With two colleagues I have just finished almost two weeks of research interviews in China. The research took us to Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Shenzhen (flying in and out of Shanghai).

Our project looks specifically at technology firms and predominantly those we might call new generation Chinese firms. New generation firms are style typically SMEs, though some have grown reasonably large, are privately owned and are most easily defined by what they are not (i.e., not state-owned enterprises (SOEs), not cooperatives or town and village enterprises (TVEs), not family firms, not foreign firms or joint ventures).

We were able to interview more than a dozen firms (a reasonable achievement given that they were spread over three cities and a very late announced three day public holiday got in the way). The firms included an animation business, an IT outsourcing firm, suppliers of telecommunications equipment, a mobile and a CRM software firm, a manufacturer of domestic appliances.

The interviews were intellectually invigorating has they brought together the three of us with our overlapping interests in Chinese business, IT industry and the institutional issues involved in understanding the working of capitalism.

Having spent less than 24 hours back in the UK, I’m writing this on the plane to the US where we will present a first run at the results at a conference.

The final Friday of the trip involved an early start to Jiaxing, a city near Shanghai that is working hard (and successfully) to transform its economy from a textiles and manufacturing base to one with richer contribution from high-tech manufacture, internet-based industries, services such as business process outsourcing and culture industries.

We had a very hectic schedule, kindly organised by the Foreign Investment Division of the Jiaxing government, and we are very grateful to Shen Wenping and Louis Liu for their efforts on our behalf.

The day started with an introduction to the history and culture of the city, visiting South Lake, a site of a man made Qing era island and the site of a museum about the founding of the Chinese Communist Party (which effectively had its first congress on a boat in the lake).

We then had a short panel discussion with business school students from Jiaxing University, which was particularly useful in understanding different professional career paths and gender issues in professional work in China.

Following the visit to the university, we received a detailed briefing and question and answer session with the Vice Director about Jiaxing and its economic development plans and were hosted for lunch.

After lunch we had a business schedule visiting Science City (to understand the role of science and technology parks), Join BPO (a business process outsourcing company) and Wilke (a Scottish company with a factory in Jiaxing). Photos of our hosts and students at Science City and Wilke below.

After the overnight train journey from Xian and hotel checkin, the students spent the day working on the their assignments and making visits to more cultural industry sites. I caught up on email, expenses, paperwork and sorted tickets for our Friday and Saturday trip to Jiaxing and Yiwu.

I’m a little behind posting updates (as I write the students are not long on the plane and I still have 4 or so days to write up).

Our Wednesday in Xian was spent at Xian International Studies University (XISU), which is one of four specialist institutions that teach and examine in foreign languages.

Our day at XISU was a treat, the highlight of which was a play performed by the XISU students. The day started with a warm welcome from the head of the business school (Professor Pan) and some remarks on our time in China from me. Then the students performed an adaptation by Yuan Yizhou of Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice (with Chinese characteristics). In the play Shylock is reappraised as a Chinese merchant and the adaption explores issues of cross cultural adaptation and communications.

I have a recording of the play and video footage of most of it, but no photographs. Hopefully, I can edit the audio and post it in due course.

After the play, students enjoyed lunch together and discussed issues arising from the play as well as the usual subjects of mutual interest.

After lunch we headed to the station for the last of the overnight train trips.

Tuesday we spent visiting the Huxia painting village with students from Xian International Studies University.

The village is home to three prominent painters in the peasant painter tradition.

Here is one of the painters holding one of his paintings.

The day’s activities provided an excellent opportunity for a number of new experiences. First, Nottingham and XISU students had the chance to interact with each other for a full day. Second, their interactions were nicely structured by the visit to the painting village, where the painters paint agriculture scenes anchored in socialist collectivisation. Third, we got to examine the painting and have a lesson from a prominent painter of the tradition. Fourth, we had meals in family homes, to understand different culinary traditions. Finally, we got to examine another model of cultural industry development.

In the photos below we see the artist Pan Xiaoling demonstrating paper cuts, students working together on their papercuts and paintings and some of the outputs of their outcomes.

You can see an interview we conducted with Artist Pan Xiaoling on an early trip here

Monday our exploration of history and the commercialisation of culture continued, with a visit to the Terracotta Warriors. The scale and scope of the endevour (the army intended to protect the emperor in the afterlife).

The presentation of them and the commercial environment around them though could do with a little more gravitas.

Sunday the students spent the day exploring the historical city (history and culture being the Sunday tradition). Key attractions include the provincial museum and the city wall. Unfortunately, the queue at the former was unthinkably long so the emphasis was exploring the wall (perhaps the finest city wall in the world) and some of the districts inside it. Sunday night we had a dinner of traditional foods in the Muslim quarter, noting the distinct flavours of Xian cooking (infused with cumin).

One of the highlights of Xian is the atmosphere around the Drum Tower and Muslim quarter in the evenings. The breeze is almost always perfect for flying kites, and the lift the evening skyline.

Saturday was spent exploring two of the key cultural sites near Dongsheng, the Genghis Khan Museum and Mausoleum. The sites provided a sense of the importance of Genghis Khan to the the Inner Mongolians and to China, as well as providing more insight into the development of the cultural industries in China.

On Saturday evening, we took our only internal flight, on China Southern to Xian.

After our tour of Kangbashi we when to Ordos University, the second time Overseas Project students have visited.

After a warm welcome, the first activity was some group discussions, where students from Nottingham and Ordos Universities shared views and asked questions of each other. Here we see Ordos students asking questions of one of the Nottingham students.

We were then treated to a performance by the Ordos University students, which included calligraphy demonstration (and required participation by our students) and traditional dancing (as well as individual and group singing.

The calligraphy demonstration was excellent, with the Ordos students producing a touching friendship message. The Ordos students were also great teachers, taking two Nottingham students and showing them how to write ‘China’ and ‘England’.

The traditional dancing was a treat, the highlight of which was the Ordos students balancing bowls on their heads while performing the danse.

The day concluded with a group photograph, campus tour and dinner in the student canteen.

As with last year we were treated wonderfully during an afternoon organised by Kate, one of the English teachers at the University. She’s seen in this photo watching the students’ performance.

After one of our few relaxed mornings we headed to Kangbash, a new district in Ordos about 30km from the centre of Dongsheng.

Kangbashi has been built as a city housing about 1 million people, though as yet almost nobody lives there. We all noticed how quiet and peaceful the place was, with almost no cars and very few people.

At the heart of the city are government offices which overlook a magnificent statue of Genghis Khan and his advisors. Genghis Khan is the most famous Mongol, having created the largest empire in human history and setting the foundation for the Yuan dynasty.

The central part of Kangbashi is host to a number of impressive civic buildings, including a new library and museum.

Like Las Vagas, the city rises from land that for much of the year looks like desert, though in summer is grassland.