What It Means For the West To Meet the East: Jen Loong at TEDxTerrytalks 2010

This talk aims to address the two predominant perspectives in the West towards the East (specifically China) – ambivalence and ignorance. Jen Loong shares her stories as a mean to showcase the opportunities embedded in China, and the crucial importance for our generation in the West to abandon all preconceptions, and become truly accepting of the fact that West is not better than the East.

Hi! My name is Jen and thank you so much
for joining me today

to walk on a journey
to make sense of China.

So, to start, I'm going to show
a picture of Napoleon,

and for all of you who came
to a talk about China,

well, you might be a little bit disappointed
right around now,

and I felt that it's only just
to talk about the Eastern perspective

by first talking about
the Western insight.

And, in fact, Napoleon actually said
in the 18th century

that when the sleeping dragon awakes,
the world will shake.

Boy, was he right!

And, in fact, you might be even wondering
who am I to talk about China.

After all I'm not expert,
but there is a little bit of Chinese in me,

having been born to a Chinese family
22 years ago,

I lived in Hong Kong for 10 years
and came back to Vancouver.

And this summer, I was actually really interested
and curious about my heritage

and instead decided to go back.

And I worked with Credit Suisse
in Hong Kong to start,

representing Chinese local companies
who want to go into the foreign investment markets,

as well I worked in Shanghai with DDB,

where I was representing Western brands
who wanted to go into China to tap the new market.

And, when I was abroad, I learned
the importance of mobile communication

to the point that
not only do your friends text you,

but companies would actually text you
to remind you to change your water filters.

So throughout this presentation,
if you have any questions or comments

with regards to things
that I may be saying,

I welcome you to text me,
so I can personally respond to them afterwards.

Now, having said that, I do realize

that to fit a country with more than
1 billion people into an 18 minutes talk,

well, is really nothing short of ambitious
– and I recognize that.

So, today, let's actually dive into some
of the less obvious issues

than what you might be able
to find on the Internet

because there's not a word of the doubt
that China's very much been in the limelight recently

with headlines like these.

So much so, that much
of what the Western media portrays

has been through one of three avenues:
main street media, movies and televisions.

And of all these three sources,

China's constantly been painted
into one of two buckets of images.

The first is that of... well, you know,
it's a third world developing country,

a lot of social instability –

And in the second one
is constantly the one where –

"Aaah, it's kind of a black box
and I don't really know what to quite make of it."

And in both of these instances, it's consistent
that there's an almost underlying consensus

that these six themes keep popping out,
being the pillars of any conversation around China.

Now, some journalist may even
go so far to suggest that

these are the very same six reasons
as to why China will just be a temporary phenomenon

and will not become a threat
to any global economic power play.

But is that all
there really is to China?

I mean if you look at companies like
Google, Ebay, Ford... they certainly will say so

– I mean look at their unsuccessful
entries into the Chinese market recently,

due to various PR or operations scandals.

Well, imagine this – you have been invited
into a housewarming party,

and I think we can all agree that, in addition
to bringing a bottle of fine wine and a friendly toaster,

it's common courtesy
that you wouldn't go into the apartment

and start re-arranging
the furniture pieces

or commenting on how poorly the layout
of the apartment has been designed.

This is the same analogy that my manager
and director in Shanghai challenged me with.

Because upon landing in China,
getting off that plane,

I had the very same biases
that the Western media has painted for me.

So before I move forward, I encourage you
to leave the shoes at the door,

step into a new room of ideas, and try
to get to know China under a different light.

Because after all it's easy to forget
that China is only really 30 years old,

despite its 5,000 years of history.

The reason why I say that is
that much of the economic reform

has only happened in the last 30 years
since the early 1980s.

What you can see is the fact that it's only 1991
that the Shanghai Exchange Market opened,

it was only less than a decade ago
that McDonald's opened its first location in China.

All of it pointing to the fact that, well,
66.3% of Chinese people would say

that they're really quite happy
with how things are going back home.

Even still, an additional 12% would even say

that they're very happy
about how things are going back at home.

Now, with this new attitude in mind,
let's revisit some of the issues

that the Western media
constantly portrays,

because for every single story,
there are two sides to it.

The first story is that of 'the great firewall',
or censorship.

Now, what most of us take for granted,
like Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Google, Gmail –

all of that is banned in China.

And I'm sure some of you
in this room might even say,

"Wow, is there really a point to even go
on the Internet in such an environment?"

When I was travelling to Beijing

I actually decided to check in into Foursquare
when I was at Tiananmen Square,

and the application on my iPhone
would consistently 'crash' on me

every single time that I tried
to check in.

Before you get overly concerned
about the Internet landscape in China,

keep in mind that for every
single website banned,

there's a pretty much a Chinese equivalent
to that very same website.

In fact, I would even argue
that this is an environment

that the Chinese government has created

essentially, to nurse
the companies domestically,

to have them all the time
that they need

to build market share and
to build know-hows

before they're pitched directly to compete
against their global incumbents.

If you were to look at the top ten
richest people in China,

more than half of that list would consist
of Internet start-up entrepreneurs

that got rich based on this environment.

Twitter made headlines
at the beginning of summer

for having made its first 75 million users mark.

Well, guess what? The fourth ranking
social media site in China called Renren,

actually surpassed 128 million
a year ago.

Of course, the other commonly associated
'C' word with China in Communism,

and while I'm no political science student,

I'm not going to stand here
and lecture in front of you about that.

However, my family has been a product
of that progression –

in that much of my family actually
had been stripped away

of everything that they had
during the Cultural Revolution,

and my grandparents were forced to leave
my father and his siblings behind in the PRC

to pursue a new life in Hong Kong.

Or even, when I was working in Shanghai,
I was delightfully surprised

to have the postman come up
to pick-up my parcel

that was supposed
to be sent for circulation,

and instead, by routine practice,
he would open up the parcel

and actually see what's inside the box
and determine whether or not it's fit for circulation.

So when I was sick, I wanted
a bottle of Pepto-Bismol

and my friend actually couldn't send it because
the postman deemed it as inappropriate.

Well – how do I make sense of that?

What I'm arguing is that it's actually
a pretty impractical and outdated view of China.

While it's a communist state on paper

and the political party leading China
is called the China Communist Party,

really in effect the society
is quite capitalistic.

Chinese citizens are encouraged to buy
and sell lands without worrying

about the fact that the government
is going to take it away at any point.

Chinese citizens are encouraged
to start their own businesses,

so that they can actually channel
their funds to either saving accounts

or to invest in stock market,
without worrying about the fact

that the Chinese government
will take away your money at any point.

In fact, the issue of state ownership
being a key quality of the communist environment,

if you look at the statistics,
more than 150 state enterprises now

are actually related
to the Chinese government directly.

This is a drastic decrease
from the 90% of enterprises back in 1978,

to be now less than 50%.

Even more so, in such an environment,
the Chinese government has actually suggested

for its top leaders to find foreign managers
to come in and run the state enterprises

as an indication that the Chinese are ready
to meet global competition and to play by the rules.

Now, the third issue
is that of Corruption

and in a fast growing economy it's hard
to escape not talking about this one.

And, in Shanghai I was actually delightfully surprised
when I was walking along the streets –

there is a certain hour, during a certain week,
in a certain neighborhood, on a certain street,

that you would find porn vendors
coming up with their little carts

at that indicated time
and indicated location.

This is because the porn industry is heavily regulated
and banned pretty much in China,

and the vendors have paid off the police
to not patrol in that area during the pre-alloted time,

so that they can go about
running their business.

Or even, when I was being pick-pocketed
on the street in Shanghai,

I was told by the 17-year-old girl who took
my iPod to dare me to take her to the police,

because it's pretty much evident
that the Chinese government has paid off the police

to tell them not to investigate
in pick-pocketing incidences

because, well – to be frank,
they just happen too often.

Now, this is again – think of it

as part of China's 30-year-old
birthday's coming out party –

it's just going through a huge phase
of progression to be competitive

against global rivals
as well as meeting Western Standards.

In fact, the anti-corruption conference is actually
happening at the end of November in China

as a means for the Chinese government
to challenge its local representatives

to step up and to meet
Western Standards.

So much so, that if you look at the statistics,
more than 5,000 companies

have been accused by the Chinese government
of corruption in the last year.

And this, is part of the Chinese government
stepping up for global competition.

This is a bit of a fun one –

If you're walking around Beijing
or if you're walking the streets in Shanghai,

you will see this all the time,

and it's so funny because it's almost
like a photo scavenger hunt.

We're all familiar
with the brand Lacoste, of course, and –

you would literally find on the streets
in Beijing that there will be a Lacoste store,

and right next to it, it would be the replica
of the Lacoste brand –

And some of the examples of the names would be,
Crocodile since 1982, French Crocodilian –

and my favorite one is Clio Coddle,

which, to be frank, I don't understand
how that derived from crocodile.

Or, the fact that this summer
when Apple launched the iPad –

I was delightfully surprised to find iPad replicas
the next day on the street of Shanghai

selling for only 140 dollars
– and granted, they work just fine.

So, what do we make of it?

I argue that this is just
a screening mechanism –

again, part of China's mechanism of breeding
its companies to be globally competitive.

Think of it as the survival
of the fittest idea.

What you're looking at is the Facebook
equivalent in China called Renren

and, in fact, it's been so successful
in gaining market share

that there's virtually
no other social networking site

targeting just at the college market,
like Renren has done.

And, you might look at all of that
and say, "Well, China is kind of backwards –

Culturally, is not competitive
to what the Westerners are doing

and I don't really know what to make of it."

Being a Chinese it's fun
to bring home a boy to meet my family

because my dad will ask
to see his palm

to determine the ultimate fate
of not only him as an individual,

but of us as a couple.
(Laughter)

Or, if you were to look at this picture –

at the back, you would actually see
examples of paper currencies

that Chinese families
would sit around the tables and make

before they visit
their ancestors at their graves.

Think of it as – well, a transfer
of wiring money from life here to afterlife,

so that our ancestors are taken care of.

And I'm looking at the audience and I see
a couple of gentlemen with unshaven faces.

Well, guess what?
If you were in China,

you wouldn't be buying a lottery ticket today
because that's unlucky.

Or, the next time when you're going to have
a bowl of soup for dinner or lunch with noodles in it,

if you accidentally cut
a noodle short into pieces

before it completely slurps into your body,
that's bad luck too.

It's just different – it's a bi-product
of 5,000 years of history. It's just different.

It's not that Western values
are superior to that of the East;

it's not that the Eastern philosophies are behind;
it's just different – it's 5,000 years of history.

Besides, it's quite neat to know that some of the things
that I believe in and that I practice

were also believed and thought about
by my very same ancestors.

You're looking at a website

that's a typical layout
in a Chinese community.

Now, for us Westerners
we're used to looking at a website

and seeing a lot of white real state,
fancy icons, colors, clarity – think Apple.

In China, researchers have actually shown
that the more white real estate there is,

it means that there's less credibility and validity
to the content that's actually on the site.

So, it's is very common for you to look at a website
where there are layers of information,

where you spend hours just figuring out
how everything is organized –

And when a Chinese sees
a website layout like this... they rejoice.

They think that this is quality content...
It's just different.

And it's hard to talk about an economy
that is gaining so much traction in the world,

without, of course, addressing
the issue of pollution.

I got a personal experience of this
when I was in Beijing hiking up the Great Wall.

And I can literally take two fingers,
take a swipe on my skin on my arm,

and I would see a layer
of black dust on my fingerprints.

Granted, when I first
got off the plane

I thought I was secreting
some kind of foreign substance

and that I needed to check myself
into the hospital – clearly not!

But what I want to share is that

China is actually thriving
to be an icon for green.

Some examples... think of the Shanghai Expo
taking place in Shanghai this summer

with the theme of
"Better city, better life".

It's a showcase to the world
of what green living could actually look like.

Tell me another city in the world
that you can think of

where they turn off their iconic skyline
to save energy – well, Shanghai does that.

Every night without fail,
at 10 pm they turn off the skyline

to which people come and take pictures
of it as tourist, to save energy.

To even build on that –

the Chinese are working on building
a network of eco-cities

to showcase to the world
what it means

to have self-sustaining complexes.

Imagine if China can actually
provide the solution

to end global warming
and climate change.

It's certainly taking steps
towards that.

And forgive my oversimplification,

but if you were to look at the next 25 years –
where is the money going?

First of all, the Chinese
have invested 15 billion dollars

to jump start its own automobile industry
and electric cars.

15 billions dollars in 16 state-owned enterprises
over 20 pilot cities

to free not only China from oil,

but to free the rest of the world from oil.

This also lays the foundation to the network
of trains and airports that they're building.

Did you know that the Maglev,

which is a train connecting
the Shanghai airport into the city center,

is actually the world's first
commercialized magnetic levitation train.

Or, the fact that the Chinese have invested heavily
in the jump start of their stem cells research as well,

buying DNA sequences from foreign institutes
to jump-start its own industry.

Well, ladies and gentlemen,
this is modern China.

And modern China is no longer going to be
the manufacturing backyard to the rest of the world,

so long are the days
of 'Made in China'

and instead, is moving into
a new paradigm

of 'Innovated in China', quoting
the words of the Prime Minister himself.

And this opens up an opportunity
for the generation like ourselves sitting in this room,

who are naturally curious,

passionate about
the surroundings in the world.

This opens up an opportunity
to not only change the life of one person,

but the opportunity to change
the lives of 1.34 billion and beyond.

To leave an impact
not only for one country,

but to leave an impact for the rest of the world
and the global economic powerhouses

of where the conversations just go.

For us, that are naturally curious,

this is an avenue for you
to think of new solutions to old problems,

and we should all get excited about that.

And the Chinese are welcoming
to these kind of solutions

and I challenge you to see if there's new way
for you to take part in this conversation,

and to write a new chapter
in the new world's history.

And hey, guess what?
Maybe we would be part of the story

that's being told for generation to come.

And with that, welcome to China,

and maybe even for some of you,
welcome to your future home.

Thank you for joining me today
and if you like to continue the conversation,

feel free to follow me on Twitter,

there's a list of China's shakers and movers
that you could follow,

that might suffice your interest.

Thank you.
(Applause)