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Celebrating my arrival! (Hong Kong)

Someone somewhere has made a terrible mistake: Somehow I have been numbered among the hundred “young Chinese leaders”.

Congratulations! You have been selected as a delegate for the Dragon 100 Young Chinese Leaders Forum 2008! The Dragon 100 Young Chinese Leaders Forum 2008, will take place in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta Region in Mainland China, 22-30 August 2008, where 100 delegates worldwide would register to our hotel in Hong Kong on 21 August 2008.

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One World, One Dream? (Jianwai SOHO, Beijing)

When I first got to Beijing, my roommate Nick, who is a licensed tour guide, wanted to show me the central business district Guomao (国贸) where there’s been quite a bit of commercial development, such as the architecturally impressive CCTV building. One of the building complexes there is Jianwai SOHO, an upmarket mostly-expatriate residential and shopping area, where the glass-and-steel towers have rooftop gardens. Posh.

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That’s a… different kind of leadership (Forbidden City, Beijing)

So I get to stay at the Marriott again:

CONGRATULATIONS! You have been accepted to the 34th Annual International Conference, “The Dynamics of Leadership: Transformation and Innovation in the 21st Century” held at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square, New York City from November 22nd-25th. Out of over 1,100 applicants, you have been selected to participate in our all-expenses paid affair. The applicant pool was outstanding, with over 100 schools and 30 countries being represented. The conference will be a phenomenal experience as you now have the opportunity to meet over seventy CEOs from across the United States in small seminars and explore New York City with fellow students from all over the world. Get ready to break down Harvard Business School case studies with your peers, discuss crucial topics in politics, business, and entrepreneurship, meet recruiters from top companies, and have an overall incredible experience! To give you an idea of the types of executives you will meet, I’ve attached a list of executives who have participated in our programs over the past year.

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Is microfinance the key to saving us? (Beijing)

As my internship on Chinese microfinance has begun, it is timely to consider the role that microfinance institutions are playing in the reconstruction and recovery of Sichuan. Many MFIs around the world operate in post-conflict zones and post-disaster regions (such as the 2004 Tsunami), and there are important lessons to learn from how they negotiate the challenges and risks involved. During my research I came across a Mandarin press release from an MFI in Sichuan province, the Association for Rural Development of Yilong County. I did a rough translation of it below:

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I finally got my visa. The Chinese do have a sense of humor: It has a graphic of the Great Wall printed on the design. Life is full of irony.

The best visa I could get is a double-entry tourist L type with a maximum duration of 30 days per entry. Now my internship is likely to include a day-long bus ride to the Mongolian border and back to use the second entry. Thankfully I brought my econometrics textbook along for self-study, and I don’t think anyone would want to steal it while I’m napping unless he were some rogue social scientist. While I would love to visit UB and meet my friends there (one of which is a real life tribal princess), I hadn’t actually planned on going there this summer. Thank you Beijing, for working so hard to welcome me to the Olympics.

After a mad eleventh-hour cramming session, I sat for my final exam in statistics. I think the worst thing to possibly think during an examination is “Please let the curve be awesome”, next to “How many points do I need to not get a D?” (As it turned out the curve was pretty good, and I got an A) I staggered out of the stats department back to my room, picked up my suitcase, and made my way to JFK. My summer of adventure and discovery had just begun, but it would not be without obstacles.

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Detoured to Hong Kong… (Beijing)

A month or two back, when discussing summer plans, I told my friends that I was spending my summer interning with a non-profit in Beijing to pursue a research project on microfinance in China, while traveling widely. I felt proud of myself for not following the crowd of investment bankers with their summer analyst positions in the city or in Hong Kong, squandering their precious summer days and nights (and yes, weekends too) in a cubicle in downtown Central peering through arcane Mandarin spreadsheets. And then the visa situation suddenly changed, and my carefully planned summer of productive work and exciting adventures has been frozen in purgatory.

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Chris Hill, the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and the head of the US delegation to the six party talks was invited to Columbia by WEAI to talk. I was not the only undergraduate present, but the room was largely graduate students and press. I sat in between mainland Chinese graduate students and this lady from a Taiwanese wire service. There were five or six television cameras at the back.

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Thank you for taking the time to interview recently with a FACES executive. Your written application and experiences and opinions expressed in your interview impressed us greatly. However, we had many extremely qualified interview candidates, and had to make some very difficult decisions. We regret that we are unable to offer you a spot in the 2008 FACES conference.

Thank you again for your time and interest in FACES, and we wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

This is the second time already. I really have no idea what these Stanford people are looking for… I guess I won’t get to visit Chris anytime soon, which is a pity since I would really like to see more of the United States than the borough of Manhattan and the ten block radius around Columbia I hardly leave. So far I’ve been around the DC area and down to Indiana, but that’s it.

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In retrospect it was probably a bad idea to leave interview preparation for ViD and FACES to the last minute. After pouring out my heart and soul to the University of St. Gallen and the GSGLP selection committee, I’m just too drained to reflect on such philosophical questions as “tell me about yourself”, “what would you say is your greatest weakness”, “what is something special about you that isn’t in your application”, and “how many piano tuners are there in New York City”. That and the fact that my heart was beating like a jackhammer may have contributed to a less than positive interview experience.

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