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.
“During the Cultural Revolution, everyone concealed their religions.
Buddhas destroyed, instead, Mao’s images hanged. If you wanted to survive, you had nothing to do, but to cooperate with the Communist Party. The only opportunity for the Evangelical church was to break away from the Western organisation, and all its influences. The church got buildings to operate from, and members were advised to look for finances (self-financing), to expand. The name ‘Three-Self Church’ came from there”.
The current membership of this church is difficult to figure out, as there are countless registered congregations in addition to state recognised and gazetted churches. However, according to statistics carried out in 2013, in Germany, Catholics and Protestants were almost at per with each other, with nearly sixty per cent of the total population. Germany has a small number which coincides with the people. The estimated six per cent of Christians in China fits well into the vast Chinese population.
Also, in Shanghai we met Peter Kreuz, a catholic pastor whom we had known for a long time at the German Chamber of Commerce Abroad meeting. Kreuz’s church is called CCPA (Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association). To be officially recognised in China, CCPA church had to be renounced from the Pope. It is not a trifle in this faith, which regards the Pope as the head of the Church.
Peter Kreuz now works in Anton Rebe’s company. Foreign priests in China do not get work permits. They only get short term visas, since they do not work for the Chinese church. They work for a legalised company and put it on their name cards.
Hong is already preparing for the Chinese New Year. She wants to spend it will all her relatives. I will present a speech in Chinese or in Suzhounesian, which will be stressful for me because they understand my Chinese, I don’t understand their Suzhounesian.
However, I am always grateful for their warm reception as a family, to a ‘Laowai,’ a Chinese name for foreigners. It is rare in China because Chinese people are always suspicious of foreigners. History maintains that they have all the right reasons to do so, and perhaps these are one of them.
Struggle for land possession in China only benefited a few, leaving many scrambling in a quest for the same. The first Opium War in the middle of the 19th century resulted in the cessation of Hong Kong to Great Britain. A few years later, France also came in during the second Opium War, which forced China to drop opposition to international trade relations. At that time, the Chinese’s economy had collapsed, which saw the end of its dominance in Asia. Great powers such as Germany, Britain, Russia, Japan and France, used this opportunity to compete for dominance, in dividing China.
At that time, the Qing government was in a severe financial crisis.
The Chinese’s economy was not strong enough to sustain itself. It, therefore, had to borrow money from Western countries, pledging to surrender its marine customs. As a result, significant powers gained control of Chinese’s finances, opened branches of banks throughout the country, handled capital exports and issued banknotes. They manipulated and dominated the Chinese economy.
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