Organised chaos

Nathan Clark | Tuesday, 1 April 2008 9:15 AM |

When I took on the challenge of moving abroad to work in Shanghai two years ago, I had no real idea what was in store. My task was to build an agency retail business in a market where second tier cities have populations that outstrip the whole of Australia and a retail sector that was powering ahead in a league of its own.

While I have been back in Australia for only a few months now, it’s surreal looking back on the whole experience, and one that I am sure many other ex-pats will identify with.

Fresh off the boat, I dived into a culture that was vastly different from my life in Melbourne. Stepping in as an outsider to take over the running of a business can be tough at the best of times. But when you throw in cultural differences, language barriers, traffic chaos and unusual food, the challenge is even greater.

Where’s my dictionary?

When I first arrived, one of the most difficult parts of the experience was the language barrier. I did not know any Mandarin, yet probably 70 percent of the business meetings I attended were in Mandarin and/or Cantonese. Luckily my assistant was fluent in both as well as English, so her role quickly expanded to include interpreter.

By the time I left I knew enough Mandarin to get by, but would still find myself in tricky situations with taxi drivers who either looked at me like I was from another planet or dropped me at completely the wrong place. Who knew that asking “take me home” would leave you stranded in an old part of the city 10km away, all because I got the tone of the word wrong.

I thought relationships were a big part of the industry here, but it has nothing on China, which places even greater importance on the bond between your peers. Of course it was my number one priority to build a strong team when I arrived. But this wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. The cultural differences in the workplace are significant. They asked themselves “Who’s this lawai? (Chinese slang for foreigner) and what does he know?”

Once you build relationships and establish trust in China, people will open up to you, but before that it can be like extracting teeth – with no happy gas.

On the lighter side of work life, as many people know, the Chinese have the option of using either their Chinese first name or their “western” name in the workplace. So when I first arrived I found it a little weird introducing my clients to the likes of Winky, Fauna, Cinderella and Chocolate. But by the time I left it felt quite normal.

Watch out for the…!

Living in a city of 22 million people is an experience in itself. The street theatre was incredible, but the problem was most of it wasn’t meant to be ‘theatre’. On any given morning as I would walk to the office there would be people walking backwards clapping their hands wearing their pyjamas – apparently a common form of exercise – guys selling dumplings out of rusty, old, 44-gallon drums next to a shoe shine man, all within metres of the doorstep.

The streets have a controlled chaos, a bit like one big dodgem car ride. Along with cars there were motorbikes, scooters, pushbikes and buses appearing from all directions cutting each other off – street crossings seemed to mean nothing there.

Footpaths were as good as the road for most vehicles. My scariest experience was when I was run over by a “stealth” scooter. These electric scooters make no noise so I didn’t hear him coming up behind me on the footpath. I was relatively unharmed but pretty shaken, while he just kept going!

I later inadvertently discovered the secret to clearing a path when I bought a Golden Retriever. Chinese people are generally wary of dogs and many would make a detour around me to avoid Lola.

Third floor please

You’d never think that catching the lift at the office could be an unexpected experience.

Elevator etiquette doesn’t exist; it’s every man for himself. Everyone seemed to arrive at exactly 8:55am, which resulted in about 300 people bustling to get into a lift at the same time. The same thing would happen at lunchtime right on 12 noon.

Mobile phone etiquette was somewhat different too. In meetings phones would be going off left, right and centre and people would answer.

One night my wife and I went to the opera. There seemed to be a light show in the audience where mobile phones and cameras were flashing and buzzing the entire time. Theatre staff would walk around holding fluorescent batons with “quiet, no phones, no cameras” in Chinese written on them and shouting at people to be quiet.

Round the clock

Life at home was interesting too. It seems there was a mobile man for everything.

I bought a barbeque when I first arrived and took the gas bottle down to the petrol station to be filled. This was another occasion where I was looked at like I had two heads, as it was clear this wasn’t the system they used in Shanghai. It took me three months before I found out that the “gas man” rides around on a bicycle with gas bottles on the back – a risky exercise at the best of times, let alone in Shanghai traffic.

Every home had their own water coolers and every week the “water man” would deliver water barrels, carrying 20-30 at a time on the back of an old bike.

Life runs 24/7 in Shanghai, with one kind of life running during the day and a whole other one running at night.

At 10.00pm one night we received a knock at the door. After much confusion, we established the “visitor” was there to read our electricity meter.

The city of opportunity

Shanghai is certainly a city of extremes, which I grew to love. Leaving was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. Coming home, I’ve got a whole different view on the world. I’ve realised how isolated Australia is and how much impact the growth of China could have on Australia and how we can benefit from it. I am looking forward to seeing the results.

The opportunities, scale and pace of business is incredibly exciting in Shanghai. It was an experience I would definitely do all over again and one which I certainly recommend to anyone who has the opportunity.

Nathan Clark | Tuesday, 1 April 2008 9:15 AM |