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POLI/ASIA 347: Urban Lab Shanghai
The student blog for Rice University's Urban Lab in Shanghai.
 

Posts Tagged ‘China’

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Day 7 – E-Commerce and Islam

March 15th, 2014 by mjr8

The seventh day of the trip was an eventful one to say the least.  We went to a company that was called “Eastday.” This company is an e-commerce company that is very diverse, in the way that they run many online businesses. Less than two years ago, however, they were nothing more than a news website. With a vision to be profitable and to become modern, they converted their business into a multi-purpose one. Now they deal with art, news, bedding, and a plethora of other products.

Part of the reason why they were able to start up and grow so rapidly is because of the central government and its policies. It seems to be a recurring theme in most of the businesses we visit, that the central government has a positive role in the growth of each company. In this case, the central government offers provinces money to start websites because of the wide range of users they can attract, which, in the end, results in profit and more capital. What is special about Eastday is that they have diversified their business. They act as a financial service platform for people who are interested in buying paint. In addition, they even own jade mines in parts of the country. These jade mines help them acquire materials to make some of their products such as the world’s thinnest bowl. Another reason why they have been successful is because of a style they utilize called Online to Offline. This means that Eastday creates websites for many types of products, where people can browse freely, and then when they are ready to purchase these prospective buyers can go to the physical store locations. This is done to make both of their online and offline businesses successful and it has worked very well. They are one of the largest websites stationed in the city of Shanghai.

The fact that Eastday encourages local, small businesses rather than consume them is very inspiring for businesses back here in the United States. Here in the United States many large corporations and businesses seem to run many of the local businesses in our cities to the ground. They cannot compete with mega stores that sell literally everything. Eastday doesn’t believe in this concept because they realize how important it is to have local businesses and jobs in the city. If I were to describe them, I would say that they are the equivalent to Amazon in the way that they host items that are sold from physical stores.

The next lecturer that we had was a scholar on Islam in China. Many people wouldn’t even expect a country like China to have a sizable Muslim population, but they actually do. There are over 23 million Muslims in China, representing 1.8% percent of the population. To make a comparison, in the United States they represent less than 1% percent. Most of the Muslim population actually lives in the Northwestern regions, away from the major eastern cities. They also tend to live in close, small communities.

It is also important to mention that the government has been very diligent to protect the rights of these people over the years. Because of this, there are special schools, day cares, and places for Muslims to go to. There are even over 140 separate stores that sell food specialized for Muslims and special areas for Muslim funerals. An interesting fact, there are a total of 2000 beef noodle stores in Shanghai. The reason why this is relavent and important is because beef noodles were first created in China by a Muslim ethnic group called the Hui, so this food is very cultural to the Muslims in Shanghai.

While there are over 8 mosques located in the city, there is not enough places of worship for them. In a city of 24 million people this is to be expected. The locations of the mosques are also a large problem. Most of them are clumped together and are in areas that are not primarily Muslim. Because of this there are many “temporary” places of worship for these people. Technically speaking, temporary places of worship are illegal, but the government does not do much because they understand the precarious situation in which the Muslim population is in. For the last 10 years, the central and municipal government has actually studying these locations to aid in finding a resolution for temporary places of worship. Before the PRC was established, though, there were over 20 different mosques, but the cultural revolution led to the closure of such mosques.

As expected, there are some problems associated with this minority group in China. Many of them haven’t had any interaction with the outside world and as a result, they don’t have much of an education. A typical Muslim minority in China has only a junior high education. This is troubling because it puts them, as a whole, at a disadvantage in society. However, they do have a place in the government’s Communist Party.

Learning about both E-commerce and Islam in China was very fulfilling. It was eye opening to see that there are still companies in the world who value local businesses, not so much about expansionism. Eastday, in my opinion, runs by a great business model and I attribute that to their success. As for Islam in China, it is analogous to the situation of minorities here in the United States where many of the minorities in the country suffer from education and financial problems. I will say that this was yet another comparable situation that impelled me to think that maybe China is not that much different from the United States. Sure there are definitely cultural and governmental differences, but as humans we suffer from the same problems in the world.

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Day 6 – Technology in Shanghai

March 15th, 2014 by mjr8

On the sixth day of the trip we had visited a textile company that goes by the name of Jaros. Jaros is a company that is like no other. First and foremost, their “management model” is based off of Buddhist teachings. They believe that acting in this way will result in a successful company. Here are some of the methods:

  • Respect everybody
  • Praise good deeds
  • Correct mistakes
  • Be happy for someone else
  • Help others reach their goals
  • Spread good teachings to others
  • Follow these teachings
  • Respect diversity
  • Make everyone benefit from good deeds

Their aim is to make a business that has a great environment for their workers, a place where people can express themselves and grow as people. It seems to work because they sell products to England, the U.S., Bangladesh, Pakistan, and a handful of other countries. They have over 400 patents and over 50 key products in China. They even got 2nd place in China’s competition for technological innovation. Most of this success has come from the management of the business itself, but it is also because of the central government’s involvement.

The government’s “Commission of Development and Reform” directly supports businesses such as Jaros. The “Commission for Economic Information” even provides informational support to companies like this to help them out with logistics, etc. If they meet goals set by the government, they also get preferential treatment in the form of lower taxes and other credits. The business environment in China seems to be much different than the environment here in the United States. Here in the United States most businesses operate on their own and don’t get direct government help. Sure their are downsides to China’s model and the United State’s model, but I would think that if businesses in the U.S. got more assistance then there would definitely be more results to show for.

I was curious as to how this company was so successful in driving out all foreign competition in China and how they are able to sell to many different countries around the world. I got a simple answer from them. The biggest factor would be the price of the products. The pricing is, on average, 1/5 times cheaper than products made in the Netherlands and United States. The catch is that the quality is comparable to the quality from other Western companies. This strategy, I was told, has been a large contributor to their success overseas. They also have a policy where they will help build their products in the consumer’s country to lower the manufacturing price for their company. This is called localized production. Other factors include:

  • Joining the WTO
  • Lower labour prices
  • Cheaper materials

I find it interesting how some companies in China operate. Not only do they get direct help from the government because of the government realizing the potential gain from doing so, but they are focused on competitiveness. They aren’t trying to outsource their work or create a bad environment for their workers in search of profit. They have taken an approach that I think many of our businesses in the United States should be emulating and that is to encourage innovation and create better business environments by means of government action.

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Day 5 – Education and Pollution in Shanghai

March 15th, 2014 by mjr8

On the fifth day of our trip we went to a different Jiao Tong campus, a much larger one I might add. Here we met our first lecturer of the day. This person gave us some insight into the environmental problems that plague Shanghai and how the government has acted to reverse these effects. Surprisingly, the data was not as bad as many of us expected. As I said in another blog post, we often hear of China and its pollution problems and how the government isn’t doing anything to correct them. This is a false misconception most likely brought upon by the media and other’s uninformed opinions. In fact, the government has forced some factories to move outside of the city so their pollution and waste won’t directly affect the health of millions of people in one concentrated area. In addition, starting around 2010, the amount of industrial discharge of waste water has actually been decreasing. Most people wouldn’t know this information because we tend to look for scrutiny more than we do facts.

What we were told by the Environmental Engineer was that the government was taking extreme measures to curtail the devastating and rapid effects of air, water, noise, and solid waste pollution that has been affecting the city for years. Not only does pollution affect people’s health, but  we were informed that pollution reduces GDP growth by 3-5% . It is no wonder the government has been proactive in investing in green energy as well as creating policies that limit the amount of pollution a factory can produce in city limits. I get the indication that although they do have economic interests in mind, they have been listening to the public more on this matter too. They could easily ignore this problem, maybe even suffer from a marginally lower GDP growth rate that won’t effect their already fast growth, but ultimately they have taken action to ebb the public’s dissent and to make their country a cleaner one.

Ways that the government have stemmed pollution in Shanghai is by increasing clean energies such as solar and wind, creating more automobile exhaust standards, and by adjusting the city’s layout. As of now, around ninety percent of the energy used in China originates from fossil fuels while the amount of renewable energy usage exists at less than 1 percent. While the number is staggeringly low, China has slowly been increasing their investment in creating sustainable development and energy. The percentage of the country’s GDP that goes towards this stands at around 3 percent, almost half of the percentage of what the US spends.

Our second lecturer discussed Jiao Tong University and the general college admissions process in the country. It was interesting to see that it paralleled ours in many ways. First and foremost, they all have to take college entrance exams and based off of what score a student makes, they will then be placed in a university that is proportional to their scores. Each year at Jiao Tong, for example, there are more than 3500 undergraduates who are admitted to the school. These people who were admitted usually scored very high on their entrance exams because Jiao Tong’s admissions scores average in the top 3 in the country. This is similar to our elite schools because usually students who are admitted to these schools are students who have scored much higher than the rest of the country. However, they do conduct interviews that differ from the pre-admission interviews that are often held here in the states. At Jiao Tong, you are either interviewed by 4 faculty members or you are interviewed with 7 other kids. It is interesting because when they interview you with 7 other students they have you debate currents events. They do this to observe how students react, argue, and show leadership skills. Just like here in the states, certain groups also have different ways of getting admitted into a school. They admit some people based off of artistic and athletic talent. Though they still need to take the standardized exam for college entry, the requirements for them tend to be lower.

One of the biggest problems that their schools are facing is the supposed lack of creativity. It was after the Japanese-Sino War where this started to be the case. Much emphasis was put on science and technology, while arts and other humanities were ignored. This is but one problem. Another problem that they aim to tackle is the lack of quality students in graduate schools. Since most of the best students immediately leave after obtaining their undergraduate degree because of getting a great job, most of the “least desirable” students are left to go to graduate school. From the looks of it, faculty members and officials are well aware of these problems which also means that they are taking measures to fix them.

It was definitely interesting to be able to see the actual data on the environmental problems in Shanghai and China. Most of the time we just listen to news reports about the smog in China and form some misconception about the country as a whole. Little do most people know, China is actually taking steps to reduce pollution problems because it not only affects their economy, but it also affects the people as well. As for Jiao Tong, it isn’t that much different than many of our elite schools here in the United States. After all, both schools have similar requirements for entrance exams and both schools look for an all-around student. It seems that both China and the United States aren’t that much different!

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Day 3: The Urbanizing Shanghai

March 9th, 2014 by glb1

Day 3 began on a different note for me as I went out to the track in the morning and got my first “Shanghai workout.” While everything went according to plan, what I enjoyed seeing was the host of people either walking or running around the track, doing Tai chi, or another activity. The majority of these people were older people as well. In addition to this observation, the point that my workout went without any “hiccups” I found slightly surprising. I say this because I came with the preconceived idea that the air quality would be so bad, that I may have trouble breathing or could run the risk of attaining some type of breathing problem. I laugh now that I think about that because I found literally no difference in the air quality that I experienced versus that in the states. Whether or not I just caught Shanghai on a good day is still up for question, but all in all, this was a prejudice of mine that was successfully refuted.

We then made our way to the awe inspiring Shanghai World Financial Center. The number of high rises, all creatively unique and beautiful in their own right in this Pudong New area made Houston’s downtown high-rise district look not-all-so impressive. We even ran into the very same art piece that we have on campus at Rice down in-front of the mall located in this area (I will attach the picture). As you may see in all the pictures, this entire area was very beautiful and filled with many futuristic looking buildings.

The first session of the day was located at a place called the Sino Finnish Center, which is home to a NGO called JUCCE, or Joint US-China Clean Energy. This is by far my favorite session thus far because it pertained to my very own topic with much detail.  The founder and director of the organization first spoke to us and gave a us a brief outline of what they focus on which included: nutrition education for kids, keeping China from having the “bling dream” but embracing what she called the “China dream,” and also training Chinese governmental officials how to build a sustainable city. The last point of focus is what I thought the most interesting approach mainly because being able to orchestrate something like this could possibly only occurring within a centralized government system like China has. We then had a professor of urban planning design share with us his work and personal philosophies on development. Through everything he shared, what intrigued me the most was his general perspective of always looking ahead to what the future holds for the development and prosperity of Shanghai. While they are in the midst of taking care of some very serious environmental issues, he mentioned how this is a period that the city has to get through in order to continue to progress.

After the session, we had group discussion session with Professor Fang, Professor Jing, and everyone else in the lab at a coffee shop at an urbanization innovation space called KIC or knowledge and innovation center. This was a cool space because it very much embraced the sustainable innovation of urban areas that was talked about in the early session. You can check out the very livable space in the pictures I post for this post.

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E-Commerce in Shanghai

March 7th, 2014 by efd1

Today was an incredibly interesting day. We visited the company Eastday, which is a major internet company in Shanghai. The company began as a media company, but with the rise of the internet, transitioned into e-commerce. The company seemed similar to Amazon – in addition to selling lots of products online, it also provides cloud servers for other businesses. However, what’s even more interesting is the way the company is expanding. They are promoting a concept they call “O2O”, which means online to offline. The idea is to provide webpages which display information about products to draw people into physical stores. The goods seemed mostly to be luxury goods, like French Wines. The company’s latest division is a physical art store. The gallery has a small tea area, and is decorated with traditional Chinese decorations.

I found the company totally fascinating. In the United States, the trend seems to be away from brick and mortar stores towards e-commerce. Yet, Eastday is actually using revenue from their internet business to expand into brick and mortar stores. Part of the reason this strategy works is because Eastday seems to be providing luxury goods, which the user wants to experience before the buy. This is especially true in art, where the customer can visit the gallery, experience the works of art, and then talk to the curator over a glass of tea. Eastday is able to increase demand for these products by leveraging their huge media presence. Could this model work in the United States? I think the first problem is that the markets Eastday is establishing these stores to create already exist in the United States. Further, it doesn’t seem like there’s a web retailer with the same level of media and commercial presence (perhaps Google or Amazon?) to generate the level of excitement that these stores need to exist profitably. Finally, it seems that most American consumers prefer convenience over experience. Still, the idea is very interesting and I believe that with the right market, O2O could also become an American phenomenon.

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Technological Innovation in China

March 7th, 2014 by efd1

Technological innovation in China often gets a bad rap as being merely derivative. How true are these allegations? Today we had the opportunity to meet with a medium sized chemical company and see Chinese technological innovation at work. The company was especially interesting because of their history. The company was set up in the late 1990’s and located their headquarters and factory in an area which was then outside of Shanghai in order to receive tax incentives from the local government. One of the most interesting aspects of the company was the way the management’s religious beliefs influenced the company. The company actually had a Buddhist sanctuary in the office, complete with a large golden Buddha statue and burning incense.

It was clear that the founder’s religious beliefs played a major role in the management of the company. Beyond the interesting management style, the company clearly had technical skill. The founder was a researcher at a nearby university, and was able to commercialize his research to create products for textile manufacturing which were able to be produced at around 1/5th the cost of competitors. The advantages of the company were the low cost labor combined with the new manufacturing technique. The manager we talked to also mentioned that one of their key advantages was their size. Unlike a large state owned enterprise, they felt nimble enough to engage in further chemical research. On the other hand, their medium size allowed them to maintain a small manufacturing base to actually mass produce their products and a sales force to sell their product to other businesses.

The companies innovation was helped in large part by government “projects” which sounded similar to America’s system of research grants. In China different governmental departments create a list of specific innovations they’re interested in funding. Companies can apply for these grants at any point in their own design process, from an idea to an actual product. The central government then selects companies that it considers meeting its requirements for grants.

The company benefited from the system because they were often able to target their research at these grants, which are released yearly. The innovation system seems well established, and it appears to work well for small companies.

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Day 6: Textile Company

March 6th, 2014 by Tina

Yesterday, we visited a textile company – Zhongda Jaros, to be exact. It was interesting learning about how the central ideas of Buddhism have influenced the company’s philosophy:

–          Respect everybody

–          Give praise when someone does well

–          Correct your mistakes (be self-reflective)

–          Be happy for others

–          Help others to fulfill their wishes

–          Be very diligent about spreading Buddhist thoughts

–          Do as the Buddhist teachings say in your actions

–          Respect diversity

–          Give back with thanks to everybody

The company’s motto is to be appreciative and return what you receive. I really liked this motto, as I think giving back is an important thing to do in life.

From an environmental perspective, the company is taking steps to ensure water safety. We went on a tour of the factory, and we saw the water reserves – there were fish in the man-made body of water.

Some interesting facts about the company:

–          Some of the countries it exports to includes Thailand, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and India.

–          Because of their technology, no foreign technology now enters the area of China that its located in, and the company takes great pride in this.

–          The most famous and comparable company is in Holland.

–          80% of their market share is in the Chinese market.

–          Because it’s a mid-sized company, they can both produce and innovate.

–          They placed 2nd in a national competition for technological innovation last year.

Overall, I would venture to say that the company’s Buddhist philosophy might have influenced its environmental methods with water. I really liked how they blended Buddhist thoughts with their business.

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Day 2- Enjoying and Embracing the Culture

March 6th, 2014 by glb1

Waking up in our hotel room after a very good night of sleep was surreal for me. I did feel bad for Michael who not only has to sleep on the unstable, inflatable bed, but also apparently had to put up with me and Evan’s snoring! I was a little worried about feeling the jet lag from the drastic time difference, but I think the excitement I have just being here has helped me quickly adjust (if that’s possible). Contrast to the weather yesterday, the weather today was clear and brisk which had a noticeable positive impact on the overall mood of the day. Venturing down to the subway, I was caught by surprise by how few people were out and about on the subway, but it’s probably due to it not being a workday.

Our first destination for the day was to the Yuyuan Garden. The architecture of many of the buildings within the general area and along the Ren Ming road embraced the traditional Chinese architecture which was exciting to see. Along the crowded street there were a countless number of shops selling things from “designer” watches and sunglasses to wigs. Making our way through the touristy market place took us to the very scenic and historic Yuyuan Garden. From the many, many pictures I took in the garden, one interesting image that I captured is one that embraced part of the traditional Chinese architecture of the ancient gardens along with a high-rise building being constructed shooting out from behind the trees. I felt like this was a perfect image of massive urbanization with the attempts to preserve the quintessential cultural heritage.

After the garden we headed to our two sessions that took place in the Shanghai Library. The first session was all about the history of Shanghai and from it I gained very valuable information that helped me gain a better understanding of how Shanghai got to its current state. The second session involved a woman who is a documentary director, and besides being able to see some of the productions she has been a part of, she shared some great information about the role of the government in the selection and development of the documentaries. The government controls the production of the films and they often get to select the subjects that they want to learn more about. The government will also sponsor the topics they choose. She also mentioned that the general assumption that is made when it is mentioned that the Chinese government is opening up is that this is being forced, however the government is actually just interested in learning more about certain topics and issues.

After our sessions we ended the day with a checking out Tianzifang, which is a collection of shops and restaurants that are configured through these very cool, narrow alley-like pathways. Another full day was of course then finished with a great meal.

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Day 4 – An Insight Into Shanghai Media

March 6th, 2014 by mjr8

Day 4 gave us all a little insight into how the media works in Shanghai. Firstly, we had visited one of the most popular newspapers in Shanghai called the Global Times.

Global Times is a newspaper that highlights what is happening around the world, in addition to what is happening locally in Shanghai and China. Again, I would agree that a lot of our skepticism was dispelled after meeting with the head of the newspaper. The most contentious issue that I would say many people care about in China is whether or not media operates as an autonomous entity. We were told that though Global Times is owned by the state, the content is what the writers want it to be. She stressed to us that nobody is forced to write anything by the central government. From the outside, it is understandable to think such a thing. After all, each country has its own slant or bias when reporting on other countries. I think it is highly important that people should become impartial and not let government actions craft our opinions on the people of other nations, as we probably did before we found out that many of the preconceived stereotypes we had were untrue.

Besides the political side of the meeting there were some universal issues that were addressed, such as whether newspapers are a dying form of media or not. Based off of her opinion and ours, collectively, we agreed that newspapers are in fact a dying form of media. Despite the 1 million people who are subscribers of these newspapers, Global Times has shifted their focus to the internet. In a world where technology is easily accessible to people, it makes sense that businesses and media groups would look to be available to as many customers as they can. They even have versions of their news in English, reinforcing the concept that news outlets want to reach a wider array of audiences. Shortly after the meeting, though, we got a brief tour of the offices where people work on the newspaper and online website. Most people never get this chance so I definitely felt privileged to not only gather so much information about the newspaper from the director of it, but by also being able to have first person access to the “production” of the paper.

Next on the itinerary was to visit the Shanghai Media group or SMG. SMG is a multimedia broadcasting company that has a large influence on the media in Shanghai. When we got to the SMG’s building of operations we had first gotten a tour of the editing room, broadcasting set, and public relations office. Let me tell you, setting foot on the set where news anchors broadcast to millions of people each day is overwhelming.

After the quick tour of the building we met the directors of the SMG in a conference room. They were there to answer all of our questions on the role and responsibilities of news outlets in China and Shanghai. Though it was a bit of a reiteration of the meeting with Global Times, it was satisfying to get to see how other people’s mentalities are developed. At SMG, I got the sense that they were industrious when something relates to their job, in addition to being very fervent about it. They were quick to quell any disbelief we had about the role of media in Shanghai and as a matter of fact, in China. Again, they made sure that we understood that the central state, despite technically “owning” their company, had no role in what was broadcasted over the TV. Also, what seemed to be a serious concern for most of us on this trip, when interviewing people, is the pollution problem here in Shanghai. Unequivocally, most people in the West think in a parallel way to this. It is the collective belief that the government does not allow pollution and environmental concerns to be reported. According to these people, as well as most of the people we talked to, the Chinese government views pollution as an impediment to their goals of growth and as a detriment to people’s health. As a result, they encourage and allow people to highlight these issues by any means of media.

It always is important to take things with a grain of salt. This is exactly what I have done for the most part of this day. Although these people have influence and authority in what they do, it is always wise to question what comes out of their mouths. On the contrary, it is also important to be open minded and impartial to ideas in the world. If we were all close-minded to new ideas and thoughts, then the world would be a much different place, and not in a good way. So while I do still have some reservations and doubts about the handling on environmental issues here in Shanghai and China, at the same time I truly believe something is being done to alleviate the problems associated with it. No country wants to deal with this problem because not only does it affect the population’s health in the short term and long term, but it impacts the economy, something the Chinese government cannot afford.

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March 6, 2014 | Day 6 in Shanghai

March 6th, 2014 by hb10

We spent today learning a little about the private sector in Shanghai. We had the opportunity to meet with part of the leadership team of a textiles manufacturing company. The company has a great story– the founder developed technology to improve textiles manufacturing while he was in school and now has a company that sells its products around the world and has twenty offices in China. What I found most interesting about our conversations with the company’s leadership was the influence of Buddhism on their company’s culture and practices. We were told that Buddhism’s philosophies of remaining respectful to all people, sharing in others’ happiness rather than being jealous, and aiming at doing good so that it might benefit others are what drive this company to succeed. As we toured the factory at around 5pm, we noticed that most of the space was empty –our lecturers mentioned that their company allows its employees to leave early in order to high traffic. I was very impressed with the thought and consideration offered to the factory workers in the organization, it was the prefect exemplification of the values they mentioned earlier in the day.

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