I can only imagine what they are saying. The temperature outside is about 10 degrees Celcius. It is cold inside the house, because of the single glazing thin walls.
Hong is feeling a bit chilly, and maybe it is the reason why she kept on coughing throughout the night. The kitchen and bathroom are colder than the rest of the house. I asked her why she wants to keep
the house cold all the time. She replied that in her childhood days, there was hardly any heating in her parent's house.
"Living and working in the cold and sitting on the couch wrapped in a winter coat, were quite normal for us as kids", she replied.
Hong studied the German language entirely. She even knows the insulting and gossip words. We communicate more using German rather than English or Chinese languages. I need time to practice the Chinese language, but Hong is impatient with me. I asked her how she came to learn all these colloquial words in Geman language; she replied that she used to read Bildzeitung daily. I could not hold my laughter back on hearing her talking about reading Bildzeitung. I asked whether there is an equivalent of a German Bildzeitung in China, I got no response we left it at that. My busy working schedule prevents me from concentrating on learning the Chinese language.
Away from work, when I am with Hong, we commonly use German language, in that case, I have no pressures of leaning complicated Chinese language.
When we talk about busy working schedules, at times, I sit back to reflect on the strenuous work during the past week. I remember one time I was sitting with my American Boss in his office in Shanghai. We were to meet to discuss how to improve the headcount in the company. His budget had been cut and instead money was allocated elsewhere. He looked so worried, saying that he did not even know how he was going to pay wages to his employees, not to mention the cost of headhunters and bringing old and experienced people on board. He was worried about what would happen to scholarships of those gifted Chinese students.
“Yes, that was the situation. I think we need to tighten our belts”. My boss said resignedly.
The day before, I was at the Global Sourcing Board for a conference call with the head office in Germany. Unfortunately, they did not inform me early enough. I then had to organise the essentials quickly and do all the calculations at night in the hotel. I was lucky, I finished in time. Delivery notes were written in Chinese.
Knowing the language, saved me.
Shortly afterwards, I received an email from Germany asking for a quick translation of those notes into English language. A German manager was supposed to travel to a Chinese supplier the following day, therefore, there was a need for urgent support in requesting the necessary information for subsequent cost calculations in English and Chinese languages. I did not have enough time to forward the email to a German-speaking Chinese in the Shanghai office. I used my specialist knowledge of English and Chinese to do it myself.
However, I could not send this file since I was still driving. I had to wait until I reached the office. It was nine o’clock in the morning, but luckily, no one had complained yet.
“I cannot understand this.” I heard myself talking to myself.
“Why do people do things at the last minute, and heap the pressure on others to finish them?”
In this case, I would have imagined that travel plans were already in place and fixed beforehand. I wondered why these German managers do not want to speak. English; after all, we are an international company. Or are they just lazy for the sake of it, simply because they want their work done by others? I tried to raise this issue with one German colleague in the office one day because I was upset about it. I was not surprised when he answered that all emails were written in German anyway. He said that a new colleague in the company once tried to impose the use of the English language, but
the proposal received an adverse reaction among the Germans. The colleague was upset and left the company.
Taking you a little bit back, my American boss in Shanghai had also proposed cost-saving measures, by merging several offices on the higher floor into one. It would then mean that an entire floor was to be given up, including my office. My boss argued that I did not need that office anyway, since most of the time I am out meeting suppliers or attending meetings with buyers in the office at our production plant in Taicang. I disagreed with this decision. I told him that it would be difficult for the management team to hold together if I was far away in Taicang and that it could no longer be possible for me to attend team meetings that were so close to him.
A few hours later, I had been allowed to retain my office in Shanghai.
My wife Hong was the happiest person on hearing the good news about keeping my office in Shanghai. She praised me for being brave and fight on for my cause, hmmm? It was not fighting for my cause alone; I was instead fighting for both of us. “I am doing all I can to get a foothold in China,” I told her.
I am preparing to go to work tomorrow. Despite being a Sunday as well as a public holiday, it was designated to be a working day. I am quite happy working on Sundays because then I would push buyers to work hard, and to get more time to send out invitations to the many meetings.
As it is the case in Germany, office working days are Monday to Friday. Working hours in China are regulated by law, not to exceed forty-four hours a week. In exceptional cases, people do also work on weekends and public holidays.
Additional to eleven public holidays, staff gets five to fifteen vacation days, depending on seniority.
The difference to Germany is when you work overtime, you get paid at least one hundred and fifty per cent of the total wages. If you work on weekends, and you are not compensated, the payment rises to at least two hundred per cent. There are cases where people are paid three hundred per cent on public holidays.
The Chinese New Year, also known as CNY, is globally referred to as Lunar New Year. This festival is called the Spring Festival in mainland China. It is one of the several Lunar New Years in Asia.
Observance of this festival traditionally takes place from the evening preceding the first day of the year, to the Lantern Festival, takes place on the 15th day of the year. The First Day of the Chinese New Year begins on the new moon, that appears between 21 January, and 20 February. Every year, this date is different.
A few days ago, Hong and I went to Shanghai. We had gone to attend the GCC monthly meeting of the German Chamber of Commerce. It was here that for the first time, I met a new evangelical pastor in charge of Greater Shanghai area. The Shanghai Metropolis assigned a small church in the Western Qingpu district, which I like calling Qingpu church. The pastor in this church delivers divine services of the Chinese Evangelical Church, called the “Three-Self Church”. In China, religion is sensitive, because the philosophy of faith, and that of the state, do not auger well. However, there are now a few officially recognised religions in China, with strict instructions from the state. It includes, among others, Catholicism, Protestantism, Buddhism, Taoism and Islam. Many followers of other religions are still persecuted in China today.
According to history, Catholicism made the first attempt to start missionary work in China in the 13th and 14th centuries, but their mission was not successful. The protestant missionary came to China at the beginning of the 19th century. Unlike Catholicism, Protestantism was moderately successful, although initially on a plodding pace. Five years after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the present Evangelical Church started operating under the name the Three-Self Church.
Hong told me how the name “Three-Self Church”, came about.
