2012 Chinese Public Holiday Calendar

The Wedding Day

wedding car

8:08 a.m (inChina, the number “8” represents good luck): The groom needs to pick up the bride from the bride’s house to the groom’s house. In the past, the bride will be brought to the groom’s house in a Chinese Bridal Sedan Chair. But nowadays people use wedding cars instead. Usually there are more than ten cars to make a “wedding car team”. People usually judge the groom rich or not by counting the car numbers. Of course, the young groom doesn’t have a car, but he has to rent cars so as not to humiliate the bride’s family. If there are no cars on the wedding day, people will think the groom is very poor, and probably those people will gossip for a long time.

 The Wedding Ceremony

Though the bride wears a long white dress and the groom wears a black dress suit, they still need to kowtow as Chinese traditional weddings. From their facial expressions I can see that this young couple is not so willing to do this, but this is not up to them now. People around “forced” them to kowtow three times, the first signifying obeisance to heaven and earth, the second to their parents,  then

wedding ceremony

the parents give red envelopes (lucky money) to the couple, and the third to each other. When they kowtow to each other, the bride’s headwear gets tangled with the groom’s hair. Then everybody laughed, and the wedding MC says timely: “you two are really combined, never apart.”

 The Wedding Banquet

After the wedding ceremony, the wedding banquet starts! People are really hungry at this moment, because they’ve been excited for a whole day with an

wedding banquet

empty stomach! In the middle of the banquet, the couple walks to every table and people toast for them. But for the elders, they need to give lucky money to the young couple.

  The Wedding Room

After the banquet, usually the groom is drunk because he should drink a lot of liquor to show his gratitude to the guests, so people have to send him back to the gorgeous wedding room for a rest. In the wedding room, there are many decorations: colorful lights and ribbons, and the most important are the red

wedding room

Chinese characters “double Xi”, which is essential and indispensable. When the groom is “brought” to the wedding room, it means the wedding is ending. All in all, however, no matter where the wedding takes place, it is full of laughter, blessing and happiness.

Singing and Dancing

singing and dancing

In my hometown, people are very good at singing and dancing. Usually, singing is the best way to express your love to the one you love. There is a singing festival held on lunar calendar June 6^th, which is the most formal way to ask a girl for a date. You cannot talk, but must always keep singing to say whatever you want. Also, the girl will sing back to you to let you know whether she is interested in you. So, you should be very carful on composing lyrics, because this is very important to win a girl’s heart. Besides singing, bamboo dancing is the most popular dance in my hometown. You need to get a very good understanding of your fellows’ rhythm, or your feet will be easily caught by the bamboo, and you’ll be eliminated from this game, and probably you won’t be invited for the following games.

Hospitality of Miao People

The Miao nationality pays great attention to etiquette, especially with respect to the treatment of guests. For instance,

bamboo dancing

when a guest visits, the host kills a chicken or a duck to entertain and feed the guest. If the guest comes from afar or has a long journey, the host will first invite the guest to drink alcohol called Horn spirit to relieve his fatigue. Before lunch, the hostess will present you a drink called oil tea. To make this oil tea is not easy, because it takes the hostess much time to prepare. First she should soak the tea overnight, and then mash the tea to get the tea juice. Everything just starts: the hostess should use the tea juice to stew soup, which takes at least two hours. When the soup is done, many other ingredients should be put in the bowl, such as peanuts, small glutinous rice balls, ginger etc…. Meanwhile, there is a very

oil tea

important etiquette you should remember, that is the how many bowls of oil tea you drink. In my hometown, if you are a guest, you must drink at least four bowls of oil tea, or the host and hostess will not be happy because they will think you don’t like their food. There is a saying on oil-tea: one bowl, bandit; two bowls, thieves; three bowls, strangers; four bowls, friends. So you’d better to prepare well (keep your stomach empty) to drink four bowls of oil tea!!!

Wishes

Clothing of Miao Girl

But as time went by, many people of Miao ethnic group have been influenced by modern society, especially the young people. They go out for study or work and their habits and customs are greatly changed. They probably have to get accustomed to big cities and seldom go back home. Anyhow, I hope us Miao people can remain our own characteristics to show the unique and precious culture.

The Young Couple

Last weekend I met two high-school classmates. They fell in love in high school, dropped out of school and got married in spite of the family strong opposition. So they didn’t go to a college and, of course they didn’t get a degree. At that time, they’re so young and so impulsive. They thought they’ve found the true love and couldn’t wait any more to get involved in a marriage. Till now, four years passed, and they have two boys now. The two boys are very lovely but this couple has to work very hard in a factory’s assembly line and get relatively low salary because they cannot manage the intellectual work, only the manual work. They currently live a very hard life because they have to raise the two kids. But the children were left at home (rural home) because their parents have no time to look after them. As a result, the kids cannot stay with their parents, and most of them are cared by grandparents or other relatives. In fact, the kids feel very lonely.  

In the small rented house, I almost cannot find a place to sit. It’s very narrow, shabby and dark. They have so much pressure on their shoulders. During our talk, I can easily sense the regret from their expressions. They could have lead a better life because both of them were excellent students in school. They should have gone to a university and got decent jobs with higher salaries, enjoying romantic dates as the other young people do. But now they have to face the household chores and worry about the daily expense everyday. This is their choice and they must be responsible for what they’ve decided.  All in all, everybody has the right to choose his/her life but has no right to choose being born. It’s their responsibilities and the decision lies with whoever is on the spot.

A Strong Contrast

What I alluded to above is not a unique situation in China. Actually, in Shenzhen there are some people who are in a worse living condition than the couple I mentioned. Every morning on my way to the office, there are several people sleeping on the road and they’re regardless of the danger of being hit by cars or bicycles. They’re just too tired! They are not beggars, but the construction workers or scavengers who cannot afford renting a house. All of this makes an extreme contrast with this big city. Big cities in China are not dreaming places or paradise all the time. Also China is still a developing country and its people need more humane care rather than the simple growth of GDP. To be frank, many people don’t give a damn about the so called rapid growth of GDP, what they really care at present is a guarantee for the basic living. Maybe they can only wish their next generation would have a better life in the future.

First stop of new subway line

Shenzhen is a very young city, and it’s just like the young people here. Both the city and its people here are energetic, enthusiastic and full of passion. Meanwhile, Shenzhen is the fastest progressing city in China, for it was just a small fishing village 30 years ago but has developed into a metropolis of roughly 20 million people today. Shenzhen is the most crowded city in China, whose population density ranks top in China and fifth in the world. But now, the most important thing is that the 26^th Unversiade is being held in Shenzhen!!

 Shenzhen, Growing Fast

The same subway car after two stops!

Thanks to the Universiade, the government has invested a lot in construction projects and it has successfully developed a very convenient public transportation, especially in the subway lines. Before the Universiade, Shenzhen only had one subway line. But now there are six subway lines which reach nearly every district of the city. Of course this project benefits the citizens a lot. Just take myself for example. Before I took the bus for an hour to get to work while now I’m able to catch the subway, which only takes me about 20mins.

Outside of the Universiade Gym

However, just like every coin has two sides, the construction projects also brought some negative effects. We can imagine what a tough job it is to build five subway lines in half a year. The workers must continue their job day and night to meet the deadline, and they must work under the hot sun. Besides, many roads were under construction, which seriously affected the regular traffic. Mr. Liao, one of our drivers, complained repeatedly about the bad traffic for the past six months. The most important is he couldn’t sleep well at night due to the big noise made by the construction around his house, but he must get up very early on the next day. So he said if this construction lasts for one more month, he will breakdown. Fortunately, all construction projects were finished on time and Mr. Liao lost ten pounds weight, which really delighted him, because he tried very hard to lose weight before, but none worked. So this is an unexpected gift the Universiade brought to him.

 My First University Basketball Game

RUSSIA VS JAPAN

All in all, for most people really appreciate the effects of the Universiade. A lot of foreigners come to Shenzhen making the city more international and it gives them the opportunity to learn about China. From my perspective, the most exciting thing is that I got to see my first basketball game on-site. It was a basketball game between Russia and Japan. Almost all the Chinese audience cheered for Russia, including me! Russia won the game 91:73 making the audience very happy.

I’m a girl from a small town and my parents placed high expectation on me. I know there must be a very long way to go to be recognized by this city, but I’ll try hard and never be afraid. At this moment, my only wish is to bring my parents to Shenzhen to watch the university game with them. I want to show them a totally different lifestyle from my hometown and tell them what a big change the modern society is making. I’m dreaming a dream, that is: start here (in Shenzhen), make a difference.

RUSSIA Won the Game

Most Chinese can read and write a LOT better than they can speak.   A few years ago I had an employee correct me on my use of the subjective tense.  I had to admit, my subjective tense grammar rules were a little rusty!  Many Chinese have had multiple years of schooling in English (nowadays most start around 5 years old), but they probably spent very little of that time practicing speaking.  Like most education in China, the lessons are focused on rote memorization.

Whenever possible, use written communication.  The other advantage is that written communication is recordable.  Make sure you are persistent about documented your conversations if they are in Skype or other media for future reference.  If you are in China and things are not being communicated orally, try going to a computer and typing them in.  Almost everyone in China has software that will automatically translate from English to Chinese when you move the cursor over the word.

Even writing is not easy. Watch out for that baby!

Phrasing

Perhaps the easiest way to improve communication is with correct (and multiple) phrasing.  Going back to the cultural differences, if you ask, “did the product turn out well?”, then most suppliers will answer yes.  There isn’t a supplier in China that wants to tell you “no” and there may be small problems that are difficult for them to communicate.  “Yes” is the easy answer and most likely what you will get in response to that question.  But, if you rephrase it, “what were some of the difficulties you had with the last production run?”, you will likely get a very different answer, particularly if you say it in a way that you expected some problems (which is reasonable in many cases).  That way, the factory owner does not lose as much face by describing the problems and he can’t get off with an easy yes/no kind of answer.  NEVER ask questions that can be answered with a yes or no if you can help it.   The recipient may have no idea what you said and just throw out a “yes” to see if that gets them by.  Instead, ask the question in a way that requires a detailed response.

Another, more subtle tool, is to ask the same question multiple times in multiple ways at different times.  If a factory is trying to hide things, they will likely forget exactly how they answered your question a few days ago and you’ll get a little more insight by asking it again in a slightly different way.  If the answers are significantly different, then you know you should start digging deeper.   This is also true about asking different people, which is why most factory owners won’t allow you access to other English speaking people in their company (besides a trained sales manager).  Having someone that can speak Chinese is very helpful in this step as they can ask anyone in the company and know that they will be understood.

So, in general:
1) Phrase your questions in a way that are meant to bring out the negative (they will give you all the positive on their own accord), but make it inviting so that they don’t “lose face”
2) Never ask yes or no questions
3) Ask the same questions in multiple ways to multiple people

Miscommunication

Many times, you will have communicated perfectly well, but when things don’t go according to plan, language is an excellent scapegoat.   “Oh, you meant laaast Saturday.  I thought you were talking about next Saturday.”  In this situation there is not a lot you can do except to look at results.  Miscommunication should count against the factory performance just as much as not performing for other reasons.  If you are communicating in English, it is their job to insure they can handle it.  Make sure you get across that you are focused on results and their inability to understand has significantly affected their performance.  Give them an out, “do they need a better translator, do you need to provide one”, but at the end of the day, make your supplier decisions based on results.  If they know this ahead of time, you might have fewer “miscommunication” issues.

“Costello: Well then who’s on first?
Abbott: Yes.
Costello: I mean the fellow’s name.
Abbott: Who.
Costello: The guy on first.
Abbott: Who.
Costello: The first baseman.
Abbott: Who.
Costello: The guy playing…
Abbott: Who is on first!
Costello: I’m asking YOU who’s on first.”

A LOT like it.  In fact, they were so right on that I wonder if they were somehow some of the first pioneers into modern China.  The language barrier is tricky, there is no doubt about it.  Some mistakes are unavoidable, but there is a right way, a process, to go about communicating that can help you minimize those mistakes.

The first thing to understand is where the mistakes come from.  Vocabulary is actually only a small part of the equation.  Other major contributors to miscommunication are:

1)     Cultural differences
2)     Oral vs. written comprehension
3)     Phrasing

Cultural Differences

Actually, most miscommunication is primarily derived from cultural differences assuming the party with lesser language skills is still relatively fluent.  The only way to really understand cultural differences is with time and experience.  You can hear stories and get some ideas, but most likely you will misinterpret the real meaning behind them, so, for the most part, the best thing you can do is know that you don’t know, and know that there are SIGNIFICANT cultural differences between China and the US.  When things really don’t make sense, you are probably experiencing these differences, perspectives are just so different that you are coming from different worlds and interpreting the same situation very differently.  Be open-minded to them.

A few common cultural differences are:

1)      China is a “yes we can” society.  They don’t like to say no.  If you ask a Chinese factory if they can do something, they will give you the optimistic view every time.

2)      Chinese businesses are very hierarchical.  Middle managers and workers don’t make decisions, they just do work.  If you want to get something done, it happens at the top.

3)      Being “clever” is highly regarded.  “Cleverness” can include cheating on a test to easily pass, using cheaper materials to increase margin, claiming a factory is yours when it isn’t….  Deceit is a pretty common occurrence in normal Chinese life, so it is not looked down upon in quite the same way as in the West.  If you really want to understand, read “The Three Kingdoms”, one of the Four Famous Novels of China that epitomizes the level of deceit possible in a society, but is taken for granted in the historical fiction.

4)      Guangxi/Losing Face: You’ll hear about these concepts…and probably pay them too much attention.  Most likely your over-sensitivity to them will be used against you more than the concepts actually exist.  In general, be polite, nice, and courteous and you will fit in well in the Chinese structure of things.  Be wary of people who put a lot of emphasis on guangxi and “losing face”, China is probably more free market than the US, culturally, at this point and most Chinese businessmen won’t let traditional standards get in the way of a good business deal.  It is common to “give face” by going to dinner, drinks, etc., but there are many examples of successful Chinese businessmen who avoid it altogether.

5)      There is a lot of emphasis placed on roles due to thousands of years of Confucianism: Father/son, host/guest, supplier/customer….  The role of the supplier is to “make you happy”, which will often translate into telling you what you want to hear.  It is also about being hospitable.  Don’t misinterpret generous hospitality for a genuine relationship, that is just part of the role of being a supplier in China.

It is difficult to know what the cultural differences might be without a good deal of experience and time in China, but you can go a long way by just knowing that they exist and always keeping that in the back of your mind.  Instead of getting frustrated with how communication is going, take a moment to think of what might be misinterpreted culturally and reword your communication for better results.

(to be cntd…)

This article is continued from: Train System Comparison

Still accelerating

Of course, one of the big advantages is that the government in China is autocratic.  If they decide to do something, they don’t need to pass any new laws, get the votes of the people, or meet the expectations of a judicial branch.  When the land for many of the train lines was bought from the farmers, it was bought by Chinese officials at dirt cheap prices and then sold by them to the government for windfall profits.  The farmers didn’t have a choice if they were going to sell or not, but at the same time, from what I have heard from friends in the government, they were given enough money to buy a similar place not too far away.

Who’s Rights Anyway

In the US, the rights all lie with the individual.  In fact, they lie with the thousands of individuals that own property between San Francisco and LA and Las Vegas and LA and the cost to the government to buy all that land is highly prohibitive.  When most Americans hear about the farmers who are relocated against their will, we cringe, we wonder what could happen next, we get riled up against and afraid of the government.  In China, the sentiment is much more tame.  The action certainly isn’t appreciated, but it is accepted with the general feeling that the rights of the many outweigh the rights of the few.

Legal Costs

Besides the financial rights of Americans, the general human rights are defined in a complex series of legal documents.  Anytime a person in the government or in business wants to understand what the options are, they have to pay for the time of one of the (if not THE) highest paid professions in the country, lawyers.  And, not just an hour or two because even the lawyers don’t really understand the documents or how they can be manipulated and argued until they really dig into them for days, weeks, months….  All of those costs are forgone in the Chinese process.

Grass is Always Greener

I’m not taking sides here.  Historically, autocratic governments with ill-defined succession policies lead the way in terms of ending in disaster, revolution and hard times, and certainly the protection of human rights for those citizens in modern autocratic countries mostly pales compared to their democratic counterparts. But, so far, China seems to be getting it right.  At the end of the decade, China’s train systems will be moving unheralded numbers of people at very affordable rates in a much more environmentally friendly way than the US air traffic and highway systems ever will.  <!–callout–>Billions of dollars are sure to be lost in corruption, but the total amount will still probably be less than the legal fees associated with running tracks across most of the US.  As far as the human rights issues go, uncommon as it is, there are two peasants sitting next to me as I write this, watching the buildings fly by at 315 kph.  There might just be something to this “one for all” instead of “all for one” mentality.

Where’s the Bus?

I first made the trip by myself about 7 years ago.  I had arrived at the airport.  There were no signs.  I had to rely on my very poor Chinese to find the bus to Zhangjiagang…say that 5 times fast!  It was located in a somewhat obscure parking lot not far from the airport exit with no signs and one attendant smoking a cigarette in a sad little room with nicotine stained walls.  I told him where I was going and he seemed to acknowledge that I was at the right place.  I could only hope.  The convenient part was that it was a straight shot…the downside was that the shot took about 5 hours.  The bus was not in bad condition, but certainly didn’t have the comforts of high quality living.

The Fast Train

Fast forward three years later and the government had turned around a series of high speed rail lines to and from Shanghai to most of the major cities within a few hundred miles.  These are the “D” trains.  At first it was a little difficult to get one, they were often full, but after about a year you would usually only have to wait an hour or so once you bought your ticket to most destinations.  The D trains got up to about 100 mph and cut my journey to Zhangjiagang down from five hours to less than three.  I thought I was living the high life.  One time I even found an outlet on the train so I could keep doing work after my computer battery had died.  What a country!

Zie Uber Fast Train

China High Speed Train Map

Now, here I am, another four years later and the system has taken another quantum leap forward.  You still have to be able to say Zhangjiagang correctly, but once you’ve got that down, you’re sitting by my side here going a full 330 kph (about 200mph) on one of the cleanest trains I’ve ever seen.  They go so frequently that you hardly ever need to wait more than an hour if you buy your ticket at the station and they move roughly 500-1200 people at a time.  Soon they will be connected all over the north, east, and south regions of China, where the vast majority of people live. <!–br–>

One Ticket to LA Please

While all this has been going on, there has been a lot of talk about a fast train the US between LA and San Francisco.  When I was growing up in Las Vegas, there was a lot of talk about a fast train between Las Vegas and LA.  Thirty years later, there’s a lot more talk, but I’ll be amazed if I can actually buy a ticket to LA from either of these cities on a fast train in the next fifteen years.

So, what’s the difference?  How can China, with less GDP than the US, possibly make such drastic improvements to their infrastructure when it seems nearly possible in California?  To be continued…

New injection molding machine with a set of molds shown on the right.

The cavity is created using a two-piece mold, although more movable parts can be employed for more complex designs. Our injection molding factories require a precise 3D model of your product in order to design a set of molds that is the spatial negative of your part.

As long as we are talking thermoplastics, there is really no limit to what injection molding can do. Products or various size, shape, hardness can be produced using injection molding. Both hard plastics such as polycarbonate and soft plastics such as TPE can be injection molded. Acrylic, Nylon, PE, PP, PVC, ABS and TPU are all suitable for injection molding.

There is great amount of flexibility with surface finishes as well. The mold can be made with different degrees of polish which results in different surface finishes on the end product. Clear polycarbonate for example, will appear transparent when the mold is made with a mirror-like finish (A1-A3 below). The same polycarbonate can appear translucent and have a matte feel when the mold is rougher (D1-D3 below). Interestingly, various regions of the mold can be refined to different degrees to achieve very aesthetically pleasing results.

Various mold finishes ranging from mirror-like to sandblast finishes.

It gets better. Since molds can represent a large investment. Customers often try to get as much value out of their tooling as possible. It’s not uncommon to find molds that can produce 12 parts at once!

The technology is all fine and dandy, but what does it mean for the ambitious and hopeful entrepreneur? <!–br–>

Designing the product

There are a few basic points to keep in mind when designing a plastic part for injection molding.

Wall thickness:  the majority of injection molding parts are constructed like shells. The thickness of this shell or wall thickness needs careful attention. It needs to be thick enough to provide structural integrity, but not too thick since too much plastic will not be cooled evenly. Walls should also be as uniform as possible since abrupt changes in thickness also cause uneven cooling and a weak part.

Complexity: seemingly small variations in design can mean a world of difference the injection molding process. Complex designs equates to complicated molds, often with moving parts, long cycle times, and overall increased cost.

Getting quotes

The price of an injection molded part largely depends on its mass and type of material. Two completely different parts might cost the same because they use the same amount of the same material. A secondary factor is surface finish. Especially strict requirements might necessitate another process after parts come out of the mold, but that is seldom the case.

You might be also very interested in the tooling cost. The cost of a set of injection molds depend on the amount of material, usually steel, and the machining required. This in turn is determined by the size and complexity of your designs and the number of cavities you want. Multiple cavities can reduce the unit price by cutting down labor and machine time required per part to a fraction of what is needed with one cavity. It generates extra tooling costs of course and is not advisable for parts of significant size or thickness, and you must weigh the trade-offs carefully.

Naturally, the best thing to provide during the quote process is a real-life sample and a 3D model. If that is not available, a 3D model of the part alone is a close second. Pictures alone are not solid bases to quote from and suppliers almost always raise the price in actual production due to “details not previous known”. Being as clear about your requirements as reasonably possible will work to your advantage. Before actual tooling begins, our injection molding partners always request a final, precise 3D document, with surface finishes well defined.

Moving onto production

Starting tooling for a product is always exciting, partially because there is little to no room for mistakes! It’s a lengthy process, easily taking up to 20 days from the start to the time first samples are made. Parameters such as temperature, cooling time and pressure all have to be adjusted until the process stabilized to one of acceptable quality. After a few revisions and the final approval of the product, mass production finally begins. The fight is not over however as quality always fluctuates through time and diligence must be paid to quality control.

Production speeds varies between products, with 500 injections per 8 hour shift being typical. After a run is finished, the mold is taken off the machine and stored with care for future use.