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Work?!!

The posts have been coming more slowly because, shockingly, I actually have to do some work on this trip. And, I’ve got to tell you, the Koreans really put you to work. Gawd, I haven’t had a minute to breath. Talk about an Asian Tiger. But, back to Beijing.

We did have a concluding session for the PA meeting in Beijing that was lightly attended. Mickey Kantor showed up and here you can see him deep in conversation with Paul Johnson.

Then Paul and I boarded a plane for Seoul, Korea. We were scheduled to present to a symposium entitled, “Public Affairs in the Era of Legitimizing Lobbying.” It would seem that lobbying has a bad reputation in Korea. Just a couple of days ago the Prime Minister had to resign because he was playing golf with lobbyists during a paralyzing rail strike. The challenge for our Seoul office is to try to generate public affairs business without getting tainted by the lobbying scandals that are pervasive in the country. We gave a very insightful presentation advising them to stop calling it “lobbying.” Broaden their definition of advocacy and confine lobbying to a smaller piece of larger communications programs. Here are some pix of us speaking to the group.

Paul gave me the hook when I began to drift into “Delay bashing.” Seemed appropriate to me, given the topic. But I recovered with a story about how my mother is schocked that I might associate with lobbyists. The people in the room seemed to identify with that problem.

The presentations seemed to be well received, but the consecutive translation was difficult to get use to. You couldn’t really get a rhythm going because you had to stop periodically to wait for a lengthy, incomprehensible translation to occur. It seemed the translations took longer than it took to make my point.

I wonder what she was saying?

Not that I’m paranoid or anything.

Strike up the Band!

A strange thing happened at the end of the dinner in Beijing. Paul Johnson, apparently moved by the great camraderie the meeting engendered, launched into a song. Here he is belting out the finale of New York, New York, a rendition that was notable more for its enthusiasm than it’s tunefulness.

I should admit that this post is a bit premature. Probably more appropriate for April 1.

The Ambassador

Here I am with a special guest at our dinner after the meeting. I don’t recall his name, but he was the first Chinese ambassador to the U.S. after the opening to China in the 1970’s. He’s 90 years old. When we first got the restaurant, he was sitting with his long time aide de camp, a man of 78 years old. The Ambassador spoke no English, but his aide did a bit. I was fascinated with the man and the things he must have seen during his lifetime. No one else wanted to sit with him. I had a fascinating evening. Not surprisingly, he had met Chairman Mao on a number of occassions. He talked about what it was like to enter Beijing after the liberation in 1949. He was responsible for running a particular area of the city and complained about all the paperwork involved.

I asked him what he did during the Cultural Revolution. Apparently, he had trouble getting with the program. He kept having his written “confessions” kicked back by the party bosses because he wasn’t remorseful enough. It happened 8 times. They finally gave up on him when the Nixon Administration began secretly reaching out to the Chinese government in 1970 and they needed him to work on that project. He was set to go to Poland for some secret meeting with Kissinger and something intervened. I forget what. I just found it stunning to be sitting across the table from someone who knew Mao.

He was at the dinner because he was the local “partner” for Fleishman Hillard when they opened the Beijing office. He also had a great sense of humor. When asked what the secret to long life was, he said, “Eat whatever you want and never exercize.”

Would that I could take his advice.

Here’s the class photo of the fleishman hillard global public affairs leadership meeting. It went well. Mickey Kantor started things off with a smart talk on the issues involved in China/U.S. relations. He was surprisingly firm on the position that the U.S. needs to pressure Taiwan to start the process of reconciliation that will return the island to the jurisdiction of China. We gave a few presentations to ourselves and then brought in some external speakers. The sessions dragged a bit at the end of the day when we had to cope with consecutive translations for the speakers. The PowerPoint slides in Chinese were also a bit hard to follow.

But, we all learned things we didn’t know and that’s always a worthwhile use of time.

The Meeting

I’ve got some good stuff in the can, but I’m having trouble posting pictures. I think the bandwidth disappears here as the day begins.

Today is a travel day, so I hope to be able to post some more when I get to Seoul. Stay tuned.

Catching Up

I dropped off a bit, since I had to stop sightseeing, mostly, and go to work. I spend Monday kicking around the hotel, with a short aborted mission to a shopping area. After 45 minutes in smoggy bumper to bumper traffic to the recommended shop, I was unable to communicate with the clerks. I got back in a cab and spent 45 minutes in bumper to bumper smoggy traffic to get back to the hotel. I then spent the afternoon preparing for the FH meeting, which was to begin with dinner that evening.

Dinner was a lively and delightful affair at a restuarant on an artificial pond. Good food and lot’s of bonding among the FH people from around the world. The picture above is of Paul offering a toast to Li Hong, our host for the meeting. That’s Ed Manning from KP Public Affairs from Sacramento on the left.

High point of the night for me was when I finally got up the nerve to ask Li Hong about Tianneman Square. I’ve been reluctant to bring it up with any of the locals, not knowing whether it was politic. Well, as it happens, Li Hong was one of the demonstrators and he was very willing to discuss his experiences. He marched in two parades on the day of the massacre and knew people who were killed. He’s convinced that history will overcome the governments unwillingness to confront the reality of this event. My esteem for Li Hong soared when I heard this story.

The Green T. House

Dinner at the Green T. House, the hot restaurant in Beijing we’re told. Check out the seat backs, they are about 6 feet high. The place looks like a scene out of A Clockwork Orange, very weird and funky. Spooky music, strange images projected on the wall. Bizarre art. They made a big deal about the presentation of the food. One course was served on tree bark. The picture doesn’t to it justice, but I was informed shortly after taking this that there were not pictures allowed. So, this was the best I could do. It was a lively evening with a fair amount of wine.

Funny moment on the cab ride back. Kurt was in the front seat, Fred and I in the back. Kurt was trying gallantly to get into a conversation with the cab driver, even though it was clear he didn’t speak a word of English. There was some hysterical talk show on the radio, with a lot of Chinese chatter and sound effects. “Is this a hot talk show?” Kurt inquired. No response from the cabbie.

After a couple of other fruitless efforts, Kurt then said, in all earnestness, “So, you get much bird flu around here?” The cab driver just seemed puzzled.

The Forbidden City

Here’s the group in front of the massive photo of our beloved leader, Chairman Mao. We had just toured the Forbidden City, which is a kilometer long with countless halls with names like the Hall of the Peaceful Benevolence of our Heavenly Intergalactic Emperor. Our tour guide explained that half of the forbidden city was for purposes of housing the Emperor’s 3,000 concubines. Only the Emperor and the eunuchs were allowed in that part of the city. There was much jocularity about being responsible for 3,000 concubines and, I’m sure, not original joke uttered.

Where we are standing is facing Tiannemann Square. It is striking, but obviously not surprising, that the most historic event to have taken place there was unnoted. In the cosmopolitan environment that is Beijing, it takes an act of will to keep in mind the tumultuous politics below the surface of Chinese society.

Children of Mao

After the Wall, we went to lunch at a factory that makes vases and “pottery” with some elaborate system using copper. We got a tour of the actual manufacturing process, which was very labor intensive. The product was mostly produced by hand. We watched the workers drawing intricate designs on the pottery, which went through a blast furnace 6 times before it went on the shelf.
This is a picture of Fred and Rob watching the process.

The workers ignored us, and it looked like pretty tedious work, but I was comforted by the fact that many of them were wearing small headphones. Also, according to the tour guide, they had complete artistic freedom on the colors and designs they would apply to the product. The job may have been more satisfying than it seemed.

Mostly, I was struck by what a throwback this factory seemed to be. The tour guide seemed to have stepped out of a 1950s Communist propaganda movie, a lot of rah rah stuff about the amazing process that produced these high quality vases and knick knacks. Mao would be pleased.

We then went to the Forbidden City, a spawling complex of halls and palaces. I’ve got some good pictures, but for some reason, I can’t upload them right now. I hope I’ll be able to do so if I get to the FH office tomorrow.

Stay tuned.

The Great Wall

A group of us boarded a shuttle bus at 8:30 am for a trip to the Great Wall of China. It lived up to its impossibly high expectations, an unbelievable site. Imagine building a wall from New York to Los Angeles. Now, do it in the 3rd Century BC over mountains. I think it was build by aliens.

Of course, it’s pretty touristy, but that does not take away from its grandeur. I don’t have a lot of time, right now (we’re off to dinner at the Green Tea Restaurant), but I wanted to get this posted.

Now, see below for proof that I was actually there. That’s me with Fred Rohlfing, Jeremy Stewart and Rob Allyn.

I’m having serious problems posting pictures, but there’s much more to come. We went from here to the Forbidden City.