Live in Contemporary China

By Wilson

This book explores what its like living in contemporary China with extended essays on how the country has changed over the years. The author Wilson, a successful businessman in China, starts off by exploring the countrys technological shifts.

It focuses on how to succeed in China, sharing why we must pay attention to the right information from reputable sources, why we must take a relative balance between demands and supply during economic development through supply-side structural reform, why we should review our personal situation to achieve a better life, and why investing time and effort on developing deep friendship is so worthwhile.

Move beyond the superficial by focusing on self-cultivation, family governance, entrepreneurship, and national development. It starts with the lessons in Live in Contemporary China.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Sep 12, 2017
• ISBN: 9781480845824

Wilson

Zhang Ziyi, a native of Ji’an City, Jilin Province, China, is a member of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, director of Jilin Cultural Investment Group Co., Ltd. (JCICL) RCCK Committee, president and CEO of JCICL, vice chairman and vice president of China Jilin Entrepreneur Association, president of the Branch Association of Geriatric Health Maintenance Cultural Association of Chinese Association Geriatric Research, president of the Investment Fund Industry Association of Jilin Province, and holds other positions.

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Copyright © 2017 Wilson Zhang.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Translated by Zhang Zhuo, Serena Boschi, Chen Dong

Archway Publishing

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Bloomington, IN 47403

www.archwaypublishing.com

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4808-4583-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-4581-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-4582-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017905142

Archway Publishing rev. date: 08/30/2017

Contents

Foreword

Living Between Today and Tomorrow

Section 1:     About Self-Cultivation

Chapter 1:     Facing the New Media Outburst: Holding the Bottom Line in the Virtual World

Chapter 2:     The Supply-Side Structural Reform is Available for Everyone

Chapter 3:     Tu Youyou Awarded Noble Prize: Being Tough and Pragmatic Makes Life Significant

Section 2:     About Family Governance

Chapter 4:     Why Are the Fuerdai Always Making Troubles

Chapter 5:     Mulling Over Tiger Mom and Wolf Dad: Creating a Healthy Growth Environment for Children

Chapter 6:     How to Make the Perfect Family Under China’s Universal Two-Child Policy

Section 3:     About Entrepreneurship

Chapter 7:     Mass Entrepreneurship: the Three Abilities that Help Businesses Survive - The Ability to Rebound, to Be Persistent, and to Be Audacious

Chapter 8:     The Investment Guideline: Adapting to the New Normal of China’s Economy

Chapter 9:     Successful Businesses, Bosses, and Employees

Section 4:     About National Development

Chapter 10:   How to Define Wealth as China’s Rich Men List Grows

Chapter 11:   Internet Plus Offers Both Opportunities and Risks

Foreword

Don’t be anxious about the future. If there was one piece of advice, I wish I could give myself and really absorb, that would be it. In today’s increasingly technology-heavy world, it’s easy to compare yourself to others, to where you think you should be, to where you assumed you would be. The world has become smaller than ever thanks to the internet and popularity of social platforms, but at the same time, human connection sometimes feels father away than ever before. The ease at which you can reach someone, has often replaced the substance behind the conversation you intended to have. If the old saying is that a picture is worth a thousand words, what is a staged Instagram photo showing the reality you wish to portray worth? Simultaneously, as means of communication change, many things remain the same- the importance of friendship, family, hard work, and culture- remain vital. These are topics all explored within this book.

As someone who grew up in Western culture, I’ve always been intrigued by the differences of Asia. Having never stepped foot in China, my understanding of its values and traditions has come first from books and movies, and later news headlines, Youtube videos, and even Tweets. In fact, I first met the author of this book via Skype, a not uncommon first impression in today’s world.

My path has always been outside of the typical journey. The great American poet, Robert Frost, once said, Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. This is a quote by which I’ve often lived my life. I grew up in a conventional, middle-class suburb in New Jersey, not to far from NYC, but their was nothing typical about the path I chose for myself. I went to college and graduated Summa Cum Laude with honors from the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, studying TV- Radio- Film, with minors in English and Public & Presentation Speaking. I studied abroad in Sydney for a year so that I could experience another culture albeit one quite similar to the U.S., yet different and exciting in its own right. I grew tremendously as a person there having truly stepped outside of my comfort zone for the firs time. I moved to Los Angeles shortly after school to pursue a career as a screenwriter and actor. I then spent the next seven plus years working on the sets of major Hollywood films like War of the Worlds starring Tom Cruise and popular TV programs like Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy, to highlight a few. I went on to work for some of the most sought after talent managers and agents in La La land at firms including Innovative Artists and Magnolia Entertainment. All the while, I pursued my own writing, acting, and comedy career and to date have been in films that have shown at Cannes Film Festival and performed on stages with standup comedy greats at the World Famous Comedy Store. In 2010, my natural career progression led me to become an entrepreneur. I was so enamored by the culture of creating my own future that the decision to start my business almost happened without me knowing it! My company Press Pass LA is an entertainment news platform- a direct product of the new media revolution- which covers celebrity news and up and coming talent, gossip free! We focus on inspirational journeys and how influential people pay their success forward and give back to the community around them. To date, I’ve interviewed hundreds of the biggest celebrities in Hollywood ranging from legends like Robert Redford and Jamie Lee Curtis to ingénues that transformed into household names like Scarlet Johansson and Ryan Gosling. Over the course of my 13+ year career, I’ve worked in all facets of entertainment from writing and acting, to development and production, to marketing and public relations.

In this book, we explore many of these areas: the lure of celebrity, the power of digital media, the grounding principles of cultural heritage, societal pressures, family influence, and the friends you choose. We examine what makes an entrepreneur succeed, what makes a business fail, and what makes a dream flourish or perish. This book will certainly take you on a path less traveled, and compare similar stories from opposite parts of the globe. I think you will be pleasantly surprised to find how many commonalities exist between Chinese culture and the rest of the world, now just a click of a button away.

Jennifer Buonantony, CEO of Press Pass LA

Los Angeles, CA, USA

Living Between Today and Tomorrow

A popular view on the way of living is to live in the moment. But for modern people living in a time of constant change, being in the moment is something unattainable. The reality is what Nietzsche¹ said that we are posted between today and tomorrow, stretched in the contradiction between today and tomorrow.

In this period, individual life is likely to change at every moment. The story about Johannes Gutenberg² is the most common one to demonstrate the dramatic change. As it is known, the intaglio printing emerged in the 15th century. Its printing speed was very slow, as every page should be carved full of words. The carving work was extremely time consuming, so books were still rare at that time. In 1436, Gutenberg began to work on a printing press. There he found that the letters could be arranged and rearranged many times, as the printer wished to create different pages with the same letters. And then it took him four years to finish his movable metal type press. His invention made books production easier and cheaper, and this played a key role in the development of modern printing industry.

In this story, another group of people also experienced dramatic changes. Before Gutenberg’s invention, transcribers were the major force in books production: They made a living by copying books on kraft papers. However, all of them lost their jobs along with the invention of the printing machine.

A group of people were out of work due to a new technology. To some extent, they were crudely rolled over by the wheels of history, which is, in my definition, a process of reevaluation. During this process, the social values - economic values here in particular - of individuals or a profession are reprised for varied reasons, such as the invention of a new technology. Having no initiative in the course of reevaluation is gloomy. Most people, like the above-mentioned transcribers, are likely to be passionate and meticulous about their work, but the economic values of their work were crushed due to social changes.

Do you think this is an old story far away from our life? No, it is exactly the reflection of the society today: We are living in a world where crisis and opportunity coexist.

In recent decades, as the dominator of the social development, the Internet has showed its frequent influence on individuals and collectives: With the rise of electronic commerce, fewer and fewer people visit physical stores personally. Even the foods can be ordered through online service.

Besides, an existing product also faces the challenge of being replaced by a new one or by its downstream product with more comprehensive functions. Here is an example. Smartphones have cannibalized ordinary digital camera sales, forcing camera companies to retreat to a small market of high-end professional digital cameras. Smartphones build a wider system with an easy access to the Internet for picture sharing on social networks, making digital cameras useless for most users.

Our society encourages mass entrepreneurship and innovation, so the reduction of an industry or a group of specialized workers may indicate the rising of another. It is hard to say who will be replaced or who will be the sustainable innovator in this industrial metabolism. The only thing we can do is doing the right thing with a good attitude.

Technological advances bring about social developments as well as our fear of the future. Whereas, social evolution follows rules and trends, from which we can reach the path from today to tomorrow. Figuring out the rules and trends is like trekking in mountain areas. When choosing a camping site, you first need to observe the surroundings and make sure your tent will not be wiped out by a flash flood.

The most important thing is to keep an open mind in the process of transition. Can entrepreneurs dedicate to the industry? Can decision-makers stay calm and composed when facing diversified ideas? Can officials be uncorrupted and clean-fingered under the administrative system? And can parents provide a healthy and positive environment for their children?

Let’s go back to printing machines and transcribers. In the 15th century, transcribers were replaced by printing machines, while printed products are now challenged by digital devices. Traditional newspapers have lost competitive edges as online newspapers allow for instant update, and it is certain that printed books will be totally overcome by digital devices in the near future. The information explosion makes it more difficult to manage the overload of information, and many senior media professionals are likely to suffer from it, as evidenced by their profession changes. How can individuals be true to themselves and live in the present when we are faced with an overwhelming flood of information in daily life?

It is impossible to reverse the wheels of history, but an individual is able to make choices for his or her life. In the early period of Republic of China³, Li Jinxi⁴, a master of Chinese traditional learning, invited three people to copy his scripts. The first one, copying word by word, lived in obscurity for his whole life. The second one was devoted to his work, and corrected every single mistake he encountered. His name was Tian Han⁵, the author of the National Anthem of the People’s Republic of China. The third one only copied whatever he agreed with and abandoned whatever he disagreed with. He later became the Chairman of the People’s Republic of China, Mao Zedong⁶.

Section One

About Self-Cultivation

Chapter One

Facing the New Media Outburst: Holding the Bottom Line in the Virtual World

Before elaborating on this topic, I’ve gone through some hot news between the end of 2015 and the beginning of 2016:

Powerful Earthquake Struck Southern Taiwan, Killing Over a Hundred;

Sticker War Between Netizens Across the Strait on Facebook;

A Woman from Shanghai Dumped Her Boyfriend Because His New Year’s Eve Dinner Sucked;

China Authorities Launch Online Platform to Register Ezubao Fundraising Victims;

Gravitational Waves Detected by LIGO, Confirming Einstein’s Century-Old Theory;

Millions of People Enjoy Spring Festival Red Envelope on Wechat;

Top Generals of PLA Will Experience Dramatic Change.

So, what can you see in those headlines? Almost half of them are about the virtual world! It’s not hard to see, the real world and the virtual world overlap increasingly with the recent outburst of new media bridging the two worlds in the last one or two years. Even the traditional media such as the People’s Daily and the Xinhua News Agency launched smartphone apps to jump on the bandwagon. New media like Today’s Headlines and Wechat verified accounts, designed for the mobile Internet, are becoming a major force in news reading.

Lack of ethical standards, classification capacity and readability, the current new media is being manipulated by news writers who suck at their work! And don’t let me grumble about the Tencent News.

How to deal with this dramatic change is the main topic we’re going to explore in the book, and let’s start with the changes the new media has brought into our lives.

First, the new media eliminates the lag time that plagues traditional media like magazines, newspapers, TV shows, for example Network News Broadcast from CCTV1 and even the web portals. Our habit of getting news actively and regularly has turned into receiving endless push messages from various apps on smartphones and tablets passively every day.

And meanwhile, information is totally free. Although we’ve already been used to free information as early as in the Internet era, the information flood brought by various media is pouring over us on an ongoing, 24/7, basis. Take the popular Wechat’s Moments as an example. Users can share and get access to accepted Wechat friends’ information — old friends traveling abroad, someone being a best man, or someone working late during the holidays.

Ever since Moments has served as a channel to spread all kinds of information, official accounts of major media have sprung up overnight, let alone various self-media. According to statistics, the number of Wechat verified accounts reached over ten million, with 15 thousand more popping up every day.

Another change caused by the new output is the lack of expertise, meaning that all the information is squeezed into the same channel without any classification making it hard for readers to distinguish the accuracy of the contents. We used to watch Network News Broadcast on CCTV1, access local news on the local evening or morning paper, and get business news from financial website or related magazines, and the accuracy and reliability of the news were guaranteed. However, nowadays, the same event information may come from authorities like the Xinhua News Agency or from those opinion leaders on Weibo.

And at last, we became both the spreaders and producers of the content by forwarding our comments on Moments or Weibo. We can even register for a Wechat verified account to create our own contents.

Having access to a massive amount of free information, we, as users, are surely thrilled by the change. On the other side, our precious time is being taken up by said information, making in-depth reading harder, as information has been cut into pieces by the new media.

Just as the printing press transferred oral knowledge into a written form, the long-term effect of the new media on society and individuals is yet to come. The famous media theorist Neil Postman once pointed out in his book Amusing Ourselves to Death⁷ that these media put forward powerful implications to define the reality. And he believes that as for human society, forms of media are quite important in shaping the whole cultural identity by favoring certain contents, which is the idea we’ll extensively ramble on in this chapter.

We can do nothing to reverse this trend, but we can hold our bottom line in front of changes brought by the new media. And, considering that our virtual moral quality is being shaped by what we say on social media, we’d better learn how to behave ourselves in the virtual world.

In a word, we should know how to behave in the era of the new media, and it’s not easy.

Cherish your time: your attention is worth more than anything

Our reading habit is experiencing a huge change with the development of smartphones and mobile Internet, as can be seen in the 12th China National Reading Survey 2014 released by the Chinese Academy of Press and Publication.

• The survey showed that, in 2014, the percentage of people reading on a digital device surpassed those who read through traditional ways for the first time. The percentage of mobile phone readers first exceeded 50%, reaching 51.8%. And adults spent 33.82 minutes reading on a mobile phone each day in 2014 with a year-by-year steady growth.

• Chinese people read 4.56 books, 65.03 newspapers, 6.07 magazines and 3.22 e-books on average in 2014. The reading volume of e-books and magazines both saw an increase, while the amount of traditional newspapers and paper books decreased, compared to figures from 2013.

• The report showed that, on average, a Chinese adult reads on Wechat twice a day for more than 40 minutes. Among all the mobile phone readers, more than 60 percent (66.4%) read via the popular app Wechat.

• Over 80% of mobile users reading on Wechat would chat and browse Wechat Moments. Reading news, reading shared articles on Wechat Moments, and reading articles published on Wechat verified accounts represented 72.9%, 67.1%, and 20.9%, respectively.

• Reading through social media has been promoting reading in