Comments Again about the Episode Hosted by Bobby Chen and Patty Hou with Rene Liu as a Guest

I watched a selection of “Kidnap”(连环结，又名綁架) starred by Rene Liu(劉若英) and Lin Jianxin(林嘉欣), and part of “Happy Birthday”(生日快樂) starred by Rene Liu and Gu Tianle(古天樂), prompting me to search for an episode of a talk show hosted by Patty Hou(侯佩岑) and Bobby Chen(陳昇) with Rene Liu as a guest. I was moved by the show, which I have watched months ago and written down some comments about it.

I have to say that this episode is a piece of works with staggering complicated implications and has even a richer context to analyze than the two movies that I mentioned above, although Rene's acting is absolutely outstanding on the movies. Why do I say so? Here come some points I hold.

First, Rene, a famous Taiwanese actress who has won more than hundreds of acting awards in Taiwan, in Mainland China and even in Asia, expose the “real herself” without any disguise from the very beginning, a situation described by some Internet comments as “totally break down”, because her master declined to accept her offering of brand new album. The guest instantly wept and consequently the inexperienced hostess suddenly did not know how to handle the accidence, resulting in the entire program out of control. Thanks to her inexperience, the audience got the luck to see the real sentiments of the guest and the host, who acted as if he was also one of the guests of that day. In fact, I would say there was no host or hostess in this particular episode. Rene and Bobby Chen just took advantage of this show to communicate their respective attitude and feelings which might not have any proper opportunity to express in other occasions.

Second, although movies tend to be designed to move the audience and to be schemed many climatic plots, sometimes a real life story could be more touching and more intricate than them. For example, after Rene asked Bobby to sing a song called "The Kite”, whose lyrics similized a person with liberal and unrestrained personality as a kite, He by his own picked a second song to sing for her, whose lyrics immersed in a tone of sorrow, wisdom, and open mind used a man's perspective to tell a woman who was going to take a train by herself in the platform of a train station that the time has changed and a woman should have her own dream to pursue. Each word of the lyrics sang by Bobby was fully fit with the thoughts which he want to express. The lyrics seemed to tailor for this moment, while actually they were written by him many years ago.

Finally, I noticed even these days, many fans are still writing their comments about this episode which was produced many years ago. People could easily find this material on various video sharing websites such as Youtube, Tudou (土豆網), and other similar Chinese sites. The popularity has proven not only the popularity of Rene Liu, but also the formidable Internet distributing effects on an event or a program. No matter how long ago a word, a comment or a piece of works was generated, once it was put on the Internet, the impact is going to exist almost perpetually without the limits of space and time.

Bureaucratic Stuff in China and Postponement of Russian Dinner

I went to Agricultural Bank of China right at 9 o'clock to open several accounts for stockholders. After lining up for more than a half hour, the clerk rejected my application, making me very irritated by the bureaucratic operation of banks in China and the troublesome process of registering a company in this country. I called my agent and he suggested me to try another bank. Queuing for more than one hour this time in another bank, fortunately, his suggestion worked! Afterwards, I emailed Jolt some data and reminded him to move on the next step as soon as possible.

It is exhausting to set up a company in China. However, I keep telling myself that all these annoying trivia are just beginning of owning my own business. The centerpiece has even not yet begun. So be patient!

At noon of Yesterday, I got Creek’s text message and then phoned her to accept the phone call interview for workshop. The result will not be notified until next week, meaning that I have to keep thinking of this thing until next week. The total required cash for this event is 7600 RMB, but I think it is worthwhile.

Today it is raining in Beijing, resulting in postponement of my appointment with Olive to go swimming this afternoon and then to have an exquisite dinner in a Russian restaurant near Xizhi Men (西直門). I have been looking for this get-together since last night I confirmed my schedule with him. I do need a relaxation and some social life now. Besides, Olive is going to leave China a couples days later. I am sad about his departure but this is the correct decision he has to make. Bless him!

Kick off Company Registration Process and Donate a Few Money to a Beggar

Eventually, I commissioned an agency company to register our start-up and paid 2000 RMB as the deposit. This was a substantial move for me, meaning that I will have to totally devote at least one year to the new business – I do not want to have a failed record of entrepreneurship.

There was a change of shareholders. A PM withdrew from investors partly because, compared with other stockholders, she felt shameful about the paltry sum of her investment and partly because she planed to buy a car after getting a driven license of her own, resulting an exclusive effect on her disposable income. This development did cause some problem on our registration task, but Jolt could solve this issue by himself.

On my way home, I saw one beggar, whose face was so frightening that I do not want to elaborate too much herein. I think that was caused by unfortunately genetic disease. I remembered I used to see him on the viaduct of Sitong bridge (四通橋) last month when I made an appointment with the above-mentioned PM for the start-up discussion. At that time, I did not give him any money and I felt uncomfortable about what I had done. Therefore, this time when I already passed through him and I suddenly realized that this beggar was the one I saw couples weeks ago, I turned back and put ten RMB - which was not too much but which was the amount I could offer in terms of my stringent economic conditions - into his iron can. I was not sure if he could see my behavior because his eyes were covered by pending and twisted muscles and skin, and I was not sure if his appearance was just a trick and a disguise to cheat passengers so that he could make money from people’s compassion, a commonplace in China that was schemed by tons of criminal groups everywhere in this country, making the public reluctant to donate any cash to any beggars in big cities. Due to many disguised beggars in China, I have not give any money to those beggars in Beijing, because I think most of them can get good care if they want to get assistance from the government, and because the authorities also warned citizens not to donate money to those beggars, who influenced the appearance of a metropolis and the operation of subway. Nonetheless, I sympathized with those who played some instruments much more than those who only stretched their limbs to ask for money. My idea was that at least those who played music were doing something to exchange for money, rather than doing nothing but at the same time hoping to gain compensation.

Summary of MBA Career Seminar

I met zixi, the legendary founder of one well-known community in the Hall of Oriental Plaza when my new friends and I were heading to CKGSB. She was kind of different from what I imagined. I conversed with her prior to the speech given by Professor Huang Ming, who used teach in Stanford and Chicago Business School.

Professor Huang’s speech is convincing. I wrote down some main points from his sharing as the following.

*The goals for a MBA program:

1. Career Switch
2. Networking
3. Knowledge: use a short time to absorb as many study results from managerial scholars, who have devote their whole life on their research, as you can

*The culture in CBS: Competitive
*The culture in Stanford: Teamwork (Suitable for start-up oriented students)

*What matters in essay writing?
Highlight on social activities and leadership and it must be able to move readers.

*Who want to work in investment banks or consulting firms should choose top 5 B-schools; who want to stay in Fortune 500 has not much difference in any B-schools with top 20.

*Is it hard for Chinese students to land a job in the U.S. after graduation? The best profile for a Chinese student who wants to get a job in America could be someone who understands the western managerial culture, and in the meantime has a deep comprehension about China. This type of person might work in the U.S. for one to two years and then be assigned to China as the top management who is in charge of all China affairs.

Agreements Set Down and Some Thoughts about Future

Waiting for phone call from the consultant in a head hunting company the entire daytime, I wasted time doing nothing today. I think I need to breathe some fresh air so I make an appointment with Olive tomorrow to hike in Xiang Shan tomorrow. In the evening on MSN, Jolt caught me and begun discussing our agreements. I, hence, pulled Ethanol into our conversation and reported to both partners about some obstacles so far I encountered. After one hour or so, we come to conclusion and will move on to registration work next week.

These days I cannot help speculating whether I should follow my original plan to pursue my MBA degree from next year, or I should seize the promising job opportunity in the Great China market, probably a more booming economy than the one in the U.S., if I get the job offer later. I was confused today. Can MBA program in U.S. promise my a better career and life than those in China, a limelight all round the world in this century? Am I too stubborn insisting on this switch of locations, industries, and life? I thought of these questions and then one thing loomed on my mind. That is, yes, I will go on to study abroad, no matter I would start my own business later or I would work in Suzhou for that Taiwanese company. My point is neither that how high position in a company I can get in my future, nor that how many fortune I can amass in my life. My point is that I want to keep experiencing different, interesting, multi-culture life in the following decades. There is not much different between my past and my future if I still work in China for the following years. The only breakthrough I can make is for sure to work overseas, a life experience much different from the traveling experiences that I had in Europe. I might later on feel tired, frightened, and helpless later on the road toward this destination. However, I must give it a try or I would never know if it worth or not.

An Unexpected Job Opportunity and the End of the TOEFL Registration Battle

In the late afternoon, a specialist of a head hunting company in Shanghai phoned me and provided me some basic information for some position of a Taiwanese company. At first, I was not really interested in it because the location is in Suzhou, a second-tier city in China where many Taiwan companies amass there. However, the salary is attracting, and I found that the company is promising after checking data about it. This company gained a big amount of investments from two famous venture capitals at the end of last year. Now I am really in a dilemma: Should I do my best to land this job opportunity? Or I'd better follow my original plan to start my own business and study abroad afterwards?

I decided to give it a try for this special job. I replied an e-mail to the specialist to ask her to arrange an interview in Beijing ASAP because the GM of the employer is visiting Beijing currently. I want to go through the entire process as soon as possible so that if I do not match the requirements of the employer, I can go on my previous plan without too much waste of time on this interlude.

By the way, yesterday I spent more than 5 hours registering for TOEFL seats. It was definitely a war that thousands of Chinese people sitting in Internet cafés, offices, dormitories or at home stared at the monitors, cursed the stupid website registration system, complained the Department of Education in China and the ETS in the U.S., and cried for the eventual success or unfortunate failure. Some people decided to register for more than one seat because of the fear of facing this kind of torture again. Many students still failed to get any seats for the exam and thus might lose their opportunities for study overseas.

Release of TOEFL Seats and an Appointment with “Strangers”

At midnight, there were about 8 people talking at the same time on the MSN messenger dialog pane, words flowing as fast as river water. I have not done such an online group talking for a long time. Among these people, I only met Candid once at a GMAT activity in February and both Lettuce and Meteor, two girls that I have not contacted since then. Jubilant is someone who sent me his MSN account several days ago and who I left him some offline greetings in Japanese. The main reason that makes us get together is the unconfirmed news from NEEA about today’s release of ibt-TOEFL exam, whose seats in China is in short supply since the beginning of this year.

After a messy conversations, someone proposed we can have a “FB”, a recurrently coined Internet term which means singing in KTV or dining out with friends with one’s own money, if joining the upcoming speech about MBA career next Sunday noon. I promised to join them because I think I do need more social life and I do want to make more local Chinese friends. Among them, I am very impressed by Jubilant’s multilingual ability, versatility and colorful overseas working and life experiences. Additionally, he is only 24 years now, an age which I still stayed at university! I am convinced that the younger generation of China is very competent and has strong competitive advantage in job markets around the world.

Today's release of ibt-TOEFL seats will certainly cause a war for all Chinese students who plan to study abroad. There is no doubt that the release of this time, 25000 vacancies according to some rumor, could not meet the strong demand from the market. We will see what will happen today.

PS. While I tried to connect to the Internet to post above content, I suddenly found that there was something wrong about the connection. I was very anxiety about this because several hours later I also have to grab a seat for myself. I prompted contacting my ISP and spent about two hours working with them. Fortunately, the problem has solved. I asked the ISP lady about the possible reason for my connection problem. She told me that it might be caused by too many people using the Internet for the moment. Does that imply millions of Chinese are online waiting for the first gun shot to secure a TOEFL exam vacancy now? I can not help suspecting this possibility, because I have never encounter any Internet connection problem since this ISP provide service for me!