20121020 Minutes by Jane Cheng:
In China We (Don’t) Trust
This is a topic good for discussion but some of questions are too big for us to answer. It’s lucky to have 8 members showing up, Jeffery, John, Hope, Martin, Kevin, Steve and Steve’s French friend, Loy and me, Jane. David turned up later to take a picture for us making number 9. Thank you, David. We decided to discuss it together in a group.
For the first question, Jeffery said China was his second country. He has seen it from poor to rich. In such a big country like China, it’s very hard to make a simple conclusion for the image or impression of their people, who were experiencing huge economic change in less 20 years, compared to us, Taiwan, taking 40 or more years to get here. John had worked there as a computer tech supervisor for a year when China just opened its door. His salary was very high compared to the local workers then; they were very poor. Steve has been there only for business and didn’t have further contact with locals. Hope and Martin have joined a tour visiting China’s country sites several years ago and saw kids beg for money. I quite agreed to Jeffery that it depends on whom you contact and where they are from. I found the people from the northern China more care about saving face although they could not be as affluent as the southerners while the southerners could be cunning and flexible.
For the question 2, we have more consensuses. Not only us but also the mainland Chinese don’t trust their products especially for foods. As for Taiwan, although compared to some civilized western countries, we still have a lot needed to improve but are better than 20 years ago. The quality of our people has averagely upgraded.
For the question 3, most of us still prefer shopping in the stores rather online. Jeffrey said it’s probably because Taiwan’s stores were so convenient and have very long hours business. Loy is from France and still preferring buying from the counter because thus he knows whom he can go for if there’s any problem of the products after the purchase. Hope has purchased clothes online. However, we can’t deny online marketplaces offer more competitive prices so sometimes we will check the prices online first before go shopping. I said my husband preferred online shopping his 3C products and admired PChome’s fast delivery service. My daughter working in Australia where everything is very expensive and also shopping is not as convenient in Taiwan so she will go online shopping. My conclusion: Shopping is a kind of habit. The elder generation may be more used to going to a store and buying from people face to face while the younger generation is more familiar with the internet and used to online shopping.
For question 4, we all agreed that innovation was very important for Taiwan but how to improve our innovation environment was quite a big thing for the government, not easy for us to answer.
For question 5, Hope, working in an international trading business, told us there’re still some flaws in Alibaba and it’s not yet good enough to make people doing business there with mind eased. However, it does build a platform for the local businessmen to contact the world outside but trust takes time to build up.
As for the last question, everyone looked solemnly when saying agreeing to it. How do you get yourself prepared for it? I think what we are doing here is aimed at it. We should open our mind, keep learning and become more international to face this fast-changing world.
In the end I asked how they reckoned about the future between Taiwan and China. Jeffery said this was a very sensitive topic but personally he thought our future had been destined. Actually, I agreed with him but I thought since the world was flattened so what we should focus on now was how to become more international, competitive and flexible. As for the future, let time decides it.
Jane Cheng
