One Who Moved Out to Get Rich

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.

“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.

In just five years after 1895, there were nearly a thousand factories in China. They dominated railway construction, ship transportation and mining.

Astonishingly, until the end of the 19th century, the US had played no role at all in the conquest of China, but that was not going to last long, because it proposed that it should be given equal advantages and opportunities in the Chinese market too. They accepted the proposal without any conditions, which later resulted in it becoming entrenched in China. In the 1930s, however, China put up resistance battles against Japan. During World War II, with its allies together, it brought Germany, Italy, and Japan to their knees.1 Briefly that was the story. I wanted to give you a synpopsis of what happened. Let me now go back to the Chinese NewYear Festival.

I will use the upcoming holiday as an opportunity to practice Chinese language, prefereably on my notebook. Soon it will be Valentines Day again. As if she had read my mind thinking about her, Hong wakes up and comes to me. The temperature outside is about 14 degrees Celsius. She is still having a little bit of a cough, I think of advising her to visit a a doctor.

The Chinese New Year is dedicated to the horse. Many legends and folk tales surround the origin of the twelve zodiac signs. Many other ethnic minorities do not adopt the animal selection and its order that is mostly used in China. There is a popular legend that Emperor Xuanyuan once announced that twelve animals should form his imperial bodyguard. The animals use rabid means against others, to secure the best place. This unfair struggle used to be organised through an order in which animals would be arranged.

There is another legend of a day being divided into two-hour cycles, where the selection and ranking of animals would depend on which one was the most active during these cycles.2

Hong was born in a horse year that repeats itself every twelve years, which is why she customary wears red underwear. According to the Chinese culture, wearing red underwear, drives away evil spirits, at least to some extent. There is also another belief to the contrary that the year of the horse is not as good as the Dragon year, since only half as many children would be born in this year. Whether that is true or not, I don’t know, at least, I would not tell Hong.

In a sense when you think about it deeply, those who believe that being born in a horse year may not be desirable, I could somehow agree with them. I see that a newly born horse would seem restless, struggling to move and searching for adventures. In that case, the year of the horse would fit to be described in juxtaposition to a newly born horse, as exciting, being adventurous and lively. On the other hand, it could also be symbolically interpreted as struggling to live, being stressed, or yearning for help, which would mean going through hard times. In comparison to that, I try to give my wife, as much as possible, the space she deserves, without restrictions. She is not a type of woman you can put down anyway. As a modern person, I have no problem with it. What is essential to me is to have financial security and freedom, as a horse also stands for. Financial independence is vital in life. Having stated that though, I always avoid being seen to be a materialistic person.

I once asked Hong, whether she knows about big people such as Merkel, Cameron, Holland, and the Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan, being born in the horse year.

"A female Prime Minister as Merkel in China is more than a dream. It is a far-fetched hope It could be possible maybe in future, not now", she retorted. Hong told me that in Chinese history all Emperors were male, except Empress Wu Zhao, who was accused of poisoning her husband to come to power."

It is now time to go jogging along the river. The weather is not all that pleasing. Smog is worst this time of the year. The sun has no choice but to struggle to pierce through thick smoggy clouds. In China, around this time of the year, the weather is bleak, which sometimes makes me uncomfortable. All I can see right in front of me now is a one big grey mass of smog. When local people see me jogging in this weather, they take me for being mad.

"That is the problem with foreigners", I heard one of them retorting, they did not expect me to know the Chinese language.

Anyway, I am not too much bothered about what people say. I will continue jogging, as long as it helps me to keep healthy and fit.

Anyway, nothing much to worry about, because after the Chinese New Year celebrations, Hong and I will go for a holiday in Thailand.

After jogging, I return home and go straight to a cold bathroom to take a quick shower, and afterwards get some brunch, after which I will check on my emails. Many of these emails are from German Chamber of Commerce Abroad, or from LinkedIn, the international networking site for businesspeople. I also received many New Year's Festival greetings cards. This evening we must go to the pharmacy to buy a cough mixture and tablets since Hong is still not feeling well. We will then head to a restaurant to have noodle soup next door to our house.

I like noodles because you get the opportunity to choose recipes, amongst them. Another thing is that eating noodles saves my wallet because they are too filling, although sometimes I don't like the way they prepare the food. They mix too much glutamate, an additive that helps to enhance their taste. Being used to Western rather than Oriental cuisine, when I eat food with too many additives, I develop heartburn, making me feel uncomfortable. However, there is another way you can avoid that. You can order a special meal without added glutamate; I do that a lot. You can also go to restaurants which prepare fresh dishes, other than order food deliveries. Anyway, after our evening meal, we head back home. On our way, we pass by the bakery, to buy my favourite alcohol-filled confectionary. I enjoy these snacks while watching a movie. Hong, who is not a good fun of movies, would be surfing the internet. While concentrating on watching movies sometimes, Hong comes to interrupt me with her unending Chinese jokes, which I don't find too funny. Is it because I don't understand them?

We have had our meal; it is now time to go. Usually, before I go to bed, I make sure that I don't forget to gulp a glass of a herbal mixture given to me by Li Gengnan, my father-in-law. This mixture with more than 50% alcohol is too strong, but it does not only strengthen life, it increases libido and potency of a man too. Of course, you must believe in its effect. The mixture comprises of expensive ingredients, some of them being, a deer's penis, or a snow dog, from the mountains. It also has a high content of traditional liquor, which makes it to be more expensive. Women are however not usually advised to take this mixture, for fear of them going into a sexual frenzy.

Traditional Chinese medicine, such as acupuncture, has been proven to have cured many people whose conditions had been described as “incurable” by medical doctors. I also personally do meditation practices such as Qigong, to bring my Qi into harmony with my body, to enjoy good health. An appropriate application of breathing exercises can also regulate a smooth flow of Qi. I usually get swamped at work on Thursdays, which is why I do not return home before seven o’clock in the evening. Today, Hong has already prepared an excellent dinner at home, with lovely Western herbs.

The aroma in the house aroused my appetite for dinner.

“Hong, did you know that you could open up a restaurant?” I bragged giving her a cuddle and a kiss.

“Oh! really, where can this be?” She asks with a smile.

“Of course, here in China”, I replied. I tell her that Chinese food tastes suitable for the Chinese, but if you add Western herbs to dishes in your restaurant, you would undoubtedly reduce competition.

After eating, Hong grabs plates and heads to the kitchen to wash them. I mix cocktail for myself while watching the movie.

“Today, the first floor must be cleaned up”. Hong says commandingly while going out of the kitchen. “I have always been cleaning the second floor myself, it is now your turn”, she grumbles.

I look surprises wondering what could have sparked off her bad mood. I think it is time to relax and enjoying the evening. She kills my spirit. According to Chinese tradition, a house must be swept and cleaned, the day before the New Year, to cleanse it from the previous year’s burdens. I quickly jump to help put chairs in place.

I ask Hong to give me a broom to clean up.

“Go back, I will do this myself, all you know is to come when I have done most of the work”, she murmurs amidst outbursts. I feel offended but ignored her. When I return to the living room, the movie had ended. I decid to retire to bed.

The New Year’s celebration is as important to Chinese, as it is to Germans. It is one of the most important festivals in the year.

Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve, the CNY. Today we want to go and book a cheap holiday to Thailand, or at least to discuss booking it.

After work tomorrow, I will be going to Hong’s parent’s house to have dinner together as a family. That is the Chinese tradition. They will be expecting us and, they will prepare our over-night stay.

After getting ready, we leave home in Taicang to go and start giving out “Hongbaos”. These are the lucky money gifts which are wrapped in small red envelopes to give away during the Chinese New Year Festival holidays. Hongbao comes from two words, Hong (red), and Bao (bag). In China, giving away red bags with money wrapped inside is standard practice. It also applies to weddings and birthday celebrations. There is an exciting story that Hong tells me.

“It is about a migrant worker with a large family who used to spend fifty thousands of his sixty thousand Renminbi annual earnings buying Hongbaos. Family celebrations can sometimes be expensive.

Even if you decide to cancel the event for any reason, you will still be obliged to pay. It is the tradition.”

The first people that we give our Hongbaos were the gatekeeper of our residential complex and our driver. Hong is going to drive, on our way to her parents' place. Indeed, she does, and we arrive safely.

We are in Suzhou, at Hong's parent's home, for dinner. I have lived in China for many years; I have never seen such a lavishly laid the table like this, because I have visited many places during the CNY festivals with girlfriends, to enjoy the sun, and the weather.

The reminiscent ones were in 2012 when my girlfriend Jacqueline and I went to Bali. In 2011, Pan Pan and I went to the Philippines, in 2010, I went to Malaysia with Vickey, and in 2009 I was with my Chinese teacher in Yunnan. But uhhh!! Oh God! I forgot her name, but I remember, I had to put up with the teacher because by then she was a real binge drinker. Before, I used to come to China to meet business people during the CNY. This season, tradesmen have time and spend money because of the festive holidays.

That was a long time ago, it is time to remember. I went to many countries enjoying holidays and spending lavishly. I could not care less about money, and I used to foot the bill for all holiday trips. But since I got married to Hong, I am now seriously committed to Chinese family life. My life changed a lot; for example, I no longer spend lots of money eating out. I believe that home-cooked food is much healthier than the one prepared outside, where many artificial flavours and enhancers are added to make money. A survey carried out revealed that in some restaurants in China, pork is "chemically marinated" after slaughter, and sold expensively as beef to make more money.

At home, focus is on taste, not on cost savings. Therefore, Li Gengnan spends hours in his kitchen to prepare delicious meals.

Hong resembled her mother Wu Meilan in body structure, and she is the smallest in the family. She always reiterates the importance of eating various traditional Chinese dishes.

“This fish is called Li Yu. Fish is pronounced as "Yü" but written as Yu. Sounds like “left over”, means in coming new year you will have a lot of money left, and therefore you will become rich.”

At Hong's parent's home, we also have rice cakes on the dinner table we are enjoying the meal. Hong passes a small cake of rice over to me.

“In the Chinese language, "Nian", means year, and "Gao" means cake, but it also means "high", concerning salary. It is traditionally believed that eating a rice cake, is equated" to becoming rich since it associates to earning a higher salary. "I have passed the rice cake over to you, eat it you will get richer", Hong said jokingly, looking at me.

"Of course, I would love that, who wouldn't?”

In Chinese tradition, eating eggs filled with minced meat, known as

Dan Jiao

, increases your chances of wealth. Therefore, when you consume many of them, you get too much "

Jin Yuan Bao

", a monetary currency used during the Jin Dynasty.

On the other side of the dinner table, there is a bowl of yellow bean sprouts. The shape of the dish reminds me of a lucky Chinese charm called "Ru Yi", that is responsible for keeping you in good health. Yes, indeed, I couldn't wait to feast on the contents within this bowl, after the incredibly lavish dinner to balance the diet. At the dining table, Hong asks whether I know what " Rou Yuan" is.

"Yes, I do, they are meatballs representing the family's gathering at the Spring Festival, which is also another name for CNY" I replied while helping myself with some of it from the bowl. I am munching them unreservedly, after all, it is a day to celebrate.

My mother-in-law Wu Meilan encourages me to help myself even more with food in the rice bowl. China has many varieties of rice, and the most popular is the glue rice.

This time of the year, over dinner, the conversation mainly revolves around celebration and the mass migration of Chinese.

There is even a name for it, and it is called " Chun Yun". In the Chinese language "Chun" means Spring season, whereas "Yun", stands for transport. Although it may not sound that poetic, it is how the name came about. During the Chinese New Year celebrations, around eight hundred million people swarm trains to go to their distant hometowns and villages. It can sometimes be a big challenge for logistics and transportation.

This period is so busy that tickets are sold out online within minutes. Migrant workers who cannot access the internet would struggle to get tickets. Some can still manage to get official tickets without seats; the problem is enduring many miles standing, in a country many times bigger than Germany. People can travel for over forty hours before reaching their destination. Think about those without seats, it is incredibly discomforting. That in place, however, some opt to buy "black-market" tickets, from the so-called "Yellow-Ox Group", albeit at exorbitant prices, especially for those travelling as a family in a group.

After the Spring Festival, the situation starts to calm back to normal. Prices for train tickets go down, but the situation remains dramatic during the rush hours, especially for the many low-income earners, who struggle to go back to their places of work in time.

After the festive dinner, Hong and I receive a small piece of gold, made in the image of a horse's head. The significance of the gift is that when Hong produces children in future, they would also receive a similar piece of gold. This gesture seemes to be luring Hong and me into having offsprings, for her parents to get grandchildren to raise. She has, however, told them that she would rather have children abroad, than in a polluted environment.

On the first day of the New Year, the Chinese usually stay at home. People believe that visiting other people's families on this day, would drain money from them and pass it over to the other family.

As common sense would have it, no one would love to part with their money, more so 'being given to others', just like that. The belief maintains that if one stayed home on this day, " Shou Cai", a traditional greeting ushering in wealth and prosperity, would be there to hold and protect the property.

On New Year's Day, Hong and I travel to the city using the metro train. The newly launched train contributed to the value increase of house properties in the area, including Hong's parent's home. We walk by the riverside using the pedestrian pathway. Farmers sell their products, mainly to the tourists who throng this ever-busy place.

The locals use mopeds or cars using narrow streets, to access the area. Hong and I treat ourselves with a Tofu soup, and grilled lamb roasted on a spit, and flatbread.

After spending a night with the in-laws, Hong and I go to visit her ageing grandparents, and cousins, who were each given a Hongbao. As a couple, you must give money to relatives with children; it is a tradition. Most relatives were living a stone's throw away, so we do not go far. And, there are a few visits because the apartments were cold. People prefer to keep themselves in their homes. The second New Year's Day is also another busy one, because traditionally it is the "Son-In-Law Day". If you do not attend the New Year's Day, the tradition is that on the second New Year's Day, you must visit your wife's family. Fortunately for me, I was already there, which made it easier.

In the morning of the third New Year's Day, Hong drives me and her parents to Wetland Park on Taihu Lake. The weather is not all that good, we are, however, not much bothered with it. All we do is to enjoy the excursion, so we continu to see the hot springs. There are various springs under a vast heated dome, and you can comfortably bathe in them. We are unluck. We are told to return home because we had not made a reservation at the hot springs reception office to be allowed in. We all look at each other. "What is the meaning of this?", one of them echoes inaudibly. We have no choice but to return home. All tickets had already been booked. As expected, the place is at times overcrowded being a big touristic attraction. We missed the chance to see these hot springs. Hong was still feeling cold. She jumps on the wheel, and we drive back home.

It is perhaps a bad day. While we are driving back home, a dog suddenly runs into the road, straight in front of our car. "Oh! not again!" Hong exclaims. Before she even finished the sentence, the four-legged friend slightly hit himself on the vehicle. It was the second time for Hong to run into a dog. Fortunately, this time, the animal escaps it into the nearby bush with minor injuries. We are all left in shock.

"This can't be a good year if such an accident happens to us shortly after the CNY! We might not get children this year!" Hong observes. On hearing about not having children, I smile reservedly.

I observe that Hong's mother, who is sitting next to me in the back seat is not thrilled. When we reach home, we notice that our car had a slight dent due to the minor accident earlier with the dog.

Hopefully, the insurance will repair the damage.

In China, and in many other parts of the world women prepare something to eat for the family, in Hong's family, it is the other way around. It has been happening for decades. Here it is Hong’s father who is always in the kitchen. Li Gengnan is, however, an excellent cook. His meals are delicious. Traditionally, this time of the year, a meal cannot be Chinese, if it misses Nian Gao, a small round rice cake. Nian Goa is sometimes known as the Chinese New Year's cake.

In Chinese tradition, it is considered good luck to eat Nian Gao, a homonym for the "higher year" symbolising higher income, higher position, growth of children, and promise of a better life. So, eating Nian Gao, is considered good luck, during the Chinese New Year period.