Air New Zealand, a Proximity client in Shanghai, will be offering non stop flights to Auckland from Shanghai 3 times a week starting in November.

To give the locals an experience they can relate with, we brought a local celeb – Xia Yu – down and had him record his experiences at www.experiencesomethingnew.com.

I also happen to be in Beijing this weekend and have been able to hang out with him and his girlfriend Yuan Quan.

They’re so down to earth and can both sing!

Pics soon…

I wonder how the Chinese censors viewed the lyrics to some of the songs in the Black Eyed Peas repertoire. I’m sure the guys promoting the concert glazed over the metaphors in many of the lyrics.

“Well here, they’re talking about having breakfast together, mixing milk with this brand called cocoa puff. American rap stars love milk. And Cocoa Puffs.”

The Black Eyed Peas performed for the first time in Shanghai on Thursday night after first visiting Hong Kong on the 16th, and then Beijing on the 18th. Although the concert wasn’t amazing, I thought it was very good, and what amazed me, is how many people went. I’ve been to the venue before for Michael Bolton and for Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees and I’ve never seen it that packed for foreign artists. But then again, it could be because I went to a Michael Bolton and Robin Gibb concert… I digress…

But a sense of happiness did rush through me as the lights dimmed and the DJs were pumping hip hop in the stadium while we were waiting for the BEP to come out and perform. China loves hip hop. Young China anyway. I’ve seen some pretty random stuff here. DJ Jazzy Jeff was here a couple weeks ago and we saw him spin. He was pretty cool. And of course, we saw Jin tha MC here a couple times. Ice-T also. I don’t think 50 will ever get his debut here, but Usher or Beyonce I think would do well. Hova! Look at me, I’m a brutha now.

More pictures from the Black Eyed Peas concert here.

So close yet so far…

Speaking of movies, Superman Returns came out in China yesterday. I saw the DVD for sale on Sunday, but I refrained from purchasing it because I wanted to see it on BIG screen. Not only is it on BIG screen, it is on IMAX here. There are a few IMAX theatres in Shanghai, but the main one for movies like this is at Raffles City, a mall by People’s Square. It’s called Peace Cinema. SO a bunch of friends and I will be going to Peace Cinema tomorrow. And did you know IMAX was a Canadian invention? I only found out during Canada Day celebrations here in Shanghai because IMAX had a booth. Just thought I’d share that information with you.

You’re welcome.

Will be in HK this weekend. Will watch Pirates of the Caribbean in the theatres too! Just goes to show that people will still pay money to see a good movie. The Superman Returns DVD was 7RMB. At the IMAX, it’s 120RMB.

Work is pretty good. Even though I don’t get home until before 10pm, pull 80 hour weeks, don’t get to see my friends, pass out as soon as I get home, all in all it’s been good. Since my stapler, I’ve gotten 2 namecard boxes, a USB stick, thumbtacks and a bunch of binders. The office supply room has everything!

I got a funny email today from an admin person. She sent it to about 50 people in our company

Dear all,

Regards,
XXXXX

I really don’t think she knows how this sounds though.  My colleagues and I were cracking up so hard.

Another concert just around the corner…

I think this is going to be a pretty fun night, a bunch of our friends are buying tickets to go.  Come along!

Work is nucking futs. I really need some help here.

This is the second time I’ve been in China for World Cup. You know you’ve been somewhere too long when…

But I must admit, China does love itself some World Cup. Coming from Canada, for me, personally, World Cup wasn’t very big. I mean we had the Blue Jays and the Maple Leafs. I knew jack squat about our soccer team. I suppose countries with crappy soccer teams don’t care too much about the World Cup… but how about those Oilers, eh?

How much does China love World Cup? I was in a cab, and some of them have mini TV’s sitting on the sun visor just above the passenger seat. On my way to the club (Babyface), the mini TV was showing the Portugal v. Iran game live. I drove by a couple buildings where they had big LED screens showing the game as well. I got into the club, and the music was pumpin, but the lights were a bit brighter than usual. Dotted along the wall were plasma screen TVs showing the game. People were a dancin’ and a boppin’ with their gazes fixated on the game. Random I tell you. The bars also had people sitting intently watching the game. Cab drivers without the mini TV’s had it on the radio. Random girls had flags painted on their cheeks.

China does love itself some World Cup.

After posting my job description up on a local university bulletin board, in two days I received about 300 resumes. This is the first time I’ve ever had to sift through so much shit stuff I just wanted to share some insight on the resumes I received.

It’s unfortunate but about 20% of them I deleted right off the bat because they sent me a Chinese version. I just didn’t want to sift through all the bs. Resumes I got also are very messy. I don’t think anyone ever taught them how to format a word document. And really random things too. One guy’s name was Peter Parker. I guess it worked because it got me to look at his resume. There was this one girl, whose name was Harry. Thankfully her resume was not so good and I didn’t have to discriminate based on her name. Many resumes also had indication of status (single, married etc.), sex, age and health! The answer for health always was “good”. I guess it’s useful to know that I would hire someone healthy, although it’s possible to lie on a resume.

I also got resumes from people who had MBA’s, masters in finance and economics, engineering, thermodynamics, automation, really frackin random. Most of my candidates had 3.5 GPA’s or higher. Most could speak more than one language, popular ones outside of English included German, French, Japanese and Russian.

In the end, I deleted people who I thought were too smart and would likely leave after 2 months, people who had a long history of working in fields completely unrelated to ours (insurance, banking, medical, thermodynamics), and people that had poor English on their resumes.

I’ve set up interviews and have been meeting them in 10 minute intervals. Unfortunately, I’m only at a 10% hit rate now. This is going to be a long process.

Account Executive

Job Description

Overall Role
The Account Executive is responsible for working with the Account Team to help manage, coordinate and lead Agency resources in order to meet Client(s) event, marketing and advertising needs.

General Responsibilities may include but not limited to
* Management of assigned accounts, client liaison, project execution
* Helping put together presentations and brand briefing to product designers
* Management of suppliers for work required for projects

Requirements
* University Graduate (or soon to be)
* Working experience in events, brand management or marketing
* Good fashion sense
* Good time management and interpersonal skills
* Able to work under pressure, tight deadlines and long hours
* Looking for local Chinese candidate, good command of English a must
* Willing to learn and contribute as team member
* Strong grasp of Office Products (PowerPoint, Excel, Word)
* Customer-service oriented
* Good working attitude

* Able to start work immediately will be advantageous

*** Looking for a local Chinese candidate ***

Send resumes and inquiries to sttemp@gmail.com

Today I got my stapler.

In my old company, I would just ransack the supplies cabinet. I would rummage through, and take whatever I thought was cool, and might even decide to use. Now I have to walk to the other side of the office, go into the admin office and ask specifically for what I want.

I forgot how shitty corporate Mondays can be. I used to be the perpetual snooze button presser. Now, there are actually people in the office on time, I wake up a full hour and a half earlier than when I used to.

The corporate world is so organized compared to my maverick days back at APNC. Upon arriving, I was given a box. It was white with pink, green, yellow and blue polkadots. Opening it, it contained:

- A box for holding pens
- A pink and a yellow highlighter
- 1 black and 1 blue Uniball pens
- A pair of scissors, blue handle
- A black and a blue no name ink pen
- A glue stick
- A Uni Correction Pen
- A package of 10 plastic folders

I wonder what box they give you when you are asked to leave.