Unconventional Wisdom

A Chinese knot hangs on the main door of my house in Shanghai. It symbolises good blessings from one friend to another. Consider it my everlasting good wishes to Wei .

First Part of a Letter to a Dear Friend

My Dear Wei, 

Seven years have passed since I left you in Dongguan city, China after a tough counterfeit raid. You were returning to Beijing to spend time with your wife. I was going away to Phuket with Devin. Your parting shot was ‘Stay awake during your bus ride. Remember, there have been quite a few bus crashes lately.’ I smiled, waved back and promptly nodded off. 

My life has changed significantly since we said goodbye.  

Did you know that Devin and I eventually left Hong Kong without jobs and not much in savings? I don’t know, we just felt that we did not wish to continue living that way anymore. So we left. Nine months later, we were still jobless and quite broke. But we couldn’t be happier. 

One day, whilst sitting at Starbucks in Orchard Road, Devin and I started talking about our childhood ambitions. We looked at each other and asked ourselves, ‘What had happened to those dreams?’ We had been spending our lives doing things others wanted us to do. I was @#%* tired of that. We never lived the lives that we wanted. Devin then wrote on her napkin, ‘CHEF’ and I wrote on mine, ‘COP’ simultaneously. The next day, Devin signed up at SHATEC and I applied to join the Singapore
Police Force. 

I loved being a cop. As an Investigation Officer at the Tanglin Police Division HQ, I investigated all kinds of crimes. It was my childhood dream come true ... toting guns, kicking doors and chasing after bad guys. I went on to plan and execute all types of operations. Each day was like riding on a roller coaster, filled with many adrenaline-pumping moments. I could work non-stop for three days. Learning the true meaning of the ‘underbelly of society’ was an eye opener.   

Alas, the good times came to an end suddenly. I was posted to a job that felt too much like a law firm, down to the black pants, white shirts and boring ties. No amount of pleading, cajoling, threatening or even ‘bribing’ with Devin’s cooking could get me out of that posting. I guess it is true that ‘all good things must come to an end.’ It was better to quit. 

So, I was once again at a crossroad. And I couldn’t help remembering the things we had shared in the past ... 

Wei, you and I were not only good colleagues who worked together on numerous IP cases at Baker & McKenzie Hong Kong. We were best of friends. So were our wives. Sometimes Devin said that I spent more time with you than I did with her. I guess it is a good thing we were both happily married. Otherwise, people might start wondering if you were my China-lover! You know how much I love China. I still do and there is no where else I would like to live than here. I guess my love for the Chinese language, history and culture explains why. For me, culture is a way of life. It makes a man complete.  

It is important to enjoy and accept different cultures. And I truly thank you for all the hours you have spent correcting my Chinese, teaching me about Chinese history and arguing with me about politics. Guess it helped that we were both hopeless romantics stuck in the most boring jobs on earth. 

I grew up in a Chinese-speaking household speaking Mandarin and Cantonese. I read a lot of Chinese books. Devin and I are more ‘Chinese-ed’ than ‘English-ed’. It was just natural for me to practise Chinese law. 

I really enjoyed all those stories you told me about the Cultural Revolution. I began to read more about the events of those turbulent times. And for me, I have come to truly believe that the one event that has shaped today’s China is the Cultural Revolution. It must have been really depressing to live through that period of history. I think that the Revolution has single-handedly challenged every known Chinese custom, belief, tradition and norm at its core. You guys have had no choice but to start from scratch after the Revolution. What a feeling that must have been! I wish you had shared with me more about it.   

Singaporeans and other foreigners have problems accepting the mainland Chinese for who they are. But I guess if we look back at how most of these traditions were renounced during the Revolution, it is no surprise your fellow countrymen can be so mercenary at times. How can a foreigner who did not live through such a horrendous period understand how these values were eroded? 

To live, work and understand today’s successful Chinese, I really think we need to understand their past. During their formative years, they had to lie, spy on their parents, beat up their neighbours and cheat on their teachers so that they could bring food to their tables at night. How many of us have had to live such lives in Singapore? I, for one, had a sheltered and spoilt upbringing. 

Deep down in our hearts, Devin and I knew we had to go back to China to experience it a bit more. Hong Kong was only a ‘sampler’. We felt we needed to live in China to see and feel the real China. So in 2001, we moved to Guangzhou, a small town with big city aspirations. 

Guangzhou is like Kuala Lumpur — charming, laid-back yet enterprising.  I had my initial reservations; after all I am a cautious Singaporean. But we fell in love with the city within weeks of settling in. I must tell you about our home next to the Pearl River. Each morning, I woke up to a million-dollar view of the sunrays glittering off the river surface. It was like being in a holiday home every day! The relatively undeveloped Ersha Island was situated just right across the river. The lazy Sunday mornings and balmy evenings spent wondering along the river banks still makes me smile. It is like Boat Quay in Singapore but prettier. I wish you could have seen Guangzhou with me.  

Guangzhou is a migrant society. We picked up our taste for Hunan, Sichuan and Dongbei cuisines there. Grocery shopping in Guangzhou is like a trip to Little India in Singapore — an attack on all your senses simultaneously! 

Together with an American and a Hong Konger, who were two of my favourite investigators during my time at Baker, I set up an IP consultancy firm in Guangzhou. We had about 60 Field Agents with offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Quanzhou, Guangzhou and Hong Kong. We wanted to be a one-stop shop with customer-oriented world-class service and plenty of local knowledge. As you know, although the demand for IP consultancy was very high at the time, a client could only choose from expensive foreign law firms with no local knowledge and contacts or inexperienced local firms who had no idea what customer service was. I felt that our business filled the void in the China IP industry. I had great fun; the work was interesting and we made good money. 

Then in late 2001, I returned to Singapore. Wei, you know how I enjoy a change of scenery every once in a while. Devin and I do not subscribe to the idea that we have to stay in one place for the rest of our lives. You know, Singapore is full of migrants — every single one of us had migrant parents. It is in our blood. We cannot help but move around the world.  But this time round, it was because of a most wonderful client who offered to bring me in-house! And the position was actually in Singapore!  I was sure my mum would love that?! 

The job I got was with Nokia Singapore as its Asia Pacific Brand Protection Manager in its IP Rights Department. What I enjoyed most was the total trust and autonomy I was given. I crafted brand protection strategies from scratch. I put together a great team of internal and external resources to build Nokia a formidable Enforcement Team throughout Asia.

But I think the defining moment during my time in Nokia was handling the biggest counterfeit case in China in 2003 involving a Taiwanese syndicate, which was producing counterfeit Nokia batteries in Guangzhou. We finally caught the mastermind of the syndicate, who had escaped in 2000 and 2001. It helped that we had a great Chinese police officer in Guangzhou who was as determined as I was to nail this guy.  No amount of money could buy him off. He was like a bulldog. Justice was done when the mastermind was jailed for five years. This case single-handedly renewed my faith in China’s law enforcement.

Then in 2004, my luck ran out. Headquarters asked me to transfer to Helsinki to run the company’s global enforcement programme. But I can’t live there. I would die. It is so cold. Plus, Devin would be so miserable if she could not see the sun for 10 months in a year. Worse still, we won’t even be able to get decent Chinese takeouts! I begged my bosses to leave me in Asia. I was even prepared to stay in my job without any promotion.  They said no way, so I quit Nokia.

It feels like just yesterday when Devin and I returned from Phuket after I parted company with you in Dongguan. We were greeted by the incessant ringing of the telephone in our Hong Kong apartment. It was your boss. He asked me to rush to Beijing ...

To be continued

Rajan Chettiar
Rajan Chettiar & Co
E-mail: rajanchettiar@pacific.net.sg