Today is Mid-autumn Day, a time for family reunion. Although I am far away from home, I hope the bright moonlight can take my best wishes to my family in China.
Mid-Autumn Day (in Chinese: Zhong qiu jie), also known as the Moon Festival, is a traditional and national holiday in China. This festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese lunar calendar, which is usually around late September or early October in the Gregorian calendar. Tonight, the moon is the fullest and roundest in the year.
The traditional food of this festival is the mooncake, of which there are many different varieties.Some moon cakes are made of wheat flour, sugar, lotus seed powder and red beans.
In ancient China, people considered the moon as a symbol of brightness, purity, and goodness. There are many beautiful poems and fairy tales about the moon. The most popular story is about a lady named Chang’e. She flew to the moon and lived in the Moon Palace with a jade rabbit.
Farmers celebrate the end of the summer harvesting season on this date. Traditionally on this day, Chinese family members and friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, and eat moon cakes under the moon together.
Posted on Harvard Business Review: September 17, 2010 9:31 AM
Foreign companies are finally wooing Chinese consumers either by designing products for them or by unveiling global brands first in the country. In September 2010, France's Hermes will open its first Shang Xia — which translates roughly as "from top to bottom" — store in Shanghai to mark the launch of a line of ready-to-wear clothing and crafts inspired by traditional Chinese motifs. Last month, America's Levi Strauss launched, with much fanfare, a global jeans brand, dENiZEN, in the same city. Earlier in the summer, General Motors and SAIC announced their plans to introduce a new automobile, Bao Jun ("prized horse"), for about RMB 50,000 ($7,400), which is lower than the price at which the Chevrolet sells in China.
Although welcome, the trend has started when confusion among Chinese consumers about brand origins is at its peak. On the one hand, Chinese companies have created the impression that they are foreign. For instance, 90% of respondents believe that Metersbonwe, a Chinese fast fashion company, is foreign, according to our most recent consumer survey. On the other hand, multinational companies have marketed brands cleverly so they can pass as Chinese. Seventy percent of consumers think that Danone is a local company, we found.
The value that Chinese consumers place on foreign brands depends on incomes as well as the nature of products. Affluent Chinese consumers prefer foreign brands. Fifty-two percent of consumers whose annual income exceeds RMB 250,000 ($36,765) told us they trust foreign brands more than Chinese ones while just 37% said they prefer the latter. Mainstream consumers used to prefer local brands; 57% of them told us in 2007 that they would buy local brands that matched the quality and price of foreign ones. However, by 2010, the figure had dropped to 45%. That's partly because Chinese consumers have developed more favorable attitudes to foreign brands when buying big-ticket items such as automobiles and consumer appliances.
Despite China's growing appetite for foreign brands, most multinational companies find it tough to develop and market products tailored to the needs of consumers there. The center of gravity for critical decisions remains outside the country even in the case of companies that have operated in China for a long time. Those who wield responsibility for brand stewardship and product development are not Chinese; have had limited exposure to the market; and maintain a strong bias towards their primary markets in the US and Europe.
Launching a China brand, which could later be sold in other emerging markets, will require giving executives in China a mandate that encompasses local research and development as well as localized marketing approaches. It will also require a deeper level of customization than most Western executives are either comfortable with or capable of. For example, China's best-selling luxury sedans, the Audi A6 and BMW 5-series, have tweaked their designs considerably to appeal to affluent Chinese customers who are driven by chauffeurs. The amenities include a longer wheelbase for extra legroom, back-seat entertainment systems, and extendable tray tables.
Many executives don't reailze that developing local products and brands lets newcomers bypass the long and cumbersome process of introducing existing products from home markets and then, incrementally tailoring them to the needs of Chinese consumers. It also has a positive rub-off on a foreign brand, signaling to the Chinese the multinational company's commitment to serving their needs. Indeed, that's what localization must be if foreign companies are to succeed in China.
This is the first memorable class that we all learned a lot from it. We had a good start, and we will make a great success during the one-year MBA program and also in the future, with help, trust and wisdom together.
Gestures and body language can be important tools for communication.
We express ourselves in our own ways, but we need to make sure that we can be well understood. We also need to understand others in their ways.
Misunderstandings happen sometimes.
Be aware of your situation.
When you want to beat others, first get prepared for the result which would affect yourself.
Be careful and react quickly.
Offense and defense are both essential.
Startting a business is hard, but keeping a business is harder.
Distribution of responsibilities is important. We need some people to take care of the money at home and also some people to go out to explore more money.
The competition is so severe that we might get hurt by the unhealthy strategies.
We finally found a win-win situation in the form of joint venture.
Molly contributed this creative idea that we put our hula hoops together and we all agreed, so we made a big business with a lot of money together.
The road to success contains many steps.
We need to learn from the history and predict the future. Each step follows a different result for each time, and it is always changing.
With team's help and after many attempts, we found the road to success eventually.
Some people have to be sacrificed as blocks in order to win for the team.
Seize the opportunity at the best time.
Opportunity waits for no man.
Technical skills and effective communication are both crucial.
Haste makes waste.
Everyone needs to pay attention and grasp the skills.
A problem is that tall people hold the tunnel high, and short people hold it low. If everyone would adjust themselves to be on a same level, we could make it more smoothly.
An effective team consists of a good leader and other good followers.
When you feel lost, donnot hesitate to ask for help.
Believe in yourself, and donnot be misled by other people.
There is no difficulty that we cannot conquer with help.
Understand everyone's weaknesses and strengths, and utilize them.
Cooperation is more powerful.
If you want to be successful, you need to help others to be successful first.
Located at the tip of Liaodong Peninsula in the northeast China's Liaoning province, Dalian plays an increasingly important role in global trade due to its stengths in shipping, manufacturing, finance and tourism.
The city of 6 million residents is a hub for the Bohai Bay area and the northeast Asia economic region that faces Japan and both the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea across the Yellow Sea.
American businesses added more jobs in the last three months than originally estimated, calming fears of a double-dip recession. Yet the pace of growth signaled that the wheels of the economic recovery were still spinning in place...
Located at the tip of Liaodong Peninsula in the northeast China's Liaoning province, Dalian plays an increasingly important role in global trade due to its stengths in shipping, manufacturing, finance and tourism. 
