Vince just got back from a trip to China and gave me his observations on the economic development there. I had asked him to do so several months ago, even before he finalized his trip details, but I didn't think he would remember and was pleasantly surprised to hear from him this morning. I take that back. His emails had me ROLLING ON THE FLOOR HOWLING IN UTTER PAIN.

Aside from the fact that Vince himself is a funny person and can express himself accordingly through his writing (the ultimate turn-on in my opinion, lol), he also has a couple of rather interesting quirks, one in particular being how much time and attention he pays to his --> hair. We lived together one summer in Taipei, back when Gus and I were also housemates, so this I know very well. See below.

   hey chris-

   i actually had more to say in the original version,
   but i was really pissed when it disappeared and then
   couldn't remember everything that i wrote. :(

   my cousin and her husband are running a taiwanese
   electronics manufacturing firm in kun shan (about
   40 minutes outside shanghai and close to suzhou).
   they themselves have seen immense changes in just
   the last 2 years. the area they work and live in is
   undergoing great development and attracting a lot
   of attention.

   a couple of other things that i just remembered
   they mentioned: they've had their home broken into
   2x since they've lived there. one time, the cook/
   maid was at home. they aren't into violent crime
   per se or ripping off your big screen tv or any-
   thing like that- just petty theft: whatever they
   can carry off in their hands and turn into quick $.

   the whole taiwan/china thing is going to make things
   increasingly difficult in the future. with the down-
   turn in the business cycle and the ever increasing
   investment of taiwan businesses, china seems to be
   gaining an edge. both sides are pretty stubborn and
   it seems like the rhetoric must save face on both
   sides. tensions are increasing- esp with the new
   lee-chen partnership and w's big mouth.

   they have unannounced power outages 1x/month since
   they have a backwards infrastructure for electri-
   city delivery. (plus, they use that old russian std
   of 220v and use those weird-ass plugs). [do you
   know what a pain in the *** it was to get the pro-
   per voltage converter and an adapter that fits the
   polarized plug from u.s. for my hairdryer?! [those
   hotel hair dryers are weak-sauce and i might as
   well just air-dry!] what's even funnier is that my
   vidal sasson hair dryer is made in china by the
   helen of troy corporation and has a built-in 220v
   converter, but you still need the right adapter b/c
   it won't fit into the socket! for some reason, they
   love to use non-polarized plugs for the converters.]

   

   sorry for the digression, back to why they have the
   periodic power outages: everytime a new manufactur-
   ing plant comes on-line (and you know they are pop-
   ping up like crazy over there), they have to shut-
   down the entire grid and they re-activate and redis-
   tribute the electricity. that's got to be a pain in
   the butt- i know since we have them in cali. [lucky,
   not since spring break for my own personal experi-
   ence. while i was in shanghai, we did experience 1
   blackout for about 1.5 hrs in the wee hrs of the
   morning. unfortunately for the rest of tour group-
   they were leaving to head back to the states (my
   roomate and i stayed 3 extra days to spend more
   time in my quest to get to know 'my heritage' bet-
   ter.) we were on the 10th floor so no elevator, no
   lights, no ac, etc. lots of people look very dif-
   ferent when they haven't used a blow dryer and just
   imagine they had to carry all their bags down 10
   flights of stairs!

   

   and just think of all those vcr's, alarm clocks,
   etc flashing 12:00! not too mention, it would be
   just like the night of taiwan's great black out
   back in 99 when you, gus, and me were roomies- no
   cordless phones, no tv, and most impt no ac!]

   and for your last question, that answer ought to
   be obvious- solo all the way!

   v

This topic is so interesting and talked about so often amongst my friends over here that I'm planning to open up another discussion thread in my Soapbox and will begin with all of Vince's emails (the above was 2 of 3, all equally amusing...) with his permission, of course. Wennie also had similar comments from her trip to Beijing two weeks back. Very very interesting. Both this topic *AND* Vince.

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Well, I had a lot more to say about Ginny and her new company brochure that I helped her with today during lunch, but I'm still laughing about Vince's "Ultimate Blow Dryer Experience in China" story. Oh well, there's always tomorrow... Kind of an ironic entry because Ginny is good friends with Vince as well. Repeat after me: 'Tis a small world in which we live.

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