Weather should be a factor in driving consumption

Just came back from lunch at the shopping centre near the office... walked in to find that all the stores are full-blown into the fall season fashion... boots, turtlenecks, sweaters... probably even winter-resistant make-up if there's even such a thing... must be a good excuse/reason to go shopping...

"Autumn is coming.. I need to get new clothes cos summer clothes just don't work"
"Winter is coming.. that cardigan back home isn't warm enough.. need a new one!"

(or other aspects of the weather) "Look at that rain! need boots to survive walking around in that"

(or on the other hand) "Typhoon! can't go shopping outside!" (and hence the birth of online shopping... did you know that the one of the most purchased items online is actually clothes? who says we need to try them on?)

I suppose that's the down-side of sunny Singapore, though I am very sure the weather isn't stopping people from going out to buy more stuff...

But all in all, I never really had a thing for shopping.. and I don't like the cold weather either... 

After a long absence...

After a long absence from the blogging scene, I have resolved to get back to writing...

I do too little of it (in English anyway) these days, and seeing as I'm surrounded by lots of English notices and signages with grammatical errors, spelling errors and basically usage of the wrong terms, I figured I better get back to it, just so it doesn't deteriorate... (on a side-note, I am sure that if a company can win the job from the city government to revamp and review all public notices on their Chinese-to-English translations, that company will be super rich)

Anyway, am looking forward to writing more from now own, be it random thoughts, book reviews or updates on some travel...

Taipei City at night

Taipei city at night is actually really quite pretty...

On habits...

habits are interesting... I remember taking a while to get used to traditional chinese when I first arrived in Taipei, since I've been learning simplified chinese all my life in Singapore... even my office computer was in English, since it was the interface I was used to...

but now, after almost 1.5 years of immersing in traditional chinese, I now find myself being so used to it that I can no longer distinctively differentiate between traditional and simplified... it's now just chinese words that I can understand, and it takes a while and a bit of conscious effort for me to tell the characters apart...

also, I have been using the company laptop (of which the OS and Microsoft Office are in traditional chinese) for about 6 months now... and during this period, I have rarely been using my own laptop (which is in English)... but about a week back when I moved to Shanghai, I started using my own laptop again (cos I left the other one in the office) and suddenly I found myself "surprised" at everything being in English... it was an interesting feeling...
and now, I'm actually just bringing the office laptop back home to use... (partly also because my own laptop is getting old and slower)

but it's just interesting how these habits become habits without us really realizing it...

Interesting Story...

Once upon a time, there was a young mouse. The mouse had been told since young by its parents that if it hears the sound of a cat mewing, it should hide to be safe. So of course, the young mouse strongly lived by this teaching.

One day, while out of its hole, the young mouse suddenly heard a cat mewing. It quickly ran back to its hold and hid for a while. After some time, the cat sounds disappeared and the mouse felt safe. Not too long after, the young mouse heard the sound of a dog barking.

Finally assured that it was safe, the young mouse left its hole... and was promptly caught by a cat...

Feeling extremely cheated, the young mouse asked the cat "I was so sure I heard a dog just now!"

The cat promptly replied "In these times, everyone needs to learn a second language to survive"

The End

Relocating from Taipei to Shanghai

After must uncertainty of dates, I am now confirmed to be moving from Taipei to Shanghai on 6/29. There's been a lot of packing and last minute stuffs (like hair cut, dentist maybe etc etc) these days and yeah in some sense it was quite rushed... I was planning on moving on 7/10 but some stuff came up so the date was shifted forward...

I'm actually working for the same company (Atelligent Global Consulting), just based in a different country.. our China office only started running last year late August and I consider myself lucky to be offered the chance to be so involved in the starting up and running of such a young office.. lots of new stuff to learn, new things to try out in a new market and environment... don't foresee it will be easy but like I say.. I'm still young enough to take these chances...

I will still be back in Taipei, maybe about once every 2 months, depending on the visa duration they give me... only until the whole registration and work permit application is over that I will be able to stay long term in China (these processes take sooo long in China)... so anyway, simply said Taipei will not be that easily rid of me for some time...

In any case, my current Taipei number will not work in China (no roaming on my pre-paid) so if you wanna reach me, just email / MSN / Facebook me (yes I have my means of getting on FB in China)... Thank you all for all the support, help, care and everything in Taiwan these past 1.5 years (nearly)... since my departure is super soon, there wasn't time to organize a get-together, but I definitely hope to see you all when I am back.. or just let me know if you happen to be in Shanghai...

Thanks again, and next updates will be from Shanghai!

Cheers!

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It's been a while

Yes it's been a looong while since my last post... I guess I was too caught up in things to take a pause and update this space...

Now that I am on pause (am in Singapore now for Chinese New Year vacation), I'm not too sure how to phrase my thoughts...

for one... it's amazing that 1 year of working and living in Taiwan has come to an end... in a nutshell, I really have enjoyed the time there... it started off with a lot of new things, new people, new exposure, new way of life... and suddenly new has turned into habit, where being back in Singapore now has made that all the more apparent...

something about being back (and meeting up with old friends) has gotten me thinking... how easy it is to "start afresh" abroad to the extent that there one ends up not thinking much about the worlds one existed in before... the process of reconnecting with old friends these 2 weeks have reminded me that I belong(ed) to so many different worlds across the past 24/25 years and that my path has crossed with so many different people, many of which unfortunately I don't keep in contact anymore...

is it a sub(un)consciously move to protect oneself from being home-sick? or is it just a mechanism for living fully in the present?
Does living abroad build independence and strength of character? or does it simply train one to become emotionally detached to protect from loneliness?

random and interesting questions...

Thinking thinking...

thinking of some stuff these days...
and wondering whether to act, and how to act...

hmmm...

2010年1、2月要回家！

哦，最近比較忙，回到家只想看影片，所以又一小段時間沒在這裡寫update了...

那就來宣布一下好消息！

2010年1、2月行程：

1/14 - TPE to SG
1/15 - SG to Jakarta
1/17 - Jakarta to SG
1/19 - SG to TPE
這一段是為了參加好朋友在雅加達舉辦的婚禮

2/9 - TPE to SG
2/24 - SG to TPE
這一段是回家過新年的！
因為剛好台湾明年的新年是從2/14放到2/21，所以算是賺到了對幾天的假。
兩個多禮拜還算是蠻長的時間，到時候應該可以跟朋友再次碰面，順便多吃點新加坡美食 :)

而且另一個bonus就是，在台湾比較冷的那幾個月，我都已經逃出過了！ 耶！

接下來的打算...

不知不覺的，11月底要到了，這也代表我已經在台北過了 10個月了！
真的好快，多兩個月就做滿一年了！
因此，最近很多朋友都在問我接下來有什么打算...

是繼續在台湾工作呢？還是回新加坡找工作？還是留在台湾但是換個公司？留下來的話會留多久？是轉成目前公司的全職員工，還是繼續跑現在的實習計劃？問題還真的蠻多的...

所以乘機跟大家告知一下，我現在還在跟公司“研究”不同繼續在公司工作的方法（主要是研究拿到居留證或工作準證的不同process)
但是意愿是想留下來繼續工作下去，所以短期內應該不會回到新加坡工作。

不過，我明年一月份會回新加坡一下下... 1/14晚上會抵達新加坡，1/15傍晚飛往印尼，1/17傍晚回到新加坡，1/19再回到台湾。

另外，農歷新年的時候我一定會在新加坡。

所以如果要聚一聚話，還是有機會的 :)

我“上報”了！ :)

AIESEC 北大分會09/10團隊發起月刊的電子報，剛好找我做個采訪，所以我才有機會“上報”

剛好也是我第一次用中文進行采訪，講得不是那么的好，只能希望大家還能看懂 :)

有興趣的話，可以到這看看：
http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B6S_vaIhwdfKY2U1YzE1ZDEtYzBlOC00MGQ5LWI1MTYtZDMzZmYwZGQwY2Ri&hl=en

緊接十月台風的花蓮之旅

看了日歷記錄和上傳到facebook的照片才發現，我從六月到現在只去了

1. 嘉義縣的阿里山 - 6/27 & 6/28
2. 台北縣的烏來 - 7/12
3. 台北縣的貢寮市 （劃獨木舟）- 8/16
4. 上海和蘇州 - 8/24 至 9/18

雖然從上海回來后，確實去了桃源縣的大溪和新竹，但前者是與AIESEC身份去的，而新竹是為了工作而去的，所以都比較算是工作不是旅游。

還好十月份的時候，阿姨從新加坡來台湾玩，所以我才有動力再次出去“探險”台湾，到花莲去玩。

台湾的東部（尤其是花蓮和台東）跟西邊相比是較缺乏資源，城市與產業開發過程也比較慢。可能因為如此，東部的生活節奏感覺比較輕松，大自然也保存的很好。

我們這次到花蓮非常期待能體驗到花蓮的自然美，尤其是太鲁阁國家公園和七星譚。不幸的是，周末的前幾天剛好有台風接近，即使到了周末還是一直下雨，所以我們最后體驗到的花蓮是濕濕的。

惡劣天氣造成了很多不便，太魯閣的許多步道因有落石而被封閉，七星譚因風雨太大而不方便讓人們在譚邊散步或觀賞風景，清水斷崖也因被蒙在霧中而造成我們無法看得很清楚。

雖然覺得非常可惜，但這次的花蓮之旅也讓我們體驗到另一種美：

近距離接觸到瀑布的美

平時的不到應該不會出現這種狀況的!

這也是因雨水造成的小瀑布，就在我們步道旁邊

有如神仙居住的地方的美

大自然有渺小的，也有威力的美

小小的植物與強流的溪水對照

花蓮到處都是山，大量的雨水形成的瀑布就這樣從山上流下。
住在山下的居民也只能希望不會有落石、土崩之類的天災發生。

其他照片：http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=327580&id=576355703&l=dbe7e22f68

悅智亞洲 - 上海辦事處

前幾個文章都分享到9月到上海和蘇州的心得和照片，一部分的人應該會以為我是去旅行的，但是其實是為了工事而過去的。

什么工事呢？就是我們公司（悅智全球）創了分公司（悅智亞洲），并在大陸設了辦事處！

公司之前主要还是服务位于台湾的廠商，但是最近有幾個案子都包含協助廠商開拓大陸市場，或協助他們在大陸的經營。此外，在大陸和台湾關系暖和之下，兩岸的廠商對開拓彼此市場以及與對方合作的興趣也提高了。這也形成向我們這種顧問公司能提供價值服務的機會。

這次很幸運能加入公司的大陸團隊，參與一切的準備。雖然自己對大陸市場還是很陌生，對這種“創業”的過程也很不熟悉，但就因為如此而讓我吸取寶貴的學習經驗！

在這裡就順便跟大家分享我們小小開幕儀式的照片：

悅智亞洲在台北的籌備處開幕
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=328111&id=576355703&l=25e46bfd3f

悅智亞洲上海辦事處的開幕
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=316334&id=576355703&l=cd1e5e3aa8

Adventures in China (Shanghai and Suzhou)

Long overdue photos from China trip (featuring Shanghai and Suzhou)

Adventures in Shanghai - Part 1 (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=310790&id=576355703&l=fc4c0d5696)
Adventures in Shanghai - Part 2 (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=312415&id=576355703&l=bda8454789)

Adventures in Suzhou (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=313501&id=576355703&l=1170a98472)

Some highlights :)

東方明珠、上海灘

上海美食

蘇州之美

Thoughts on Shanghai - written 27 Aug 09

This is my first time in Shanghai, and actually only my 2nd time in China.. the 1st time was in Guang Zhou in May 2008 and I spent about a week and a half there…

But somehow the impressions of Shanghai are really quite different from that of Guang Zhou… as a matter of fact, the main things I remember about Guang Zhou now are 1. lots of traffic 2. lots of good desserts and food 3. lots of promotions about the Olympics… (but I suppose this is normal considering how short a time I spent there actually walking around in the streets and seeing the place)

Anyway… the first impression from Shanghai is how HUGE everything is… it suddenly made me realize I’m truly from a very small country… my Taiwanese friends used to say all the time that Taiwan is so small and of course I would bring up how much smaller Singapore is… but even then, as much as certain aspects of Taiwan (and Taipei) reflect how much bigger and larger they are than that of Singapore, it was nothing compared to what I felt in Shanghai…

From airport and immigration, lots of people, long queues, huge halls and corridors that seem to go on forever… from MRT stations to expressways to condominiums, housing apartments and office towers… from the size and width of the roads, staircases at MRT stations to the size of shopping centres… everything is big… some people will probably think this is what everyone knows about China in general and it’s probably true… but all I can say is, seeing it for myself definitely has a much stronger impact…

The second impression I had of Shanghai is that of disparity… it’s a strange kind of feeling, one I can’t quite place or describe properly... it comes from knowing and fully experiencing how fast development is and will continue to be in Shanghai… from the construction going on everywhere, to the grandiose of the buildings and towers constructed, to its global reputation as THE economic centre to be today… yet not too far from our office building, you’ll find tiny shophouses that look extremely local… from the 6th floor and above of a 4 star hotel, you’ll find yourself looking out at an expanse of two-storey flats occupied by locals who hang laundry and cook meals on their rooftops… you’ll find a housewife walking around in the Xin Tian Di area (kind of like the central business district where the expensive offices and condominiums are) in her night gown at 10am in the morning… when you’re in a taxi heading to work, you’ll see 5-storey apartments where people hang their laundry facing the main road (so yes it’s quite a colorful display… plus I wonder if that doesn’t just makes their clothes dusty again)… in buildings that are hundreds of years old, you’ll find restaurants and cafes selling anything from Brazilian to Mexican to American and Japanese cuisine…

I think this feeling about the disparity is somewhat similar to what I felt in Vietnam, though if you think about it, Shanghai and Vietnam are worlds apart in terms of development… yet both places seem to reflect societies that are growing so rapidly despite the poor infrastructure and seemingly disregarding (note the use of “seemingly”) the presence of its very local culture… it’s like trying to answer the question “how do you create your own unique culture when you are opening so fast to the world, when your people within the state itself are so easily divided into classes (natural considering the size of Shanghai), and when certain aspects of your society don’t seem able to keep up with the pace of development?” Is it really possible to create such scale and magnitude of wealth, and let everyone, if not the majority, enjoy a share of that pie?

On a slightly related note, Lee Kuan Yew came up in a few conversations these days… it was brought up about how his brilliance helped bring Singapore through a remarkable phase of development from 3rd world to 1st world country… yet I have been wondering… I have always felt that LKY should be given due credit for the accomplishments and foresights he brought to Singapore… I have also felt that while he achieved his end means, I wonder if perhaps his approaches are really the best and only way for us to move forward… I also feel that his accomplishments might not have been so fantastic if not for the fact that Singapore is a small country, geographically and in terms of population, and that the government relished rather strict and tight governance over its people…

Given that, I wonder how he would fare if he were to govern Shanghai… lots of economic potential and prosperity, a government style that is openly controlling, lots of “migrant communities” (people from out of state, with different backgrounds, mother tongues, cultures etc), but on a scale 5 times that of Singapore…I really wonder…

Anyway… I realize my original intentions to pen my thoughts about Shanghai and the places here have gone somewhat awry… in any case, it feels good to finally get these thoughts out of my head… the photos and travelogue will come for sure… at least for now, it’s these slightly deeper issues flying around in my head…

我回來了！

很久沒在這裡寫東西了，現在快快地通知一下，我已經回到台北了！

之前因爲工作而出差到上海，在上海呆了大概三個多禮拜，昨天傍晚才回來。
這次出差是我第一次到上海，第二次到中國，所以對所看到的及所經驗到的有蠻多想法的。
希望接下來會有耐心把這些想法與感受放到這裡。:)

在台北吃新加坡式早餐！

自從來到台灣，我一直在找道地的新加坡食物和飲料。到現在是有吃到幾家不錯的海南雞飯，但味道還是會有點不一樣，而且喝過的咖啡都完全不像新加坡的。

所以後來發現亞坤 (http://www.yakun.com/) 的連鎖店也有開到台北，就快速招了同事一起去試吃。

台灣亞坤賣的還是有點不一樣，基本套餐有一粒半生熟雞蛋，兩片土司和一個飲料 （新加坡的是兩粒雞蛋）。而且，攤位提供的是醬油，所以比較像馬來西亞的吃法，因爲新加坡用的是黑醬油（類似這裡的醬油糕）。

雖然如此，那天還是吃得很開心，因爲味道非常道地，非常有家的感覺！連平時不太喜歡吃半熟蛋的同事們也覺得好好吃！

各位有興趣品嘗新加坡式早餐的話，可以到信義區新光三越，Ａ８館，Ｂ２樓的亞坤試試看！
而且特別提醒，雞蛋一定要加胡椒粉和醬油，記得在攤位櫃檯先加！

Capitalism at the Crossroads

note: this post is in English because there are just too many thoughts running through my head that I have to get them all out quick!

In time for my previous goal set of reading at least 1 book a month, I have finally reading Capitalism at the Crossroads by Stuart L. Hart... many many thanks to Shirley and Rina, without whom I would never have ended up with the book in Taiwan (in brief, the book belongs to Shirley, who lent it to Rina at a conference but forgot to get it back when she was in Singapore, which Rina brought to Guangzhou but forgot to pass it to Li Zhen who was going to Rotterdam, which Rina passed to me to bring to Taiwan because Shirley might drop by sometime to visit family before starting work but didn't in the end cos she found a job too soon.. phew! :p)

anyway, I say finally also because I had previously started on the book in Singapore last year but never continued it when I got to Taiwan... so it's been a long journey with this book, and thankfully that journey is now complete! :)


I have to say this book is a must read, especially for those interested in innovation, sustainability and business models... I won't go into the details (because you deserve to discover them on your own) but here's a brief about the contents, followed by some of my thoughts...

The book's main proposition is that in today's world, Multi-National Companies (MNCs) are the entities best equipped to deal with the world's sustainability problems, because they have the resources, the technology and the scale to create products/ services that meet the triple bottom line of: Economic impact, Social Impact and Environmental Impact..

While most companies today already know that sustainability or CSR initiatives don't have to come at the expense of profits and market share, the book emphasizes the huge potential for MNCs to positively impact the community, address environmental issues AND strengthen their own long term corporate sustainability by looking towards the Base of Pyramid (BoP) , the 4 to 5 billion people at the base of the economic pyramid, people considered too poor to do business with... The author argues that the BoP is the pristine consumer base where
1) most other competitors have not penetrated
2) people there do not have pre-conceived notions about using certain products
3) people in rural communities often get bullied by suppliers, who charge more because these villages have little say...

To illustrate the potential based on these 3 points, the average household in the city would probably be used to using fluorescent lightbulbs and would not be inclined to switch to LED lighting which costs more upfront but lasts way longer and is more environmentally friendly... if an MNC is able to create, through R&D, a simplified and cheaper version of LED lighting designed FOR the poor (perhaps powered by solar panels), the poor family in a rural village could possibly welcome it as an alternative to consistently spending money on matches and candles bought from shops which do not enjoy enough economies of scale to bring prices down..

The book offers many other case studies of MNCs that have succeeded as well as failed in trying to reach the BoP... it also highlights the pitfalls that MNCs can fall into, especially if MNCs only view this simply as a means of marketing their products without integrating and engaging the locals in order to build new business models, co-invent products and services and design new channel distribution models which move from within the community, and which in the process help improve overall living conditions in those very communities...

All in all, the book offers many exciting ideas and perspectives different from most of what is taught in school, simply because what has been expounded mostly so far is an economic model focused on those at the top of the economic pyramid, where infrastructure, education and means of marketing and communication already exist to facilitate the introduction of new products and technology...

You can find out more about the BoP Protocol at http://www.bop-protocol.org

While I haven't mentioned very much about technology and innovation, it is a very crucial aspect for companies to drive sustainability from within... It was very interesting to see case studies highlighting concepts such as "Cradle to Cradle" (designing the product till the end of its lifecycle, possibly where it's construction materials are designed to be recycled after its use to generate other products) as well as "Creative Destruction" (innovating new technology which destroys the need for existing technology which the company depends on now, thus opening up a whole new market space)

Personally, the role of technology struck a chord in me... Having come from an engineering background (and from a stream where I did learn about product design), I kept wondering...

What if our students actually were exposed to this concept right from within our education?

If technopreneurship is such a relevant topic still, why do we not learn about such ideas within our courses of product design, of Engineers & Society, of Engineering Innovation and Design and so on?

Why are we still so unaware of some of the research projects (within Singapore and around the world) which are addressing such sustainability ideas?

If it's a requirement for engineering students to take some modules from Business, Science or Humanities, and this requirement stems from the need for more broad-based thinking, why do we not marry sustainability, management and engineering to create modules which spark ideas and guide thoughts about the impact an engineer (in an entry-level position, within a large corporation etc) can bring through technology?

And just as it was mentioned in the book that MNCs also have the largest resistance in cultivating such revolutionary innovation in both technology and business models management (due to size, structures, habits etc.), I wonder what's the solution to the seemingly ever-present situation where education in our institutes lags one or a few steps behind addressing the challenges and problems the world faces right now...

簡報...

跟各位快快地報告一下，因爲最近工作比較忙，所以一直沒時間更新部落各的内容。
下禮拜的時間應該會好多了，到時候再跟大家分享最近發生的事：

• 12號到烏來玩
• 17號到桃園玩
• 25號在台北嘗試亞坤的新加坡式早餐

=)