This past Friday I went to this Investor's Forum where a bunch of young entrepeneurs gathered to do the typical hobnobbing and exchanging of business cards.
During the presentation, which had to deal with the current state of financing in Shanghai, one of the presenters out of nowhere used this long phrase in Mandarin which I had trouble following. Everyone laughed after he said it, so I figured it must've been something good, so after the talk I went to the guy and asked him what exactly did you say to get such a response from the audience.
It turns out he was quoting the famous Chinese poet Li Bai in using his words to describe how he sees the future economic forecast.
The quote goes something like this : " 挂席候海色乘风下长川" A rough translation is "Lifting your sails using the winds to sail down the Gorge."
Like many financial institutions hope for these days, the presenter commented, we should hope to move in the direction Li Bai describes.
Now, the reason why I wanted to write a few quick thoughts on this is because classical thought can be heard everywhere in everyday conversation here in China and to use it is almost expected of you.
While there are plenty of commonly used aphorisms back in the states, I've definitely noticed a stronger tie in of cultural speech here in business conversation and political soundbites.
Adages, like " 三人行，必有我师 (If you walk with 2 people, at least 1 can be your teacher), can be randomnly heard and I think really dictates a form of mentality adopted here which reflects the significance Chinese people have given to historical and literary documents.
Imagine you heard a bunch of random people walking down 5th ave. quoting Emerson or Heraclitus.
My reaction would probably be the same as ours. But it's nothing really new here in the Middle Kingdom.
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