in

Scott's first day of school

Today Scott has his first day at school. There is a small private kindergarten located in our compound, and now Scott is old enough to join the classes. In total there are 11 kids (all toddlers), with 2 teachers and 2 ayi’s.

Scott was very happy to go to school, although it was a bit of a disappointment for him that he had to walk instead of going by school bus. Every day all the school buses pick up the kids for the international schools at our compound and he always likes to watch them. Although Scott was excited at first, when he arrived at the kindergarten he suddenly got second thoughts and he did not want to go in. So I held him on my shoulder for a while so he could look around from a safe position. Each time I wanted to put him down he started crying and did not want to let go.

Eventually I sat down with him in the back of the class room when he suddenly started smiling and walked up to the other kids. He was still a bit reluctant to play with them but he was not afraid anymore. He quickly found his own play castle and observed the others from there. Just before my wife and I left he started interacting more with two other kids and he did not even realize that we left the class room. I hope he will have a good day today, it feels very strange to leave your little boy to other people and not knowing what he is doing.

I noted that out of 11 kids only 4 showed up today. The reason is that most flew back to China over the weekend from all over the world and they all are still jet lagged. Some others are still outside China on vacation and won’t start until next week. Probably not bad for Scott, he won’t be as overwhelmed with just 4 kids and 4 staff. I look forward to seeing him tonight, too bad he can’t tell us all his stories yet.

in

It looks like we'll need a new lawn

This summer it rained a lot more than usual in Shanghai, and it also rained a lot harder. Over the past week it poured every day at least 1-2 hours and these were usually heavy rainstorms, flooding the streets in downtown Shanghai. Every single day our garden now turns into a (very shallow) swimming pool after it rains.

This morning I sat in the garden (if it doesn’t rain it’s often sunny a few hours a day) and noticed that half the grass had already died because of the water. I think we will need to order a new lawn when the monsoon will finally be over. That’s the good thing about Shanghai, you don’t need to grow your own grass but you just call a company. The next day a truck loaded with grass tiles comes over and within two hours all your old grass is gone and replaced by a fresh new lawn.

This is what our garden looked like last year after we changed the grass right after moving in: picture. Within days you don’t see that the grass consisted of separate tiles anymore, and it looks like a normal lawn.

in

The man who owns the news

During a trip to Indonesia a few months ago I was browsing the bookstore on Jakarta airport before departure, when I saw the book “The Man Who Owns The News: Inside The Secret World of Rupert Murdoch” by Vanity Fair journalist Michael Wolff. Murdoch and the News Corp conglomerate that he built over the past decades fascinate me for quite some time already, so I decided to buy the book. That was a good decision, I enjoyed reading it and learned a lot. If you’re interested in media and how the media works, this is probably a good read for you. But the flaws of the book will likely make the book less enjoyable for most readers.

For one thing, the book is too long. I don’t mind long books, but sometimes a writer should come to the point more quickly. The core of the book is the batlle to take over the Wall Street Journal. Certainly an interesting episode in Murdoch’s career but because Wolff spends about half the book writing about Murdoch’s obsession with the WSJ and all the details of the negotiations of the take-over, it gets boring at a certain point. Even worse, because of this other things that happened during the same time are only touched upon. For example the whole MySpace episode should have taken a much bigger part in the book in my opinion. The same for Murdoch’s ventures in China, they are mainly mentioned as background to describe the role of his latest wife, Wendi Deng. Of course I am biased working in the Internet industry in China, but I think Wolff focuses too much on traditional media in the US (and the UK & Australia) instead of new media and instead of up-and-coming countries like China. Some more things are missing. The book mentions that Rupert Murdoch was almost bankrupt in the early 1990’s, but does not describe what exactly happened, nor what tricks he needed to pull of in order to survive. I think that’s actually a very important part in the history of News Corp, and it deserves a much more detailed place in this book.

But apart from these points the book paints a vivid picture of who Rupert Murdoch really is. Michael Wolff had full access too both Murdoch and all of his family members, including his old mother who is still living in Australia. Murdoch does not come over as a very likeable person. He does not even want to be likeable, not to his staff and not even to his family. He is described as a merciless predator, not somebody who you would like to do business with. But despite these character traits (or maybe because of them) he became the biggest media mogul on this planet. The book does not really make clear how he did this. It describes a lot of the deals, but once a deal is done it moves on to the next one. I wonder how Murdoch was able to manage them all and to make sure that they would not work against each other. That’s what I would have liked to read more about. I still don’t understand why his business is so successful. Is he so good? Was he lucky? I think it’s a combination of both. He took enormous risks at the right moment (especially in the 1980’s) to grow his businesses, and that eventually paid off. That together with his excellent dealmaking skills and the ability to motivate his staff to do everything for him. Don’t underestimate the last part, I think most of the people working for him fear him, but still everybody wants to please him.

If you like some juicy gossip about his family and especially his relationship with his Chinese wife Wendi Deng (who is almost 40 years his junior), you will also enjoy this book. Michael Wolff seems to enjoy to dig into his private life and does a good job explaining all his family relationships. Having access to all his kids certainly helped him, especially to the ones that felt that they were not treated very well by their father. Rupert Murdoch is a ruthless business person and because he cannot distinguish between private and business life he uses the same business approach to managing his family. I hope my kids will see me in a different light when they grow up!

After reading the book I still admire Rupert Murdoch for what he achieved. But I see him differently than I did before I read this book. He lives for his business and I don’t think he can ever say goodbye to it. He just does not have another life, everything is business. I don’t think I came across any real friends in the book for example. I also wonder what will become of News Corp if Murdoch will ever pass away (something that’s also touched upon in the book). That may still be years from now (his 99-year old mother is still alive and doing well), but I wonder if there is really somebody who can hold the ship together. I will keep on following News Corp much more closely from now on, it’s a fascinating company with an even more fascinating CEO.

in

Advertising while surfing over 3G


Since I got my 3G USB connector last week I am using it every day while driving to and from work. So far the experience has been great, but there is one small annoyance: China Telecom sometimes serves up ads for its 3G service while you’re surfing. Not sure what triggers it and I certainly don’t see what the use is. I am already using 3G so why bother to tell me I should use it? It happened to me twice so far when I click a link, the page then redirects to another one owned by Shanghai Telecom. When I go back and click the link again the ad does not reappear and the requested page loads. Very strange, I cannot explain why this happens.

in

Shanghai Daily names person who requests anonymity…


Does the Shanghai Daily not have an editor that reads articles before they are printed? Today’s paper has a story on page 3 about Shanghai tourists that were killed in a landslide while trying to cross the Luxi Gorge in Zhejiang. At the end of the article one of the victims, Zhang Lin, is described. The article continues:

“I know he loves traveling, but we never imagined anything like this happening,” said his father, who requested anonymity. (emphasis added)

What can I say, you must be a pretty dumb editor to write this or to let this slip through the proofreading process!

in

No more foreign newspapers allowed in airport lounges


I am sitting in the business lounge at Shanghai Pudong airport waiting to board a flight to Amsterdam. I usually have a drink here and read a US or Dutch newspaper before departure, but it seems I will have to change this ritual: The Chinese government has apparently issued a new regulation saying that foreign newspapers and magazines are not allowed in lounges anymore! This is the first time I hear about this new rule and I seriously wonder what use this is. I guess I will have to read the paper online then.

in

Using 3G to go online in China


I did not hear many positive stories about 3G in China so far, and I therefore hesitated to buy a 3G connector for my laptop. But yesterday I decided to give it a try and bought a Huawei 3G USB connector for my MacBook Pro. So far I am very happy with it. Until now I normally used a GPRS connector to go online at places without wifi, but the speed was so slow that it was hardly workable. 3G makes a huge difference. I did not measure the exact up- and download speeds yet, but it seems quite similar to the wifi connection that we have in our office. But maybe speeds will go down once more people start to use 3G?

I bought the 3G connector at the small Apple retailer on the 2nd floor in the new computer market on the corner of Xizang Road and Huaihai Road, next to Times Square. The price is RMB 450 and you pay an additional RMB 100/month for 60 hours of usage (for RMB 200/month you get 200 hours). For me 60 hours is enough, I mainly use 3G when driving to and from work and when I am at Starbucks having a coffee.

Dialing up takes about 20 seconds, disconnecting about 10. I lost my connection only once so far while driving through Shanghai, so it seems the connection is relatively stable. The guys at the Apple counter installed it for me within minutes (ask for Roy, he is an expert and also speaks English fluently), but it was so easy that I could have done it myself as well. If you want to be online everywhere in China (well, in the main cities at least, there is no 3G coverage all over China yet) I recommend you give this a try.

in

Scott's first 'real' car

Scott loves cars. When he goes outside the first thing he normally does is to run to our car and point that he wants to go for a ride. We never give in to that and I was wondering why he keeps on trying, until I recently found out that our driver sometimes gives him a ride around the compound before he drives me to work!

Because he likes cars so much we decided to order him a small ‘real’ car (he already has several tricycles and other user-powered vehicles). Scott got his car this weekend and he is extremely happy with it. It’s a battery operated car with a top speed of just 5 km/h (with a second battery it goes up to 12 km/h, but that’s for when he is a bit older), and it also has a remote control so we can decide where he can or cannot drive to. The only problem with the remote is that if Scott pulls the steering wheel hard enough he can override it, so that we (or better, his nanny) have to run after him all the time.

It’s interesting to see how quickly he understands how to operate the car, and it’s great to see how happy he is. Luckily typhoon Morakot did not arrive in mainland China on Friday or Saturday (as originally forecast), so Scott could spend a lot of time outdoor in his car this weekend.

in

Carl's Jr. will open its 1st restaurant in Shanghai this month


After among others McDonald’s and Burger King, Shanghai will soon get another fast-food hamburger chain: Carl’s Jr. The first store will be in the Raffles Shopping Mall on People’s Square, a convenient 10 minute walk from my office. The exact location is on the north side of the food court on the B1 floor, and the signs there indicate that the store will open this month already.

But I will probably wait a few weeks before trying out whether their first Chinese store is as good as their US restaurants: I still remember the huge lines at Burger King when it first opened a store in Shanghai (waiting time > 30 min!). I like Carl’s Jr. better than the current chains, but I hope the next fast-food restaurant to come to China will be In-n-Out, in my opinion by far the best hamburger chain in the US.