Full of it in the Fullerton.

The Fullerton Singapore seems to be the place du jour for most of my meetings this week. From regional CEO’s of PR agencies, to Regional CEO’s of Ad agencies. There’s a theme here. And it’s safe from the natives.

The Fullerton used to be Singapore’s post office and as Anne so correctly observed, given that Singapore is no bigger than Oprah Winfrey, who the fuck is sending all that mail? It’s a huge place. And like all good fruits and vegetables at Halloween it’s been hollowed out and made a laughing stock of.

But the birchermuesli is good and if you’ve been more than once they seem to know you (or just know you’ve got more money than sense).

I had said to my first breakfast meeting ‘I’ll be the English guy in the White Shirt with the Blue Tie looking Hot’ and on arrival realised that was the same as saying ‘I’ll be the inbred racist one who’s scared of darkies’ at a Sarah Palin party.

Anyway, after a brace of breakfasts I ended up meeting Anne and Lucy there for drinks. Anne is going through her fabulous dress period right now, and I strolled out onto the palladian balcony overlooking the grounds I was taken aback by her beauty and taste.

Well, actually I kind of stumbled out of the door tripped onto the terrace and laughed albeit before becoming even more red and blurting out ‘nice frock’ – hell the sentiment was there – and she did look good.

Once we’d all donated 2 pints of blood to the resident flying-micro-vampires, we settled down for a drink, or twelve.

Now, I’m a friend of the people – but at other times people can really piss me off. And apart from Anne, Lucy and I, everyone else in that bar was a dick. None more so than the untucked-pale-swearty-shirt-over-diesel-jeans-that-no-man-over-30-can-wear-with-bleached-hair-aussie who also stumbled out on to said terrace and began to shout to his so-called friends instructions on ordering more vittals and liquid refreshment. A class A cock and carbon copy from the book ‘Pricks you Should Avoid at All Costs in Singapore’. He probably knows Ben Langdon.

Anyway, Anne replied back to him some kind words, including ‘bonzer’ and ’shut up’ and he quickly retreated. Thank Christ.

4 hours later, and the win is flowing, the pizza is ordered and I eat an entire ramekin of so called chili powder (where DOES the work ramekin come from?)

We leave the Fullerton, full of fun, and I’m enchanted by the Chinese New Year lanterns in the lobby.

Why I’m all about China.

I love China, I simply love it. I’ve been fortunate enough to have travelled there 4 times in the past two years for work related trips and I have to say I totally ‘get’ the country. You might be aware that upon my last trip I was in the Four Seasons Shanghai when I felt the room start to sway – it was the earthquake.

But there’s a new movement in China today, one of harmony, pride and advancement. I’ve not just been in global hotel chains where one room is much like another, I’ve worked alongside Chinese people in Beijing and Shanghai and even made a few email friends wouldn’t you know. I’ve no doubt that’s hardly a qualification to be an expert on middle earth,  however I do think it’s given me some insights, especially as the incredible spectacle of the 29th Olympiad unfolds in front of a global audience.

When I first visited, back in 2006 (which feels like a century compared to my more recent visits) I remember walking with George Gallate, the then CEO of Euro RSCG in the region (and the digital network). As we walked along the street he stopped me and told me to look at a car. The Volvo in front was shiny and new and clearly had hardly been driven. Except it wasn’t a Volvo. It’s was a ‘Cherry’. A complete counterfeit of the Volvo and looking pretty identical to me (trust me, I couldn’t tell a Robin Reliant from a Hummer).

Apparently Volvo (who happened to be Euro’s client until they lost the pitch) took Cherry to court, and demonstrated that, down to the parts, all the mechanics and engineering for both vehicles was completely interchangeable. Possibly an old advertising wives’ tale – but a good indicator of the so called boom market then.

Step forward to last year, when China buys the defunct Rover brand and renames it Roewe, owns most of the creative concepts and starts advertising by buying 20 story high billboards opposite the brand new Regent Shanghai.

So in 12 months China went from ‘the copier country’ to the purchaser of institution brands and the probably more efficient marketing that goes with it into this year.

When I took my last Global CEO to China just last year we held a round table meeting with investors, second stage financed companies and opinion formers in Beijing. Just a couple of years ago China was importing the important and outputting the irrelevant (unless you like cheap socks and kids toys) now the discussion around the table was the exporting of the big ideas and the off-shoring of labor.

Just last week the WSJ lead on how China was upping its game in the manufacture of technology and automotive, shunning the old smoky and dangerous textile and plastic factories. My old CEO said ‘the future is in the export of ideas from China’ and he’s right as is bring proven (with the addition of credit notes to prop up the USA’s faltering economy).

But for me, my China is about the Chinese. I know that democracy can be a significant stumbling block to development (India is still a little confused about wanting to share wealth as opposed to control it) so China has a ‘leg up’ in terms of the speed of development. When you have no choice about Hutons being destroyed or water being taken from farmers, you can move quickly to grow and expand. So the people come second to development it seems.

But the young people I’ve met are filled with a real optimism. They know that their past isn’t pure, that they as a country have things they may not be so proud of. But they are looking forward, and in doing so the take a rightful position as a global inspiration and example to us all.

We know there are human rights issues, as there will be today been in the UK with Gordon Brown’s 42 day detention doctrine. Or the captors held without trial in grim conditions in Cuba courtesy of the ‘War of Terror’ – happening today. As a Western people we excuse this behavior and endorse or even forgive our elected government for inflicting these abuses. We are quick to look away from our own behavior and criticize that of others. It’s probably a colonial hangover.

Because, as it says in the bible – and I’m not one to quote that text often ‘And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?’ Matthew 7:3

More from Shanghai.

More from Shanghai., originally uploaded by English Man in New York City.

It’s clear that I had no concept of the scale of the earthquake until a day later; as was the case with many involved here in the recovery and aid to those affected in Chengdu. There’s no doubt it’s a terrible terrible disaster and I’m proud that my client made a substantial donation to relief efforts promptly and with good grace just the very next morning. We shared that news with all their APAC employees and mentioned it to some of the press we were meeting. As always in China the news was met with polite respect.

It’s simply dominating the press and papers over here. China Daily has a wrap-around front cover showing a sea of orange suited rescue workers trying their best to save lives. And it is the conversation. What impressed me was the speed of mobilisation of both rescue workers and the travel to the affected area by China’s premier almost immediately after the disaster – that’s the sort of response we can’t imagine in our country at times. China’s leader, Wen Jaibao got on the ground and lead operations – I’m sure his history as a geologist gave him some special insight. My point is, he didn’t just fly over the area in Air Force One – remember Katrina?

In other news, we did do our press meetings yesterday and they did go well. It always impresses me how interpreters manage to digest and translate long passages of comment seemingly flawlessly, although Judy did restrain my praise by deftly telling me that I couldn’t really commend her on her work as I obviously didn’t have a clue what was being said. Fair point.

Translated interviews may seem tiring and hard work, but in fact to a PR they can be highly effective – why? Well because during translation out from the response to a question the subject can be given relevant pointers and facts to support a point. You effectively have a lag that enables you to assist your talent in making sure they make the best point. And that was yesterday, I had a brilliant array of tabbed facts and statements at hand; including the interesting fact that less than 2% of China’s investment in the Olympics is actually building stadiums and venues – the rest is infrastructure and real estate.

There was a speech to write and we worked on that ‘West-Wing’ style in the clients suite over intravenous coffee and after a predictably pointless interview by phone with a journalist who had an axe to grind. I stepped in a number of times to keep our messaging ‘on-track’. We piled into a Buick (referred to as a Brick by bad itinerary translations) and trekked to The Door – a stunning period Chinese building that I can only imagine was a communal apartment block from the 1900’s. A massive stone central staircase roped around and atrium and the building was dominated by incredible Chinese art. The room in which we ate (well I didn’t ) was topped with a dark-wood vaulted ceiling and precisely the right blend of old and new ie. not some Pottery Barn/West Elm imitation claptrap type roomset.

I was blown away by my clients’ ability to memorize the entire speech without once referring to the prompt cards; something you see rarely in a work dominated by tele-prompting or script reading. The speech got a great response and I retired to my room to sleep for 90 minutes before beginning working on other clients at Midnight local time (morning Mountain time in the USA).

Off to sleep at about 2am having persuaded the client to finally put me in the same hotel as our CEO (which met with no actual resistance – you see it’s not WHAT you ask it’s HOW you ask) and it makes sense considering I have to manage his CNBC live interview in Japan on Friday morning.

Today, first time to have free time, a leisurely breakfast and online check-in to my ANA flight to Tokyo. I was impressed that instead of a boarding pass they send you a link to a 2D code which you can show on your phone and have read at a counter in the airport. I’m scared of Japan.

Finally, today’s picture, which was taken in a shaky taxi yesterday and clearly illegible (is that tortology?)… demonstrates that although I think Shanghai is one of my top three cities on earth (the other two being London and New York) there’s still a little way to go with tact.

Yes, it’s instructions to tell you that ‘pycho’s and drunkards’ may not ride in the taxi alone. I’m more former right now than latter.