haha, I am a Chinese! There are indeed rare geeks to start up companies in China. Din Lei, the founder and CEO of Netease(NTES) is a geek. Ma Huateng, the founder of Tencent is a geek, too. So, somehow, Netease and Tencent are the two local companies with strongest human resource in development.
For decades, there is no emerging startups with solid and independent business ideas. Even some startups I know have a profound background in technology, things they do are not new. Shang Mail, a copy of Blackberry push mail have a solid tech team. Ucweb, copy of Opera mobile in China was invested by Lei Jun, someone can be compared to Paul Alan in China.
There are some reasons for this.
1. New ideas have no tech or patent barriers. Due to the mess patent applying process and all the people to review applications are not professional. The quality of China patents are very low. It is hard to find valuable patent and sue someone with that. You can find all kind of patents in the database, from perpetual motion machine to how to compile linux kernel.
2. Due to No.1, new ideas can be copied by large companies. Tencent copied twitter model, Sina and Netease copied blog model. Merely startups survived in the battle field with large companies.
3. Chinese investors are conservative. That is good thing from some perspectives, they value the cash flow beyond everything else. Thus, if you don't have a persuasive revenue model, you can not raise any money. A most persuasive model is a copycat of successful service in other countries.
Excellent analysis!! There are many local Chinese that are very competent and much better equipped to be successful here than foreigners. Best of luck to them all ;)
Going to Shanghai or Beijing and living in the expat community is not the real China. Lots of foreigners in China live like the English used to live in Kenya - in a separate upper class society that has little in common with, and little contact to the local people.
It's a bit sad actually, there are really fresh perspectives to be had there.
I don't see how it is sad. If I go to a third world nation, I am staying in a nice, western hotel.
If my purpose in going is to start a business or see the sights, then there is no reason to get down in the muck. If my purpose is to write a novel about the life of the Chinese, then I should thoroughly investigate it. It all depends on your purpose for visiting.
It's sad because it shows stunning lack of curiosity. The reason to "get down in the muck" is because you'd want to, and the opportunity is right there.
That's like saying European tourists who visit only NYC and SanFran and stay in posh hotels aren't seeing the real America. There are many faces to China, and the expat life is one of them.
That's how I'd want to live if I were there long term. My point is, there's no 'real' China. It's all about perspectives and layers...is there a 'real' US?
Yes, there is a real U.S. There are Africans living in the U.S who have been there 10 years, eat African food, watch African movies, interact with African friends, speak bad English and have no idea what Seinfeld is. They live in a parallel world that has nothing to do with the country they are in. They would do the same everywhere they went.
To me, it seems to be a waste. Why travel to a new country with a new culture, and take your old culture with you?
And quite beside that, I find this attitude of the expat upper class a bit elitist, and it goes against the things I believe in. I believe that if one lives in a country, one should attempt to understand and interact with the local culture and traditions, and not create a society that totally ignores these norms.
Why travel to a new country with a new culture, and take your old culture with you?
Well that's unavoidable really. The question is how much you let local culture in on top of the culture you bring with you.
Why they do it is probably because culture is not what brought them to The States. That is an argument I have heard made against refuge intake & discouragement of economic migration.
The major difference there is that China caters to expat enclaves because they have money, just like US caters to Jewish enclaves. Yes, I agree it's elitist, but that doesn't make it any less 'real'. It's part of today's China.
Your example is also a little off; immigrants band together out of necessity and survival. That's why there are Chinatowns and Indiantowns, etc. It's in their best interest.
Side note: expats tend to flock to other expats due to several reasons, but one is also survival. It's much easier to find friends or business partners with other expats because there less ulterior motives. As an expat, whenever you meet a native Chinese, you're not sure they're nice because you're an expat and they need something, or what. In fact, most Chinese people are very regionalist and are not 'nice'. They're only nice because they think you have money.
It is true there are many facets of China. The way some expats live in Shanghai or Beijing is a small view of that. Amongst the locals, the lifestyles are highly diverse. The difference between East and West China is enormous.
I have lived in Shanghai for over 8 years (I'm a white male from the U.S.). I live in the nicest part of town and my office is a comfortable 5 blocks walk from home. I pay dearly for this comfort. And I'm not naive about what the high cost differential is buying me. I do know how the locals live. I'm married to a local Chinese lady and we have a family together where I deal with issues of raising a child according to multi-cultural values.
Do not confuse the simple fact that many expats are willing to pay for whatever comforts of home they can with the fact that most of us that have been here a while are aware of the difference.
If you are young and ready for an adventure, come to China and live like the local poor for a while. It will be a great life experience. After that, you should have enough perspective to use what money you have to live with what comforts you find most desirable.
I've seen it done before (once, actually, I used it for the visual effect (you wouldn't think it, but a set of nested parentheses look odd when it's in literature (rather than coding, for instance (though I think it's possible that I borrowed the idea from a computer science class)))).
Budweiser is popular in China because it's practically a Chinese beer... it's brewed in Wuhan and made with rice. This means that in Germany it isn't beer.
The internet censorship isn't intended to change the attitudes of the upper class -- the government figures that anyone who can understand English enough to read foreign news is already lost. And they don't care about foreigners circumventing the filter for personal use, as long as you aren't actively spreading subversion. Definitely don't spread subversion.
They want to keep the common person ignorant and the censorship helps. If the momentum of the people ever shifted, things could change, so there is enormous reason for the government to maintain the status quo. The protectionism is incidental (but is a nice perk0, the censorship of ideas is why they do it.
You can get chicken feet in the U.S. so there's no reason to guess, just go out and try it.
In my experience the taste is nothing special, but the texture is notable (the skin is fairly rubbery). More than anything, though, they are hard to eat; not much meat and not really worth the effort.
I had a pretty poignant moment eating food in China. It was a chicken dish with some bones in. Lots of vegetables, flavorful, exceptionally fresh and delicious, all that. Suddenly I realized that the bone I was biting into was beak. It tasted like chicken.
For decades, there is no emerging startups with solid and independent business ideas. Even some startups I know have a profound background in technology, things they do are not new. Shang Mail, a copy of Blackberry push mail have a solid tech team. Ucweb, copy of Opera mobile in China was invested by Lei Jun, someone can be compared to Paul Alan in China.
There are some reasons for this.
1. New ideas have no tech or patent barriers. Due to the mess patent applying process and all the people to review applications are not professional. The quality of China patents are very low. It is hard to find valuable patent and sue someone with that. You can find all kind of patents in the database, from perpetual motion machine to how to compile linux kernel.
2. Due to No.1, new ideas can be copied by large companies. Tencent copied twitter model, Sina and Netease copied blog model. Merely startups survived in the battle field with large companies.
3. Chinese investors are conservative. That is good thing from some perspectives, they value the cash flow beyond everything else. Thus, if you don't have a persuasive revenue model, you can not raise any money. A most persuasive model is a copycat of successful service in other countries.