of rain, and day to day dealing with balky customers.

On a personal note, the father-in-law is back home from the hospital after having 3 surgeries to un-clog his blocked arteries.  Bit of an adventure getting home, as the rains in Guangdong had many of the roads flooded, as well as the in-law's village, so we were stranded there for a while. One way in and out, and it was under a couple feet of water.  Not the first time I've had to deal with this. Now I know why the Landwind dealer tried to sell me on the "high water" option, which consisted of waterproofing the engine and air intake snorkel. 

Seems a bad year for natural and man-made disasters in China,  Snow, fire (Olympic torch fiasco) earthquake, and now floods.  And it's not even full on into typhoon season yet, so wind has yet to take a bow.

Other random notes, just read an article by Emily Flitter entitled  "With Karaoke, a Deal in China for a Song"  A lot of the people making comments, including myself thought the article was a bit naive with her idea that most of the young women in Karaoke clubs aren't sex workers, and that business visitors wouldn't be taken to those sort of low end clubs.  Uh, try again...

From what I've seen, the whole dinner and karaoke thing, especially when it involves the factory, is a good excuse for the factory boys, who are usually living in a factory dorm to begin with, and normally pretty boring lives, to have a night out on the company.  If you watch close, usually they'll eat before going to the dinner and actually eat very little at the dinner. You on the other hand will be treated to all sorts of delicacies not normally associated with your everyday meal in China. 

Luckily, these days it's more common to have female visitors, and many factories have female management, so another option of "bonding with the hosts" might be foot massage.  Somewhat less seedy, and women can go to separate rooms from the men, and all are happy. . 

I've been on the "host" side of some of these, and while I'm not sure what goes on for interaction in the women's rooms, the guys' rooms  usually winds up with a macho thing of who can take the most pain at the hands of the masseuse.  A proper done foot massage can get pretty painful to the uninitiated, and I've seen some pretty "macho"  American guys cry like little girls by the end of it all.  I'm always amazed at how such small women can inflict so much pain.

Anyway, it's been a long time since ChinaFubar's been treated to a "factory night out" so luckily, China's karaoke girls are safe from having to listen to him sing "Casablanca" yet again.

Ramblings

Sometimes this blog winds up  not so much about business in China, or social life in China but about life in China in general.  Let's face it plenty of China bloggers do a great job of discussing a lot of issues, if you don't believe me,  just check the blogroll to the right.

Some bad news, father in law had a heart attack a couple of days ago, he's resting comfortably, but probably will need surgery.  Was taken to the local hospital in Changping (in Dongguan) and stabilized, luckily they got him there in time.  Apparently hospitals like this are like any large small town hospital, equipped to do emergency stuff, get folks stabilized, but major surgery is sent to larger cities. In this case off to Guangzhou should any major stuff be called for.   I'll follow this one, as for us expats, health care is a primary concern, and we worry about the quality of care we would receive in such an emergency.

On other bad news, a friend and past business associate was diagnosed with cancer, evidently a rare form of stomach cancer on top of that, signet ring cell cancer.  Now if you knew this person, this is something you wouldn't expect, maybe, as one entry in  his blog puts it.

Cancer? Come on man, you can do better than that.
Nearly blowing your head off after chucking a burning spear into an abandoned well filled with decades of methane-producing rotting vegetation. That shit is more your speed.
Piloting your Jeep through hairpin donkey trails haphazardly cut into the sides of 500-foot high granite cliffs. Big, ankle-slapping brass balls, that one.
Eating dicey curries in back-alley Hong Kong lucky sailor wok shops. Pure Purdom.
Sorry it took so long to get back to about your latest attempt to buck life's odds. I was just waiting for something with a bit more of an, I don't know..., "Erik edge" to it.

ChinaFUBAR's also a cancer survivor, so we understand what's going on, and our prayers go out to Erik and his family.  By the way, we opted to do treatments in Hong Kong instead of repatriating back to the U.S. and seems all worked out well. Cannot say good enough things about he Hong Kong Adventist Hospital Cancer Center.

On the China Business side, had a conversation with a Sourcing Manager for a major U.S. retailer, in charge of hardgoods, fashion accessories and Footwear.  The discussion about the supposed "mass exodus" of factories in Guangdong came up, and although he deals with quite a few vendors by the time you combine all his areas of responsibilities, he's not hand any of his vendors yet come and say they are moving to other provinces, other countries. etc.  Is this whole "we're leaving Guangdong" a big knee-jerk reaction?  Stay tuned China-watchers.   He did mention that his product costs have risen about 15% and they've had to absorb the costs.  I expect that will only last so long.

About it for now.