adds. Whether she is sarcastic or jealousy, I remind her of the story of a man who was looking for jobs, but always being turned down, until he one day discovered his talent. He used his ability to become successful.
Hong turns the story the other way around. She compares it to a field where only specific plants grow for others to enter. She claims to mean that I should try all jobs until I become successful, but honestly, I cannot make sense of what she is saying. I know she is sarcastically referring me to dating other women.
Having a simple breakfast of oatmeal and water has left our fridge empty, we have to stock it up again. I open my laptop and browse through the British bank account. I am trying to access my new address and my mobile number, unfortunately, it will not be active, until the following week. It is trouble again; I don't know what to do. Hong sets out to go and buy vegetables. I start cleaning my home office to sort out a backlog of documents that had accumulated during the period when we were away on holiday. The decision made by my employers to terminate the contract, is still fresh in my mind, still ringing in the back of my ears. We all need to learn to tighten our little belts when wen we are at work.
After the anger subsides, I decide to send my ex-boss an email, which I think is legitimate. The mail includes among others the reimbursement of my unpaid travel expenses, my books which were still in Taicang office, and variable salary shares. In my opinion, I have done an excellent job, and therefore I am entitled to such remunerations. I can still not come to terms with the termination of my contract and what they meant by "bad reviews". I had never had any single complaint against me or criticism from any of my bosses.
Maybe if there were any, I would have had a fair chance to make corrections. I am not sure about legal implications on this, but I am trying to demand what I think is due to me.
Despite Hong's warnings about high levels of smog reported for today, I will go jogging along the river. Afterwards, I will prepare a notice for the afternoon speech at the GCC meeting. Where I will be introducing our new company as follows.
"Many of you present in GCC meeting know that I am Franz Übermut and that I have been working in the Chinese business for over twenty years. I have forty years, worth of experience in many well-known international companies. I have been working in the Asia-Pacific region over the years. It is now time for me to take another path. My wife and I will open up a consulting and training company, in the names of ECOCUT in Suzhou. ECOCUT stands for "Efficient Cost-Cutting". We shall specialise in supporting companies on how to deal with cost-reduction, for example, in price negotiations with suppliers, or sales discussions with customers.
That is the way to do it because I believe that success will only come through determination, courage and self-confidence. We shall be guiding customers into self-employment, and how to make right contacts, that is why I am exchanging my business cards with you today. You will be surprised about the potential you have, and how much you can increase your profit. I thank you very much".
That is my speech due for presentation at the GCC meeting. I am aware of the irony of having once been a "victim" of Cost-Cutting myself, and of promoting it even further in China, but this is about business, not a consideration.
Around two o'clock in the afternoon, we drive to Shanghai to meet with my friend Liu Meng, in Pudong district, as we had agreed.
We will be with him to the Hotel Shangri-La, where the GCC
meeting will take place. Liu Meng is my age mate. He studied in China, and worked at Daimler in Germany, before going back to China to be self-employed, with an import and export-licensed trading company. While we are in the hotel café, Liu says that he has in recent years been carrying out his business exclusively through circles of friends, without contracts. To me, this suggests getting low earnings, so I decided that I will instead stick to Germany treaties drawn up in details, as it is the case now.
While in a meeting with Liu, a Germany businessman that we had met with Hong sometime back, walks towards us. I present him to Liu Meng and explain to him the similarities between their companies. They both deal in "fasteners", which is how screws and other small parts are used to connect objects, but with high-quality standards for the industry. In 2009, Sarkozy introduced an anti-dumping law, to sell fasteners from China, with 80% tariffs in Europe. The Chinese government was very upset about this. As a result, it retaliated by imposing a fine of almost 30% on European fasteners, with a diameter of more than six millimetres. It is not good news to Liu Meng. His business and that of my German friend are both going to be severely affected.
After paying the bill for the drinks, we say goodbye to each other and proceed on to the GCC meeting. Guests have already arrived; they are waiting at the entrance. The keynote speaker today is Luxembourg's Ruppert Hoogewerf, the author of the so-called "Hurun Report", on all wealthy Chinese. Hong got a book signed by Ruppert. I managed to snap a picture of the two together. After paying the entrance fee for both of us, we got to the buffet. I start with a dessert because there is no queue yet. The main course follows at the end. I treat myself to the appetizer. After eating, I start reciting my speech.
After the keynote speaker goes off the stage, Hong follows to present her speech of which she gets loud applause. The level of awareness in the German business community in Shanghai, simplifies the work to distribute our new business cards. We only have to explain what we do and how we do it. For this, people have praised the success of our business. A professor of a famous European Chinese EMBA school thinks that without EMBA knowledge, no one will far with a company such as ours. Hong notes that it is only intended to advertise the professor's high school.
"We have been observing that most of the wealthy Chinese are participating in EMBA courses. They have been supporting each other in business for years. You can also become rich when you have crazy ideas and the courage to implement them." She adds.
Hong believes the professor only want to advertise his school.
Outside, it is raining cats and dogs. I read on the internet that the Chinese Chamber of Commerce and industry opened a branch in Europe, specifically in Berlin. The chapter will represent all Chinese companies in Germany. The president of this new Chamber of Commerce is none other than the general manager of the Chinese ICBC, the world largest bank. As I am still scribbling through an article about the Ukraine conflict on the Crimea peninsular, Hong suddenly stumbles into the room with an angry expression on her face.
"The most dangerous people are the ones closest to you. The people who know you well can hide you those who are far away can't hurt you!". She grumbles.
"What is going on here?" I ask myself, terribly shocked by her comments. She continues:
"I have just learned of the non-payment of all the translation work I did for the firm, which could mean working for free. I trusted a friend who introduced me to this job" She cries with tears in her eyes. "I certainly need a new job; the few thousands RMB from Suzhou university is not enough. I can't work full-time because then I will lose entitlement for my pension".
I explain to her that she has the right to work and live wherever she wants, Afterall her parents are not yet too old to need personal care. Staring into my eyes with sadness, she says:
"As long as my mother is still alive, I can't do that. My mother determines everything in the family. As a child, I must obey. I am afraid, Franz, that is the unwritten Chinese family traditional law. If I leave without my parents' consent, my mother will disinherit me.
If I don't give her at least one grandchild, she will still threaten me with the same thing. So, there is no way I can do that. I think about it all the time".
I ask myself whether she is trying to fool me. Or perhaps she wants to taste her mother's ability to follow the Chinese unwritten traditional laws! If she were a German woman, the story would have been different. Hong grew up in a caring and happy family. She attended primary education in the middle-class school, the Chinese Chou-Zhong, went through the Gao-Zhong high school and passed the toughest final exams called Gao Kao. She automatically qualified to join the university to study law. Hong's thirst for reading forced her to undertake a course in interpretation studies in Geneva, Switzerland, specializing in English, Chinese and German languages. As a student, she also made money