Season 01 Compilation 03
Compilation 03
Mosaic of China Season 01 - China Surprises
Original Date of Release: 02 Jun 2020.
If there's one thing on which almost everyone can agree, it's on China's capacity to surprise. No matter whether you're a China outsider or someone who's been living here for decades, there will always be something to make you stop in your tracks. And this is just as much the case for Chinese people as it is for non-Chinese.
Today's special compilation episode from Season 1of the podcast is an anthology of all the things that still surprise the guests about life in China. And listening to these answers together can remind us to keep that attitude of wonder in our lives. So what would be the thing that surprises *you* the most about life in China? Please contribute to the communities on WeChat, Instagram and Facebook.
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[Trailer]
Michael ZEE: They’re so shocked. They’re, you know, “Oh, old Communist China has better apps, better taxi services…” Better all these things. And it's so easy to just click your fingers and you get something.
[Intro]
OF: Welcome to Mosaic of China, a podcast about people who are making their mark in China. I'm your host, Oscar Fuchs.
In our third special compilation episode from Season 01, we listen to how my guests all answered the question “Is there anything that still mystifies or surprises you about life in modern China?” And I really enjoyed asking this question, because it elicited a kind of wonder in people's responses. And that's not just confined to outsiders living in China, it applies just as universally to those who have lived here for decades. And of course, even with the Chinese themselves.
To follow along with the visuals that accompany today's episode, please go to @oscology* on Instagram, or @mosaicofchina on Facebook. Or you can add me on WeChat on my account: mosaicofchina,* and I'll add you to the listeners group there. I've posted my own surprising addition there, which was something that just took place last week.
*Different WeChat and Instagram handles were mentioned in the original recording. These IDs are now obsolete, and the updated details have been substituted.
[Main]
[Voiceover]
OF: Eric Olander, the journalist from Episode 03.
[Clip]
EO: Every single day. I mean, this place, the complexity of it never, ever ceases to amaze me. And there's this great chart, actually, that was circulating on social media. It shows ‘age' versus ‘time being here’. So the people who have been here for one year all want to write the book on China. And then the longer you go here, the amount of time you spend here, the less you actually know. So the X/Y axis, and it just keeps going down, down, down, down. And I am extraordinarily humble about what I know and what I don't know. I have a graduate degree in Chinese foreign policy, I've spent 30 years here, I've been studying Chinese. I think I know a little bit compared to Westerners and other outsiders. And by the way, the Chinese themselves are not very well educated about their own country. A lot of the people who are raised in the cities don't know much about the countryside. Same, by the way, in my own country as well. It's too big for any one person to really grasp. And so I mean, nobody can really understand it. There is no such thing in my view as a ‘China Expert.’
[Voiceover]
OF: Emily Madge, the aquarium conservationist from Episode 14.
[Clip]
EM: Oh, um, everything. Everything mystifies me. I think every day there's something that fascinates me. I still can't get my head around any of it, but it's fabulous.
[Voiceover]
OF: Simon Manetti, the business leader from Episode 17.
[Clip]
SM: Everything should mystify you about life in China. You know, there are guys who are here after like six months to a year and they know everything about China. You know, and then you’re here for like 2-3 years onwards, and suddenly things are confusing. Five years on, you've got no idea what's going on at any one point in time.
[Voiceover]
OF: Sebastien Denes, the inclusion advocate from Episode 11.
[Clip]
SD: Almost every day, there is something that makes you say “Oh, I didn't think this would be possible,” right? One of the latest ones was, I was running around the city, and I actually found a bike cemetery. You know those sharing bikes, they go somewhere to die. And this place is like, five football fields. It's the other side of the sharing economy, it’s "What do you do with this?” It also for me, depicts how innovation goes in China, which is “Let’s do it, go forward with it, then start to regulate, and then eventually fix the issues that are going to happen”. Whereas in Europe or in Western countries, it's a little bit “Oh let’s not do it, because we have this and this and that and that reason,” right? So it's more finding a reason not to do it; here in China, it’s more going forward. This is why I think the country goes also very fast in that area.
[Voiceover]
OF: Tom Barker, the diplomat from Episode 25.
[Clip]
TB: Oh, everything about life in China surprise me, I spend every day constantly amazed. If there isn't at least five things which slightly freak me out, then I’m probably not leaving my bedroom.
[Voiceover]
OF: Roz Coleman, the theatre producer from Episode 22.
[Clip]
RC: Everything. I mean, I think if there's something that surprises me, it's that I still have capacity to be surprised. You know, like, “How am I surprised when this is my every day?” You know, every new thing that I learned and every new quirk of the language… My friend Jean taught me this lovely one the other day, it was something about how if people tell you that they met watching the football, then it means that they met when they were in prison. And I was like “How do you even find something like that out?” Like…
OF: That's actually a thing, is it?
RC: Seemingly, yeah.
OF: Oh.
[Voiceover]
OF: Jorge Luzio, the marketer for Sprite from Episode 05.
[Clip]
JL: It's about what we discussed before, it’s about ‘differences’ versus ‘nuances’. But the nuances make big differences. And it's about the way that their minds are pre-set. Every time that I try to think about the logic that they're using, to respond to certain stimuli, it strikes me the most.
OF: So each time you learn a new insight, it's a new surprise.
JL: Definitely.
[Voiceover]
OF: Gigi Chang, the translator from Episode 24.
[Clip]
GC: People can really spend and shop. Like, especially when I was still working in an office building environment. You go out at lunch with colleagues, and you’re just like "Why are you looking at that? That's really expensive”. That willingness to spend still mystifies me. Because I think, in my mind, I'm still a poor student. I haven't quite left that mentality yet.
OF: Right. Isn't that funny, because actually the reputation of the Chinese in general is that they're good savers. But you're right…
GC: They’re good savers, and good spenders at the same time. Which is… I think that is a philosophical question.
[Voiceover]
OF: Gina Li, the invention company CEO from Episode 06.
[Clip]
GL: How old people can be adaptive to technology. That is surprising. Like, my grandma, she's 88, she has the iPhone XS Max. My God. She just wanted the largest screen, and she wanted to have WeChat. And she doesn't like to type, WeChat has audio messages, and the stickers. The most important thing: she can collect red packets. So we have a family group, that every day, we just send something like, you know, a 10 块 [kuài] or 5 块 [kuài] red packet, and she's happy. Like, that is just somehow the simplest connection with everyone. And then I found out, like, a lot of people like me, if their grandparents live back in their hometown, they do a similar thing.
[Voiceover]
OF: Lexie Comstock, the cookie supplier from Episode 20.
[Clip]
LC: I would say again, just how quickly things move here. So this has been the constant from 2010 until now, things move and update so so quickly. And that is just, I think, so unique to China at this very moment. And anything from food safety laws, to traffic laws, to construction, to anything, it's such a fast moving place. And it's incredible, the pace.
[Voiceover]
OF: Sanford Browne, the biochemist from Episode 29.
[Clip]
SB: Oh, well, I would say if ever I'm at a point where it doesn't surprise me, then I'd be shocked. I think every time you see things… again, it relates to the pace of change, and how things change so fast, how people adopt the change. Just, you always see these changes. I think for me, this is… Every time when you look on the streets, I'm surprised by something.
[Voiceover]
OF: Maple Zuo, the comedian from Episode 02.
[Clip]
MZ: China is very big, it has loads of people. And we have one big party to rule the country. So once there is a decision, it goes down so quickly. Like technology, Alipay and everything, Taobao. It amazes me. Even though I'm using it, I feel like I can't get rid of my phone. And it's saving me so much time. I want everything just like ‘click click’. You go to England, you still need cash and everything. Right now, you can just scan everything. It's amazing. But then because of technology - because we have 5G now, right? - everything is going so fast. I was wondering, all this time you saved, what do you use with it? You know, that makes me think. Because people took transportation, you know, it took days and days to get there. And now just quick. OK, but when you're gonna do with the time you got there? A lot of people just stand on the train, just going on WeChat Moments or watching small, funny videos. I want to do something more, because we’re saving so much time, right?
[Voiceover]
OF: Michael Zee, the Instagram influencer from Episode 07.
[Clip]
MZ: I think that the biggest surprise now is just how much ahead of the Western world China is. Everyone that comes to visit me, they’re so shocked. They’re, you know, “Oh, old Communist China has better apps, better taxi services…” Better all these things. And it's so easy to just click your fingers and you get something.
[Voiceover]
OF: Lori Li, the private club GM from Episode 10.
[Clip]
LL: Every day I’m surprised by people's dynamic, especially Chinese people’s ability to absorb the information, change the information, and then use the information.
[Voiceover]
OF: Octo Cheung, the fashion designer from Episode 30.
[Clip]
OC: What surprised me is the way you use WeChat Pay. Maybe you just spend $1 to buy an onion in the market, you can just pay it. So I'm very surprised. And I think the electronic development here is really pretty awesome.
[Voiceover]
OF: Srinivas Yanamandra, the compliance leader from Episode 15.
[Clip]
SY: I think the only thing that surprises me is the precision. There are a lot of things I had an apprehension about a country like India to some extent. When we were taught in our childhood that one of the reasons for the slow pace of development in India could be the population. And with population there are problems of coordination, there are problems of policy formulation, and there are issues in terms of implementation. So we ascribe some of these pitfalls to population. But coming here, I really understood, even with population, you can have a lot of coordination. And there is a kind of method to madness that leads to perfect precision. That fascinates me very much. Any single thing that you do, there is a kind of an order. And that is what fascinates me about this place.
OF: And do you think that could be translated back into India?
SY: To some extent, we started doing that, because the enabler is being digital. So I think that there are pockets where we have achieved that. And the only reason for me to be very bullish is about the technology.
[Voiceover]
OF: Stephane de Montgros, the events company CEO from Episode 19.
[Clip]
SDM: The fast pace. I've been here close to twenty years, and it has not slowed down a second. Just take the Shanghai subway. Every summer there's a new line, and in the democracies in the West it takes twenty years to agree on a new track, where things get done here. These guys are insane. So I love it, and at the same time it blows me away, every time I come back.
[Voiceover]
OF: Yael Farjun, the historical researcher from Episode 12.
[Clip]
YF: Yes, I think again, how fast things happen here. How a decision is made here, or a direction is chosen, and things just start racing in that direction. And it's just incredible how there are new things happening in China almost on a daily basis. And they happen fast. They happen big. Yes, I think that's still surprising.
[Voiceover]
OF: Nick Yu, the playwright from Episode 13.
[Clip]
NY: In fact, I have so many things, for the new things happening in China. Like the high speed way, the trains. Also, like the internet… So when you have the mobile phone, you have the wifi everywhere. In China, in the village it’s the same as in Shanghai. Yeah.
[Voiceover]
OF: Abe Deyo, the tour manager from Episode 27.
[Clip]
AD: I guess what would mystify me is not anything to do with China, but a lot of the expats that come to China.
OF: Oh god. Yeah right.
AD: And they expect China to be a certain way. And when it's not - or it's not Western enough, or whatever - they just complain and complain.
[Voiceover]
OF: Philippe Gas, the Disney resort CEO from Episode 01.
[Clip]
PG: Something that surprises me is that people keep offering me hot water, not telling me, so I keep being surprised by hot water coming in. I'm always expecting the tea bag to come.
[Voiceover]
OF: Angie Wu, the jewellery craftsman from Episode 18.
[Clip]
AW: Yeah, so recently, I had a really bad experience. Like, I have this studio that I built, my jewellery studio. And for five years, everything was great, I even just renewed the contract with them. And then out of the blue when I was in Italy doing my exhibition in April, the landlord just called me and told me he sold the building. So he wanted me out in one month. And he didn't honour the contract. For three years, he was telling me “Oh, we trust each other, I like you so much.” So I couldn't do anything about it.
OF: Ach. Just when you think you understand how things work, everything's running smoothly, there’s always going to be something that comes unexpectedly.
AW: Of course.
[Voiceover]
OF: Nini Sum, the artist from Episode 16.
[Clip]
NS: Yes, actually recently, I got invited to do a very interesting new project. And this surprises me, because I wasn't expecting they would come to some artist like me. This is a VR project. Yeah.
[Voiceover]
OF: Greg Nance, the ultramarathon athlete from Episode 23.
[Clip]
GN: One thing that I think will probably always shock me and surprise me is seeing the opulent luxury and wealth and privilege in such close proximity to the poverty and squalor. That is just really tough to see. You know, I've come out of a business meeting in a really nice office building or at a really nice dinner, and you've got a shanty right next door. And that happens all over the world, but it's profoundly visible here in Shanghai.
[Voiceover]
OF: Vy Vu, the fitness community leader from Episode 08.
[Clip]
VV: I mean, we talked about it before, but 28 million people.
OF This is just Shanghai, right?
VV: Yeah. And this is the entire population of Australia, packed into this one city. Just how well Shanghai is able to move people from A to B so efficiently. It is really phenomenal.
[Voiceover]
OF: Sabrina Chen, the dance programme curator from Episode 26.
[Clip]
SC: The square dance ladies. Every time we invite an international company to Shanghai, they will ask me “Where can we see the square dance ladies?” Because they want to join them. Sometimes I will go to see the square dance with the artists. And they found out, the square dances are so difficult, even for professional dancers. And it's amazing to see so many old ladies still enthusiastic about dance so much, every day after work. My mother in law is one of them. Actually, when we just opened the theatre, we had to make a promotional video of the theatre. So in the video, we invited a group of square dance ladies. And I was observing them while they were making the video. As soon as they started dancing, everyone was so happy. You know, I was very moved by the scene. So even though sometimes they make a noise in the park, in the public space, I think it's really a good lifestyle for old people.
[Voiceover]
OF: Yang Yi, the broadcaster from Episode 21.
[Clip]
YY: Well, I want to give the example of TikTok. It's a little bit like Snapchat, but TikTok is focusing on the video part. Well, I'm a video editor for many years. So I think the applications like TikTok have changed a lot of things. They let people think that video is not a very difficult thing to make, and they can record their personal life. For me, I think this changed a lot. Because people now have the habit to record everything.
[Voiceover]
OF: Lissanthea Taylor, the pain expert from Episode 28.
[Clip]
LT: I think now I have to be mystified at my own responses to things. So I'm still mystified why I can't remember that green toothpaste tastes like tea. You know, in the West, blue or green are going to be mint. And I still get it wrong, and I go home with jasmine tea flavoured toothpaste.
[Outro]
OF: And that's all from this third special compilation episode from Season 01 of the podcast. The good news is that I have just started producing Season 02 of Mosaic of China, and the first couple of new interviews are already in the can. I was a little worried that I might have forgotten how to do it. But luckily my guests were both excellent, so I stopped worrying about that pretty quickly, and I just about remembered how to press all the right buttons in the studio.
I still have no idea whether I will be ready to release the new season by the time we reach the end of these 10 special compilation episodes, but let's see where we stand over the coming weeks. In the meantime, the next one will be on the topic of China facts. So it'll be a good way to brush up on your China trivia. See you in another two weeks.
[Clips]
PG: Thank you very much.
MZ: Thank you.
EO: Thank you so much.
AP: Thank you too.
JL: Thank you very much.
GL: Thank you.
MZ: Thank you again.
VV: Thank you so much.
NS: Great, thank you.
LL: My pleasure too.
SD: Thank you very much.
YF: Thank you.
NY: Thank you.
EM: Thank you.
SY: Thank you so much.
NS: Thank you for having me.
SM: Awesome, thank you.
AW: Thank you.
SDM: Thank you.
LC: Thanks for having me.
YY: Thank you for having me.
RC: Thank you so much for having me.
GN: Thank you for having me.
GC: Thank you
TB: Thank you very much.
SC: Thank you.
AD: Great to see you too.
LT: Thank you so much.
SB: Thanks.
OC: Thank you.