Charity Sale

We raised $15,715 from classmates for the earthquake relief effort, which will be matched one to one by BCG China. The total $31,430 will be donated to Red Cross. It's not a big amount of money, but we hope it will help the people in Sichuan rebuild their home and get back to normal life soon. Best luck!

smile from Sichuan

It's hard for people to smile after a big disaster. Here I forwarded a pic of a few kids who succeeded in getting away from disaster after climbing over the hills to get to the safe place. The 483 kids in this primary school built under China's Hope Project(a charity project sponsoring students in the poor area to go to school) created a miracle that no one died or injured in this disaster. The mainstream foreign media may never report on this, but the school is one of the few that its building didn't fall down during the earthquake, which gave the chance for teachers and students to survive. The sponsor, a private enterprise in Sichuan named Hanlong Group, made the construction quality the first priority in this project, which help saved all the lives of those innocent kids. A Chinese journalist reported this on his blog, while he called the miracle is led to the firm's advanced insight on what will happen in the future ten years before developing the building.

I have seen so many miserable pictures these days, and this is the first one I can see hope. Those young girls smiled very happily, that's the happiness of surviving with all their friends. They are lucky, but there are hundreds of thousands of kids who are not lucky after either losing their lives, their friends or their families. Now, my hope is that the one sstill alive will remember this disaster, but will look forward. They should know there are much more happiness they can enjoy in their future lives.

I am planning with a few friends on going to Sichuan this summer. The only purpose is to bring them happiness, and enjoy that with them. If you have experiences or training in dealing with people who suffered from major disaster, please give us some help on what we should pay attention, or should avoid. We appreciate it very much.

Chinese Earthquake Relief Effort

The Sichuan earthquake turns out to be a major disaster. From the first minute I heard it from a friend in Shanghai, to the moment where my two best friends' families suffered in the region, the information flowed around and I felt worse and worse. Over 30,000 people died and most of them are kids who were studying in the school. I remember seeing a photo with the bodies of students lying underground in the ruined classroom, with pencils or textbook still in the hand. I was wordless. They are supposed to be having a bright life, but suddenly an earthquake took all their lives. Why they are under protected, and why they can't get out of the classroom immediately?

This may not be the time to argue for the cause of those death, since people are busy saving lives. However, I still want to say we need an effective national emergency system, especially in areas with frequent disasters. Stanford just tested its emergency system, while it can reach everyone via mobile phone or fixed phone immediately and automatically. China needs this too. We have to make sure we are able to notify everyone in case something happens. Even if sometimes the notification is not accurate, it is still necessary to notify because life is the most important thing.


P.S. We are organizing a charity sale in Stanford now. Today is the first day, and we have already raised over 5000 US dollars. We will continue to raise money tomorrow.

Some reader asked me the websites on donation. There is only a few in English, such as Jet Li's One Foundation. I kinda of curious why Red Cross China doesn't even have an English website.

P. F. Chang's

I still remember the first time I saw P. F. Chang's was in Austin, TX. A few friends and I were on the way to a Mexican restaurant. I suddenly saw this Chinese restaurant near by, and felt home. However, I didn't try it at last, and neither did I try it after I came to California until this Friday. I came into this restaurant with this mixed feeling. It is not a traditional Chinese restaurant, at least from the foreign waiter/waitress and pretty plates; but its renovation is very Chinese, with ancient paint and red color all over the wall. It turned out the restaurant is indeed a mix. The food is indeed a totally disaster, totally messed up the traditional Chinese cooking style. Too much soy sauce and sault; but the service is great, fast, efficient, and pretty plates which I do like. It is indeed American-decorated Chinese. Amazing to see it is packed with people for at least over two hours during lunch. Plus, it has a nice-designed website.

It kinda of reminded me of Chinese news in American media. On one hand, we see very Chinese-culture oriented reports, but on the other hand, the content and spirit is totally distorted. A lot of foreign reporters were trained thirty or forty year ago, and still hold this strong opinion towards Chinese. Pitifully, a lot of nice young American have been reading those since they were little, and bearing this wrong image afterwards, just like they will take P.F. Chang's as the native Chinese cuisine. In one of my non-market strategy class, the professor asked us to describe China in one word. The most shocked word I heard is "communism" from a young and charming female classmate. I got stucked and didn't know what to say.

Today I watched two war movies, We Were Soldiers Once..and Young, and Saving Private Ryan. Beyond the brutal scene, the only thing I saw is miscommunication, between American and Vietnamese, and American and Germany. Now Chinese will face the same situation, from the image people get from the cheap manufacturing labor to the angry shouting group in front of French Supermarket Carrefour. Media, especially English media, has an important role in describing all this. I sincerely hope they could end up with the original Chinese cuisine at last.

Chinese entrepreneurs in the 90s

Chinese entrepreneurs in the last decade is the generation bearing too much debate. They were smart, that's for sure, taking advantage of the changing policy to generate wealth. A lot of them became billionaire in a short period of time, while they attracted a lot of attention from the society and regulator as well.

Wei Dong, an entrepreneur, founder and chairman of Yongjin Group, committed suicide after reported investigation of the government regulator. The Reuters report doesn't mention his suicide note, which was publicized by Sina. He said in the note that he was struggling in mental distressed disease. He hoped his death will release everyone, including the beloved family members, from the burden.

He is not the only one in the 90s entrepreneurs group who suffered from mental distress generated by outside pressure. People talked about the "original evil", the "illegal" actions or strategies took by them in the 90s when the society was in chaos. And now the question is if they are going to be punished by that.

I don't have the right answer, but I do believe suicide, or getting rid from the reality, is not going to solve problems. There must be a solution, and those entrepreneurs need to find it before moving on.

Top 10 wireless start-up rated in Dow Jones wireless conference

it seems mobile space is much more diversified than Internet(which has a big focus in social networking now). These 10 start-up ranges from network, camera to shopping and ringtone. To me, that's a good sign for entrepreneurs.

1. Aerohive Networks Inc., Santa Clara, Calif., a developer of enterprise wireless networking technology. The company raised $24 million from investors including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Northern Light Venture Capital. http://www.aerohive.com

2. Digby, Austin, Texas, a provider of a mobile commerce platform. It has raised $2.3 million and may raise additional venture funding in the first half of 2008. http://www.digby.com

3. Knowtate Inc., San Jose, a maker of technology used to link the physical, mobile and virtual worlds. The company is raising a $5 million round to close in the second quarter. http://www.knowtate.com

4. Mojix Inc., Los Angeles, a developer of signal processing products for sensory networks. It has raised $20.6 million from investors such as InnoCal Venture Capital, Oak Investment Partners, Red Rock Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank. http://www.mojix.com

5. Myxer (MVisible Technologies Inc.), Deerfield Beach, Fla., a provider of mobile technology, products, services and programs to manage and deliver digital media to mobile devices. The company has raised $9.7 million from investors including Harris Preston & Partners, Morgenthau Venture Partners and New World Angels. http://www.myxer.com

6. Ontela Inc., Seattle, a provider of a technology platform that enables wireless carriers to bring imaging services to their users. Investors, which have given the company $4.5 million, include Hunt Ventures, Oak Investment Partners and Voyager Capital. http://www.ontela.com

7. Planet9 Studios Inc., San Francisco, a provider of 3-D city software and data products for navigation, friend finding and social networking. It anticipates raising an $8 million round to start within the second quarter of 2008. http://www.planet9.com

8. Pudding Media Inc., San Jose, a developer of advertising technology for voice services, mobile advertising and carrier platforms. It has raised $11.7 million from investors including BRM Capital, Opus Capital and individual investors. http://www.puddingmedia.com

9. Rocketbux, Bend, Ore., a developer of technology to deliver location and time relevant offers to mobile phones via the point-of-sale network. The company plans to raise a $2 million Series A round of funding to start in June 2008 and close in the third quarter of 2008. http://www.rocketbux.com

10. TrafficCast International Inc., Madison, Wash., a provider of a traffic science engine for location-based services and mobile devices. The company has raised $3.5 million from investors including Ceres Venture Fund LP, NEW Capital Fund, Phenomenelle Angels Management, Silicon Valley Bank and WomenAngels.net. http://www.trafficcast.com