第四课Home_At_Last.doc

Home At Lastby Brook Larmer July 31, 20001 It was one of those all-night gabfests when graduating students, in boozy camaraderie, bare their deepest feelings. Only this was more serious: the 11 classmates who gathered at an apartment on the Harvard Business School campus in May 1999 were wrestling with the fate of China. Surrounded by empty beer bottles and bags of potato chips, the friends-all from mainland China-were discussing whether to go home or not. 这是一个通宵达旦的聚会，在醉意朦胧的氛围中，即将毕业的学子们互诉衷情。然而这却是一个严肃的场合：在1999年5月的一天，11位（哈佛工商大学）的同班同学，聚集在哈佛工商大学校园的一套公寓里，正在与中国之命运努力抗争。在他们的身边满眼是空空的啤酒瓶和炸薯片的包装袋，这11位同班同学与一帮来自中国大陆的朋友正在讨论他们自己的去留问题。Each of them had received lucrative offers from Americas top companies. Still, China had changed dramatically in the decade since most of them had left. Politics and protest were still taboo, but the nation now offered more personal freedoms and economic opportunities than ever before. And it desperately needed elite managers like them. Zhang Wei, a buoyant 29-year-old woman whose dream was to become Chinas answer to American talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, implored her classmates to follow their hearts back home. We cant sacrifice the present for the sake of tomorrow, she said. We should start doing right now what we really want to do. 。其实，他们当中的每一位同学都收到了美国顶级公司的邀请函。但是，自从他们大多数人离开祖国以来，中国大陆在十年内也已经发生了巨大的变化。现在的中国比以往的任何时候提供了更多的个人自由和经济发展机遇，而且也急需一大批象他们一样的精英管理型人才。张微，一位活泼的29岁妇女，她的梦想就是要成为中国式的奥普拉温弗莉，（奥普拉温弗莉OprahWinfrey：1954年1月29日生于美国密西西比州的科斯休斯克。19岁加入那斯威尔市的WVOL广播电台开始她的广播生涯。大学二年级转学大众传媒，并成为那斯威尔WTVF电视台第一个非洲裔美国人记者。1984年移居芝加哥主持WLS电视台的早间脱口秀节目芝加哥的早晨。一个月之后，成为脱口秀节目排行榜首位。不到一年时间，节目延长到1小时，并更名为奥普拉温弗瑞秀。奥普拉温弗莉是一个什么样的人？她的物理特征：“黑人、女人、体重200磅、出身于密西西比、庸俗、粗鄙、市井和有生气的”；她的人生特征：未婚妈妈所生，9岁遭强奸，33岁成为脱口秀女皇，48岁成为亿万富翁。她的财智特征：美国最受欢迎电视人，哈泼娱乐集团公司董事长，全美50名女强人之一，20世纪最有影响力的100位名人之一，福布斯杂志排行榜上的亿万富翁。）而后者就是美国当代（家喻户晓）的访谈节目女主持人，她要求她的同学们返回祖国。“我们决不可为了明天而放弃现在。”她说道，“我们现在就应该着手做我们该做的事情”。2 The words were pure Oprah, but they proved prophetic. In a matter of weeks, the youngest man in the room-a 26-year-old former national math champion named Shao Yibo-scribbled down a business proposal, sold his belongings and left for Shanghai, where he launched a Chinese version of the Internet auction giant, eBay. On the way, he stopped off for a day in Silicon Valley and persuaded investors to give him $400,000. Weeks later classmate Tan Haiying returned to Shanghai to visit friends before starting an investment-banking job in New York. She never used her return ticket to the United States: Shao persuaded her to join his firm as chief operating officer. Within a year three other members of the clique-Huan Yiming, Renee Chen and Herbert Wang-also returned to launch start-up companies. And Zhang? She landed a business-development job at Rupert Murdochs News Corp. in Beijing. She also works overtime pursuing her Oprah dream. Once a week she hosts a popular talk show on Beijing TV that takes on such daring topics as AIDS, drug abuse and-yes-Internet dating. 这二句话出自奥普拉温弗莉之口，但他们印证了一个预言。大约过了几周的时间，在这所公寓里最年轻的26岁前任国际数学冠军，名叫邵亦波-草草写下一条经商建议，便卖掉家当前往上海，在那里他创建了一家中国式的国际互联网拍卖行，eBay.(易趣网,世界最大的网上交易平台,中国电子商务的旗舰网站)。在返回上海的途中，他在美国的硅谷呆了一天的时间，并且说服了一些投资人为他（的项目）投资了四十万美金。几周之后，同学谭海英在纽约一家投资银行走马上任之前，返回上海拜会了一些朋友之后，她再也没用返回美国:邵亦波劝说她（留下来）担任他公司的行政副总管。一年里，小团伙内的另外三名成员：黄逸明、任晨、Herbert王也返回中国开办了几家创业公司。那么张微呢？她在（世界报业大王）罗伯特、默多克的新闻集团里谋得一份具有商业发展的美差。在北京，她仍然不分昼夜地工作以追求她的奥普拉式梦想。在北京电视台，她每周一次主持一档深受大家欢迎的访谈节目，访谈的内容主要是关于艾滋病、毒品泛滥，当然也有网上约会交友（等内容）。3 By the time the Chinese students converged on HBS, they were not looking for an escape, but an edge for their eventual return to China. After years of working for consulting firms, multinationals or start-ups, all of them felt the need to deepen their understanding of Western business culture. At HBS, the Chinese students quickly gravitated together. The old hands helped the newcomers learn how to drive, shop for food, ride the subway. Three of them shared a flat, and because they cooked Chinese food, it soon became a hangout. The group vacationed together, snorkeling in Puerto Rico, skiing in Vermont, relaxing on Cape Cod. They bonded so well that they even wrote a book, in Chinese, about their HBS experience. 当中国的学生出现在美国哈佛大学的时候，他们不仅仅是寻找出路，而且也是寻找他们日后最终回国的优势条件。经过几年为（国外）咨询公司、跨国公司和创业公司的工作经历，他们绝大多数人都深感要加深对西方商业文化的理解。在美国哈佛大学，中国学生迅速聚集在一起，学长帮助学弟学习如何开车、购买食品、乘地铁。他们每三个人共享一套公寓，因为他们烹制中国饭菜，因此这套公寓立马就成了一个聚集地。大家一起度假，在波多黎各（PuertoRico是美国在加勒比海地区的一个自治领地，正式名称是波多黎各自由邦。波多黎各是大安的列斯群岛四个大岛中最小的一个岛，位于多米尼加共和国东面，在小安的列斯群岛西北。它包含一个主岛和若干小岛。整个地区分为78个市级行政区。在西班牙语里，波多黎各的意思是“富裕之港”。）潜水，在佛蒙特州滑雪（vermont佛蒙特州是美洲东海岸地区的滑雪圣地），在科德角休闲。（CapeCod科德角是美国马萨诸塞州一个港湾城市，景色秀美，旅游业十分兴旺，不少人到当地注册结婚和度蜜月）。他们精诚团结，甚至于用中文撰写了关于他们在美国哈佛大学的求学经历一书。4 But the dilemma about the future always loomed large. When Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji spoke at nearby Massachusetts Institute of Technology in April 1999, shortly after graduation, he invited business-school graduates to return home, stressing that Chinas greatest need was management expertise. We were all struggling with the choices, says Eric Xin, a 30-year-old management consultant who has decided, for the moment, to stay and work for McKinsey & Co. We have deep roots in China, but were also flying high in the Western world. Now with a 1-year-old son and another on the way-I can have more than one child here, Xin says, only half-joking-Xin and his lawyer wife plan to stay in Washington a few more years, gaining experience abroad before going back to China. I want to test myself to see if I can survive in a pure American environment, he says. Still, he admits, sometimes I stop in the street and wonder, What am I doing here? 但是，（莘莘学子们）的未来，或去、或留的两难境地总是若隐若现，在1999年4月，当中国政府总理朱镕基在附近的麻省理工学院（MassachusettsInstituteofTechnology，MIT是美国培养高级科技人才和管理人才、从事科学与技术教育与研究的一所私立大学）演讲，朱镕基总理邀请不久前毕业于商业学校的毕业生们返回祖国，并强调：中国的迫切需求就是经营管理人才。“我们要做出选择”eric辛说道,eric辛是一位30岁的管理顾问，目前他已经决定留下来为麦肯锡公司工作。“我们的根在中国，但我们在西方世界也可以展翅腾飞”。现在他已有一个一岁的孩子，而且另一个孩子（其妻子）也已怀孕在身。“在这里我们能够生更多的孩子。”辛半开玩笑地说道,辛和他作律师的妻子计划在华盛顿呆几年。以便在回国以前获得（更多的）国外（工作和生活）经验。“我很想尝试一下自己是否能够在地道的美国环境当中生存下去，”他说道。他也承认，“有时我会徘徊街头并（自言自语）我来在这里究竟要干什么？”5 For some of the Harvard grads, China is still too underdeveloped, especially in the financial sector, to lure them back. Theres a lot of thunder, but not much rain, says Peter Chen, a debt specialist with GE Capital in Tokyo. But for others, it is simply that family comes first. Huang Jingsheng, who at 43 is the oldest of the group, is worried about subjecting his wife and two young boys to Beijings pollution. For the time being, Huang is living in clear-aired Sacramento, California, where he works as a venture capitalist for Intel Capital, handling occasional China deals. There are different ways of helping China, he says. My classmates have found one way. Im still figuring out how to do the same thing-and making the right choice for my family. 对于一部分哈佛大学的毕业生们来说，中国仍然是一个欠发达国家，特别是在金融行业，足以吸引他们回国工作。“雷声大，雨点小。”比得陈说道，他是一位（在日本）东京通用电气公司的处理债务专家。但对别人来说，首先举家迁入日本那是十分简单的事情。黄景胜43岁，在这群人当中最年长的一位，他很担心北京的（空气）污染会对他妻子和孩子有害。长期以来，黄景胜一直居住在空气清新的萨克拉门托(Sacramento)，加利福尼亚国（首都），在那里他以一位投资商的身份为英特尔公司工作，偶尔也会接手中国买卖。“帮助中国的方法各有其道，”他说道，“我的同学已经找到了一种方法，”我也领悟到了该如何做这同样的事情,那就是对我的家庭要作出一个正确的选择.6 The Class of 99 grads are a new breed of returnee. Except for Zhang, they are not working for law firms or multinationals, but building their own companies. And that makes their impact on China even greater. Its not just the millions of dollars in foreign capital they are bringing in. (Shao and Tan have raised more than $25 million for their online auction house, Eachnet.) They are shaping a whole new industry. After graduation, Herbert Wang worked for six months at Nortel in Toronto, but he quickly returned to Beijing to found Prient, a start-up that helps old-line companies go online. I felt that I could add more value to my country by running my own company, he says. I couldnt do that in the U.S. 99届的毕业生们来自各类专业的回国人员，除了张微以外,他们都没有为法律部门和跨国公司工作,但是他们建立了自己的公司.而正是这一点,甚至对中国也产生了巨大的影响力.这不仅仅是给他们带来了成百上千的国外资金(比邵亦波和谭海英他们在网上拍卖房屋所得的25万美金还要多，eachnet每一笔的网上交易).他们已经形成了一个全新的工业雏形,herbert王毕业之后在加拿大安大略省多伦多市（CityofToronto）的NORTEL（北电网络有限公司-业界知名的IT产品公司）工作了六个多月,但他很快就返回了北京,并且建立了蓬天（Prient）信息系统有限公司,开创了帮助传统公司的广告宣传改为通过国际互联网宣传自己的产品“我认为通过经营自己的公司,我能为我的祖国带来更丰厚的价值”他说道.“而在美国我却什么也不能做.”7 But returnees are forced to adjust to local practice, too. In China, business is not simply about profits, but relationships. Huan Yiming came back to China earlier this year after working at Sun Microsystems. In Shanghai, where she set up her wireless-applications company, Etonenet, she says she had to relearn China. I tried to structure this like a Silicon Valley company, but I quickly realized this wasnt the U.S. Her employees didnt know what stock options were, and she didnt know how to navigate the local bureaucracy. So she hired an old friend to be her local partner.We have to be modest to learn how local business works, Huan says. 但是,回国人员也被迫要调整自己适应当地的潜规则.在中国,商业经营不仅仅是简单的获得利润,而且也是一种人际关系.今年早些时候,胡英明在为太阳公司（SunMicrosystems是IT及互联网技术服务公司，也是从斯坦福大学孵化出的高科技公司，总部设在美国，创建于1982年。主要产品是工作站及服务器，在行业中被认为是同行中最具创造性的企业之一，它也是最早进入中国市场并直接与中国政府开展技术合作的计算机公司。在2001年的高峰期，太阳公司在全球拥有五万雇员，市值超过两千亿美元，进入了世界财富500强的行列。但是，今天的太阳公司，不仅人数规模、市场股值、办公面积远不能和当年相比（能人都走了，办公楼也卖了，股票一落千丈），而且彻底退出了IT领域霸主之争。太阳公司从1982年成立到2000年达到顶峰用了近二十年时间，而走下坡路只用了一年，足以令经营者为戒。）工作之后回到了中国。在上海,她在那里建立起了她自己的无线应用公司，即：上海移通网络有限公司。（移通网络（ETONENET）创建于美国硅谷，是互联网无线技术应用服务及集成领域的领先供应商。亚太区总部设在上海）。她说道，她“不得不重新认识中国”,我力图建立一所象美国硅谷公司一样的企业,但是我很快意识到这里不是在美国.她的雇员们不知道究竟应该选什么样的股票.而且她也不知道该如何处理与当地官员之间的关系.因此,她雇佣了一名老朋友作为她处理当地事务的助手.“我们不得不虚心地学习当地企业是如何运作的”，黄景胜说道。8 That cultural understanding is precisely what Zhang is trying to promote on her TV show, Common Ground. The programs slogan: Building a bridge between China and the world. Each week the show takes advantage of her experience in the United States to look at sensitive issues from local and foreign perspectives, in English and Mandarin. This month, in a segment on Internet dating, Zhang presided over a marriage proposal between an American man and the Chinese girlfriend he met on the Internet. Oprah, indeed! Back in her office at News Corp., under a poster for her favorite TV show, Friends, Zhang fiddles with the Snoopy chain on her cellular phone. Things are changing so fast here, she says. The whole point is to show that people have different values, that not everybody thinks the same about every issue. And that may be new for China.对 于文化的理解，切确地说，正是张微力图在她的电视节目当中要提升的内涵.“连接的共同点”电视栏目的口号是:“在中国和世界之间架起一座连接的桥梁”。每周的电视访谈节目,都充分利用了她在美国的一些经历,运用国内外的观点视角来看待一些敏感问题,当然是用英文和普通话来播报.这个月,在网上约会交友的这个栏目里,张微负责一场婚礼计划节目.这对新人新郎是美国人,新娘是中国人.都是她在网上结识的朋友.这与奥普拉.温弗里如出一辙.返回到新闻集团的办公室里,为了她最钟爱的电视节目,在一个大型广告之下“朋友们”张微挥动着在她手机上带有卡通snoopy(Snoopy就好象日本的叮当，经典度与可爱度都是无可质疑的，甚至是美国的国宝。Snoopy在1950年的花生漫画里面出现至今，就一直受人爱戴)的链环,“事情变化得太快了”，她说道.“对所有的论点都表明人们有着不同的价值观,对每一个事件都有着不同的思想.这对中国来说，或许是一个崭新的气象.”9 Still, change is not always comfortable. Zhang left behind a group of close friends in the United States and returned to a world that was virtually foreign to her. She has few friends in Beijing, and she still feels a need to tread lightly on the set. The producers are taking a real risk to have me host the show, she says. Ive gotten a lot of my values from abroad, and the show has no script. When she chose to do her first program on AIDs, the producers seemed more concerned about her young, casual appearance than the delicate subject matter. They dressed her up in a prim gray suit. I told them: Please let me be me! says Zhang. Now they realize that the host needs to have his or her own persona