Reps

Back from Shanghai. Hardware show was deader than last year. Shanghai seemed expensiver than previous years, but that's probably because I finally broke down and bought a bunch of bootleg DVD's.* I'm a little ashamed on this point, but the disconnect between what I think and what America thinks is growing by the year. Maybe I can bridge it by watching some of the same shows everyone else has already seen. Maybe that is a lame rationalization to justify an action that I think is wrong. Hard for me to tell.

FACE- At the exhibition, one of my coworkers went to one of the publishing booths to pick up the show issue of a Taiwanese trade magazine. The guy at the booth asked my coworker if she worked for ****-*****, and she said yes. He then said he couldn't give her a magazine. When she asked why, he said "Because you will give it to that tall foreigner who works in your company, and he will sue all my advertisers." Oh hell yeah. Better to be feared than loved, and all that.

NOT SO MUCH FACE- I went to the booth of a Taiwan manufacturer who was displaying some new products. Was asked if I lived in Taiwan, and I said yes, and told them my company. A woman said "Oh, you are the foreigner who speaks good Chinese, but talks like a girl." Oh hell no. That's not even right. I'm going to have to start throwing in a [Ta made] every third word like our GM does.

*The Office 1 - 4, 30 Rock 1, Simpsons movie
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