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TEM Lab: China2 – Anyue

Welcome

anyue_lemonsAnyue County in Sichuan, China is the center of lemon production for the country, yielding approximately 80% of total production.   Currently, farmers associations and co-operatives have no problems selling all of their production.  However in every step of the value chain, parties are shortsightedly competing against each other to improve their own margins.  Moreover, multiple processors are producing lemon derived products in the county, including:  lemon wine, facial masks, essential oil, and lemon vinegar for cooking.  But the relevance of these products to consumer tastes has yet to be determined.

The purpose of this second project is to work with all stakeholders in developing standardized processes for product development as well as seeking potential international clients.  This will involve developing recommendations for increasing profitability in a way that benefits all parties in the value chain.  Additionally, our group will work to instill a tradition of strategically planning for the long-term viability of the industry

If you want to help us in our research, please take this brief two minute survey:  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/K97TTPF

Working with Translators

Written on June 26th, 2012
Working with Translators
Effectively working through a translator is actually a skill.  It may seem obvious, but translators are not robots.  Just because they may speak both languages fluently does not mean they can always easily convey your meaning.  As the least fluent member of our TEM lab team I have had to rely on the translators for bulk of the work that I’ve done here in China.  Below are a few of the lessons I’ve picked up on how to maximize their effectiveness.
1. Make sure to include them in all your meetings.
As mentioned earlier – its not your words you want translated, it’s your meaning.  It is important therefore to make sure that the translators fully grasp the message you are trying to convey.  Including them in your meetings will help them understand why you might be asking something.  This is particularly important during interviews.  I can give you a good example of this that occurred during an interview we had with Professor Tang, an expert of the Chinese Apple Industry.  I kept asking questions about how HuaShen – a major apple wholesaler – manages the quality that each farmer sells them.  I was trying to compare it to the way that All Lemon has a standard quality manual and hires 3rd party inspectors that inspect each of the production lines.  The questions I was asking were met largely with answers which didn’t get to the point of comparison I was trying to make.  It wasn’t until I took a few minutes to explain the way that All Lemon system worked to my translator and tell her that I’m trying to see if its similar that the question could finally be worded correctly in Chinese and got the response I was looking for.
2. It takes TIME!
Our assignment covered an absolutely massive scope.  We were to evaluate the attractiveness and price points for both processed and raw lemon products.  Our report was to include information not just for China, but other target markets around the world as well.  It was daunting and required every minute of our available 5 weeks.  We needed as much time as possible.  On top of that we had to build in time for our Translators to work their magic.  As you can imagine, this was not easy.  The perfectionist in me wanted to keep making tweaks to all the way up to my last minute to ensure that my message and my slides were exact the way I wanted.  Doing this however would not give my translators the time they needed to convert all my work.
Changes, even minor made the process much more complex.  To this point make sure you set clear deadlines with buffer built in both for your work and your translators.  Discuss those times and let them know if there will be a big spike in work before a presentation or big meeting.  I found it best to plan in a deadline an entire day ahead of the deliverable.  Also try to break up work into sections which you can send on when they are finished to avoid a big document dump.
3. Remember they are human too.
It’s very important to make your translator feel like a member of the team.  Use your management training skills here.  Ask about their constraints, comfort levels, and what other projects they may be working on.  Learn about their goals, both for the project and in their careers.  It can be helpful to get to know some about their life beyond work as well.  It’s good to be comfortable with each other – after all they are trying to be the voice of your thoughts.
Practice your presentations and questions many times.  Don’t forget that you both are ‘on stage,’ often in front of important people.  They may be nervous, maybe even more than you, so make sure you are prepared.  Even the most rehearsed presenters make minor changes when they speak to an audience.  If your translator is relaxed, and confident in the message you are trying to get across, they won’t stumble or get hung up on a word change.  Ultimately, your meaning will be better understood.

Effectively working through a translator is actually a skill.  It may seem obvious, but translators are not robots.  Just because they may speak both languages fluently does not mean they can always easily convey your meaning.  As the least fluent member of our TEM lab team I have had to rely on the translators for bulk of the work that I’ve done here in China.  Below are a few of the lessons I’ve picked up on how to maximize their effectiveness.

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Filed under: Tim Brown | 1 Comment »

Chengdu: Word on the Street

Written on June 26th, 2012
This past week was a whirlwind of analysis as our plucky group of budding China marketers made preparations for our final client conference. It felt a conference, rather than just a presentation, as our meeting was not only attended by all stakeholders in the lemon industry but also located on the top floor of the tallest and most majestic building in all of Anyue County. Despite our anxiety about getting the presentation fine-tuned and we were all comforted in knowing that the previous weeks tireless surveying and interviewing had given us the data and information we needed to make solid recommendations.
Our team descended on Chengdu three weeks prior to evaluate the lemon consumption habits and knowledge of Chinese and international customers. This was not an impossible task, but it had never been attempted to our knowledge. To that end we broke into two teams. One was to conduct focus groups and multiple company interviews. The second team focused on collecting customer surveys among random consumers at grocery stores. We chose Carrefour, a local market Renrenle, an alleyway wet market, and Ito Yokado- an upscale market located across town.
We met Bella, our translator, bright and early at the entrance of Carrefour and attempted to speak with store management about basic lemon consumption trends. This turned out to be both a bad idea and waste of time as we were put into the ‘eternal run-around circle.’ This previously un-documented level of Dante’s hell involved being constantly told to ‘come back at this time’ or to ‘ask this person for permission’. Come to think of it, it reminded me a lot of the Navy’s Personnel Support Department. It eventually became clear that we weren’t getting anywhere so Dan and I gave Bella the iPad and told her to ‘blitz the customers’. While she fearlessly surveyed the local produce pickers, Dan and I scoured the store for information on all things lemon.
The next store we stopped at was Renrenle, a local supermarket chain that surprisingly had a much cleaner and healthier looking selection of produce. We proceeded as we had at Carrefour, collecting as many survey as possible and begging the forgiveness of the store staff if we seemed to be bothering the customers.  Our last stop of the day was a local wet market. On the way to the market I noticed a policeman with a bag of lemons and, being the naturally curious person I am, asked him where he got his lemons and what would he use them for. This polite conversation started in confusion and soon turned into a spectacle as a crowd gathered while he plugged his responses into the iPad. What was even more humorous was that as he was answering a rather opinionated middle aged woman shoved her way to his side and began answering for him- I couldn’t tell if my efforts resulted in a biased survey or a two-for-one deal.
At the wet market Dan, Bella, and I repeated much of the same strategy but encountered a rather annoying roadblock. As the market was a place of cut-throat negotiations and quick walking passerbys, gathering a sufficient quantity became difficult. Also, as the market had numerous long and windy streets, Dan and I lost Bella on more than two occasions. Worried that my iPad and, more our even more important lemon data was lost, we worked harder to keep Bella tethered to the two of us. After almost two hours mouthing over fresh pig feet and live eels, we returned to our hostel for a well-deserved lunch.
Our entire team gathered together that night and decided that while three of us would return to Anyue to improve client relations, two would stay in Chengdu and try for more interviews with companies. As Dan, Nick, and Josh made their way back, Tim and I continued our research in Chengdu with interviews at Carrefour, Yuwang Wholesale Exporters, Southwest Jiaotong Professors, The State Department, and All Lemon. In addition I went off to our final survey market, Ito Yokado. This called for long days and late nights.
As we compiled our notes we began to reflect on the implications of our research. While the lemon market was small compared to other fresh fruits, the Chinese consumers did use lemons in a number of ways. More than 80% of the people we surveyed used lemons and the main problem for increased lemon application was consumer education; most customers did not know how to use lemons outside of flavoring drinks or tea. Both customers and the company representative’s willingness to take the surveys and offer information surprised us. They all expressed a desire to improve the lemon industry of China. Our time in Chengdu, while brief, taught us a few invaluable lessons. One of these was that when conducting market research in China it is best to have connections to secure interviews.  Another was that surveying should be done without asking for management permission. More importantly, we now had solid information and numbers to help us solidify our recommendations to the Lemon Bureau. With that thought in mind, Tim and I slept well.
We woke up the next morning and heard back from the team in Anyue, the client relations building had been a success and Mr. Liu, the Lemon Bureau head, personally gave his regards to Nick for the Chinese fire-liquor induced hug during the banquet. Laughing, Tim and I packed up and set off for a well deserved trip to Chongqing.

This past week was a whirlwind of analysis as our plucky group of budding China marketers made preparations for our final client conference. It felt a conference, rather than just a presentation, as our meeting was not only attended by all stakeholders in the lemon industry but also located on the top floor of the tallest and most majestic building in all of Anyue County. Despite our anxiety about getting the presentation fine-tuned and we were all comforted in knowing that the previous weeks tireless surveying and interviewing had given us the data and information we needed to make solid recommendations.

DSCN1169Our team descended on Chengdu three weeks prior to evaluate the lemon consumption habits and knowledge of Chinese and international customers. This was not an impossible task, but it had never been attempted to our knowledge. To that end we broke into two teams. One was to conduct focus groups and multiple company interviews. The second team focused on collecting customer surveys among random consumers at grocery stores. We chose Carrefour, a local market Renrenle, an alleyway wet market, and Ito Yokado- an upscale market located across town.
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Filed under: Matt Werner | 1 Comment »

China Entrepreneur Network

Written on June 13th, 2012

We were led to seats in the front row. I’m not positive of why, but I was thankful for the honor of being sat in front of the stage, while lamenting that my comings and goings would be visible to the entire conference room. An impeccably dressed waitress walked to our seats and filled our tea cups with hot water and then presented each of the four of us with coffee. This piqued my interest and I immediately looked around the room to see if the other conference attendees had been given coffee, tea, or both. My suspicions were rewarded: white cups of coffee and tea sat in front of the four of us, one American professor from the University of Michigan, and then only a few others throughout the room. I leaned over to Matt Werner and whispered “They gave us the coffee because we’re white.” Everyone else in the room was Chinese, or at least they were ethnically. Then again, what else would I have expected being at the annual meeting of the China Entrepreneur Network (CEN.)

CEN was founded to encourage innovative entrepreneurship in China. It links American and Chinese Universities and attracts members who care for social innovation, social business, and environmental protection. CEN’s emphasis upon social innovation and Bottom of the Pyramid growth are no surprise as it was founded at the University of Michigan, which the late C.K. Prahalad (renowned author of The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid) called home. From the University of Michigan CEN has spread to other universities and schools, including Thunderbird School of Global Management.
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Filed under: Nick Ford | 5 Comments »

跑得了和尚, 跑不了廟

Written on June 11th, 2012
跑得了和尚,  跑不了廟 (“You can take China II out of the city, but you can’t take the city out of China II”).
Arrival in Chengdu
During the commotion and fanfare of the CEN conference, we made it a priority to gorge ourselves on western food while we still could.  On the top of most everyone’s list was a juicy burger for which we had researched extensively.  Nick made it a point to periodically mention (should we choose to defy him) Chengdu’s best burger was at a place called The Underground.  However, upon arriving the waitress informed us that they were no longer serving burgers.  A second attempt was made at finding a burger the next night, but Nick was again thwarted by a democratic vote.  The only way to avoid a complete meltdown was to give into Nick’s demands.  So the third night we made a priority to have a burger at a foreign-owned restaurant called The Lazy Pug.   Nick did finally get his burger, but three of us did not since the restaurant only had enough buns for two.   Revenge is sweet, I suppose.
Shifting Priorities
From the onset, we knew that the second phase of this project would be much different than the first.    For the first group, it was necessary to stay in Anyue to interview farmers, processors, and wholesalers to develop a current-state analysis.  For us, on the other hand, we quickly realized the slow pace of small town living and lack of resources would hold us back.  Marketing is by nature consumer-oriented, and in order to understand those consumers, we had to get to Chengdu, quickly.   Though it was a shame we would have to spend the next week in one of China’s most live-able cities, but such are the sacrifices we are willing to make.
Our time in Chengdu conveniently coincided with the CEN conference, so we decided to take advantage of our time there and line up as many meetings as possible beforehand.  In a matter of two days, we had set up meetings with heads of marketing departments for a wholesaler and a major processor out of Anyue, in addition to focus groups and in-person surveys.  One of our ultimate goals for taking our project to the city was to get in touch with the right people.  Since the beginning of the project, we knew it would imperative that we spoke with the purchasing managers of grocery stores in China to get insight into how they chose their products, by what standards, and how they matched this with consumer tastes.  Meeting after meeting led to additional contacts and brought us that much closer to our goal.  One particularly fruitful meeting with the manager of Yuwang, a major exporter for Anyue lemons, ended with her offering to put us in touch with the agricultural representative at the American consulate as well as offering to finding a Chinese wife for Nick.  The first offer did eventually materialize, but we are still waiting on the latter.
In the field
Given the short amount of time we had in Chengdu, and one missing team member (Tim was in Beijing doing his own focus groups), we decided to split the team into two teams:  Alpha and Beta.   Team Alpha, Nick and I, focused on arranging and conducting focus groups.  We had already secured plenty of lemon processed products after meeting with the marketing department for Huatong.  We also scoured grocery stores all over Chengdu for competitor products, and came up with a variety of lemon products for taste testing, including:  lemon water, lemon slices, and honey lemon tea.   The focus groups were then split into two groups of six and eleven people, respectively.  The first group consisted of students 25 to 26 years old while the second group had a wider age range of 33 – 58 years old.  The focus groups went off smoothly without a hitch and gained some valuable insight into consumers’ tastes, perceptions, and brand awareness.    All of this, of course, would not be possible without the help of our trusty partner from Xinan Jiaotong University, Janet Tang.
Team Beta had an equally ambitious goal to collect hundreds of surveys from people in-person at grocery stores.  Dan and Matt were given the task of conducting research at the French supermarket chain, Carrefour, and the upscale Chinese chain, Ren Ren Le.  Lessons on the appropriate way to conduct surveys in-person were learned quickly when both Dan and Matt attempted to approach people with their Chinese partner from Jiaotong University, Bella Liu.  Many Chinese locals seemed immediately uncomfortable when two foreigners, a rarity in their own right, approached with Bella holding an i-Pad and asking questions about lemons.  Matt and Dan then resolved to cataloging competitor products and prices throughout the store while Bella did the surveys.  Not surprisingly, the local grocery chain was much more receptive to their inquiries than the foreign chain.  For both team Alpha and Beta, this was in addition to our usual meetings with wholesalers, exporters, purchasing managers, and the American consulate.
Overall, our week in Chengdu was one of the most productive weeks so far.  This may have been because the entire group felt under pressure to get something done during our limited time in Chengdu. Or, it could have been because of the vast amount of resources available to us in the city.  Most importantly though, by meeting with influential people in the lemon industry, we were better informed on the needs of various stakeholders as well as given a chance to build relationships and gain buy-in for our project.
*Nick confirms that the revenge was not only sweet, but also came with melted cheddar cheese.

(“You can take China II out of the city, but you can’t take the city out of China II”).

Arrival in Chengdu

During the commotion and fanfare of the CEN conference, we made it a priority to gorge ourselves on western food while we still could.  On the top of most everyone’s list was a juicy burger for which we had researched extensively.  Nick made it a point to periodically mention (should we choose to defy him) Chengdu’s best burger was at a place called The Underground.  However, upon arriving the waitress informed us that they were no longer serving burgers.  A second attempt was made at finding a burger the next night, but Nick was again thwarted by a democratic vote.  The only way to avoid a complete meltdown was to give into Nick’s demands.  So the third night we made a priority to have a burger at a foreign-owned restaurant called The Lazy Pug.   Nick did finally get his burger, but three of us did not since the restaurant only had enough buns for two.   Revenge is sweet, I suppose.*DSC_0134

Shifting Priorities

From the onset, we knew that the second phase of this project would be much different than the first.    For the first group, it was necessary to stay in Anyue to interview farmers, processors, and wholesalers to develop a current-state analysis.  For us, on the other hand, we quickly realized the slow pace of small town living and lack of resources would hold us back.  Marketing is by nature consumer-oriented, and in order to understand those consumers, we had to get to Chengdu, quickly.   Though it was a shame we would have to spend the next week in one of China’s most live-able cities, but such are the sacrifices we are willing to make.
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Filed under: Josh Lunbeck | 5 Comments »

At least it can’t get any worse…

Written on June 3rd, 2012

I sat in the passenger seat, my door open and rain pouring down the right side of my body. Outside the cab two students from South West Jiao Tong University were trying to explain to our taxi driver where he should take Dan and me. The other three team members had left five minutes earlier in another taxi. Despite the student’s best efforts, the driver had no idea where the “Lazy Bones” hostel was…and this was well into the sixth minute of their explanation. I began to question if the driver was going to get so frustrated he’d order the foreigners, and our 100+ lbs. of baggage, out of the cab and back into the pouring rain. My eyebrows rose slightly, and I comforted myself with the thought that “At least it can’t get any worse.” That’s when my phone rang and Josh informed me that the other taxi driver was lost and had no idea where our destination was. As words in Mandarin and Sichuanese flew back and forth across the cab, I took a moment to ponder how we’d ended up in this situation.
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Filed under: Nick Ford | 37 Comments »

Falling In Line

Written on May 30th, 2012
Falling In Line
One challenge that faces any consultant is establishing a project’s scope.  More often than not, a project has multiple stakeholders with different – if not opposing – motives, and as such, clarity in terms of what needs to be accomplished can be difficult to pinpoint, and scope creep often threatens to derail things.  While this challenge is to be expected in any consulting project, introducing disparate cultures and languages makes clear communication an issue, only exacerbating the difficulty of defining scope.
It’s not that our team does not have its fair share of Chinese speakers.  When it comes to conversing with locals about whom we are and what we are doing in Anyue, we have little difficulty explaining ourselves.  Granted, I may have allowed a certain barbershop to believe that I was a movie star, in Anyue to film a top secret movie about lemons, instigating a brief but excited photo shoot.  But it’s hard to resist such fame when it’s given to you and all you have to do is offer confirmation.  The true difficulty comes from working in a high-context/high-power-distance culture when we are so used to being able to have direct conversations with our colleagues in order to fully understand what is expected of us.
Our first major challenge came when we were asked to submit an outline for our final report on Friday, when we had only begun to establish the scope of the project three days prior.  We wondered how we could possibly be expected to create an outline for a report that we were in no way prepared to write.  As such, we wrote a general outline referencing the topics that we hoped to discuss in the report, but without too much detail as we had not yet delved deep enough into our research to confidently convey the outcome of the report.  After all, we had only been in Anyue for two days.
On Monday morning, a meeting was held, of which we had expected to be a part, in which members of the Lemon Bureau discussed our outline, and one of our Chinese counterparts, Mr. Tian, came back with notes that seemed rather grim.  We had not given enough detail.  They were uncertain of what we were trying to do.  They seemed to have something very specific in mind, but we were unsure what it was.  The feedback that we were given about what our client wanted in the final report was really no different from what we were working on.  But how were we to give more details about a final report for a project which had only just begun?  And why had they asked us to come if they weren’t confident in our ability?  The reaction to our outline left a sour taste in our mouths.
Nonetheless, we revised the outline according to our client’s feedback and urged our student aids to help us set up a meeting with the leader of the Lemon Bureau, whom we had not yet met because he had been away on business.  We were concerned that we would continue to send unsatisfactory outline drafts if we were unable to talk directly to the person in charge to understand what he wanted.  This would only serve to delay a project that has a limited time for completion as is.
The meeting was set for 3pm, after everyone had returned from lunch.  The anxiety in our office was palpable as we wondered whether what we were about to deliver would be considered satisfactory.  At the meeting, we gave a presentation about product development and market research and discussed our revised outline.  The head of the Lemon Bureau, Mr. Liu, seemed satisfied with our presentation and our revisions.  As it turned out, they really wanted an outline of our work plan, rather than an outline of our final report, so that they could understand how best to aid us in our research.  We returned to our office feeling much more confident in our understanding of what it was that our client wanted from us.  In retrospect, we realized that Mr. Tian approaching us with notes for our outline before our meeting with Mr. Liu had helped us save face when we gave our presentation.  This was because it prevented us from being openly criticized in front of everyone at the meeting.  Who knew?

One challenge that faces any consultant is establishing a project’s scope.  More often than not, a project has multiple stakeholders with different – if not opposing – motives, and as such, clarity in terms of what needs to be accomplished can be difficult to pinpoint, and scope creep often threatens to derail things.  While this challenge is to be expected in any consulting project, introducing disparate cultures and languages makes clear communication an issue, only exacerbating the difficulty of defining scope.

DSC_0059It’s not that our team does not have its fair share of Chinese speakers.  When it comes to conversing with locals about whom we are and what we are doing in Anyue, we have little difficulty explaining ourselves.  Granted, I may have allowed a certain barbershop to believe that I was a movie star, in Anyue to film a top secret movie about lemons, instigating a brief but excited photo shoot.  But it’s hard to resist such fame when it’s given to you and all you have to do is offer confirmation.  The true difficulty comes from working in a high-context/high-power-distance culture when we are so used to being able to have direct conversations with our colleagues in order to fully understand what is expected of us.

Our first major challenge came when we were asked to submit an outline for our final report on Friday, when we had only begun to establish the scope of the project three days prior.  We wondered how we could possibly be expected to create an outline for a report that we were in no way prepared to write.  As such, we wrote a general outline referencing the topics that we hoped to discuss in the report, but without too much detail as we had not yet delved deep enough into our research to confidently convey the outcome of the report.  After all, we had only been in Anyue for two days.

On Monday morning, a meeting was held, of which we had expected to be a part, in which members of the Lemon Bureau discussed our outline, and one of our Chinese counterparts, Mr. Tian, came back with notes that seemed rather grim.  We had not given enough detail.  They were uncertain of what we were trying to do.  They seemed to have something very specific in mind, but we were unsure what it was.  The feedback that we were given about what our client wanted in the final report was really no different from what we were working on.  But how were we to give more details about a final report for a project which had only just begun?  And why had they asked us to come if they weren’t confident in our ability?  The reaction to our outline left a sour taste in our mouths.

Nonetheless, we revised the outline according to our client’s feedback and urged our student aidsDSC_0483 to help us set up a meeting with the leader of the Lemon Bureau, whom we had not yet met because he had been away on business.  We were concerned that we would continue to send unsatisfactory outline drafts if we were unable to talk directly to the person in charge to understand what he wanted. This would only serve to delay a project that has a limited time for completion as is.

The meeting was set for 3pm, after everyone had returned from lunch.  The anxiety in our office was palpable as we wondered whether what we were about to deliver would be considered satisfactory.  At the meeting, we gave a presentation about product development and market research and discussed our revised outline.  The head of the Lemon Bureau, Mr. Liu, seemed satisfied with our presentation and our revisions.  As it turned out, they really wanted an outline of our work plan, rather than an outline of our final report, so that they could understand how best to aid us in our research.  We returned to our office feeling much more confident in our understanding of what it was that our client wanted from us.  In retrospect, we realized that Mr. Tian approaching us with notes for our outline before our meeting with Mr. Liu had helped us save face when we gave our presentation.  This was because it prevented us from being openly criticized in front of everyone at the meeting.  Who knew?

Filed under: Dan Olver | 3 Comments »

The Town Spectacle

Written on May 26th, 2012

“The town proper of Anyue County has numerous attractions like karaoke bars and delicious restaurants, but only one museum – the foreigners at table 2.”

After a few nights in Chengdu and a long wait for the ride to take us to Anyue, we finally arrived in town.  Immediately, it was apparent that this place was different than Chengdu, although not quite the rural countryside that we were expecting.  In fact, the town seemed rather large.  At one point, Dan and I walked a perimeter road up a small hill to get a better view.   From the top, apartment building after apartment building stretched into the horizon.  Further explorations around town revealed that the city center itself was indeed quite small.

DSC_0505After speaking with some of the locals it was clear that most people knew one another.   Not only did they know each other, but it seemed they knew who we were.  Strange occurrences, like people we’ve never met in the hotel elevator pressing the floor button for us, were not uncommon.  One morning, on the way to breakfast our three translators (Kayla, Bella, and Janet) warned me that if I didn’t bring my breakfast ticket I wouldn’t be able to eat.  I assured them that everyone in the hotel knew who we were.  Sure enough the waitress at the hotel restaurant told them that “the foreigners” didn’t need tickets.    This created a sense of privilege that was sure to go to our heads.DSC_0535

The extent of our celebrity status was put to the test on our first night out and first chance to enjoy the town away from work.  We started the night off at a kuai chao (stir fry) restaurant which stood out from the rest because of the three liter beer taps on all the tables.  We thought about going further down the street since all the tables outside were full, but Tim insisted that we couldn’t pass this place up.  The owner took us into a partially closed-off room in the back while we waited for a table outside to open up.  As we ordered food, a crowd of spectators wandered in for a look.  One particular spectator decided to a buy us a beer tap.  After that we moved outside and all hell broke loose.  People from neighboring tables (including children) took turns toasting their glasses with us and taking pictures.   The rest of the night was an amalgamation of karaoke, toasting, handshakes, and gasps from passersby.  It seems that China Two had started things off with a bang.

China One hadn’t left unnoticed either.  Throughout many of the conversations with locals, I asked if they remembered of the first group of foreigners.  Almost all of them remembered and told me stories of seeing the “Middle-Eastern” man (Vivek), the two whitemen (Hans and Travis), and the white woman (Chelsea).  As China One left their legacy on the town of Anyue, the legend of China Two is just beginning.

DSC_0518

Filed under: Josh Lunbeck | 3 Comments »

Lend Me Your Ears

Written on May 26th, 2012

Our team arrived to the ‘Middle Kingdom,’ after more than 30 hours in transit, to the city of Chengdu.  This city is the capital of Sichuan, where our project is located, and one of the most important centers for economic activity in Southwestern China.  It is also one of the oldest cities, and has served as the capital of six separate reigns over its more than two thousand years of inhabitation.  One of the most famous of these reigns was the Shu Kingdom of the Warring States period (Three Kingdoms).  It was the home to two of the most famous Chinese poets, Li Bai and Du Fu, the birthplace of the first widely used paper money in the word (~960 AD), and the last stronghold of the Chinese National Party (KMT) before Chaing Kai-shek fled mainland China for Taiwan.

Chengdu has become known as the ‘City of Leisure,’ and its more than 14 million inhabitants value good food, especially the famous Hot Pot and Mapo doufu above all else.  Our team was quite eager to enjoy the culinary culture of Chengdu, and gorged ourselves on an extremely spicy Hot Pot the first day we arrived.

Among the many famous sights and sounds that bring tourists flocking to the city is Jinli Street.  It first became famous during the Three Kingdoms (220-280 BC) as a trading place for high quality cloths.  It continued as one of the busiest commercial streets during the Shu Kingdom.  In 2004, the street was restored with traditional style buildings, snacks, and littered with the iconic red lanterns.

DSC_0443

DSC_0433As we strolled through the crowded streets bathed in the red glow we heard a strange trilling metallic sound.  We saw a crowd gathered and went to investigate.  There in front of the mass was a line of five or six chairs, attended by people in white coats sticking things into peoples ears.  The strangeness of the sight captured our attention.  A sign over the chairs read “Royal Ear Massage;” we couldn’t resist.   Without waiting for caution to dissuade us, Matt, Nick and I went over and sat down.

DSC_0412“What’s this about?” I asked the lady who stood by my chair.  She laughed, turned my head to the side and carefully pushed a long thin set of tweezers deep into my ear. The feeling was absolutely bizarre (as Nicks face clearly conveys), and the scrapping sound that it made was even more peculiar.  I have to admit however, it was not at all unpleasant.  The lady worked for two or three minutes in each of my ears, first picking them, then swabbing them with a cotton tipped bamboo stick, and finally used some metal tongs to produce an utterly indescribable sound deep in the canal (which I’m not sure had any effect other than to run shivers up my spine).  All the while, a growing crowd of onlookers, including the other members of our team snapped pictures, pointed and laughed at the spectacle we were making.

I later did a bit of research and found that the custom of ‘Ear Scrapping’ is actually quite popular throughout Southwest China.  Practitioners are licensed after training for two years, and can be found roaming the streets and tea houses looking for waxy ears.  The Chinese find the practice relaxing, and after having tried it twice now, I happen to agree.

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