17 Chinese miners dug up Canadian xenophobia

There is no secret that Chinese want to live and work in Canada. In fact, nearly 30,000 Chinese migrated to Canada in 2011. However, while it is a tabooed racist topic to rule out visible minorities from immigration list, unions and some Canadians are more willing to jump into the topics “to protect Canada”, ruling out Chinese from doing business in Canada. In 2011, there are 39,825 foreign workers in primary industry, but unions decided that 300 Chinese miners are simply too many. In addition, several deals of Chinese acquisition of Canadian companies are either blocked or significantly delayed by the Canadian government due to political pressure. Opposition to those deals argues that Chinese purchase of Canadian companies will threaten Canadian security and intellectual properties. While few will openly criticize Chinese Canadians, many are jumped into the fray of China bashing: citing pollution, abuses of human rights, greedy, sly, senseless consumption, etc.

 

While China certainly has a lot of problems, we are talking about real money and real business here. Canadians should be rational and objective to maximize profits and mutual benefits for the good of Canadian public interest and economy. Yet, some Canadians view things very differently when the word “foreign” are replaced by “Chinese”. Somehow, it is a bad deal that Chinese companies buy tar sand mines, while Husky Energy was once owned by the richest man of Hong Kong (still partially owned by his son, Victor Li) and most of tar sand oil will eventually go to the USA, freeing up Gulf supply for East Asia buyers, aka China, at a much cheaper price (largely due to the price difference between Brent Crude Oil Futures (price benchmark of China) and West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil Futures (price benchmark of the USA)). Somehow, it is dangerous for Canadian companies to buy cables and internet equipments from a Chinese company, while most consumer electronics, daily products, toys, apple juice, etc come from China. No one complained when ATI, found by three Chinese Canadians in Markham, Lee Ka Lau, Benny Lau, and Kwok Yuen Ho, are sold to an American company in Sunnyvale, California, AMD, which almost ended Markham high-tech growth overnight. Now, no Canadians worry the lost of intellectual property to China when AMD graphic cards are quietly moved to made in China instead of Canada. Like all good stories, we love to have an antagonist, but crying wolves will just make us look stupid.

Drastic changes to make no change

After months of delay and numerous typhoons from political rumour mills, Xi Jinping, the latest Chinese top leader, has succeeded the presidency with new the military and executive wings. With over 70% turnover rate in both the Central Military Commission and the Executive Committee of the State Council, evidences suggest the internal differences were finally set aside and the settlement was set to make everyone happy (at least, all sides could find quiet compromises.) Aside from normal rhetoric, Xi assures continuity and respect to the previous leaders and emphasis on better the lives of ordinary Chinese. That meant no dramatic u-turn of the macroeconomic policies of suppressing inflation, increasing minimum wages& labour benefits, and achieving both goals through gradual Renminbi appreciation against the USD. With dramatic solutions to the political infighting, the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China paves the way to stronger conservatism and patriotism. A new team with new leaders may need more time to act on an economy that shows signs of slowing down. Wealthy Chinese Canadians tend to have over sea assets and businesses in China. The continuation of Renminbi appreciation and suppression of inflation could increase their purchasing power in Canada. Recently, Chinese companies and business owners show signs of increasing interest in investment and migration to Canada. While the leadership swap may be bad news for those who want to seek business opportunities in China, it can be positive news for Canadian market.

Multicultural Marketing: Call for Action in the Malls

Remember a joke that a friend used to make in the past is, “As long as there are people at a place, there are Chinese people.”  We used to laugh at it, but we all know that it is the truth.  During the past fifteen years, there has been continuous increase of Chinese immigrants all over the world.   In the meantime, more and more companies have realized the importance of the Chinese communities both because of their size and the high purchasing power of them.

No need to say, every nationality is different in terms of their habits, life style and preferences.  One thing I have realized about Chinese people is that, Chinese people like to go to the malls a lot.  Even though their visit might not be directly for the purpose of buying things, it is still a common place for hanging out during their leisure.  This phenomenal generally happens in two groups of visitors.  One group is the regular visitors, which consist of the elders and nannies that take their children and play in resting areas of the malls.  It also consists of teenagers and young adults who like to go for window shopping, and their purpose is usually social or fashion related.  The second group of visitors is the tourists.  Eaton center specifically, it has been included in many Chinese traveling guide for gift shopping.  It is also the most visited mall in Canada throughout the years.

Although Chinese people do have high purchasing power, they have a different value set and ways of buying compare to the others.  With these facts, we would expect the malls to have more marketing strategies that directly target at the Chinese customers.  However, either my retail working experience in the past or when I was walking in the malls tells me very little about multicultural marketing that has been done for this aspect.  One example about how the stores at Paris engage the Chinese customers is that, they try to minimize the language barriers for Chinese at all the tourist shopping areas.  Every national brand at these places has at least two to three sales associates that are able to connect to the Chinese customers and sell in Chinese.  On the other hand, a large number of the stores at Eaton center have not effectively adopted multicultural marketing as a way of increasing their sales.

Many businesses are now realizing the importance of the Chinese market, yet many stops at the realizing stage.  The high volume of Chinese customers should not be kept at the window shopping stage.  It is a good time to get customers into the store and convert into sales figures.  If these businesses could moving forward and involve multicultural marketing, it will create a bridge for effectively approaching and engaging the Chinese customers for future sales.

China is the future? Hollywood hints it is....

Has anyone noticed that there is an increasing display of Asian aspirational elements in all things that are supposedly Western? Take the example of Hollywood blockbuster, "The Looper", which I had decided to watch based on my interest of time travel - but boy, did something else stand out to me. Yes, the appearance of Qing Xu as Bruce Willis' wife was a nice bonus but it was something else -  a particular line which developed "China as the future" as an important theme of the movie.

So for this who didn't watch the movie yet and plan to, please note there are some slight spoilers in the rest of the post to follow - don't say I didn't warn you! 

Young Joe (Joseph Gordon Levitt) is a looper - which is the name for killers who lived 30 years into the past and killed their target, who are people of the future sent back to the past through time travel, to be killed.

One of the scenes mark Young Joe having a conversation with his manager,  Abe (Jeff Daniels), who is a man of the future sent back to the past to keep a watch over the Loopers. Abe tells Young Joe that he knows he has been storing his silver and learning French in preparation to escape the city. He then  probes to ask Young Joe "Why French?" and was responded with "... I'm going to France." (At this next moment, the critical line comes in which sets the context for the rest of the storyline.) Abe twitches his face and stares at Young Joe in the eye and says "Go to China. I'm from the future. Trust me, go to China."

It is quite evident that "China as the future" is an important theme for the entire movie as the later half of the movie does show Old Joe (Bruce Willis) in Shanghai, China where he meets his beloved wife, Summer (Qing Xu).  The death of his wife was also critical to the character development of Old Joe and establishes his motivations to go back into the past in hopes to save Summer.

It is also interesting to note that the movie Looper is actually an US/China cooperation and that two editions of the movie were released, one for the US market and one for the Chinese market. The Chinese version (still in English with Chinese subtitles) contained many more scenes shot in Shanghai and also shows Bruce Willis speaking a few lines in Mandarin. This was seemingly done to appeal to the Chinese audience as these scenes were cut from the US edition.


How does this all relate to multicultural marketing? As Sensu also always believes, it is the future. In short, products and brands who are able to appeal to more than one market audience will see better success than those who do not. Multicultural marketing is merely just a scaled form of global marketing in a local context. I am sure many of us Chinese in Canada (especially those immigrants who proudly come from Shanghai!) would have loved to see more of the exclusive scenes shots in Shanghai - why cut them out?!


Cheers!

Celebrating China’s National Day Holiday in Canada

This past week is China’ s National Day Holiday, which allows for 7 days off and usually is called “Golden Week”. Chinese people go out for eating, travelling and shopping during these days.

When my media friend told me there would be a flag-raising ceremony at the Markham Civic Centre on the afternoon of October 1^st, I didn’t realize she was talking about raising China flag until I was physically there with her.

It was amazing to see people with different ethnicity carry both China flag and Canada flag on a Chinese occasion at a Canadian government office. As this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival was one day before, there were moon cakes as sweet treat.

The ceremony was initiated by Federation of Chinese Canadian in Markham, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the provision of services to the Chinese community and the integration of Chinese Canadians into the mainstream of Canada since 1989, and supported by Frank Scarpitti, the mayor of the city of Markham. The mayor said during the ceremony: ”It’s a symbol of respect for those who come here from that part of the world.”

Later, I knew the same celebration ceremonies were held in Richmond Hill and Pickering as well. As the second largest ethnic group in GTA, Chinese has increasing strong influence almost everywhere. It is great to know the influence has gained attention and recognition from retailers, CPG and even government in Canada.   

Why the Houston Rockets Made an
Excellent Acquisition

The Houston Rockets may have acquired one of the most valuable players in the NBA, and at an extremely low cost in comparison to the deal. Jeremy Lin will be playing for the Rockets for the next 3 years for a mere $25 million. 

The American born NBA player of Taiwanese decent, undrafted out of Harvard has managed to climb above most players in terms of salary within the NBA; and he has achieved this feat through playing less than one full season of games within the NBA.

Logically, scepticism surrounding the Rockets' offer to Lin has been justified. Many journalists, sports columnists and sports fanatics were stunned by the Rocket's offer and supported the New York Knicks decision of letting Lin walk away. However, critics have disregarded the crucial fact that like all other professional sports organizations, when it comes down to it, the Houston Rockets is just another business. Brand awareness, ticket sales, and market share are just some of the factors that fixate the attention of CEOs of major corporations and franchises. Every decision, every tactic must in some way, present a significant return on investment – and Lin can provide a ROI in many more ways than just through winning basketball games.

Lin captured the hearts of America with his story. He excels both academically, and athletically. He is faithful to his religious values and beliefs. He had to put in hard work for his results and stepped up to exceed every single person's expectations when he was given his opportunity starting February 4^th 2012. In a matter of 14 days, the resale of Knicks ticket prices increased by 300% on the market and an 87% increase in television ratings on the MSG network. These are all assets that the Houston Rockets can be guaranteed. But there's more – much more.

Last June, Yao Ming announced his retirement from the NBA. Although this did not come as a surprise to the dedicated fans of the Chinese NBA superstar, there was a big space to fill and Lin is the man for the job. Yao's legacy has proved far more than the fact that Chinese people can play basketball; it set the tone for the NBA's outreach across Asia. Jeremy Lin is now the biggest face in the NBA for the Asian basketball community. He was not born in China but it does not matter. He has the values and work ethics that are admired within the Chinese culture. Additionally, Lin has already gained support abroad, especially amongst the 22 million people in Taiwan. Lin can be the man to connect the Chinese basketball fans to the NBA, and more importantly, to the Houston Rockets once again. A player with that potential is priceless

There is a huge market within the Asian basketball market. Regardless of whether people want to admit it or not, the potential surrounding Lin is worth far more than $8.33 million for the next 3 years. The Rockets were insightful enough to make sure he's playing on their court this coming fall.

Night It Up 2012: The Celebration and Showcase of East Asian Culture

Night It Up 2012

It was the "Asian night market" that had everyone talking. Night It Up has, once again, successfully showcased the East Asian community around the GTA over the past weekend. Organized by the Power Unit Youth Organization, a non-profit youth empowerment and development group comprised of volunteers, the team assembled a display of pop-cultural performances and authentic Asian street food.

What exactly, may you ask, attracted more than one hundred thousand people to this venue in the Town of Markham?

Was it the sounds of multicultural performances from talented young singers, bands and dance groups?

Was it the selection of over 100 food vendors representing Taiwan, Hong Kong, and many other parts of East Asia, or the distinct aroma of stinky tofu from one specific cart?

Maybe it was even through word of mouth that there were muscular men at the "Trojan" sponsorship booth - willing to take pictures.

All of these features may have been a part of the reason, but the sense of community among the East Asian within the GTA was definitely the deciding factor.

Night It Up offers the experience to gather and celebrate each others' East Asian culture. There is a sense of pride when coming together to embrace our common backgrounds, values and interests.

There is a sense of comfort when walking around the night market venue and sipping fresh watermelon and pineapple juice straight out of the fruit with family and friends.

There is a sense of appreciation when taking the time to be immersed in one's own traditions, even for a few hours, while having the utmost respect for the multiculturalism in Toronto.

Just like Toronto's annual Caribana, this night market allowed the acknowledgement and celebration of an unique culture - and this opportunity was certainly not overlooked. The physical presence and high spirits among the East Asian community at Night It Up 2012 were overwhelming!