Off The Record

Even more astonishing is that many first and business class lounges, including in key commercial centres like Shanghai and Guangzhou’s Terminal A, still do not provide free and easy wireless Internet access.  Come on Chinese airlines – get your act together.  The additional cost of providing free and easy wireless access to your premium-end passengers would be marginal compared to the benefits of developing brand loyalty amongst the jet-setter class.  So let’s name names.  China Eastern – you suck in Shanghai.  The only wireless Internet access in the First Class lounge is via the hit-and-miss CNC.  Give us wi-fi now!
 

Readers, please tell us which airlines and airports are driving you terminal.

While the majority ethnic Han Chinese revere the pig and consider it a symbol of prosperity, Muslims, comprised of several of China’s ethnic minority populations, abhor pigs as unclean animals and avoid eating pork meat.

The decision by CCTV has forced a number of foreign companies to cancel planned TV advertisements, some of which had completed production already and were due to commence airing next month.  The Year of the Pig commences on 18 February.

For Han Chinese 2007 will be the Year of the Golden Pig, which only occurs every 60 years.  This is considered especially propitious and many Chinese couples deferred having a child during 2006 so that their baby will be born in the special year.

Now that
China has decided to be more mindful of its multiculturalism, foreign companies will need to plan their PR and advertising campaigns more carefully, taking into account the sensitivities of the nation’s 56 ethnic minorities and numerous religions.

The article did not mention the impact of the wide availability of counterfeited luxury brands in the market as a possible cause for low sales of genuine product.

 

The article quotes spokesmen from luxury brands who say they are in China for the long haul and that they “are willing to lose money as long as [they] can keep learning about the Chinese market.”  If only companies would afford their executives such luxuries in other markets.

According to a report in the China Daily of 23 December, passengers flying on Chinese airlines are being told to stop complaining by the nation’s civil aviation authority.

According to the report, the authorities blame poor education of passengers for the high number of complaints received each year.  Complaints cover high prices of food at airport eateries, tasteless in-flight food, lost and destroyed baggage, and poor service by aircraft cabin crew. 

The aviation authorities believe passengers would be more understanding if they acquired an appreciation of the complexities of flying hurtling metal cylinders through the air.  They say safety is the paramount consideration.

That makes me feel much better.  What the heck?  Destroy my baggage and be rude to me during the flight if that’s going to get me to my destination in one piece.

 While it might all seem a little bit odd to foreigners, there’s nothing wrong with trying to localize the festival in some way.  Indeed, Christmas has always subsumed local customs.  For example, climatic conditions in Australia meant sleigh-rides and building snowmen had to be replaced by BBQ’s and cricket on the beach.

But why the need to take such a Bolshevik approach to the whole concept of Christmas?  A clue is provided by one of the Shanghai-ren interviewed by the China Daily.  A Ms. Xu Qian told the paper she was tired of how commercialized Christmas had become and wants to find something different.

Hear, hear to that.  We fully support a more Chinese Christmas and, hopefully, one that finds the true meaning of this festival.  Something worth reflecting on as you walk through China’s shopping malls this festive season listening to “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” and “Silent Night” playing in the background.

 The 27 year old Liu Qian had orchestrated the escape of a former director of a state-owned construction company Yao Chuanrui. The escape involved 16 others, including one of
Yao’s guards who had been promised an apartment by the couple. 

 The couple had apparently been together for eight years and had a child.  According to chat rooms she was a model mistress because of her loyalty to sugar daddy Yao.

Yao is still awaiting trial for embezzlement of more than RMB70 million of company funds.  It may be some time before the couple see each other again.

Those Chinese who can afford it plan their overseas holidays to coincide with a Golden Week holiday.  And herein lays the rub.  Those able to really drive economic growth by spending more are probably doing so in the US, Australia or Europe.  Vacationomics is starting to prove more of a boon to overseas markets than for China for which it was intended.

 

And there’s another issue.  Vactionomics slows productivity.  Imagine a whole country shut down for a seven-day long period.  Seven days in which not a single widget is made.  Seven days in which not a single bank is open for business. Seven days that your accountant and lawyer and everyone else you need to get things done is unavailable.  It’s not slow productivity.  It’s not even low productivity.  It is no productivity.

The Chinese Government is aware of this and has taken steps to address it by having everyone in the nation work during the weekend prior to the holidays and/or following the holidays.  That means the nation’s entire workforce ends up working seven to nine days straight in order to get their Golden Week holiday.  Imagine how tired people are at the end of that period without rest.  Imagine how hard it is to do business with the rest of the world because they don’t work the weekends before or after a Golden Week.

The truth is not much gets done in the week immediately prior to Golden Week because everyone is gearing up for their week off.  The only thing that really seems to get done in China during Golden Week is the booking of holidays and idle chat around the office in the lead up to the holidays.  And of course the week after the holiday is spent trying to get back into the swing of work again.

The situation is so bad that some companies, especially foreign companies and companies in the manufacturing sector, ignore the holidays.  They choose instead to keep working and pay the penalty of overtime rates to their employees.  They do so because the cost of paying overtime is still lower than the costs of lost productivity during Golden Week.

Mr. Hu, tear down the Golden Week holidays!

P.S. Off the Record blog will be unavailable during the Chinese New Year Golden Week Holiday as we sun ourselves in Phuket.

 Xinhua estimated the “aggregated” loss of Chinese airlines in the first half of the year at RMB3 billion.

 In response, Chinese airlines are also expected to cut back on the amount of blankets, newspapers and magazines carried on board flights as all increase weight to the aircraft resulting in higher fuel consumption. 

China’s new no frills airlines will offer less frills than in the past.  “Preaze to enjoy fright with us.”