Loud Thoughts

I attended Greater China's and Asia South's sales fiscal year kick-off and annual partners summit for 3 days. After such deep submersion, I now have a deeper appreciation on field organizations. We engineers sit in the air-conditioned rooms and click on our keyboards; the field must convince someone to part with their money for things we made. Every salesperson long for a product like iPhone that flies off the shelf. Sun's wares are complicated and our corporate strategy carefully designed. Events like this aligned the the entire chain of command with honest dialogs. Foods, lubricants to these dialogs, here are at least exotic and always delicious. One restaurant nearby prominently promotes
Dragon fruit shake, congee with preserved duck eggs, and bamboo pits stuffed with shrimps for dinner. “Yummy.” You said?

In addition to good foods, Thailand display the power of religion. I disbelieved Frank Herbert that it can conquer half the known universe when I read Dune. Clearly, he understood Thailand.

Bangkok's every street corners seems to harbor a Buddhist temple or shrine. All appear active: displaying fresh flowers, fruits, and burning incenses. First time, I visited a country that is religiously homogeneous — over 95% of Thai are Buddhists. The demonstrate their faith at the Royal Grand Palace. Together with coercion, religion is probably the only other method capable of mobilizing and organizing such wealth and efforts. Frank Herbert is right after all.

This city is also famous for its drag shows. With 1000 Baht (about US$35), Calypso puts out the performance of over 50 Katoey (cross-dressed or trans-sexual performer) all so beautiful and sexy to the point of disbelief. The program was repetitive to appease the assumed multi-cultured audience.

Of course, globalization has turned every major cities boring. Starbucks offers its world-standardized decor and products. Air-conditioned malls and shopping centers display the same Burbery, Versace, and Louis-Vuitton. We finally found Thailand, shopping-wise, at the Chatuchak weekend market. This huge market has everything for tourists and locals alike. It was fun to submerge into the alleys and surface up for cold drinks and air-conditioning after few hours.

Sun Microsystems' own Rampa Manoosin celebrated the promotion to country general manager during our stay. It is pretty cool opening the newspaper to see someone who has been attending the same meetings with you.

Excited with ideas, I prepared myself for another jetlag session in California. Sigh…

Mel recently blogged something that stirred up old memories.

Colored Factoids:

• Each year, US Government allows 65,000 H1-B visas: a necessity for any foreigner to work in the US legally. High-tech companies snatch them up so quickly like kids do to the new Harry Potter book — they waited eagerly for the opening day and flood in the applications. These companies could not find enough skilled workers in the country and must rely on foreigners to stay competitive. Every one of those visa applicants is a highly paid employee who buys houses, pays taxes, attends PTA meetings, and abides laws as good citizens. They usually settle down and melt into the pot. Many of them went on to build successful businesses. H1-B visas generate so much wealth for the country that US government wants less of them.
• For China, and many other countries too, the US government now requires 1-month, with proof of travel, lead time for business travel visas. An in-person interview is a must. It usually takes days to arrange this interview and hours of waiting. If you live in a city without an embassy, you will need to make travel arrangement for this interview. Just for the inconvenience, company executives now avoid US destinations for business meetings.

  These executives stay in 5-star hotels and play golfs. They and their entourage spend lots of money during those trips: air-fare, car rentals, hotel, entertainment, power-lunches, shopping, etc. These trips are so lucrative that US government wants less of them.

• For normal tourists, the process is equally gruesome, with additional insult and disrespect added. The interviewing process assume all applicants are either terrorist or will jump-ship after they enter the country. The profiling pattern is obvious: single women are usually denied, since they will try to marry an American or get engaged in, huh, profitable but not legal businesses; elders are not good, they will cling on their kids and suck the social welfare provided by the generous US government. No significant assets in China? Clearly you are not coming back. Hesitant in answering the questions? You are hiding something. Not fluent in English? Why are you going then? Very fluent? You have been preparing this. Why?

  Sigh, sigh, sigh. Would this process really deter real terrorists? Are their easier ways to become an illegal immigrant than submitting a visa application for tourism? The US government seems to want less tourists, at least not from shopping mania countries like China.

• The US is experiencing historically high trade inbalance. They imported way more than exported. Letting foreigners into the country to spend money may help. Do you think?
• Recently, President Bush attempted the new immigration bill that, among other objectives, will legalize about 100 millions illegal immigrants who are already in the country.

The US does not want people who can generate domestic wealth or bring money into the country to spend. It treats everyone either as a terrorist suspect or one so envious of US lifestyle to jump ship. The government erects filters that keep out those it should welcome and allows those it dose not.

Is this puzzling to you too?

Every Chinese is part Confucist, part Taoist, and part Buddhist. The ingredients change fluidically. At work, for career, Confucism’s strict social protocols prevail. At heart, deeply, there is the desire to be harmonical with the nature: just let it be. Lastly, for justice, the belief that everything has its cause and will be paid back bring much needed solace.

Confucius, LaoZi, and Buddha

Officially, Master ZHANG DaoLing (张道陵: 34~156) organized the ancient religion into Taoism in year 142.

There is really no telling how TaiChi Quan originated. The first official documentation appeared ~200 years ago by WANG ZongYue (王宗岳).

Taoism started about a thousand year ago to pursue longevity, even eternal life. For few hundred years, they focused on alchemy — searching for the elixir of youth. Then Taoists gradually turned their attention to Qi (氣: Chi, like the Force in StarWars): the way to achieve total harmony and to harness energy that enables teleporting, telekenetics, flying, and, of course, longevity.

Mastering Qi seems simple; it is about mind control. When you have control of your mind, you will harness universe’s energy. Grand masters can move mountains like Yoda, or any good Jedi master.

Like Buddhists, Taoists practice mind control through meditation and physical exercises: control your mind via body. Over generations, the masters developed a few exercises that work.
One of those is TaiChi Quan (太极拳) — probably the most popular exercise in China and around the world. After hundreds of years, this art branched out to many denominations. In 1956, China government simplified and consolidated them into a 24-move version (24式太极拳). I learned it summer of 2006 and have been practicing it. It is magical.

To an observer, TaiChi looks more like a slow dance than a martial art. The slowness heightens the precision. Moves are not motion blurs, but exact and purposeful. In actual application, i.e. fighting, TaiChi masters move in lightening speed. All you can see is the opponents flying off far away.

As I practice the moves, sometime there is a sensation as if I am holding a ball of warm air right outside of my chest. This body of energy wiggles like a water balloon — sometime leaking out and tickling my finger tips. Parts of my body — fingers, abdomen, and forehead — will get warm. I noticed the stance, moves, and the nothingness of my mind affect how strongly the sensation is. TaiChi becomes a practice of ridding all thoughts and keeping a totally blank mind.

Taoism and Buddhism are, probably not coincidentally, similar, at least for a beginner like me. Through meditation or exercises, one gets the peace of mind. With that, Nirvana and longevity become possible. Or they don’t matter anymore.