Thoughts on Shanghai vs. New York

Shanghai

West meets East

I landed in Shanghai the day before the Mid-Autumn Festival. This year is the first time that the Chinese government has made this traditional Chinese festival a day off for everyone. Interestingly, when I was growing up, most of the official holidays (i.e. days off for everyone) were “new” holidays, as opposed to traditional Chinese festivals that have long histories, special meanings and unique food. Now that China is experiencing breathtaking Western-style development, it is also trying to dig up more and more of its history and tradition to become more “Chinese”.

For a tourist, Shanghai really does not offer much. As a city, it does not have the Great Wall, Forbidden City or Ming Tombs that help a rather austere Beijing convey a sense of majesty; it does not have the terra cotta warriors that have made a sleepy Xian uniquely mythical; it cannot rival Hangzhou on natural beauty, without a breathtaking West Lake of its own; nor can it rival Suzhou when it comes to those elegant scholars’ gardens. Even though urban development in the past 50 years have taken away many of Suzhou’s gardens and filled most of its canals, one can still get a sense of its ethereal and delicate beauty, just as a naturally beautiful woman could still be beautiful even in shabby clothes.

In a way, almost every other major city in China has something “permanent” to their identities and something uniquely theirs. When it comes to Shanghai, however, I have always tried without success to capture its essence with words. In the end, I have come to realize that its essence is its complete malleability and its constant change. And it is indeed a constantly changing city, with an aim to be more modern, more wealthy and more important, based on the latest definition of those criteria.


The second tallest building in the world opened its doors in Shanghai recently – Shanghai World Financial Center looks like a can opener, with a square hole in the middle of the top portion of the building. Architects must be running out of good ideas these days. I did not get a chance to visit it, as I heard that the lines would be long. Still, just by looking out of the windows of my room at St. Regis in the Pudong Area of Shanghai, I must say that this city reminds me more of New York than other Chinese cities.

Like my previous trips to Shanghai, this one was also for work, which means that I spent a lot of time talking business in restaurants. The food at these restaurants is infinitely better than the Chinese food one can find anywhere in the US, with service so attentive that it borders on making you feel uneasy. By comparison to what one can get at somewhat more “local” restaurants that cater to the Chinese paying out of their own pockets as opposed to paying out of an expense account, there is a dramatic and perhaps unnecessary price difference. – I am not complaining though, as I did love the food tremendously, not least because I recently came back from a vacation trip to central Europe, where I might have lost weight, despite eating apple strudels constantly…

St. Regis is of course not a Shanghai brand or a Shanghai phenomenon. However, I feel that a St. Regis experience is perhaps more “Shanghai-esque” than visiting the Yu Garden (arguably the only historic site in Shanghai), because of its emphasis on luxury and comfort and “westernization”. While I previously never exercised on my business trips, I decided to bring my swimsuit this time. The swimming pool was on the 5th floor – I put on my swim suit and my robe in my room and took the elevators down to the 5th floor. The pool was huge with just a couple of people swimming. There were several Jacuzzis and saunas located at two different floors, with separate bathrooms and changing rooms attached to them. I had the impression that the staff (as opposed to guests) were taking the most advantage of this fabulous facility. I asked a staff member how to turn on one of the Jacuzzis as she was putting down more fresh towels, bottled water and robes next to me (even though there was just me), and she apparently did not know. She called to one of the shower rooms for instruction – someone was taking a shower there. Instead of poking her head out of the shower or calling out instructions from behind the door, out came this woman standing completely naked in front of me providing instructions. I was so startled by this obviously unintentional “exhibitionism” and I found myself staring at her naked body (very attractive and curvaceous I must say). Later on, I would find out that in women’s bathrooms, even though all the showers and changing rooms were separate to allow maximum privacy, the local women do not feel any need to be NOT naked – they walked around completely naked chatting each other up, completely unaware that I felt embarrassed the whole time!

On a Friday evening, a friend took me to this Irish pub in Puxi area (i.e. west of the Huangpu River) in Shanghai. As I walked in, I had the impression that I was in Australia or Europe, because almost no one there was Chinese and everyone was speaking a foreign tongue. The pub is called O’Malley’s, and they serve all kinds of beer, include Guinness of course. There was a huge open seating area outside of the house, which itself dated to the colonial days. In the States I have never seen a pub that is simultaneously so interesting, lively and international…

Mixing with the locals

The next day, I got together with two friends who are professors – they are the new generation of academics in China. They are a little younger than I am, and were both trained in the US before going back to China. We met in Xujiahui for lunch, arguably the busiest commercial district in Shanghai. One thing about professional women in Shanghai is that they always look so good, with nice hair, tasteful clothes, and perfect complexion. After lunch at a Korean restaurant, we went to a beauty salon in the same shopping center for a facial. The beauty salon in Shanghai is a completely decadent experience. Their menus are as heavy as dictionaries, with all kinds of treatment for all kinds of skin types, age groups, etc. Needless to say, the minute the receptionist saw me, she labeled me as one that needed serious and serial treatments. She immediately suggested a regimen that must be continued monthly for at least a year if not forever, and my friend quickly added that if I don’t continue, my skin would look even worse than if I had not done it at all. Sadly, by not living in Shanghai, I had to give up the possibility of having translucent and youthful-looking skin. I chose the generic introductory facial, which comes at close to $30 even after the 70% discount. – With wages in Shanghai still much lower on average than the US, it shows how much women in Shanghai are willing to pay for beauty.

I felt all relaxed, refreshed and rejuvenated after my 90-minute long facial, but my relaxed state did not last long – in a city like Shanghai, one cannot stay relaxed for long. Since it was raining a little bit and I was in the busiest shopping district, I could not find a taxi. I decided to take the subway even though there is no direct line going back to the hotel. It took me over an hour changing lines, battling the crowds, standing in crowded trains and eventually still taking a taxi from the closet subway stop to finally get back to my hotel. I looked into the mirror as I was trying to put on some makeup for the wedding reception that evening – my face looked as weathered and stressed out as it was before that magic facial. I thought to myself, “no wonder the expats all need a car with a driver.”

The wedding reception was held at Grand Hyatt in Jinmao Tower, which was Shanghai’s tallest building until recently. The groom is the CEO of a local biotech company. The bride is originally from Taiwan, went to school in Vancouver and now works in Shanghai for a foreign bank. The reception was quite nice and lavish – as one would expect from the Grand Hyatt of Shanghai. It was the first time that I got to see the families of many life science leaders in the hi-tech park of Shanghai. Previously I had met many of them at functions, events or dinners. I was assigned to a table where everyone had an investment background except for me! Needless to say, all of us exchanged business cards the minute we got to our table, and started talking shop. They all were educated in the US and lived and worked in the US for many years before returning to Shanghai. Throughout the whole dinner, I had this fear that my dinner companions would suddenly find out that I am actually an impoverished entrepreneur (they know that I am an entrepreneur but they may not know how impoverished I am), and they would all get up and say to me, “you cannot sit at this table, because you have not made millions yet. You don’t even have a real Louis Vuitton bag.” – Actually I am worse than that, as I do not even have a fake LV bag. To be fair, all the people at my table were very nice and I had a lot of fun talking to them.

Photo copyright Ben Houge

China... all the way to New York

Is bigger better?

I left Shanghai and landed in San Francisco early morning on Sunday. While none of my friends in Shanghai does any housework (they all hire housekeepers), I of course have to do all the cleaning and laundry myself in Bay Area. I ran a few errands, did a lot of work by email (what did people do before the age of email?) and went to a friend’s place for dinner. Her mom did all the cooking, which was great. I ate so much that they felt a bit perplexed, as I just returned from China that day. “Well, the United Airlines flight itself could make one long for great Chinese food.” Over dinner, I relayed my experiences in Shanghai to her, including the part on how I felt like a country bumpkin in Shanghai, to which her husband asked somewhat incredulously, “so you don’t consider yourself part of that group of rich people?” Before I could answer, the wife wryly added, “if she did, she would not be coming to our house for dinner!”

The next morning, I flew to New York for a business meeting. While I consider St. Regis in Shanghai pricey, it turned out that the Hilton hotel I would stay in mid-town Manhattan would be three times as expensive. It was almost 9 pm when I got into mid town Manhattan in a taxi, and the streets were still busy with pedestrians. Indeed it is the city that never sleeps. At check-in, I was told that I should not be shocked when I opened the door to my room, because I had been upgraded to a very big suite at no extra charge.

And indeed I was shocked when I opened the door to my suite – it was at least 1500 square feet, with a dining room, a living room, a kitchen, two bathrooms, and a bedroom. It took me forever just to find all the light switches to turn on enough lights to see the place, and find all the air-conditioner switches to turn off all that cold air blasting from everywhere. I still failed to figure out how to turn on the complicated TV system in the living room though. Since I dislike room service, I asked a friend for the phone number of a nearby Chinese restaurant that delivers. She gave me the number of the same Chinese restaurant that I went to with my friends when I would periodically visit New York from Boston in my grad school days. I called and asked for a couple of dishes, feeling a little guilty as I could not possibly finish two dishes. The door bell rang, and it was clearly too early for my delivery to show up. I nervously asked, “who is it?” “Room service.” “But I did not order room service.” “it comes with the suite.” With that, I opened the door, and saw a waiter pushing this huge cart with a lot of things on top. He asked me where he should set it up, and I almost asked him where most people would have it set up. He showed me all those plates of fruits and cheese, the dozen bottles of soft drinks, all the chips and crackers, and two boxes of chocolates, and asked me if I needed anything else. I hesitated for a second, “is it all free?” – He said, “it is included in the room.” Soon after he left, my Chinese takeout arrived. I felt really bad not letting the delivery guy in when he expressed utter amazement at the big suite and asked if he could come in for a tour. But after all, this is dangerous New York!

I thought long and hard about whether I knew anyone living in mid-town Manhattan that I could invite to my suite to enjoy the panoramic view from the 44th floor and all those free snacks, and could not think of any. Besides, if anyone is rich enough to live there, how could they have the time to care about free snacks? – I sat down to eat my Chinese takeout dinner, consisting of a string bean dish and a chicken dish, choosing to ignore the fancy display of fruits and cheese. The scene must have been somewhat comical, as here I was, staying in an expensive hotel in Manhattan, but still eating like a grad student. The suite was huge, but it was all wasted on me. In fact, I did not even like the suite, as it exacerbated my awareness that I was all alone on a business trip. Besides, the building is fairly old. Despite some recent renovations, one could still tell that it was a bit tired. It was nothing like the brand new and glitzy St. Regis that has “personal butler” service.

The Old New World

The next morning, I went to the meeting, which was held in the New York Times building. And what a grandiose view it was from the meeting room! The skyline of New York is still better than that of Shanghai. They had to shut the blinds so that people could concentrate on the meeting instead of constantly looking out the windows! I loved this small meeting, where I gave a short talk on the Chinese life science industry, and the obligatory short promotion on my company. Everyone was fascinated by China. With all that’s going on in the world, it seems that "China" has become the answer to everything:

· Searching for new products and innovation? – Go to China! – That’s why pharma companies have sent partnering people to be based in Shanghai.
· Seeking to grow revenue? – Go to emerging markets such as China!
· Funding companies and early-stage innovation? – China has the money!
· Seeking to cut costs of R&D? – China!

Right before I left for the airport, I saw two friends at a nearby Starbucks. If there is a category of “perfect professional women that can do everything well”, they two belong to that category. They are MIT and Columbia-trained PhDs who also have received MBAs, and are now working for Fortune-500 companies in New York in finance and marketing. They have been happily married to their college sweethearts for years, who themselves are highly successful professionals. Despite the lengthy education and the demanding careers, they have also found time to have kids – one has a boy and a girl, and the other has 3 boys (two of them are twins)! They are both fun-loving, travel a lot, read a lot, and socialize a lot. What else can I enthuse about them? – In summary, they are superwomen that would put most to shame, including myself. They told me that the United Nations General Assembly was going on at the time, which I otherwise would not have known. “With all the problems, maybe New York will not be the center of the world any more. But for those of us who live here, those events like the United Nations General Assembly still make us feel that this remains the center of the world,” my friend said philosophically and somewhat forlornly. I said good-bye to my friends, as they both hurried onto their next tasks – they are busy professionals, mothers, wives and daughters, and yet they still make time for friends. I am amazed at them, and ashamed at how little I have been able to accomplish with my much smaller repertoire of responsibilities and duties.

As I was leaving New York, I found myself thinking of New York as an old (and established) city, and Shanghai as a young (and emerging) city, when in reality Shanghai has been around for many more centuries. George Santayana said, “America is a young country with an old mentality.” Regardless of whether people agree with his sentiment or not, I am at least convinced that “China is an old country with a young mentality”.