Profile: Freddy Chen

GLP Beijing Blog

Freddy Chen, Business Administration

Blog 4

If only it could be like this at school. I grumbled awake to my cell phone alarm and T.I. telling me I "could have whatever I like" at around 6:15 a.m. 
Somehow, I sprang up along with my roommate, leapt into the shower (not with my roommate), brushed my teeth, did my hair, managed to put on my suit, fix my tie, tie my shoes, and rush down to the 6th floor for breakfast - all in the space of 45 minutes. Honestly, China does crazy things to you. Here in 
LA, I can take that much time just lazing in bed thinking about getting up while looking at my clock.

So yes, I repeated that process for the rest of the week and did so without ever getting my suit dirty at breakfast, regardless of how much fried rice, preserved duck egg porridge, orange juice, fried dough, and pork buns I had. Quite honestly, I'm pretty proud of myself for that. Anyway, after breakfast we raced to hear a certain Charles Lei talk about his career. Former CEO of Disney China operations, he discussed with us the ups and downs of his life in the field and his business ventures. He told us about the different challenges he faced growing up and working in different worlds and different cultures; perhaps a little insight into where our own futures may lie. After hearing from him, our group bustled onto the bus to visit USC GLP alumni Ian at Possibility Space, a Chinese gaming company.

Possibility Space is currently developing a game called Warrior Epic, a little reminiscent of Blizzard Entertainment's WOW (World of Warcraft)
MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) which, by the way, has more online subscribers than some countries have actual people. The game is set to release sometime this year with around 5-6 starting classes of characters, surprisingly dominated by the female gender - which is NOT a sexist statement, I would like to point out. Stereotypically, the majority of characters in these sort of medieval fantasy games are male: male dwarves, wizards, huge hulking Orcs and goblins, knights, etc.
 So it was new and refreshing to see a game with a majority of female characters (just in case anybody decided to get on my case for that statement). The actual game aside, which can be found at
www.warriorepic.com (I signed up for beta testing), it was definitely interesting to hear from Ian about the whole transition from the United States to working in China indefinitely. Imagine being suddenly and rapidly immersed in an entirely different work culture, co-worker population, etc. I guess the lesson there, like Charles Lei in the morning, was that with international business comes a greater need to be able to adapt to changing environments as quickly as possible.

In the afternoon, we then headed over to a Wal-Mart. And this was no ordinary Wal-Mart – no, no. This was a Wal-Mart Hypercenter - at least that’s what the sign said. So I had big expectations and they were certainly met. Walking inside, we didn't even stay on ground level; we had to go underground where there was more space (and much cooler air). This was crazy; I mean imagine the biggest Safeway (or a Ralphs?) you know and put it together with a Costco - that fusion baby would be a Wal-Mart Hypercenter. 
After an initial talk with the director of the center, where she explained Wal-Mart's business model and its plans for the future (including a renewable energy supply depot, which my environmentalist side found very agreeable), she let us roam free around the store. She probably should’ve given us store maps first, or at least put GPS’s in the first aisle. Running to the bathroom first was probably a mistake because as soon as I came out, I realized that I had to find some classmates - in a
 Hypercenter. So I took the time to leisurely walk around and explore the aisles. My thought was that with enough money, somebody could probably just live inside the store. Why, you could buy a tent, a portable stove, propane gas, pots and pans, all types of food items, a hat, a musical instrument to act as an in-store performer for a little steady income, and more. It was crazy. Honestly, I probably could've watched my entire amount of
renminbi for that trip evaporate in this one store, but I'm good at exercising restraint with my money. So I kept purchases low with an electric bike, a keyboard, some snacks, some hand wraps/lifting gloves or something like that, a jade carving of a monkey, and that's about it.

I'm completely kidding by the way. The only things I got were the hand wraps/lifting gloves. But I could've gotten all those items listed above if I wanted to.

Next in line for GLP was Wangfujing Street, a street we had only heard of and seen in pictures: scorpions and cockroaches on sticks, people yelling,
etc. But before that, we all got to ride the Beijing subway! Not quite as bad as the New York ones for sure, but just as efficient. Stepping out of the subway, we took a few steps into what we thought was literally just another Westfield mall back home. They sell scorpions here? Fortunately not, as it was really just a mall. A few blocks down, we got to the street. A row of identical red roofs and identically clothed vendors with a vast array of things and meat on kebab sticks seemed to go on endlessly. Vendors were all yelling, smells were wafting, eyes were scanning, and taste buds weren't exactly sure what to think. And after a while, yes, I found scorpions on a stick, along with crickets, water beetles, snakes, sea horses, starfish, sheep genitalia… delicious, I know. Of course, there was also more normal food like lamb, beef, cuttlefish, octopus, candied fruit and noodles. I tried foods my stomach was more accustomed to, such as the cuttlefish. I did get a little experimental with some fried ice cream, which they made by scooping ice cream onto a slice of bread, and then putting it all into a huge vat of frying oil. Pretty intense actually, and it was also pretty good with its crispy warm exterior that suddenly became sweet and sugary. So I guess I didn't quite get the whole experience of that street. Next time Beijing. Next time.

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Blog 3

First off, I would just like to say that our hotel is absolutely amazing. It’s called the Joy City Hotel and located in the Xidan region of Beijing. The hotel is a glass covered angular structure that exudes luxury and consumerism. Walking in, I forgot I was in China for a moment. It gets better: on the 8th floor, where our rooms are located, there is a sort of tropical garden in the middle with live birds in cages! Pretty exciting if you ask me; when has your hotel had a garden with live birds in it? The rooms are also quite well furnished (can you say flat screen TV?!). The beds, while at first test, are relatively firm, are a new departure from my cushy, cloudlike bed at Pardee. Not to say I prefer one bed to the other, as each has its merits, but it was a change and I kind of liked it. But I digress.





After a much needed rest, (though still waking up at six in the morning and changing into business formal attire), the group lumbered onto the bus and we were off to Qinghua University, one of the top-ranked universities in China. There we met up with students from the School of Economics and Management
 (SEM), their equivalent of USC's Marshall School of Business. From there, I met my Qinghua student for the trip, Bora, an international student from Korea. (As if that wasn't enough, she was quite fluent in Korean, Mandarin, and English - so she could speak easily with me). She walked me through campus with the rest of the group, answering the endless stream of questions I had for her and pointing out buildings. She had extensive knowledge of everything Qinghua with a little school spirit and pride too. After walking around the school (which was big enough to have a man-made lake and mini waterfall), we all ate as a group in one of the school’s buffet style cafeterias. A little step away from the routine of EVK and
Parkside, the diversity of food was incredible to me and they even had green apple Fanta (which is SO GOOD BY THE WAY)!





I was already sad to leave the Qinghua students and it had only been a few hours. But we would see them again. Leaving the academic world in the dust, we traveled out to Lenovo (or lian xiang in Chinese) where we had our first experience with a professional business presentation - and our first of many trials. I will be honest here; while the presenter had some interesting things to say about Lenovo, not everything was thrilling and some people stumbled a little into the sleep department, having just had a full lunch
(myself not included). But with a little nudge from a fellow GLP teammate, people sparked back to attention and we made it through the presentation eager to see what Lenovo had in store - which was, of course, more computers. But probably one of the highlights of the trip was being able to hold the 
Lenovo-designed 2008 Beijing Olympic torch! And while I somehow couldn't get anybody to take a picture with my own camera of me with the torch, I am for sure stealing my picture from other people’s cameras. Now if only I could’ve brought it back as a souvenir.





Professor Voigt and Geck seemed to know that Lenovo designed the Olympic torch, as we then appropriately headed over to the Olympic Village for probably the most exciting sightseeing I've ever had. But not before everybody on the bus, girls and guys alike, took the time to change from business formal to casual. It was most impressive, if I say so myself. Anyway, getting to go into the Birds Nest was oh so cool. To imagine that the tremendous pre-ceremony, thousands of world-class athletes and millions of spectators had been in the very place I was standing just a year ago was incredible. Needless to say, I took extensive photos of the Birds Nest and inside the stadium - which I cannot believe might be converted to a shopping mall! Unbelievable.




To end the night, we met again with the Qinghua students at an amusingly
(and literally) named "Western Restaurant". Then we moved on to the entertainment of the night: a social/talent show starring both USC and
Qinghua students consisting of talents from all over the spectrum. One Qinghua student knew how to play the erhu, a traditional Chinese instrument, while two others sang a duet and played acoustic guitar. Another Qinghua student did a wild dance routine, while another busted out the classic Backstreet Boys song, “Larger than Life". Impressive, if you ask me. From the USC side, we performed an "air band" with actual air instruments to the song "Creep," by
Radiohead (I was on guitar). After that, we taught the Qinghua students the Southern California cheer, two GLP students took part in a boxing sparring match and later another student performed an old camp song about a pirate - dance and audience participation included.

There were also two games that brought students from both institutions together: the hand puzzle game and the copy game. In the hand puzzle game, groups of students got together, randomly grabbed hands, and raced to see who could untangle each other fastest (I was part of the winning group - go SPADES). The copy game was basically “telephone” - except with Chinese idioms, making everything all the funnier. By the end of the night, we were all bunny-hopping around the room. We gave our Qinghua students an awesome GLP 2009 Beijing shirt and were, finally, just plain tired. It had been a long day, starting at six in the morning and it was mind-blowing just how much you could do in a day. Made me feel pretty good about how I spend my days at USC. Not. Cursed Facebook.


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Blog 2

I honestly can't believe it’s still been technically only a day; it feels like at least two. Or three. In any case, there is no way my body feels as if it’s only been a day. It all started out with a fourteen to fifteen hour flight from LAX to Seoul/Incheon airport in Korea. That flight was not so great; I had to sit next to possibly the most irritable/cold-shouldered Korean businessman I've ever had the displeasure to meet. Unfortunately, as much as an optimist as I am, somehow just his presence, his very audible sighing every time my bladder called for a trip to the bathroom (which happened perhaps thrice the entire trip), and the fact that he could still find the nerve to lean over onto me when he fell asleep ruined most of the flight for me. I understand that I probably sound like I'm just whining my way through this, but I've never had that kind of experience before and it was a wrecking bomb for the flight. On a positive note, each seat did come with its own little TV screen for movies, games and music that I delved through during the entire flight.





Moving on past Seoul/Incheon International Airport, which was amazingly spick and span from the ground up, we finally arrived at Beijing! From there, it was nonstop action. Packing our bags onto the bus that we would all come to love, we made straight for the Forbidden City (former home to the then emperors of China) and Tiananmen Square (the largest square that’s not a square at all, 700 km by 1300 km, I believe). Both places are sights to behold and really put your comfortable shoes to the test.





Beginning with Tiananmen Square, I felt wondrously out of place, as did the rest of the GLP group as we got stares from nearly the entire native population. Many locals actually followed our small tour group for a little while. Multiple street vendors took the opportunity to peddle their wares
(imitation items such as historic soldiers hats, postcards, Mao watches and more), diving into the group and sticking onto anybody who didn't refuse them assertively enough or tempted them with a price. But that's still not my best memory of the square.

When we got together to take a group picture, a literal crowd of people gathered to watch us and even take pictures of our group. People were pulling out digital cameras, cell phones, anything; I thought it was precious. Indeed, our group is a good blend of ethnicities, which was likely the main reason for the huge crowd, but it was just such a funny moment.








As for the Forbidden City, it makes the White House turn even paler in comparison. The palace, which is literally big enough to be its own small city, is composed of a few courtyards and huge temples where the emperor would go about his business leading China. He spared no expense. We were told that one of the temples was just for the emperor to change his clothing. Imagine that in the present: having an entire temple to yourself to pull on some jeans and lace up your shoes. Crazy stuff. The palace was laden with historical pieces such as tremendous iron vats that were used and filled with water in case of fire as well as statues of Chinese style lions. Most notable in my memory was some sort of tortoise statue that looked ferocious enough for me to call it a dragon tortoise. All statues aside, the sheer size of the palace is a testament to both Chinese architectural engineering/design and how much the Chinese respected and rewarded their leaders. We will see another example of Chinese architecture this Wednesday. Don't touch that dial and stay tuned!






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Blog 1

Hi there and welcome to my blog! My name is Frederick Chen and in a very short week I am going to be leaving the heat of this Southern California sun for Beijing. Personally, I'm pretty pumped up and ready to take this trip.

In preparing us for this trip, GLP has taught us some basic knowledge of China and its cultural background and history. Even though I am Chinese-American, the class still managed to teach me quite a few new things about my parents' birthplace. For example, luxury automotive manufacturers Bentley and Rolls Royce sell more cars in China than any other market. That certainly surprised me because when one thinks of China, one doesn’t usually imagine Bentley's and Rolls Royce's rolling through the crowded streets.

While I've been to China before over past summers, I've usually visited the more southern parts of China to visit family and relatives. Rarely do we ever stay in Beijing for more than a day or two, so this weeklong experience in Beijing is going to be new to me. Seeing rising international businesses (their headquarters, in fact) is not something anybody can do any day of the week; I am definitely looking forward to that. However, Beijing is not all business and I am just as excited to interact with other students, get some authentic Chinese food (Panda Express in the states doesn’t count), buy some cool stuff through intense haggling, see the Olympic Village, and so much more.

I'm not even sure what I should pack right now. I know I have my suits, my shoes, other clothes, necessary toiletries, but after that, I struggle with what to pack. Hopefully, because we are going during a colder season, the mosquitoes will not have fully assembled. From my summer experiences in China, as ironic as it may be, Chinese mosquitoes are like American mosquitoes, but on steroids. So I guess I should pack repellant, just in case. Aside from that, bring it on Beijing!

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