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What do China, public relations and cloud computing have in common?
Jan 29th
Since about 2009, I’ve been on a fairly constant quest to prioritize one area I’m truly passionate about and makes me employable so I can center my online personal brand around it. After all, people tend to be most effective at developing an online reputation as being qualified if they talk about one thing all the time. My struggle with this is I have so many seemingly unrelated curiosities, which I develop more and more of the longer I work in public relations:
- China
- public relations
- social media (which I maintain public relations professionals should know as much about as media relations)
- communications measurement
- business-to-business communications
- how to manage companies and teams
- cloud and mobile computing (which are connected)
- increasingly, LGBT rights
- various pop culture, usually involving LGBT celebrities
So what do all of these have in common? When people ask me why I like Beijing so much, the answer is very obvious to me: “I like Beijing because it feels like you are in the middle of something very important that is changing very quickly.” I realized that I could say the same about any of the other topics listed above. All my professional interests are:
- important
- changing quickly
- misunderstood or under-appreciated
“Important” is a subjective term. In this context, I mean something that currently affects large numbers of people, creates a lot of financial opportunity, will become part of history textbooks decades in the future, or some combination of those factors.
In terms of the under-appreciated or misunderstood aspect, this could be why I took American Sign Language as my high school language and why I’m drawn to an industry with such a bad reputation among the general public as public relations. The main reason I was interested in traveling to China as a child, before I ever anticipated I would work there for two years, is that China is the world’s most populous country and has an amazing history, but in school we learned mostly about the U.S. and Western Europe. There is a lot of ignorance within the U.S. about what China is really like and vice versa, likely as a result of China and the U.S. not having even basic diplomatic relations until President Nixon visited Beijing in 1976.
So, there you have it. I will blog and tweet and do whatever else online (on websites I use for professional interests) about things that are important, changing quickly, and misunderstood or under-appreciated. I think for the sake of simplicity now, though, I’ll call the topics China, public relations, and a little bit of high tech. :)
Apologies for Formatting Change Issues
Mar 18th
WordPress’ most recent update has made it really difficult for me to figure out how to customize my blog posts in many of my usual ways, such as making sure that links open in a new browser tab and formatting bullets. I’m sure most of you haven’t noticed, but for those of you who have, know that it’s driving me crazy, too.
This has made me feel like I’m instantly two generations older than my actual age because I never have this trouble figuring out how to use websites or software.
Take 30 Seconds to Help Improve Comments
Mar 3rd
This is an experiment inspired by my friend’s real-life comment that it’s hard to figure out how to comment on my blog, making me think maybe other readers have similar experiences. If you can figure out how to comment on this post, please write a brief comment (like, “This is my comment”) and indicate how long it took you to figure it out. It will take you fewer than 30 seconds unless my blog’s comment policy is really confusing.
Thanks so much!
Ridiculous Geographic Terminology
Dec 17th
Barbara Nixon on Twitter, inspired this post. The following terms are socially acceptable yet ridiculous.
The East, the West, and everything in between:
When I was a student in China, the group of Americans I studied abroad with all took a trip to
Dunhuang — which I highly recommend you visit if you’re ever in China — as part of a study tour. This city is famous for its ancient cave paintings that reflect its position on the Silk Road where the East met the West. I distinctly remember our tour guide explaining that you can tell a painting depicts Westerners from India because the people in the paintings have high noses. First of all, India is south of China. Also, the Middle East is west of the Westerners in India!
What does a white person look like?
When I interned in Ghana, one of my roommates had her hair done in cornrows professionally. The hairdresser remarked, “I do white people’s hair all the time! I do this Japanese lady’s hair a lot.” Ghanaians also asked us if we could tell the differents between white people in the U.S. and indigenous Mexicans, for example.
First and Third World vs. Developing and Developed:
The University of Oregon‘s Media in Ghana program director Leslie Steeves delivered a brilliant lecture on this topic to my African Studies class. Calling a country “developing” implies that it’s below a standard, and can sometimes be an unreasonable excuse for a problem. First and third world also create a heirarchy problem.
My two 分 (Chinese cents):
We need better terminology. In the meantime, in order to be as accurate and innoffensive as possible, I’m specific. When referring to individual people, usually country of origin works fine, but sometimes it’s best to use the city someone is from. I also never say America; I always say United States or U.S. If I’m not sure based on someone’s accent if they are from Canada or the U.S., I say North America(n). When it comes to developing, I’m specific about what is developed or developing with a specific comparison, I use a different word, or both; for example, Beijing’s public transportation infrastructure is more developed than those in major U.S. cities, and the city’s economy is almost entirely market-driven.
Can you tell that I considered majoring in international studies?
Life in the Fast Lane
Sep 27th
You know what this is: one of those stupid posts that every lazy blogger writes at some point in their life when he or she hasn’t posted in a while. All I can say is that my life has been in the fast lane since my last post but as soon as it slows down I’ll write some more meaningful stuff.
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