Chinese food for thoughts – Guest Lectureship at Zhuhai College,

Guandong, PRD/PRC

Preliminary and informal report in connection with Linnaeus-Palme educational exchange

between Zhuhai College of Jilin University and University College of Gaevle

By Ernst Hollander, Dr of Technology and teacher/researcher at HIG(Högskolan i Gävle = University College of Gaevle) ehr@hig.se

In this report I summarise what I taught, learnt and thought during a three week Guest Lectureship in Guandong, Shanghai and Hong Kong in

June 2009. I combine it with prior knowledge gained from 45 years of reading on and discussing China.

For the first time during my common-law marriage with filmmaker and social worker Pia Hallin I worked together with her professionally. She as well as all other people on whose help this report draws shall be exempt

from all responsibility for the text in this report.1

The Guest Lectureship took place in June 2009. The lecturing took place at

Zhuhai College PRD/PRC. PRD is an abbreviation that I use for the Pearl River Delta in Guandong Province whereas PRC is a very common abbreviation for the People’s

Republic of China.2

1 A list of people who – knowingly or not – have helped can be found in appendix 1.2 Most abbreviations that I use are explained in appendix 2.

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Mixing the global and the local (0.1)

I present the material in three chapters– Chapter 1) Teaching in and on “the workshop of the world”

– Chapter 2) Thirty hours' educational exchange and food for thoughts. The chapter contains sub-headings such as “Classroom teaching and staff contacts at ZhC (Zhuhai College) ”, “Company studies …”

– Chapter 3) Ideas to improve the Zhuhai College <-> HIG exchangeI throughout mix the global and the local.

The report is informal in the sense that it is not organised according to the Linnaeus-Palme format for Reports on teacher exchanges. It is preliminary in the sense that I am willing to revise it if and when I receive comments.3 I also plan to use some material that I collected for this report in research projects that I am working with alongside my teaching.

Except for maybe filling the Linnaeus-Palme requirements and for being a way in which I extend my thanks the report has at least four purposes:

– Checking my interpretations of the many interviews, company visits etc that I did. I am eager to know whether my interpretations make sense

– Contributing to the development of the exchange with ZhC– Conveying impressions and educational ideas to my many Swedish

friends who share my interests in China– Highlighting some valuable sources regarding socio-economic and

educational development in China. This highlighting of sources appears already in the first chapter. The historical account of sources on Chinese socio-economic developments is given in a rather self-centred way. I hope that’s OK.

This second draft of the report was concluded late in November 2009Ernst Hollander, Teacher/researcher at HIG4

3 The quality of this second draft owes a lot to very helpful comments from hosts in the PRD (Pearl River Delta) and Shanghai. If you have comments on my use of English please note that I try to use Brittish English.

4 Among the subjects I teach are HRM for Innovation, Sustainability and Globalisation. My research deals with Innovation for Sustainability.

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InnehållsförteckningChinese food for thoughts – Guest Lectureship at Zhuhai College, Guandong, PRD/PRC 1

Mixing the global and the local (0.1) 2Chapter 1) Teaching in and on “The Workshop of the World “ 4

Teaching in “the Workshop of the World (1.1) 4The World’s Largest Educational System (1.1.1) 5Poor Treatment of Teachers but Very Eager Students (1.1.2) 6A Mixture of Authoritarian Heritages (1.1.3) 6The Problem of the Two Streams – Common Mass Education Versus Elite Education (1.1.4)

7Contradictions of Economic and Educational Reforms (1.1.5) 8The SEZ (Special Economic Zone) of Zhuhai and its Bigger Sibling (1.1.6) 9Teaching on “the Workshop of the World” (1.2) 12Inspiration for a Member of the Generation of 1968 (1.2.1) 12China fascination at turn of the Millenium (1.2.2) 13Concluding remarks on written sources that have inspired me for this report (1.2.3) 16With a little help from our friends (1.2.4) 17

Chapter II: Thirty hours' educational exchange and food for thoughts 1814 hours of Classroom teaching (2.1) 19A few notes from students’ self-presentations, questions and comments (2.1.1) 20Meta messages of our teaching (2.1.2) 22Eight Hours Discussion about Teaching in China (2.2) 22Interview on teaching experience at ZhC with Dr. Joy Rose (2.2.1) 23Chinese Students with Experience from HIG (2.2.2) 25Company Studies in the Workshop of the World (2.3) 26G&G Ninestar Image (2.3.1) 26Some “non 9 STAR” topics brought up with Brandon (2.3.2) 28Yueyou moulds & plastic (2.3.3) 30A bilingual couple in Shanghai with "loads of" Sweden <-> China experience (2.3.5) 36Ad hoc visit to look at Hong Kong University on June 25 (2.3.6) 37

Chapter 3) Ideas to improve the Zhuhai College <-> HIG exchange 39General problems relating to cooperation with the PRC in higher education 39Problems relating to cooperation with ZhC 40Problems specifically relating to our (PH and EH) visit in June 41Some improvement suggestions 41Finally 42

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Chapter 1) Teaching in and on “The Workshop of the World “… a venture into the Chinese education market usually involves much wasted time adapting to the complexity of the Chinese education system and the rapid development of educational reforms.”5

The introductory quote from Xiufang Wang’s book “Education in China Since 1976” is aimed at commercial education providers from outside the PRC who are considering attempting to capture a part of the big PRC ‘educational pie’. Already at the turn of the millennium Xiufang Wang could inform us about the fact that “China runs the largest education system in the world. The total enrolment of students in regular and adult schools at all levels exceeds 320 million, …”6

The caution about “wasted time”, however, also captures the worries I had after too rapidly having volunteered to fill the slot of a Guest Lectureship Offering about to expire.

The ambiguity between a lure to say “yes” and the worries about a waste of time stemmed from a sense that I was at the same time very badly and very well prepared to go to ZhC in the South Western parts of the PRD (= Pearl River Delta) in Guandong Province of the PRC (= People’s Republic of China).

In the first part of this intro section I will make some remarks about teaching in “the workshop of the world”. Thereby I also explain in what sense I was badly prepared. In the second part of the intro I will make some remarks about teaching on “the workshop of the world”.

I will also use the second part of chapter 1 to mention a number of exciting references on the socio-economic development in the PRC. I accepted the offer to go for the visit partly in order to cheque whether my high esteem for the authors of the books referred to were warranted. In that respect the visit convinced me. I am very grateful to HIG (Högskolan i Gävle), ZhC_JU (Zhuhai College of Jilin University) and to the Linnaeus-Palme foundation for giving me that opportunity. The fact that the report is partly rather critical is in my case a sign of appreciation. I think it is a waste to criticise institutions, students or research colleagues who can’t see the constructive potential of empathetic criticism.

Teaching in “the Workshop of the World (1.1)In Chapter two on Thirty hour’s educational exchange and food for thoughts I present my reflections in relation to a chronological account of the visit. There I i.a. present my students at ZhC – partly with their own words. I also give glimpses of the content my lectures, present

5 Wang, X. (2003) p. 86 Wang, X. (2003) p. 8

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discussions in relation to them and also reflect on other didactic experiences. There you will also find impressions from some ‘paradigmatic’ PRD (Pearl River Delta) companies.

Here I’ll present some overall impressions of higher education in the PRC and at ZhC partly with the help of a book that I found at the end of my visit. I am referring to Xiufang Wang’s book “Education in China Since 1976” that I mentioned above. Even though the book is from 2003 and has the obvious agenda of trying to break some very strong traditions in the PRC education I found it very valuable. Another source for the first part of this chapter is an interview my wife and I did with Doctor Joy Rose.7

The World’s Largest Educational System (1.1.1)Earlier I quoted Xiufang Wang saying that China runs the largest education system in the world. In many respects, however, the educational effort is too small. Xiufang Wang also argues for this through international comparisons on a relative basis. From a global socio-economic and macro-economic perspective I would argue that it is of central concern that the PRC makes a quantum leap in educational efforts.

Such a quantum leap in educational efforts would represent a worthwhile use of the vast savings in the PRC. This is so because it is a precondition for tackling both the income inequalities and the democratic deficit.8 And I would argue that it’s central not only for the PRC but also for the long run solution of the Global Financial Crises. The tackling of the structural imbalances in the world economy (where US deficits and Asian surpluses are at the core) presupposes huge investments in Asia in such things as education.9

When we narrow the theme to higher education in the PRC the numbers are still mindboggling and the rate of expansion hard to understand. In 1980 some 280 thousand students enrolled for undergraduate university

7 On Dr J. Rose also see below in Chapter 2.8 According to Björkstén, J. (2006) the PRC Gini-coefficient is one of the highest/worst

in the world (high Gini-coefficient values mean huge inequalities). The PRC Gini-coefficient of close to 45 even surpasses that of the US that has close to 41. Sweden has 25 and India close to 33. Björkstén probably has his figures from UNDP (United Nations Development Program). The figures shall only be seen as rough indicators of inequality. (See also Hermele/Hollander (2008).

9 On the question of how central the US <-> PRC relation is in the structural imbalances please see The Economist Oct. 24 2009 "Special Report on China and America". For instance on page 4 where L. Summers is quoted as talking about "the balance of financial terror". And further on in the article quoting China Daily an official English-language newspaper: " China Daily ... said in July that China's massive holdings of US Treasuries meant it could break the dollar's reserve-currency status any time. But it also noted that in effect this was a 'foreign-exchange version of the cold-war stalemate based on mutually assured destruction'".

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studies. In 1999 this figure had risen to 1.6 million.10 In June 2009 it was reported in China Daily that 10.2 million registered for NCEE (= National College Entrance Exams) and that the admission rate would be over 60 percent.11 I understand those figures to mean that more than 6 million will enrol this fall. I heard lots of students at ZhC who wondered where all the university teachers would come from.

Poor Treatment of Teachers but Very Eager Students (1.1.2)“The most serious problem in all fields of China’s education is insufficient educational funds, poor school conditions and poor treatment of teachers.12

The quote doesn’t seem to fit at all with the image of a society that has revered, rewarded and respected teachers since time immemorial. I, however, believe it since I read it after our visit. Together with my wife I had interviewed Dr J. Rose at ZhC and that made me take note of two short passages in “The Rough Guide to China”. The first passage deals with foreign teachers in China (In June 2009 the Yuan/SEK rate was about 1.15 and the Yuan/US dollar rate was about 0.15. I don’t enter into the complexities of currency conversions here):

“The standard teaching salary for a foreigner is Yuan 3500 per month for a bachelor’s degree, Yuan 4000 for a master’s degree and Yuan 5000 for a doctorate. This isn’t enough to put much away, but you should also get subsidized on-campus accommodation, plus a fare to your home country, …”“Most teachers find their students keen, hard-working, curious and obedient, and report that it was the contact with them that made the experience worthwhile. That said, avoid talking about religion or politics in the classroom as this can get them into trouble.”13

In relation to the first passage I want to stress that the PRC has a very great need for foreign teachers so they are very privileged in relation to the domestic teachers (again see the Dr J. Rose interview below). In relation to the second passage I can just verify that The Rough Guide to China captures my own feelings very well. The students made the experience worthwhile. On this point my common-law wife Pia Hallin and I have the same opinion even though we disagree about many other impressions.

After having returned to Sweden I looked at the web site of the Hong Kong based NGO “China Labour Bulletin”. It reported about a large teacher strike in 2008 in the PRC.14 After what I had picked up during the visit I was not surprised.

10 Wang, X. (2003) p. 147.11 China Daily Hong Kong ed. P. 20.12 Wang, X. (2003) p. 16.13 The Rough Guide to China 5th ed. (2008) p. 63.14 http://www.china-labour.org.hk/en/ accessed July – Sept. 2009

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A Mixture of Authoritarian Heritages (1.1.3)China has a mixture of authoritarian heritages that many western China-observers try to disentangle. Confucianism and “MLMTT” – as a way of thinking was called by some admirers in my youth – are obvious candidates of thought styles to be mentioned in such accounts.15 I will not venture into that quagmire though it fascinates me. Instead I will restrict myself to note some “footprints” of the authoritarian tradition in the PRC education system.

First, however, I want to mention that Eva Carling – head of the international secretariat at HIG – lent me an eye-opening book before the visit: “The Chinese Learner – …”.16 In this anthology, edited by Watkins and Biggs, didactic scholars of many inclinations struggle i.a. with ways of overcoming traditions of learning by heart. Another tenacious tradition is the strong exam orientation. I was fascinated by research showing that group studies – even when they prepared for individual exams – led to more “deep learning”.17 The book came out of the CERC (Comparative Education Research Center) U. of HK. To establish contacts with the research of that group I think would be very valuable (See below chapters 2 and 3).

With the help of quotes I will illustrate three of the negative effects of the authoritarian tradition noted by Xiufang Wang:

“… during most of the past 50 years, China’s unitary state-planned economy required that education foster specialists who fit slots, so to speak, in the state development plan. … This … structured Chinese education … to train domestic-level specialists whose knowledge extended to the narrow field of their work but not necessarily farther.”18

“… there are unnecessary divisions between different study fields, and cross-discipline subjects and courses are almost absent from universities and colleges.”19

“Traditional Chinese education system under a planned economy trained intellectuals in basic knowledge and cognitive abilities but neglected student’s creativity and practicality.”20

15 MLMTT stood for Marxism-Leninism Mao Tse Tung’s thoughts. The concept thought styles I think was coined by Fleck Fleck (79[1935]) = Fleck, Ludwik Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact U. of Chicago Press 1979 [The German original is from 1935]

16 “The Chinese Learner – Cultural, Psychological and Contextual Influences” Watkins, D. and Biggs, J ed. CERC U. of HK (year ?)

17 Tang, Catherine. Chapter on “Collaborative learning: the latent dimension in Cinese students’ learning”. in Watkins and Biggs (year ?) Page 182.

18 Wang, X. (2003) p. 266.19 Wang, X. (2003) p. 181.20 Wang, X. (2003) p. 272.

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The Problem of the Two Streams – Common Mass Education Versus Elite Education (1.1.4)For westerners who think of the PRC in terms of the slogans of the Cultural Revolution, the strong dichotomy between mass education and elite education might come as a surprise. I had, however, prior to the visit, heard from friends and colleagues who had taught in Beijing, about the unbridled elitism.21 I was therefore satisfied to hear that ZhC was a new educational institution and I imagined that it belonged to “a third category” somewhere between the two extremes.

Xiufang Wang’s image that emerges from quotes below is already six years old so some of the worst problems of the dichotomy might have been ameliorated. The system of a decade ago was, according to Xiufang Wang “good for training elites”.

“… the Chinese gross enrolment rate in higher education is much lower than that of western developed countries. … Starting with the year 2000, the government has enlarged university enrolment … but about 90 % of 18- to 22-year-olds have no way to pursue higher education. … … no transfers are possible across the two streams. … The two-stream system gives a one-time career choice opportunity to students, and the educational results are only favourable to the elites who win the national university entrance exams with high marks.”22

Given what I have understood about, for instance, the German education system I think that Xiufang Wang painted a rather rosy picture of “the Western System”. I think that she did this in order to encourage the PRC leadership to make much-needed reforms when China had just entered the WTO. Even if the picture of the West is too rosy, the picture of China seems plausible. From what I’ve seen and heard I think Xiufang Wang has a point when she notes that …

“… common universities lack both strong faculty members and close relationships with industries.”23

The result of the elite part of the dichotomy has been felt by a number of Western TNCs in the first decade of the third millennium. Had they read Xiufang Wang’s book when it appeared they might have avoided some underrating of the competition to emerge:

“In a few prestigious post-secondary institutions, teaching and research achievements have reached international level in the fields of microelectronic technology, automation technology, fiber optic communication technology, and artificial intelligence. Their research results are often purchased by industries and transferred to production.”24

21 Discussions i.a. with Björn Meidal and Torbjörn Wikland.22 Wang, X. (2003) p. 269.23 Wang, X. (2003) p. 279.24 Wang, X. (2003) p. 278-9.

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Contradictions of Economic and Educational Reforms (1.1.5)Xiufang Wang is a keen observer also of the contradictions posed by economic and educational reform. This is evident i.a. in the concluding chapter of her book. To me one of the most telling passages is the following:

“… from 1978 – 1997 there were 292,000 Chinese scholars studying and working abroad, and about 98,500 returnees.”25

The reason why I take such strong notice of that statistic is that I had read what Manuel Castells had to say about the same phenomenon:

“China continues to send students and professionals abroad, as the most effective means of building its technological potential. But, as faculty members of major universities around the world know, most of these bright young Chinese scientists and engineers are not truly welcome back home, suffocated by a bureaucratic system of science, by low-level uses of technology, and a generally oppressive cultural atmosphere. Thus, after the training, they bureaucratize themselves, or go into more profitable business, or, in many cases, just stay in the West or get a good job in the thriving Pacific outside China. I will not go so far as to say that without democracy China cannot truly gain access to the information technology paradigm, so vital for its grand design: Political process cannot be reduced to simple statements. But, without some form of open society, it probably cannot, for reasons argued in Volume I …”26

Castells, to my mind, puts that statistic at the centre of his analysis of the contradictions between economic and educational reform.

I’ll return below to Castells’ excellent and farsighted analysis of “Chinese Developmental Nationalism with Socialist Characteristics”.27 I, however, refer to that passage already here since I don’t dare to venture further into the very complex and crucial questions that were raised in the quote. I am, however, more than willing to discuss them further orally with whoever is interested.

Here I will instead start to get closer to ZhC without forgetting the questions about contradictions.

The SEZ (Special Economic Zone) of Zhuhai and its Bigger Sibling (1.1.6)Before my June visit to the Pearl River Delta I had read a lot about Zhuhai’s eastern and much bigger “sibling SEZ” – Shenzhen.28 The Shenzhen scene is for instance highlighted in the very valuable review

25 Wang, X. (2003) p. 271.26 Castells, Manuel 1998/ 2000 p. 330 in End of Millenium (2nd) ed). Volume III in “The

information age: Economy, Society and Culture” Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.27 “Chinese Developmental Nationalism with Socialist Characteristics” is the headline

under which he discusses the Chinese development (Castells, 2000) p. 330 pp.28 SEZ means Special Economic Zone. Zhuhai and Shenzhen were two of the four first

SEZs described below under the header "Some appetizers from Vol. III of The Network Society".

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article “The Chinese Shadow” in NYRB (the New York Review of Books).29 As an example of the many referrences to Shenzhen it is worth mentioning one of the books reviewed there: “Made in China – Women Factory Workers in a global Workplace” by U. of HK sociologist Pun Ngai.30 The fieldwork for her book she did in an electronics factory in Shenzhen.

English language referrences to Zhuhai are much more rare. The first time I had taken note of Zhuhai before 2009 was in the Swedish TV documentary "Made in China". This "Made in China" is a TV documentary that tells the story of how the US company Flextronics developed into a major player in the global out-sourcing business when Ericsson out-sourced its production of mobile phones to Flextronics. A central part of the strategy of Flextronics was the move of most of the production to Zhuhai.31

From the turn of the Millennium I gave a “Three times Taylor educational module” (3xT) as part of my teaching on Globalisation.32 The students who followed the “3xT- module” were encouraged to see the TV documentary "Made in China" that I described abvove.

Castells also mentions Zhuhai when he analyses the PRD (Pearl River Delta) in Volume I ch. 6 of “The information age: Economy, Society and Culture”. In Vol. III he again notes that the …

“…mega-region Hong Kong – Shenzhen – Guangzhou – Zhuhai – Macau – Pearl River Delta (PRD), comprising about 60 million people, had become an economic unit by the early 1990s, constituting one of the potential global nodes of the twenty-first century.33

According to a tourist Zhuhai map that I found in the ZhC bookshop “Zhuhai …

… was given the honourable title of the National Demonstration Zone of Eco-System in 2000”

When Zhuhai got its present size of 1500 sq km it had a population of 0.86 million inhabitants.34

The population figure today is unclear to me though I asked several times. Figures of between 1 and 3 millions were given as answers. Zhuhai is situated on the West side of the PRD, to the North of the former Portuguese colony Macau. ZhC_JU (Zhuhai College of Jilin University) is situated some 45 kms (kilometres) West of downtown Zhuhai in the immediate vicinity of the Zhuhai airport.

29 “The Chinese Shadow” in New York Review of Books 2005, Nov. 17 and Dec. 1.30 Ngai, Pun (Pun Ngai ?) “Made in China – Women Factory Workers in a global

Workplace” by U. of HK sociologist Pun Ngai. (Year ?)31 Fjällström, Per Dokument Inifrån "Made in China" ...32 In more detail I’ve described the module in a grant application Hollander (xx) …33 Castells (2000) p. 316 in End of Millenium (2nd) ed) = Volume III. 34 English – Chinese Zhuhai Map: “Zhuhai – a beautiful city”.

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[Map from Braudel p. II - 220 to be inserted here?]

ZhC is a campus of the Jilin University. When I first got to know that the main campus of Jilin University is situated to the north of North Korea more than 2500 kms north of the Pearl River Delta, I had a hard time believing it. I was, however, convinced by a comment from one of the Zhuhai students in Gaevle. I was planning my gifts for the ZhC hosts and staff colleagues: – “Oh, if you want to give T-shirts to your fellow teachers at ZhC you should look for large sizes. Most of the teachers are from the North where people are bigger.”

ZhC_JU was established in 2004 and has some 15,000 students. An astounding 96 % of the students who have graduated so far have found employment rather quickly according to a fact sheet from the International Dep’t of ZhC. This is a very high figure if it is meaningful to compare it with figures from the late 1990s quoted by Xiufang Wang:

“ … there is a big range in employment uptake from different universities. The immediate employment rate of graduates from national prestigious universities and provincial key universities was higher than 90%, while the common universities’ graduates’ employment rate was only around 50%.35

It was hard to get reliable figures but I got the impression that it is rather expensive to study at ZhC. A cost for the student of 22,000 Yuan per annum was compared with a cost for the student of 15,000 Yuan per annum at the national prestigious universities. At the latter you need higher scores on the exam to enter.

35 Wang, X. (2003) p. 178 quoting State Education Development Research Center (2000).

The figure 96 % – I write about "an astounding 96 % of the students who have graduated" – might, however, not be as relevant for judging ZhC as I thought when I quoted the figure in my August 2009 draft of this report. One of my Chinese students commented: " In your opinion, 96% is a high employed proportion. Actually it’s a common “index” in many college of China. Most of them are around 90 to even 100%. Just pick up fact sheet of any other school you can surely find more high employed proportion. But, what’s the reality? Actually, it’s quite difficult for a student to find a job before he graduates, especially after the economic crisis. However, the leadership of each college always have their ways to handle with the 'employed proportion', which is an important index of a college. A graduate who actually has sign a employed contract with some enterprise is an “employment” population. The students who are still suffering from finding a job could be “flexible employment”. They have to sign some document from school to improve they have been employed by something – what’s “something” is not important in this document. The reality is: it could make you a little trouble if you refuse to sign this document – in some college, the situation could even be “not employed contract , not degree”. In that situation, a large number of students are “employed” by the restaurants or bars around school. ...

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The socio-economic backgrounds of the students at ZhC I can only guess about. My Chinese HIG (Gaevle) students who guided Pia and me on the company visits (see below) told us that many students were registered as being poor peasants for reasons that had to do with land ownership. My impression is that many students come from small entrepreneur families. The parents had maybe been skilled workers before the economic reforms of the 1980s. Then they had started small businesses and had become wealthy enough to send their children to college.

Some more speculation about ZhC and its surroundings will follow in Chapter 2. Now it is, however, overdue to turn to my reasons for willingly accepting the offer to go there. It has to do with the fact that I in some ways was well prepared for the Guest Lectureship.

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Teaching on “the Workshop of the World” (1.2)Since the beginning of the 21st Century I have given several HRM (Human Resource Management) lectures per year under the heading “What’s up with the Taylor family? Well I think they are OK. But I’ve heard they have moved to China”.36

Below I will give one background to my bringing in some more material on China in my lectures during the last decade. Some of these lectures dealt with HRM as mentioned above while others have dealt with sustainable development and with global economic transformation.

The background serves a dual purpose. One the one hand it is meant to explain why I think it is of such extraordinary importance to understand what is going on in the PRD (Pearl River Delta). On the other hand I want to give to old and new friends a few examples of written material that could influence a member of my generation of Western socio-economists when he or she tries to understand the PRC.37

Inspiration for a Member of the Generation of 1968 (1.2.1)Let me first introduce the vague term “The Generation of 1968”. In this concept I include a heterogeneous group of – mostly students – who were in their formative years when Prague, Paris and loads of other places “exploded” in 1968. In Sweden it includes members of student unions from almost all the major political parties of that time. I, however, can really only say something about the small part of this generation that had or developed research interests in global socio-economic questions. We often had a focus on what was then called the Third World. And ultimately I have to restrict the account to myself.

The US agronomist William Hinton had tried to ‘serve the Chinese peasants’ through working in rural China. His account of his experiences in the book Fan Shen, which I read in the late 1960s, influenced many of us.38 That time in the future, when a majority of the world’s population would live in cities, was some 35 years away and the way in which land

36 For those readers who are not versed in the jargon of HRM I give a short excerpt from Wikipedia on Taylorism ” Taylorism (is a short for) a theory of management. Its application is contingent on a high level of managerial control over employee work practices.” Also see above on the “Three times Taylor educational module” (3xT) that formed part of my teaching on Globalisation. The lecture “What’s up with the Taylor family?" was part of the module.

37 Those of you who look at the references that I quote will find that they in turn contain many further valuable referrences.

38 Hinton, William Fan Shen– A Documentary of Revolution in a Chinese Village, Montly Review Press 1966. In Pelican/Penguin 1972. ISBN 0 14 02.1570 0

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was owned and exploited still seemed to be the central question for those who wanted to support “the wretched of the earth”.39

In the 1970s the Australian economist Bruce Mc Farlane together with a colleague wrote The Chinese Road to Socialism – …40. The title of the book supported the Chinese claim that the PRC leadership stood for a theoretical and practical breach with the Soviet heritage. The view that the global struggle for human emancipation had moved to the countryside captured the imagination of many of my generation. Lots of us were immune against the worst kinds of mirages due to parents affected by the 1930s. The general intellectual mood, however, influenced deeply.

In the end of the 1970s the mood was changing dramatically. I took part in a Swedish trade union mission to the emerging economies in South East Asia as a junior researcher. The journey started in Japan and later on we saw lots of FTZ’s (Free Trade Zones) all around South East Asia. The idea of visiting the PRC was, however, not even considered.41

Another decade later I went at a study trip with the Industrial Economics Dep’t of the KTH (the Royal Institute of Technology). The aim of the study trip was to try to develop an understanding of the socio-economics of India. The time perspective that we used when we prepared our trip was much longer than customary. A central source for reflection was Fernand Braudel’s Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Century (1979). Braudel talks of three to four great civilisations vying for dominance during the prehistory to the modern world. China and India are two of the contenders. When it comes to Chinese trade it is PRD and Canton/Guangzhou (50 kms North of Zhuhai) that is at the centre of the story.42

Among socio-economists with thought styles similar to mine quite a few held that the neo-liberal paradigm was not economically sustainable.43 The neo-liberal paradigm had come to dominate the “mood in the mainstream” during the 1980s and 1990s. In the mainstream of

39 The Wretched of the Earth was an influential book for my generation by the "Third World" psyciatrist Frantz Fanon. The book helped us understand the "Third World" liberation struggles.

40 Wheelwright, E. L. and McFarlane, Bruce The Chinese Road to Socialism: Economics of the Cultural Revolution. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1970. I especially mention Bruce Mc Farlane since I met him in person and discussed with him.

41 If you want to ponder the cycles of intellectual moods it is thought-provoking to compare the Japan hype of the late 1970s and early 1980s with what is said in NYRB 2009 June 11 on Japan today. The NYRB article takes its starting point in the film “Tokyo Sonata” which deals with the demise of the Japanese “salaryman” and of the Japanese model in general.

42 See Braudel (1979) for instance in vol. II pp 219- and vol. III pp 531-. The colonial map of the PRD in vol. II pp 220 is especially fascinating to me.

43 One of the best accounts you will find in Eric Helleiner’s article (1995): Great Transformations: A Polanyian Perspective on the Contemporary Global Financial Order Studies in Political Economy 48: 149-164.

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Economics the worries, about an unsustainable global economic pattern, were brushed aside. Instead of worrying, many in the mainstream talked about the New Economy. In their view the ICT (Information and Communication Technology) revolution, symbolised by the Internet, had ushered in a new kind of economy that wouldn’t be plagued by business cycles and hard times.

China fascination at turn of the Millenium (1.2.2)It is a sad irony that Manuel Castells came to be identified with the New Economy hype and the dotcom bubble. To my mind Manuel Castells has written the best account of the profound changes brought about by the confluence of ICT and the sentiments of 1968. I agree with those who think that his trilogy The Network Society is as important for analysing the late 20th century, as was Das Kapital for the analysis of the mid 19th century. Together with some other socio-economist I have, however, up to now rather than 100 % endorsing Castels’ analysis, preferred to see the ICT as the technology carrier of a 5th long wave of Capitalist Development.44

What is central for me in this personal account is, however, that it was the sections on China in The Network Society that made me – late in the 1990s – return to the fascination with China that characterized my generation in the 1960s and early 1970s.45

Some appetizers from Vol. III of The Network Society:

“Guanxi capitalism? China in the global economyChina’s integration into the global economy began on a false note in the early 1980s: the Special Economic Zones policy, creating four Export Processing Zones, facing Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, and aimed at offering cheap labor and land, tax breaks and social discipline to foreign investors, …The zones were designed to be physically, and legally, separated from the rest of Chinese territory, so that socialism wouldn’t be contaminated. …The underlying project was tantamount to creating four, then many, new Chinese dragons, but this time under the control of the Chinese government, … It did not work. In my conversations … I understood (the) fundamental mistake: they had read and believed, “the new international division of labor theory” proposed by some Western Marxists, and they were eager to offer multinational corporations a fraction of Chinese labor to be exploited – at the price, mainly, of technology transfer. …

44 See for instance Freeman, Christopher and Perez, Carlota "Structural crises of adjustment, business cycles and investment behaviour" s. 38 - 66 in Dosi et al (ed.) (88). Also see Andrew Tylecote below.

45 Some old friends and colleagues also helped me renew my interest in the PRC. I specially want to mention and thank my Ph.D tutor Jan Odhnoff and other friends and colleagues such as Staffan Laestadius, Christian Berggren and of course Lasse Bengtsson at HIG.

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… multinational corporations needed access to China at large beyond the restrained Special Economic Zones; … In a word: they needed to enter China’s economy, not just to use Chinese labor and land for exporting purposes. …(But) while the Chinese government formally opened much of China’s urban-industrial regions … under the 14 Coastal Cities policy, restrictions and red tape made sure that the process would be under government control.… at least until the mid-1990s, multinational corporations, and Western and Japanese investments, were not the main linkage between China and the global economy. Indeed (…) between 1979 and 1992, of the 116 billion US dollar pledged for investment in China, 72 % came from Hong Kong and Taiwan, …Indeed, the United States seems to be in danger of running a trade deficit with China larger than it has with any other country.”46

I doubt that even Manuel Castells realized how accurate the last prediction would become. Ten years after it was made, the rising US deficit <–> China surplus would be at the centre of many of the explanations of the financial crises.47

In the same section from which I quoted above Castells goes on to discuss the “ethnic connection”:

“The ethnic connection of China’s global integration is indeed an extraordinary story, full of practical and theoretical implications. But it must be told as You-tien Hsing has done, …These ethnic business networks are essential to contemporary Chinese development, but they came to life in China by taking advantage of the opportunity provided by the open-door policy. Investment in China was risky, but could yield very high profits in a largely untapped market, with negligible labor costs, on the condition of knowing how to operate in a complex environment. Chinese investors from Hong Kong and Taiwan used the opening to decentralize their production, particularly in the Pearl River Delta, and in other areas of Southern China, when higher production costs at home, and the reduction of their export quotas threatened their competitive position. To minimize risks, they used their Guanxi (relationship) networks, particularly looking for people who were from the same place of origin (tong-xiang), their relatives or friends, or for dialect group acquaintances.48

You will of course also encounter the Guanxi discussion in many of the superficial China-boom-books. I have also – often with more thoughtful reflections than in the hype (boom-books) – seen it in student papers that I’ve supervised. Here I quote it for two main purposes. The most important is that I want to draw attention to Castells own very insightful text and the extremely valuable reference material that it points to. The 46 Castells (2000) p. 313 pp in End of Millennium (2nd) ed) = Volume III.47 See i.a. Soros, George The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of

2008 and What It Means Public Affairs. That book was reviewed in NYRB Vol.55, # 16 under the title ”He (Soros) Foresaw the End of an Era”

48 Castells (2000) p. 315-316 in End of Millenium (2nd) ed) = Volume III

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second is that the concepts of Guanxi and ethnic connection are indeed very important to understand when trying to decipher the PRC’s socio-economic development.

When I – a decade ago – started to bring “China” into my lectures on the shaky foundation of written material and oral accounts, I intensified my searches “at home” rather than daring to visit the PRC myself. Those searches i.a. led to the very qualified China coverage in NYRB (New York Review of Books). An article with the purposefully ambiguos title The Chinese Shadow specially caught my attention. The article and the books reviewed therein provided lots of material for my lectures (see above).49

Other Western sources on China, which I want to highlight, were provided by friends from URPE and EAEPE.50 William Lazonick I first met in the URPE of the early 1970s. His article “Entrepreneurial Ventures and the Developmental State …” (Lazonick 2008) gives a good starting point for discussions on Chinese development.51 It is, however, just one example of the inspiration that I received from ”URPE-type” people.

Another loose network that includes socio-economists with research interests in questions of global transformation is EAEPE. One of the founders of EAEPE was Andrew Tylecote. As noted above he was one of the economists who used a “long-wave” perspective to critically discuss “The New Economy” during the 1990s. His paper: “Are we in 1929?” caught my attention since it combines an understanding of the historical importance of the ICT-led “economic” paradigm with warnings about a new 1929.

I mention Andrew Tylecote in the context of the PRC since he has lately been researching the role of the PRC in the present global transformation. This is exemplified in a power point collection he kindly lent me for my Guest Lectureship.52 Again this is just one example of the inspiration I've received from (I’ve got from?) a loose network of like-minded socio-economists. In this case those connected to EAEPE.

Concluding remarks on written sources that have inspired me for this report (1.2.3)This section with its focus on written sources has had the aim to help all those – including myself – who wish to start forming an opinion on the

49 “The Chinese Shadow” in New York Review of Books 2005, Nov. 17 and Dec. 1.50 EAEPE is an acronym for European association for evolutionary political economy.

EAEPE is a major force on the heterodox Economics scene.URPE is an acronym for Union of Radical Political Economy. My first contact was while I was a guest student at Harvard University in the early 1970’s.

51 Lazonick, William Lessons from the Advanced Economies – Entrepreneurial Ventures and the Developmental State UNU-WIDER Discussion Paper No. 2008/01

52 Andrew Tylecote (University of Sheffield): ‘It seems the teacher has some problems’– What China can learn and gain from the current Western crisis Ppt collection.

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consequences of China's Reemergence on the World Scene.53 Before ending the section three omissions should be discussed.

The first omission to be mentioned is the most serious. It concerns material on ecology in general and specifically on climate change. What I can do here is pointing to one valuable attempt of placing the PRC in the context of climate change. The book I have in mind is Mark Lynas "Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet". Important comments and sources are given in i.a. the chapters 2 degrees and 4 degrees.54 On ecology in general I might point to Elizabeth Economy's "The river runs black: The Environmental Challenge to China's Future".55 I have often used the conclusions of that book in the lectures mentioned above.

A second omission concerns a quite different way of coming to grips with what's going on in the economy that is likely to be "biggest in the world" 30 years from now.56 It relates to a way of coming to grips with that I believe is a healthy antedote to the tools that we as economists mostly use. I am here referring to fiction and other forms of art. Since I do not dare to enter into this either, let me just offer one observation. It relates to one of the best preparations that I had for my visit to the PRC. Since 20 years I participate in a litterary study circle on the developing world. In the circle we read a collection of novels and plays by Gao Xingjian before he was awarded the Nobel Price in litterature. The title novel – in English maybe "When I bought a spinning rod for my grandfather" can be read as a dizzying account of the hectic restructuring in the PRC.57 Noteworthy is that this account was given already one decade after the start of the New Economic Policy in the 1970s. When I saw the 6-lane motorways and other signs of urban frenzy in June 2009 I often thought of the said novel by Gao Xingjian.

The third omission relates to Swedish reporting on the PRC. The reason for this omission is that my following of this reporting has been rather superficial. My bleak defence for this is that I – at first glance – have got the impression that the non-academic PRC reporting in Swedish printed media is in itself rather superficial. Noteworthy exceptions are reports

53 When receiving comments on the first draft I got to think that it might even be helpful to some of those who think about those consequences from within. From one of our company hosts I received the following comment: " ... Your reports are really constructive, very accurate. It even helps me better understand China as a world factory, and also let me better understand the impression that China has given you, as a froeign visitor. ... ". Very heart-warming!

54 Lynas, Mark (2007) "Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet". Fourth Estate, Harper Collins.

55 Economy, Elizabeth "The river runs black: The Environmental Challenge to China's Future".

56 See de Vylder, Stefan ...57 Gao Xingjian (1988). In Swedish the novel has the title "När jag köpte ett spinnspö åt

farfar". In Chinese it is "Wo gei laoye mai yugan". The collection of novels and plays where this was the title novel appeared at Bokförlaget Forum 1988. ISBN 91-37-09394-0.

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emanating from the pens of Johan Myrsten, Ola Wong and Erik Bengtsson.58

With a little help from our friends (1.2.4)I hope to go on making references to the PRC in my research and lectures. When and if this takes place I will also be able to profit from things I discovered when preparing for the guest lectures that I mention in this report. I also learnt many things from Chinese and Swedish students with whom I interacted before and during the visit. Specifically I have the following students – and their theses – in mind:

Anna Forsberg – who although an ethnic Swede – studied Chinese in Beijing, Kunming and Stockholm for altogether three years. She wrote her Masters Thesis on the potential or lack of potential for Chinese consumerism. The Swedish title is Konsumtion som politiskt påtryckningsmedel i Kina ‐ begränsningar och möjligheter. It was presented at SU in the spring of 2009. Up until now it is not available in English.

Yuntao Zhang wrote his Master Thesis at CTH under the supervision of my research colleague Sverker Molander. The title is “Chemical related information in textile supply chains – A case study of the producers in China”Wanli Guo and Zhen Li wrote their Masters Thesis under my supervision. The title is: Towards an understanding of management style differences between China and Sweden – Based on impressions from 5 Chinese R&D employees in Sweden (Presented in May, 2009)

Zhisheng Zhou and Venette Lou wrote their Candidate Thesis under the supervision of Jonas Kågström at HIG: The title is: The Internationalization of SME – Case study of Krnosept AB and Jinmao lighting electrical Co .Ltd(Presented in May, 2009)

Some of those students also helped Pia and me with many practical details. Thank you so much!

Finally in this section on valuable written material: To Swedish readers I highly recommend a brilliant book by a young Swede who shares my enthusiasm for biking. In spite of its criticism of the PRC his book is an excellent appetizer for going to the PRC in general and to the places along his cycling routes in particular. He finished his two trips 1999 and 2007 in the PRD and Hong Kong. Thanks to the author and to Töres Theorell for recommending it so enthusiastically.59

58 See Johan Myrsten in SvD Business Section, Ola Wong with columns in SvD and also with the book No I’m from Borås, and Erik Bengtsson who i.a. writes in Arena.

59 Haraldsson, Marcus En linje över Kina Alfabeta 2007.

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Chapter II: Thirty hours' educational exchange and food for thoughtsBeneath I use the Linnaeus-Palme norm of 30 hours teaching to convey a rough image of how I worked with the task of developing the educational exchange between ZhC_JU (Zhuhai College of Jilin University) and HIG.

Table 1: Thirty hours' educational exchangeExplanations of most of the abbreviations – see appendix 2!Classroom teaching 2 x 7 hours (See schedule below) together with my common law wife Pia Hallin {=With PH}

14 hours

Preparations: Discussions about teaching and learning in the PRC withDr. Ming Zhao (ITB-HIG), Eva Carling, (Head, Internat. Rel. HIG), Marc Meng (Assistant Dean, Business Admin, ZhC), Informal seminar at HIG organised by PRC guest student at HIG Zhen Li

2 hours

Talks with Swedes having experience of studying or teaching in China: Anna Forsberg (See Ch. 1), Torbjörn Wikland, (taught national auditing in Beijing during the 1980s), Dr. Staffan Laestadius (lots of PRC doctoral candidates at KTH), Dr. Björn Forsberg at SU (book in sinology/ antropology on PRD workers), Lars Bondelind (studying Chinese in Shanghai at mature age) and Stefan Gutehall (HIG distant student in Hong Kong)

2 hours

Talks in Guandong with ZhC students who have had the experience of studying at HIG: Yunli Lu (Venette) and Zhisheng Zhou {With PH}

2 hours

Exchange of experience with Dr Joy Rose (guest professor from the US at ZhC) {With PH}

2 hours

Company studies etc to be used in education and RaD: In Zhuhai: “G&G Ninestar Image”. Guides: Brandon Luo and Zhisheng Zhou {With PH}

3 hours

In “Canton”: Yueyou moulds & plastic ("Y-friends"). Guides: Ze Cheng Lou, (Venette's father and co-founder of Y-friends), Yunli Lu (Venette), “Market manager” Mr Zhu, and finally Zhisheng Zhou {With PH}

3 hours

In Shanghai: General background on education and business diferrences between N. Europe and the PRC. Talks with Dr.Tech Weihong Wang (General Manage, UnitedLog Consulting) and her husband – electrical engineer Lars Bondelind {With PH}

1 hour

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Visit to HKU (Hong Kong University) without teacher or other staff contacts

1 hour

Further explanations also given in the text below!

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14 hours of Classroom teaching (2.1)In my teaching I wanted to convey an image of how I have learnt to teach sustainability and globalisation during forty years of teaching experience in Sweden. Before the visit I stressed to the ZhC counterpart that I wanted a group of students with a strong commitment, a reasonable knowledge of English and willingness to engage in dialogue. The students who at that time (May 2009) had already been admitted entrance to HIG in the autumn of 2009 were targeted.

With a lot of help from people mentioned in table 1 and prolonged “multimedia” (telephone, e-mail, face-to-face) discussions, a group of students and a schedule were agreed upon. The actual final schedule was, however, rather different from the one arrived at through the “multimedia” discussions preceding the visit.

Table 2: Final schedule for Classroom teachingLecture number

Date Name of lecture Some comments on the lectures as well as on the power point presentations used

1 09-06-10

Teaching ideas and teacher (EH) selfpresentation. Pia Hallin self-presentation

The PPP (Power Point presentation) for this lecture as well as those for the other ones I’d be happy to send to readers on request

2 09-06-11

Student self-presentation

Lectures 1 and 2 had a focus on didactic ideas

3 09-06-12

The agenda 21-document – a manifesto for diversity and participation

On the web I was able to find the Chinese name for the agenda 21-document: 《二十一世纪议程》

4 09-06-13a.m.

Ecological and social sustainability

Lectures 3 and 4 introduced the (western) sustainability discourse

5 09-06-13p.m.

Long waves, Mega trends and the Information age

Lecture 5 took the ideas of C. Freeman and M. Castells as points of departure

6 09-06-14

The financial crises – a historical perspective

PPtC: “C1eH_finc_hist”

7 09-06- Financial Crises – PPtC: “C1aC2eH_finc3”

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15 Flow perspective

The original schedule was divided into three main sections: A.) European and Swedish Models, B.) Management and innovation for sustainability and C.) Understanding the Financial Crises. (See appendix 3)

For lecture number 1-5 there were on average 35 students. For lecture number 6-7 there was on average 18 students. The reason for the drop I believe was that the exam period had started.

A few notes from students’ self-presentations, questions and comments (2.1.1)In spite of the brilliant efforts by the students and my stressing of the need to work with the language problems, I only picked up a small fraction of these self-presentations. When I mention the need to work with the language problems I refer i.a. to the need to talk slowly. /Corrections from the students concerned are therefore more than welcomed!/

Beneath I summarise some of the information given by the students who were presenting for their groups:

In order for readers of this report to understand the context I will, however, first give some of the instructions given by me for the self-presentations.Please state: 1) “English name” + pinyin name60; 2) Special study interest; 3) Your home province; 4) The main economic sectors in your home province; 5) Mention some questions or topics that you want me to cover in my lectures; 6) Are you going to Sweden this autumn?

“Ray” from Shanxi (?) in Guandong Province. Field of interest: Business Admin. Industry in hometown: Petroleum Refinery with a lot of environmental problems.

“David” from Canton (Guangzhou): “Anna” in the group stressed the yearly trade fair that takes place in Canton. “David” himself is majoring in Computer Science. “David” also mentioned that the class that I (EH) teach was not as homogeneous as I had thought. There were students who are coming to HIG in the autumn of 2009, but also some who just wanted to learn English and 12 who were going to Ilan University in

60 Many Chinese who have contacts with the West have "English names". A "Pinyin name" is a Chinese name with Latin characters. The "English names" doesn't need to have anything to do with the Chinese name. The "Pinyin name" to the contrary is an aid for "westerners" to pronounce the Chinese name. If the names are written with Chinese characters they are very hard for "westerners" to pronounce. Pinyin is a romanized script that makes it easier. I can take the names of one of our "guides" as an example. Yunli Lu is the "Pinyin name" whereas "Venette" is the "English name". Venette's father doesn't have an "English name" since he has limited contacts with the West. (Se the paragraphs on "Y-friends".

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Taiwan in the autumn of 2009. Most of those students who are going to Taiwan are majoring in Computer Science.

“Victoria” from Shenzhen: – “Shenzhen is a very young city with a huge export industry. Not me (“Victoria”) but another student in the group is going to Gaevle. She considers her field – HRM – to be very complex.”

“Steven” from Canton (Guangzhou): “Steven” represented a group of students who major in Chemistry. This group is also going to Taiwan. – “I (“Steven”) have partly come to this class (EH’s) because I (Steven) have heard that Swedes are very open”.

“Amy” from the harbour city of Zhanjiang is majoring in Information System Economics.

You as reader might guess that those five quotes from students are from my second lecture. I will not enter into the contents of my and my wives lectures. The Power Point Presentations (PPPs), however, are there to be requested and I would of course love to orally convey the contents and ensuing questions and discussions. In order to give you the reader some sense of the sophistication of the students I will, however, mention five questions that were posed during my 6th and 7th lecture. Those lectures concerned the financial crises.– “Which are the differences and similarities between the crises of the 1930s and the crises of today?”

– “What could the WTO do to help developing countries?”

– “For how long will the financial crises last?”

– “Will humanity be exposed to this kind financial crises over and over again?”

– “You (EH) told us a lot about the victims of the financial crises. But who are the winners?”

No formal evaluation of the lectures was undertaken. I, however, want to stress that I have rarely, during my 40 years of teaching, had such an enthusiastic group of students.61 Also I was greatly helped by my common law wife Pia Hallin with whom I have never before worked together professionally. When presenting herself Pia Hallin discussed i.a. questions related to social sustainability starting from her own professional experience as a Social Worker.

61 I, however, did a course evaluation of an ensuing course that I taught at HIG in Gaevle in the autumn of 2009. In the course there were 24 ZhC students who participated. The evaluation confirmed my impressions from the June ZhC guest lectureship. Their replies to the questions were very enthusiastic.

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The classroom teaching at ZhC was thus a great pleasure. After the lecture series was formally terminated I received a letter from one of the students who had attended. I can’t resist the temptation to reproduce it here:

”June 19, 2009Dear MR Ernst:I am David, a student of your English class in zhuhai college of Jilin university.Ｉ am so sorry that i had absented from your classes this week. I did mean to come but I have many exams this week. So sorry.  

Even though i just attended a few of your classes, i really like your teaching style. Not like the most chinese teachers, in your class, we have more freedom to express or share ourselves. And you also encourage us to work as a team, to talk in front of many people. You really bring something new to us.

You once said you are old and memony is poor, but I want to tell you that you are much younger than your age in our eyes. Looking forward to your next class.

The summer holiday is coming, do u have any plan to spend this hot summer? The July and August are the hottest months, hope you can get used to it. I know you are very busy, so you dont need to reply. Pls take care. All the best to you and your wife.Yours David”

The enthusiasm over the teaching methods – that would not have been so special in a Swedish context – was really heart-warming! So Thank You David and our other Zhuhai students!

Meta messages of our teaching (2.1.2)The short letter from "David" that I reproduced above gives an idea of the many meta messages that – partly by intention – were conveyed tothe students. The most important meta messages dealt with the importance to me of two-way-communication between teacher and students and of group work among students. The discussions between Pia Hallin and myself in front of the class also conveyed important messages: Reality can be interpreted in many ways and it is OK to disagree.

I also made it clear that I had borrowed material – Power Point Presentations (PPPs) – from colleagues /friends. I tried to be transparent in my critical adaption of the work of other scholars (Martin Persson Fysisk resursteori, Chalmers, Kenneth Hermele Humanekologi Lund, Stefan de Vylder Politisk Ekonom, Sverker Mollander xxx Chalmers etc, Annika Härenstam, from former National Institute for Working Life).

When it comes to gender relations the meta messages were other than Pia and I had expected. We were positively surprised by the ways in which female and male students interacted. Compared to impressions

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from other developing countries (The PRC considers itself to be a developing country) there seemed to be reasonable gender equality. The students were, however, surprised that we were not legally married but only "common-law-married".

[This passage (?) should really be further developed]

Eight Hours Discussion about Teaching in China (2.2)As mentioned above I didn’t have much time to prepare for the Guest Lectureship. I, however, got a lot of valuable advice in advance.

The first two hours of discussion mentioned in Table 1 deal with preparations:

From Dr. Ming Zhao (ITB-HIG) and Eva Carling, (Head, International Rel. HIG), I got informed about parts of the background to HIG’s impressive network of contacts in the PRC (See the seven places of higher education exchange marked on map #1

/Insert!/

I am not aware of the history of the HIG <–> PRC cooperation being written, but I believe that Dr. Ming Zhao (ITB-HIG) has been instrumental in the build-up. From Ming I also understood that ZhC is young (founded in 2004) and situated in an SEZ.62

The SEZ of Zhuhai shares some characteristics with Shenzhen on the opposite side of the PRD but is much smaller. Both Zhuhai and Shenzhen were among the first five SEZs that were founded after Deng Xiao Ping started the liberalisation in the late 1970s.

From Ming, Eva Carling and the Informal seminar at HIG organised by the PRC guest student Zhen Li, I also started to understand the huge differences in learning and teaching styles between the PRC and Sweden. An image of a PRC university model characterised by elitism, more one-way communication, learning by heart, etc., was stressed. This also led me to some written sources. A balanced account of the general picture from a Hong Kong perspective can be found in Watkins and Biggs (year ?).63

The Informal seminar plus e- and tele-discussions with Marc Meng (Assistant Dean, Business Admin, ZhC) also led to my strategy for

62 See the section on “The SEZ (Special Economic Zone) of Zhuhai and its bigger sibling” in Ch.1 above.

63 See notes to Ch. 1 above.

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working with the language problems and the problems emanating from the differences mentioned.

My strategy became to ask for a class consisting of students who had been selected to come to Sweden. This, I believed, would have three major advantages: 1) A reasonable level of English language skills2) Commitment and 3) Possibilities for me to build continuously on the foundations that I had laid during earlier lectures. As underlined above, the final schedule was, however, very different from the one arrived at through the “multimedia” discussions preceding the visit.

Before and during the Guest Lectureship I have also learnt a lot about “The Chinese Classroom” from Swedes who have studied for reasonable periods in the PRC. Some very valuable informants were:

Anna Forsberg – As mentioned above – in the end of Ch.1 – she can be presented through her Masters Thesis at Stockholm University. She has agreed that I can forward it on request.Dr. Björn Forsberg. He has studied Chinese in the PRC and also interviewed a lot of workers in the PRD (the Pearl River Delta). He wrote his thesis in Sinology. Now he, however, works in the anthropology Dep’t. of Stockholm University.Research Engineer Lars Bondelind. He works at the PRC telecom giant Huawei. During the spring of 2009 he had a leave of absence to study Chinese in Shanghai (See below). Stefan Gutehall (HIG distant student in marketing-MBA). Stefan lives in the new territory part of Hong Kong. He was interviewed in Kowloon HK on June 24.

Interview on teaching experience at ZhC with Dr. Joy Rose (2.2.1)Dr. Joy Rose is a Business and Leadership professor from Atlanta, Georgia in the US. Dr. Joy Rose provided me/(us) with very valuable praxis-based knowledge about teaching conditions in the PRC. Of course our talk centred on conditions for foreign teachers at young PRC institutions of higher learning such as ZhC. The insights gained, I however, think are more broadly applicable. This was i.a. because it helped me to interpret written material such as that exemplified by Xiufan Wang and Watkins and Biggs (1996).64

My own background – with graduate studies in radical Economics of the “US-academia 1970s style” – makes my judgement biased. After that caveat I want to offer my opinion that Joy Rose is uniquely positioned to bridge between Chinese students, Chinese staff and “Western Academia”. She combines being an Afro-American woman who has gone through the

64 Wang, X. (2003) and Watkins and Biggs (1996).

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ordeal of a US PhD education in Business Admin with the experience of coming alone to a young Chinese college. The fact that ZhC is so young leads me to the conclusion that its encounters with “Western Academia” have probably been shallow so far.

At ZhC Joy Rose has up until now not taught in her own PhD subject. Instead she has taught English language courses. She has been teaching at ZhC for one academic year (?). Her students obviously loved her. Some students who we met by chance insisted that we should meet her. It was these same students who convinced her to let us into her tight schedule.

We learnt that there were altogether three foreign teachers on campus except Pia and me. Joy Rose was the only westerner – the other two foreigners being Korean and Japanese. As described above, I knew a little about the ‘special traits’ of Chinese learners prior to my guest lectureship. I, however, had not understood the situation for foreign teachers before meeting Joy Rose. When she first came to ZhC she had cried a lot and she had to create a liveable situation without any assistance. A lot of “probing” was necessary!

It was also as a result of the talk with Joy Rose that I really took notice of the salary situation of for teachers that I quoted above. Joy Rose’s wage was 7,000 Yuan/month but that wage she received only after a lot of bargaining. In order to arrive at a decent total income Joy Rose gave four on-line courses in the US at the same time as she taught at ZhC. And even with that extra income it only worked because Joy Rose didn’t have dependents.

My impression is that the supply of foreign teachers to other than elite universities in the PRC depends on a professional curiosity and idealism by foreigners such as Joy Rose. An important reason why it works is of course also the qualities of Chinese students as quoted earlier from The Rough Guide.

Besides explaining the teaching situation in general, Joy Rose also helped us understand some of the local intricacies of ZhC. One case in point is the teachers' apartment where we stayed some nights after evening classes. As opposed to the student dormitories – where 4 – 6 students shared one room – the teachers' apartments were very spacious.

Our apartment was also well equipped in principal. In spite of it being so new there was, however, mould (fungi) in the kitchen. And the hot water didn’t work in spite of heroic attempts to fix it by a number of plumbers. Another problem was that there were no maps of the vast campus.

The basic problem was, however, that the international secretariat of ZhC was severely under-staffed. So there was really no one to receive the kind questions and suggestions that Pia and I had. Of course this was ‘no big deal’ for us because of the brevity of our stay. I believe that it is a big problem, however, for the future provision of Guest Teachers to the PRC.

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Through her varied experience, probing nature and good contacts with the students etc, Joy Rose was able to help us interpret the situation. It was also important for us to find a kindred spirit. It is easy to think that you are too critical if you can’t compare your impressions with someone else's!

/The main interview with Dr. Joy Rose took place on June 12. As yet – when I am finalising my second draft – I have not been able to check the written version of my impressions with her/

Chinese Students with Experience from HIG (2.2.2)The fact that June is the exam period was a major problem for my Guest Lectureship. It meant that a lot of the students who were interested in the subjects that I covered were busy preparing for their exams or actually taking them.

The timing of the Guest Lectureship was, however, fortunate in another respect: Graduation day for the fourth year ZhC students was on June 15. This day of Graduation included those students from ZhC who had been to HIG during the academic year 2008-2009. So the former HIG students came back to ZhC for graduation during our time there. This in turn meant that we could get a lot of help with company visits from former HIG students. Below I will get back to this.

In this section on education I will, however, mention some comments from the ZhC/HIG students on their HIG experience. Just as most PRC students they were shy in giving critical comments. After some probing, I however, understood the following suggestions:1) While the ZhC/HIG students welcomed courses at HIG that included group work a change in group forming would be much appreciated. Mixed Chinese <–> <–> Swedish groups would of course create language problems. Creating such groups would, however, be worth a lot of effort. Such groups could help to break the isolation of Chinese students.2) More material translated from Swedish to English should be provided. This applies to all levels – from general background material to specifics for single courses.3) The application procedures for Chinese Students should become stricter. Prior knowledge of English is “a must”. The tests – IELTS – should not be conducted in-house at ZhC but by outside objective test organisers.

HIG and Gaevle in general, however, received good “marks” in other respects. People from Gaevle, who the Chinese students had met, had been very friendly. They had done much to help the Chinese students adapt to the very different environment.

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Company Studies in the Workshop of the World (2.3)Company visits together with student groups or on my own, interviews of management and union representatives, at-campus-guest-lectures by management, union and public representatives, have always been important parts of my teaching. A key reason for this is my own background as a researcher for Swedish trade unions.

During my time as a union researcher I found that the best way of obtaining a deep understanding was to compare the perspectives of many actors (a multiple perspective). I am referring here to the kind of multiple perspectives that one can gain by combining written sources, on-sight-visits and face-to-face encounters. (In fact my fondness of this way of working might even go further back in my own history. Maybe it was established already during my study years at the Stockholm School of Economics and it might even date back to my youth experiences of company visits in the hide/leather industry in which my father was active).

A major reason for me to say “yes” to the offer to visit Zhuhai and Guandong province was thus that I would get a chance to visit companies. I was encouraged to think that this would be possible when I, prior to the trip, met Chinese HIG students who shared my interest for Cantonese SMEs (SMEs = Small and medium-sized Enterprises). I mentioned their names above: Zhisheng Zhou and Yunli Lu. For a number of reasons I will often just call them Zhou and Venette.65 As becomes clear below they were important for the interpretations of the two company visits in Guandong province. The two companies visited were “G&G Ninestar Image” in Zhuhai and “Yueyou moulds & plastic” in Panyu Industrial District just South of Canton/Guangzhou. Below I will, for brevity, call them 9 STAR and Y-friends respectively.

Later in this section I will also briefly mention some broader impressions of business climate diferrences between the PRC and Northern Europe. Those impressions were partly gained through discussions with my hosts in Shanghai on June 21st to 23d.

The company visits and the discussions I think will be of great value for my future research and my HRM (Human Resource Management), sustainability and globalisation lectures.66

G&G Ninestar Image (2.3.1)The visit to the production site of 9 STAR (G&G Ninestar Image) took place on the afternoon of June 17. The visit was “brokered” by Meng (see above!) The visit was thus prepared via a dinner on June 13 to which Meng invited his friend “Brandon” who is market manager of 9 STAR for 65 See note above on Chinese and Pinyin names.66 I have received very constructive comments by those concerned on a first draft of the

report. I am very grateful for those comments!

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North America and Europe.67 Besides Pia and me, Meng also invited his former student Zhou (the Chinese/HIG student mentioned above). In this way Meng prepared for Zhou also accompanying Pia and me to the visit on June 17.

It was a good choice to show us 9 STAR as an example of a success story in the workshop of the world. 9 STAR is a leading actor in the after-market for laser and inject printer cartridges.68 The nine men who founded the company in the year 2000 have seen employment grow from 9 then to 3,500 today.

9 STAR runs a global business with 80 % of sales outside the PRC. When Brandon guided us around the premises and later answered our questions he had just come back from the US where he had put new local warehouses on stream. In Sweden 9 STAR has not needed a local presence of its own since the successful local actor “Ink Club” distributes its products.

The story of the 9 STAR production site in Zhuhai is also an example of success – in this case successful industrial restructuring. Before 9 STAR took over the site had housed a state IT business with ten thousand employed. That state company seems to have been part of what Castells discusses when he says that ...

“ ... (the) second major issue which slows down Chinese economic reforms is the low productivity, and low profitability of many (but not all …) of the state enterprises, which survive on subsidies, …”.69

An important factor behind the success of 9 STAR is its commitment to R&D of its own. According to its product catalogue

“… 9 STAR holds a strong R&D team with over 300 engineers and cooperates with worldwide well-known academies and research institutions …”70

9 STAR is ISO 9,000 and ISO 14,000 certified.71

9 STAR is thus very far from the condescending Western image of Chinese companies. According to that image “backward engineering” and lack of transparency characterize the Chinese companies.

67 As those who have read the notes above, about Chinese, Pinyin and English names, "Brandon" is an English name. This is why I placed his name between quotation marks the first time that I use it in this text. Brandon also has what I understand as a "combined Pinyin and English name" which is Brandon Luo. This is the name he uses on his English language business cards.

68 “After-market” is a term used to distinguish against the cartridges of the OEM (=Original Equipment Manufacturers) controlled by printer producers such as Epson, Canon etc.

69 Castells (2000) p. 328 in End of Millenium (2nd) ed) = Volume III.70 9 STAR 2009 Inkjet Product Catalogue p. 5.71 ISO 9,000 and ISO 14,000 are international quality and environmental certifications

respectively.

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“Taylor moved to China”In other respects, however, 9 STAR does conform to the preconceptions about Chinese manufacturing that you can get from afar. During our own brief walk in the factory buildings, we saw assembly lines that seemed to be organized according to traditional Taylorist methods. Average worker wages at 1,400 Yuan/month (piece rate wages) are probably above the regional industry average. The dormitory system (workers living on site), the lack of genuine unions, etc., seemed, however, typical of industries in the PRC Special Economic Zones (SEZs) discussed earlier. Given what I have read about Chinese production and taking into account the fact that there are frequent foreign visits and inspections at the site, I am, however, quite certain that conditions compare favorably with other PRC industries.

To Pia, who has seen neither Swedish assembly lines of the 1970s, nor those of South East Asian free trade zones (FTZs), the impression was, however, more negative.72 She thought of what would become of the line workers after a decade of work.

To Zhou finally, who has seen many production facilities in the PRC, the site represented much better working conditions than encountered elsewhere.

What impressed me most favourably was the way in which a young manager as Brandon seemed to consider being influenced by possible pressure from the foreign distributors and agents. There also seemed to be openings for ideas about shortcuts in the chains of command. I am here referring to the type of shortcuts that can result from project based organization etc. For the white-collar staff (500 out of a total of 3,500 employees) I thus think that the conditions are way above average. By way of speculation I would venture that part of the successes of 9 STAR can be attributed to such factors. In a more scientific – less journalistic – account such impressions would of course have to be better tested.

Some “non 9 STAR” topics brought up with Brandon (2.3.2)The conversations we had with Brandon also touched upon several subjects that are not directly related to 9 STAR. Also when we discussed those “non 9 STAR” topics we learnt a lot. Brandon really went out of his way to try to answer our questions in spite of the fact that we were of no “business value” to him. As examples of the valuable conversations I will mention three very diverse topics.

The hardships of the Chinese Toy Industry (2.3.2a)

72 When I was a trade union researcher in 1978 – 1983 I had opportunities to see both Swedish assembly lines of the 1970s and those of South East Asian FTZs.

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On the fraction of my HIG time that is devoted to research I work with the research project INFLOW.73 In that project we i.a. study the global chemistry information flows related to the production chains for toys and garments. An article on toys, during the autumn 2008, in a Swedish daily, therefore intrigued me. In the article it was mentioned that half of the Chinese toy industry had closed down during the short span of the last year.74 From afar (with my “glasses” of the autumn 2008) a number of possible reasons could be identified:

– Toxic substances were found in Chinese toys– Negative media coverage initiated by Human Rights and environmental INGOs. (INGOs = International Non-governmental Organisations)– General drop in demand during the financial crises– Revaluation of the Yuan– Etc., etc.

Since the potential explanations were all very speculative I wanted to follow up on the subject. Since Guandong Province is the centre of the world’s toy production I took the opportunity to ask about it. At the heart of Brandon’s answer was the short phrase: “It is destiny!” The answer was of course more elaborate than this and Zhou made some important additions. The arguments reminded me of schools of thought within meso-economic subjects such as Industrial Organisation and Development Economics.75

Among the explanatory backgrounds, to the drastic drop in the number of Guandong toy factories, wage levels are central. Even if wage levels are as low as 1,100 Yuan/month this must be considered in conjunction with the appreciating Yuan. The low capital/labour ratio of “the typical toy factory” must also be taken into account. The low ratio makes toy manufacturing a very good candidate for poor Chinese potential entrepreneurs who want to start their own business. So the entry into the industry has been rapid during the last decades. Exits have, however, also soared among Cantonese SMEs. This also applies to other industries and not only during the last year but during the last decade. The average lifetime of a new business has dropped from over six years in the 1990s to just over two years recently.76

The pull provided by easy entry has of course also led to the bad conditions that have been criticised by Western INGOs. Lots of entrants into the toy industry had a complete lack of the knowledge resources 73 INFLOW is an accronym (?) for our research project Towards Improved Interactions

in the Two-Way Flow of Risk-Related Chemical Information -- The Cases of Clothing, Toys, and Paint. Mikael Klintman is the coordinator of the project. He works at FPI <fpi.lu.se>.

74 Johan Myrsten in “Svenska Dagbladet Näringsliv" 2008-11-10 page 13.75 Such different economists as Schumpeter, Dennison and Meidner came to my mind.76 The figures on average lifetime comes from interviews with Venette's father (see

below) and …

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needed to act in a serious way. A heavy responsibility should therefore be put on the middlemen whether Asian or Western.

As an amateur in Asian Development Economics I was also surprised to learn that part of the Guandong toy industry is moving to locations such as Viet Nam and Bangladesh.

Vietnamese wages at clearly under 100 US dollars /month seem to give some Viet Nam locations a clear advantage over Guandong in what has been termed “the global race to the bottom”. (To give some perspective to those figures one can note the (United Nations Development Program) /UNDP/ poverty figures of one and two US dollars a day per head).

A speculative note on age structures of Middle Management in Guandong and Sweden (2.3.2b)Mark Meng, I found out after the dinner of June 13, is less than 30 years of age. His formal position is Assistant Dean of the Business Dep’t of ZhC. His friend Brandon –Our host at 9 STAR – is about the same age. He has at this age already a lot of experience of building the international marketing and service organization of 9STAR. Zhou and Venette are both 22. They have just graduated from four years of college (of which one in Gaevle, Sweden) and I am sure they will be way in to their careers in a couple of years. According to statistics from ZhC some 96 % of the graduates of the college have jobs within a short period after their graduation.77

My, also very loose, impression is that this very rapid entrance into the skilled labour market is in sharp contrast to the Swedish scene (even before the financial crisis). Based on what I hear from colleagues at Swedish universities as well as from daughters and sons of my friends (those daughters and sons being of the same age group as Meng and Brandon) I think it will take much longer time for the Swedish youth with higher education to reach positions of responsibility.

It is easy to find explanations that must, however, be as speculative as the hypotheses of “age entry differences”. The fact that the broadening of "ICT literacy" came two decades later in the PRC is a good candidate for explaining the advantage for younger entrants in the PRC. The recent broadening of other means of communication (language skills, cultural "tools" etc.) with the world outside the PRC might be another good candidate when trying to explain. The unprecedented export-led growth for 30 years could certainly be the determining factor. Of course the factors are interrelated.

77 On the quote about "96 % having jobs within a short period", see, however, the note above in chapter 1.

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I am not venturing into any judgement of this difference between the PRC and countries like Sweden. I, however, definitely think that it is worth exploring and reflecting on.

Cooperation between Industry and Higher Education in Guandong (2.3.2c)In my own teaching in Sweden I have always worked hard to get industry leaders and middle managers to volunteer to give guest lectures. I started to do that when I worked with education for union representatives in the late 1970s. I have continued to do so in very different types of educational settings ever since.

Even though the only remuneration I have been able to offer has been the encounter with the students I have noticed that even very busy leaders of industry have been willing to come to my classes. I was thus surprised to learn that Brandon had never been invited to share his experiences with students at colleges in Guandong. Maybe I misunderstood or maybe it is not typical. I, however, think that it is worth exploring in the context of academic exchange between the PRC and Sweden.

Yueyou moulds & plastic (2.3.3)The visit to the "Y-friends" (Yueyou moulds & plastic) mould production site in the Panyu Industrial District took place around noon on June 19. The visit was "brokered by" Venette and Zhou (Yunli Lu and Zhisheng Zhou). As discussed above, the visit was initialised already in Gaevle. The day before the visit we (Pia, Zhou and I) had come to Canton where we had met Venette and saw the famous wholesale markets for textiles, toys etc.

The production site we saw is located in the Southern Canton Industrial District of Panyu. Panyu is a suburb situated at he end of a Canton subway line.

Before seeing the design and production site in Panyu we had brunch in central Canton with Venette's parents and our "guides" Venette and Zhou. Venette's father – Ze Cheng Lou – was one of the founders of Y-friends. He does not have an "English name". I will alternately call him Ze Cheng Lou and Venette's father.78

78 Again see note above on Chinese, "Pinyin" and "English names".

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The conversation with Venette's Father during the brunch (with Zhou as interpreter) was in a way more rewarding to me at a theoretical level but it was the combination of that talk and seeing the factory with my own eyes that gave a lasting image.

I believe that Y-friends and Ze Cheng Lou's story is a good teaching example of the Guandong industrial development. Venette's Father used to be a skilled worker and he and his co-owner started Y-friends informally in 1990. It was still a very small company with only two machines in 1998. From 1998 to 2005 it, however, expanded rapidly and had 240 employees in the latter year.

According to an English language "Company Profile" depicting the situation in 2005

"... Guanzhou Panyu Yueyou Mold and Plastic Products Co (Y-friends) ... is primarily engaged in manufacturing plastic injection molds and plastic products for [ICT products], household electric appliances, ..."

Among the more than 240 employees there were" ... 20 engineers, 25 senior technicians and 30 management staff."79

According to the brunch conversation the present numbers are 200 employees altogether including 50 white-collar workers. The largest customer is today Midea Electrical Appliance Group. The contraction from 240 to 200 employees since 2005 I interpret as a sign that Y-friends has, thus far, successfully weathered the storm triggered by the global financial crisis through down-sizing.80

79 Guanzhou Panyu Yueyou Mold and Plastic Products Co "Company Profile" (from 2006) p. 3.

80 Compare the figures mentioned above about the declining length of survival of SMEs from 6.4 years in 1999 to 2,4 years in 2005. (See the note to the paragraphs on the toy industry where the drop in average lifetimes of a new business was discussed). I do not know from where Venette's father quoted. I also have not looked into the big Chinese companies restructuring of supply chains. I would, however, be surprised if there has not been major restructuring of supply chains.

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Some factors could explain the tenacity of the company:– The circumstance that development and design of moulds for plastic

production still contains certain elements of art in spite of it being done by CAD/CAM/CAE.81

– The fact that Y-friends covers more than one link in the production chain. When I write "more than one link" what I have in mind is that the company makes both plastic details and the moulds in which those details are formed.

– The character of the dominant final market for the products. I take it that the electrical appliances sold by Midea are products that consumers often buy disregarding the business cycle and that a lot of the products are geared to the PRC market.

In the Company Profile it is highlighted that Y-friends has repeatedly received the "Qualified Supplier Certificate" from the Midea Electrical Appliance Group. Y-friends is one of the smallest suppliers of Midea and Y-friends' dependence on Midea is potentially a big problem.82

The English language "Company Profile" could be understood as an attempt to establish direct contacts with overseas markets. So far overseas sales are, however, limited. (An example of direct export is plastic details for micro-wave-ovens).

[Insert image from Y-friends' showroom?]

Ze Cheng Lou on Human Relations and RecruitingWhen reflecting on the Y-friends' Human Relations I again must admit that I am biased in favour of the company of our hosts. I was very much taken in by the humility and sincerity of Venette's father. He and Venette's mother were in the process of retiring and could thus spend the morning hours with us. They, however, didn't come along to the factory visit.

81 In the abbreviations CAD/CAM/CAE the part CA means Computer Aided. The abbreviations stem from the period of transition to digital ...

82 Compare the footnote above about restructuring of supply chains.

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Ze Cheng Lou seemed to have had the ambition to create a more "modern" management style at Y-friends. One written indication that gives the same impression as that of the brunch comes from the "Company Profile" mentioned above. There, under the heading "Strong designing team" it is stated that ...

"... Customer orientation is the business concept of Yueyou Mold. To realize this concept we need a large team of talents in marketing, management, production, research, product development and service to join the company. This company is people oriented. It respects knowledge and talents and provide a development future for the talents. ..."83

This can of course be seen as a "politically correct" statement that can anyhow not be understood by the employees since they do not understand English. When I combine the Company Profile statement with my impressions from the interaction during the brunch I, however, conclude that the Company Profile statement represents an ambition that Ze Cheng Lou had some years ago.

During the brunch Ze Cheng Lou lamented that it hasn't been possible to get out of a traditional Chinese management style. He also said that it was hard to recruit outside /external (?) professional managers. He thinks that there is a big danger in the Chinese SME tradition of recruiting "extended family relatives" to run the company. That tradition, he thinks, carries the risk of preserving traditional authoritarian patterns. He is, however, a bit sad that youngsters like his own daughter, who has studied in the West (Gaevle) and who has developed an "arms-length view" will

83 Guanzhou Panyu Yueyou Mold and Plastic Products Co "Company Profile" (from 2006 ?) p. 13.

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not consider working in the firm. He believes that she would find the horizons of a company like Y-friends too narrow.84

The walk around the factory in PanyuWalking by the machining centre during the lunch break of the Panyu factory made me feel as if I was back to my time as a union researcher in the late 1970s. Of course the "small company" of Guandong today is 10 times as big as " the small company" in Sweden then. But there were some things that felt the same. Maybe what felt the same was a sense that the disciplining force was the tasks to be done rather than the foreman's eye or a conveyor belt.

At the ground floor there were CNC machines (made in Taiwan), the plastic injection machines where the first products of the moulds were tested, and other spaces where blue-collar work was performed. White-collar work, such as design and programming, was done upstairs. Our company guide at the factory was the market manager – Mr Zhu – who had earlier worked as an engineer. Venette translated everything said. Once in a while she looked at paper sheets with technical terms that her father and Venette had prepared in advance.

Wages for CNC operators in the Panyu factory are around 1,500 Yuan/month and for engineers around 3,000 Yuan/month. Blue-collar workers are encouraged to learn on the job in order to advance.

During our walk through the "upstairs departments" I was happy to see a computer screen marked with the Swedish Union Label TCO 99. I guess that no one in the factory was aware that it is a union label. I am, however, sure that my friend Per-Erik Boivie will be happy to learn about it. Per-Erik Boivie initiated the series of Union Labels already in the 1980s when he worked at the Swedish white-collar union federation TCO. TCO 99 and the later versions of the label are today global sustainability labels for IT equipment.85

[Insert TCO 99 /Panyu image here]

Some “non Y-friends” topics brought up in relation to the Canton visit (2.3.4)The conversations with Ze Cheng Lou (Venette's father), Venette and Zhou during the two days of the visit to Canton gave lots of fruits for

84 A personal note from me (EH): I believe that I recognize many of the worldviews of Venette's and Zhou's families from my own youth. There are of course hundreds of differences between the Jewish business family in which I grew up and the two business families of my hosts. The similarities, however, moved me deeply.

85 Boivie, Per Erik: GLOBAL STANDARD - how computer displays worldwide got the TCO logo, Premiss Förlag 2007. Also available in SwedishHollander, Ernst: Enviro-innovative processes initialised by unions and other social actors - with a focus on TCO eco-labels in "Towards a Sustainable Worklife. Building Social Capacity - European Approaches". Hildebrandt, E. et.al. eds. Berlin edition sigma 2001.

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thoughts. I am very grateful for this.86 Also here I will mention three diverse topics.

The Panyu Industrial DistrictI asked Ze Cheng Lou about why the company had been located to Panyu. What I understood from the answer was that here were key suppliers in the area, room for expansion and also an "industrial culture". It might be farfetched but his reflections reminded me of what I learnt from the Swedish Economist Erik Dahmén and from the Historian of Technology and Economy Nathan Rosenberg. In works from those two distinguished Economists early small-scale capital accumulation is described.

The pattern that Erik Dahmén and Nathan Rosenberg describe is that of skilled workers knowing the needs of the local industry. Those workers/entrepreneurs set up their own businesses based on incremental innovations. Of course it is speculative to argue that today's Panyu Industrial District, South of Canton, shares some characteristics with the Industrial Districts described by Dahmén and Rosenberg. I, however, think that the idea is worth exploring.

The Economic Power of the owners of Export/Import LicencesThe problems that "Y-friends" faced when it tried to enter the export market might be typical for many SMEs (Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises). That is at least what Zhou suspected given what he had heard from other SMEs. I will return to the broader question below and will restrict myself to one aspect here.

Those persons or firms that have export/import lnicences can use those to get hold of big parts of the profits that could be earned by SMEs who form parts of cross-border production chains. The owners of the export/import lnicences pretty well know the cost structures of the firms that want to export or import. This means that the license owners can set procurement or selling prices just at the level where the SMEs break even. To me this suspicion doesn't seem very odd. It rather sounds as describing a situation quite similar to the age old problem facing small holding peasants in their relation to feudal lords.

Again this is nothing that I have dug into. I, however, think it is worth scholarly efforts to investigate closer.

Guangdong SME Policy PackageAs mentioned above I got to know about the SME interests of Venette and Zhou already in Gaevle. After the visits to "Y-friends" and to the wholesale markets in Canton I felt ready to make a first summary of their ideas for SME policies. Five interconnected points can be made:

86 I did not get to talk a lot to Yan Qing Kong (Venette's mother), but my common-law wife Pia talked with her. She helped us a lot with our busy day on June 19. We are of course very grateful to her too.

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1) ICT support including educationAs mentioned above 'ICT literacy' is very age dependent in the PRC. But quite a few of the SME owners in Guangdong started their firms in the 1980s or 1990s before the Internet became available in the PRC. The skills that the owners had, and that made it possible for their firms to grow, can be devalued rapidly by the founders' lack of Internet skills.2) Finance for SMEsAvailability of finance seems to be restricted for SMEs.3) Export licences oligopoly to be brokenSee above under the heading "The Economic Power of the Owners of Export/Import Licences"4) Non-family-based market for professional managersAgain see above. This time under the heading "Ze Cheng Lou on Human Relations and Recruiting".5) Foreign language supportMy fifth point is even more influenced by my own interpretations than the four points above. It is so obvious that it is sometimes forgotten. The point refers to the power of language. I guess that my impressions about the power of language are shared by millions of people who have worked with Chinese<->Western relations. I am ashamed by not having found the figures for Western <-> Chinese bilingual persons living in China and the West respectively. Nor do I have a clue about how many there will be with present educational trends. Also I have not seen such figures in the many articles that assert that India will be the future Office of the World while China will "only be" the Workshop of the World. I thus do not think that I am alone when I base my opinion on loose ground. After this caveat I can venture the opinion that quantum leaps in the number of people with reasonable double language knowledge would be the most important driver of power changes that one can imagine. I am referring to changing power relations within China as well as between China and the West. As to the question at hand here I think that the SMEs in Guangdong will only be able to assert themselves against national and international counterparts if and when they get access to English (or possibly to other major Western languages).

So – possibly together with ICT – language is the crucial point.

A bilingual couple in Shanghai with "loads of" Sweden <-> China experience (2.3.5)Towards the end of the stay at ZhC we (Pia and I) got an invitation to come to Shanghai after having finished teaching at ZhC and after having done the company visits in Guangdong. This gave a unique possibility to cheque both the educational and company experiences from a different perspective.

The background to the invitation was that I had had a PRC "colleague" during my doctoral studies at KTH (the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm). Her name is Weihong Wang. She had come to Sweden from

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her native Hunan Province in the early 1990s to study, had inter alia worked at Ericsson, and had returned to work in the PRC as late as in 2007. Her husband – Lars Bondelind – who is an ethnic Swede – also was in Shanghai studying Chinese during a leave of absence from his work.

Weihong Wang is truly Chinese <-> Swedish bilingual as she has lived more than one third of her life in Sweden. Since 2007 she has been working as the Manager of a Chinese subsidiary of a Swedish Logistics Consulting firm.87 Lars Bondelind is in a unique position to compare cultures and management styles between Swedish and Chinese TNCs. This is so since Lars Bondelind has worked with R&D in several Swedish TNCs and also in a Chinese TNC.

Even though Lars Bondelind thinks it is tough to learn Chinese beyond the basics at a mature age he is Swedish <-> Chinese bilingual in other respects.

Weihong and Lars should have no blame or responsibility for the many speculative opinions ventured in this report. I would, however, probably not have dared to formulate quite a few of the hypotheses presented above had I not had the chance to test them on Weihong and Lars. Of course we disagreed on lots of points but some of my worst mistakes were sorted out. Our discussions concerned both educational questions and questions on economics/business admin.

Lars experience of learning Chinese in Shanghai as a person of "middle age" seems to confirm some stereotypes. The teaching he was exposed to is adapted to young and very receptive students who are willing to learn a lot by heart. This is of course tough for persons of Lars' or, for that matter, my age. And the exams are typically of the multiple-choice format. Lars, however, stressed that learning Chinese necessarily entails learning by heart. This is so since the characters inChinese are not constructed in a very systematic way.

When it comes to business experience of a Chinese TNC the experience that Lars has gained is, however, perfect to crush stereotypes: Huawei has very rapidly become the number one competitor of the present world leader in telecom the Swedish TNC Ericsson. For Huawei to arrive so rapidly to this position in one of the most important hi-tech industries is no mean achievement.

The uniqueness of what Lars could tell me has nothing to do with technology or comparative industrial policies in hi-tech industries.88 It has rather to do with some observations on differences of HRM styles in two telecom giants. (Ericsson and Huawei).

87 UnitedLog Consulting Ltd. 88 We did not enter into those questions.

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My interpretation is that the negative aspects of guanxi/close-knit personal networks could be found in both the companies. In Ericsson a glue that keeps middle management networks together is a combination of shared educational background and shared experiences of just having worked for one company. Decision-making in Ericsson is often a quite slow process.

In Huawei some typical traits of Chinese tradition can be discerned. To understand the importance of position in the hierachy, guanxi and assigning of information is key to understanding Chinese management. When writing about assigning of information I am referring to the structuring of information in parcels that from above just seem big enough to solve the task assigned. From the vantage point of a unit head, such limits of information breadth and transparency can, however, be rather frustrating. It can be very efficient when the top managers are right but can also be dysfunctional since it opens for duplication of work and even contradictory work.

Just as with Lars there was only limited scope to interview Weihong about her work experiences. My only comments thus refer to the logistics branch and to the workload. With world trade being restructured to cope with the PRC ascendancy to become the workshop of the world the biggest challenges might be language, cultural distances, ICT and Logistics. In three of those Weihong has unique competencies.89

When it comes to workload Weihong seems to be more typical of the Chinese upper middle class elite. Most persons whom I saw in this group seem to work very long days and have very heavy workloads. Consequently the leisure industry is one Chinese industry that is quite underdeveloped compared to for instance to its Swedish counter-part.

Ad hoc visit to look at Hong Kong University on June 25 (2.3.6)On our way back to Sweden Pia and I stopped for two days in the SAR (Special Administrative Region) of Hong Kong. I had heard a representative of a Hong Kong based NGO explain the economic importance of Hong Kong at a Greening of Industry Network (GIN) Conference in 2002. She made clear how large shares of global clothing, consumer electronics, ICT hardware etc, that were coordinated from Hong Kong already at that time.

Since then I had made some efforts to establish research cooperation with Hong Kong academics. I, however, tried some new paths when I was invited to Zhuhai. My efforts have, however, been without success. I therefore paid an ad hoc visit to the highly ranked Hong Kong University (HKU) on June 25. The highlight of the visit was the one to the University

89 On a more personal level I was intrigued when seeing Weihong again – now in her native China. The only things she missed when living in Pudong, Shanghai was the clean nature in Sweden and visits from her former KTH colleagues.

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Bookstore (swindonbooks.com). One of the most valuable sources for this report I found there: Xiufang Wang’s book “Education in China Since 1976”.

What I saw of HKU – on site and as well as through browsing in the bookstore and browsing through the web pages of HKU – confirmed my impression of how research cooperation with ZhC could be organised. There have been ideas at HIG about such research cooperation possibly in the realm of sustainability.. I am convinced that the cooperation should involve Hong Kong academics to become meaningful.

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Chapter 3) Ideas to improve the Zhuhai College <-> HIG exchange

[Alterations/suggestions especially welcome concerning ch. 3]

In many academic institutions (below elite level) international cooperation tend to get less priority than it should. There are often good intentions but day-to-day questions often get to dominate and questions of who has the responsibility remain unanswered. It is no surprise that both the University College of Gaevle (HIG) and Zhuhai College of Jilin University (ZhC_JU) conform to the pattern.

The way of describing the problems that I use earlier in this report and below, are of course biased in the sense that other guest lecturers would see other things and would interpret differently. I hope that there is some value in the remedies suggested in spite of my biases.

Given the lack of stated expectations from HIG I saw my guest lectureship as a kind of pilot project. I tried to get a feeling for the history of the cooperation between the PRC institutes of higher education and HIG. From Dr. Ming Zhao, Dep't of Technology at HIG and Eva Carling International Secretariat at HIG I was informed that there were seven PRC universities/institutes with which HIG cooperated. I also understood that I would be the first guest lecturer from HIG to ZhC. As mentioned above Ming Zhao also made it clear how young ZhC is (founded in 2004) and that it is situated in an SEZ (Special Economic Zone).

The special focus of my teaching (on students about to come to HIG) and the broad content (an overview of Swedish/EU work for the three dimensions of sustainability) were finally arrived at through interactions with Dr. Ming Zhao from HIG and Marc Meng (Assistant Dean, Business Admin, ZhC). Until quite late the feedback from the ZhC_JU international department, on my suggestions about pedagogical design of my teaching was, however, quite bewildering. Examples of what I refer to with the phrase "suggestions about pedagogical design" are size and focus of student groups, required language skills, numbers of lectures and their contents, etc. Until a short time before leaving Sweden I was uncertain whether it would really be worthwhile to pursue the Guest Lectureship.

The program for our visit that Pia and I got on our arrival to Zhuhai was out of touch with what we had anticipated after our earlier contacts. We thus had to do a lot of the organising of our program during our stay in the PRC. So it was lucky that I had brought more lecturing material with me from Sweden than could be used during 14 hours. The time thus saved could be used for organising the program etc. Before entering into my suggestions for the future I will briefly repeat some of the problems at different levels.

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General problems relating to cooperation with the PRC in higher educationIn the introductory chapter above I used Xiufang Wang’s book from 2003 to highlight some problems.90

Language. I had received many warnings about the language problems from friends who had been teaching at elite institutions in the PRC. I had also encountered problems myself with Chinese students at HIG. In spite of the warnings I was shocked by how hard it was to get around with English even in the outward looking Pearl River Delta (PRD) Region. Reasonable communication for a non-Chinese speaking person like myself could only be established with a few teachers who had been abroad and with the select group of students who I had managed to get into my class.

When you want to work outside a small elite group I therefore think that finding a solution to the language problem is key to a functioning educational cooperation.

Red tape and the tradition of fragmenting are also general problems of great weight. When I first made suggestions for the content of my teaching I noticed a frustration over the fact that I didn't fit into a departmental "slot". One sign was that I was repeatedly asked about my "major". As suggested earlier the tradition of "slots" and the lack of familiarity with multi-disciplinary approaches are discussed by Xiufang Wang.91 A problem that according to Xiufang Wang is general for what she calls "common universities" is "lack (of) both strong faculty members and close relationships with industries".92 The latter point I discussed briefly above in the section relating to "9 STARS".

Problems relating to cooperation with ZhCMany of the problems that could be brought up under this heading are probably general for what Xiufang Wang calls "Common Universities". It is my lack of overview that makes me discuss some of them under a heading specially referring to ZhC.

The problem of an understaffed "Office of International Cooperation and Exchange" became discernable already before our visit (See below). This " International Office" didn't seem to have a lot of clout. This might explain such things as the lack of Maps in Western languagesFact sheets (for instance about the economy of the region, the University system in the PRC etc.) and University appointed guides (to inform about such things as internet access, libraries, classroom location, transportation, etc, etc.)

90 Xiufang Wang (2003) “Education in China Since 1976”.91 For instance at pp 266 in Xiufang Wang “Education in China Since 1976”.92 Ibid p. 279

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The fact that it was so hard for our contact person to act upon even small practical matters – such as those mentioned under the header "Interview on teaching experience at ZhC with Dr. Joy Rose" – might have more to do with a general top-down culture. The falling relative status of teachers is probably also a factor that is at play. As is the lack of experience in receiving foreign teachers.

Under this heading I will also repeat the suggestions from the ZhC/HIG students mentioned above in chapter two:

1) While the ZhC/HIG students welcomed courses at HIG that included group work, a change in the way in which groups are formed would be much appreciated. Mixed Chinese <-> Swedish groups would of course create language problems. Creating such groups would, however, be worth a lot of effort. Such groups could help to break the isolation of Chinese students.2) More material translated from Swedish to English should be provided. This applies to all levels – from general background material to specifics for single courses.3) The application procedures for Chinese Students should become stricter. Prior knowledge of English is “a must”. The tests – IELTS – should not be conducted in-house at ZhC but by outside objective test organisers.

Another matter worth bringing up here is some thoughts about the space for research cooperation. The problems relating to research, which I mentioned in chapter one, under the headings "A Mixture of Authoritarian Heritages" and " The Problem of the Two Streams ...", are much more serious in Educational or Social Science Research than in Engineering or Natural Science Research.

Chinese advances in Engineering and Natural Science Research are, as Xiufang Wang underlined, impressing. I, however, think that research in Social Science or Education is much more dependent on breaches with authoritarian heritages. The mixture of perspectives – and the bridge building possible – that could emerge from a bringing in of Hong Kong scholars could mean a lot. (I argued in passing for that also in the end of Ch. 2 when mentioning the 'ad hoc visit to HKU'). The possibilities to experiment with such a triangular research approach should be seriously considered.

There are obviously many fields where research cooperation with colleges in SEZs, such as ZhC, universities in HK and Swedish institutes of higher learning, such as HIG, could be fruitful. Among the fields that come to my mind after writing this report I will mention three odd fields: SME policy, Enviro-innovation and detoxification of Chemical Flows. The first field relates to observations above in this report, the two latter to my prior research intrests.

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Problems specifically relating to our (PH and EH) visit in June The timing of our visit was very bad. To conduct (?) a Guest Lectureship during an exam period would be a bad idea in any country. It is, however, especially bad in the PRC given the strong exam-orientation in the country. June in the Pearl River Delta Region also is bad from a climate point of view. The precipitation is above 400 mm / month and the humidity is extreme. The "Rough Guide" states: "Avoid the period if possible".93

Some other problems of our stay have been mentioned above and will be touched upon below.

Some improvement suggestionsGuest Lectureships might preferably be scheduled for mid terms (March/April or October/November). The conditions of the exchange, the resources allocated etc. should be decided at the top level of the two parties to the cooperation. The agreements must, however, be developed in close cooperation with the teachers, researchers, administrative staff etc. who will be practically affected. The handling of feedback and the responsibility to channel the feedback into further developing the cooperation must be thought through.

The persons who will visit must have ample time of preparation. The need for practical things to be arranged (see above) and assigning of guides /mentors must be thought through with even longer time of notice. Assigned guides /mentors should share professional interests with the guests.

Teachers at both ends must be trained in English taking account of the special features of Chinglish and Swenglish.94 Core groups of students should be assigned to the courses. These core groups should also have good language skills as well as openness to the special fields of interests of the visiting teacher (s). Teacher familiarity with the educational and socio-economic system to be visited is of course very valuable. Deficiencies in that respect might, however, be remedied if the visits are planned well in advance.

The problems of relationship with industry might also be remedied reasonably easy. What I have in mind is that there could be advance planning of company visits such as the ones that Pia and I did and guest lectureships at ZhC by industry representatives such as Brandon of 9 STARS.95 With such dedicated teachers/researchers as Meng and dedicated former students as Venette and Zhou as brokers/guides this might be possible. It is defenitily worth attempting.

93 (The) Rough Guide to China 5th ed. (2008) p. xy ...94 See China Daily June 17, 2009. "Chinglish – War of Words".95 See Ch. 2.

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Distance education as preparation or as another track in the cooperation should be considered. Pairs or groups of teachers going together should be encouraged.

FinallyI could go on with suggestions for many more pages but realize that I have already produced a tall agenda. Finally I, however, think that the fact that this tall agenda has been produced and that the long report has been written might be a sign that Pia's and my pilot visit was a success. If this really will be the case depends on whether the exchange is continued and developed.

In any case, we have many heart-felt thanks to extend for learning so much both about China and about ourselves. A major reason for me to write at such length is that I hope that the report should be perceived as a sign of gratitude.

Maybe I shall finish by repeating what I said in the introduction: The fact that the report is partly rather critical is in my case a sign of appreciation. I think it is a waste to criticise institutions, students or research colleagues who can’t see the constructive potential of empathetic criticism.

First draft written in the beautiful Archipelago of Stockholm in August 2009

/Ernst Hollander (with support from Pia Hallin, Brian Faitt and many others)96

96 See Appendix 1. Again let me stress that none of them should bear any responsibility for the contents of this report! /eH

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ReferencesFormat to adapt to in final version (Harvard)Author, Initials/first name., Year. Title of book. Edition. (only include this if not the first edition) Place: Publisher.

Bengtsson, Erik who i.a. writes in Arena

Björkstén, J. (2006) = Björkstén, Johan 2006 I mittens rike – det historiska och moderna Kina Bilda Förlag. This book is distributed to those who travel with the Swedish - China Travel Agency "Lotus Travels". A beautiful and popular book held in a serious tone.

Boivie, Per Erik (2007) GLOBAL STANDARD - how computer displays worldwide got the TCO logo, Premiss Förlag 2007. Also available in Swedish

Braudel, Fernand Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Century (1979) (also in note)

Castells, Manuel 1998/ 2000 p. 330 in End of Millenium (2nd) ed). Volume III in “The information age: Economy, Society and Culture” Oxford: Blackwell Publishers

China Daily is an official English-language newspaper. As far as I know there are two editions – one for the "Mainland" and one Hong Kong edition.

(The) Economist Oct. 24 2009 "Special Report on China and America"

Economy, Elizabeth "The river runs black: The Environmental Challenge to China's Future".

Fanon, Frantz The Wretched of the Earth (year xx)

Fleck Fleck (79[1935]) = Fleck, Ludwik Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact U. of Chicago Press 1979 (German orig. 1935)

Flextronics / Pär Fjällström (In more detail I’ve described the module in a grant application Note to “Three times Taylor

Forsberg, Anna Konsumtion som politiskt påtryckningsmedel i Kina ‐ begränsningar och möjligheter.

Gao Xingjian (1988). In Swedish the novel has the title "När jag köpte ett

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spinnspö åt farfar". In Chinese it is "Wo gei laoye mai yugan". The collection of novels and plays where this was the title novel appeared at Bokförlaget Forum 1988. ISBN 91-37-09394-0.

Guanzhou Panyu Yueyou Mold and Plastic Products Co "Company Profile" (probably from 2006 [?])

Guo, Wanli and Zhen Li Towards an understanding of management style differences between China and Sweden – Based on impressions from 5 Chinese R&D employees in Sweden (Masters Thesis at HIG, 2009)

Haraldsson, Marcus En linje över Kina Alfabeta 2007

Helleiner, Eric article (1995): Great Transformations: A Polanyian Perspective on the Contemporary Global Financial Order Studies in Political Economy 48: 149-164

Hermele/Hollander (2008) Taking sust into ...

Hinton, W. US agronomist William Hinton had tried to ‘serve the Chinese peasants’ through working in rural China. His account of his experiences in the book Fan Shen

Hollander, Ernst (2001) Enviro-innovative processes initialised by unions and other social actors - with a focus on TCO eco-labels in "Towards a sustainable Worklife. Building Social Capacity - European Approaches". Hildebrandt, E. et.al. eds. Berlin edition sigma 2001

Hollander (xx) … “Three times Taylor educational module" in conj w. film Flex

http://www.china-labour.org.hk/en/ accessed July – Sept. 2009 web site of the Hong Kong based NGO “China Labour Bulletin”

Lazonick (2008) Lazonick, William Lessons from the Advanced Economies – Entrepreneurial Ventures and the Developmental State UNU-WIDER Discussion Paper No. 2008/01, January 2008

Lynas, Mark (2007) "Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet". Fourth Estate, Harper Collins

Myrsten, Johan in SvD Business Section

NYRB – “The Chinese Shadow” in New York Review of Books 2005, Nov. 17 and Dec. 1.

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NYRB 2009 June 11 on Japan today. The NYRB article takes its starting point in the film “Tokyo Sonata”

Ngai, Pun (Pun Ngai ?) “Made in China – Women Factory Workers in a global Workplace” by U. of HK sociologist Pun Ngai

(The) Rough Guide to China 5th ed. (2008)

Svenska Dagbladet SvD

Tang, Catherine “Collaborative learning: the latent dimension in Cinese students’ learning” in Watkins and Biggs (year ?)

de Vylder, Stefan ppt ...

Watkins David A., and John B. Biggs (1996) The Chinese Learner: Cultural Psychological & Contextual Influences (Paperback - Nov 1, 1996)

Wheelwright, E. L. and McFarlane, Bruce. The Chinese Road to Socialism: Economics of the Cultural Revolution. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1970. I especially mention Bruce Mc Farlane since I met him in person and discussed with him.

Wong, Ola No I’m from Borås...

Xiufang Wang (2003) “Education in China Since 1976” ... the book is from 2003

Zhang, Yuntao "Chemical related information in textile supply chains – A case study of the producers in China” Master Thesis at CTH 2009

Zhou, Zhisheng and (Venette) Lou wrote their Candidate Thesis under the supervision of Jonas Kågström at HIG: The title is: The Internationalization of SME – Case study of Krnosept AB and Jinmao lighting electrical Co .Ltd

Zhuhai Map (English – Chinese): “Zhuhai – a beautiful city”

Interviews/chats

Power Point Presentations

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Appendix 2 – List of abbreviations and key concepts for CF4T3xT = Three times Taylor educational moduleCAD/CAM/CAE = In the abbreviations CAD/CAM/CAE the part CA means Computer Aided. The abbreviations stem from the period of transition to digital ...Canton = a European name for the capital of Guandong province. The pinyin name is GuanzhouCh. = chapterCNC machines OBS!CTH OBS!EH = Ernst HollanderFPI = Research Policy Institute (of Lund University) The abbreviation/ accronym comes from the Swedish name ForskningsPolitiska InstitutetFTZ = Free Trade Zone GIN = Greening of Industry Network Guanxi HIG = University College of Gaevle. The abbreviation/ accronym comes from the Swedish name Högskolan I GävleHK = Hong Kong HKU = Hong Kong UniversityHRM = Human Resource ManagementICT (Information and Communication Technology)INFLOW is an accronym (?) for our research project Towards Improved Interactions in the Two-Way Flow of Risk-Related Chemical Information -- The Cases of Clothing, Toys, and Paint. Mikael Klintman is the coordinator of the project. He works at FPI (See that abbreviation)INGO = International Non-governmental OrganisationInternat. Rel. HIG ITB-HIGKTH = Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. The abbreviation/ accronym comes from the Swedish name Kungliga Tekniska HögskolanMLMTT (stood for Marxism-Leninism Mao Tse Tung’s thoughts)NGO = Non-governmental OrganisationNYRB (New York Review of Books)OEM = Original Equipm (9 starp. = pagePH = Pia HallinPPP = Power Point PresentationPRC = the People’s Republic of China PRD = (the) Pearl River Delta R&DSAR = Special Administrative Region. Hong Kong is an SAR within the PRC since 1999.SEZ (Special Economic Zone) e.g. ZhuhaiSME = Small or Medium-sized EnterpriseSU = Stockholm UniversitySvD (Svenska Dagbladet)TCO TCO 99TNC

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UNDP (United Nations Development Program)Y-friendsZhC = Zhuhai CollegeZhC_JU = Zhuhai College of Jilin University

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