Beijing, the Earnest Young Man, and the 24 Pearl Rings

The Bird's Nest Stadium at the Olympic Park in Beijing, China.

(Taken from: http://www.homesthetics.net/the-chinese-national-stadium-in-beijing-the-birds-nest-stadium/)

I could write a travel blog specifying places to see and restaurants to eat at, at the major cities/towns/rural places/wilderness areas of the world that I have visited or will come to visit – however, these tend to be topics that have been fairly well flogged, and besides, there are plenty of good travel writers out there. Most importantly, that is not the purpose of my writing.

Instead, I want to talk about a young man that I met during my recent short visit to Beijing, China.

And 24 pearl rings.

And so the story begins…

 

It was Day 5 of the tour, and we had been everywhere – the Great Wall, the Forbidden Palace, the Summer Palace, Tiananmen Square, the Ming Tombs, the Temple of Heaven, the Olympic Park (Bird’s Nest Stadium, National Aquatic Centre). We had ridden trishaws while visiting the Beijing Hutong alleys, seen a Shaolin martial arts as well as modern Chinese theatre performance.

We had been to view jade, cloisonné wares, silk, tea, and learn more about Traditional Chinese Medicine.

We had gone shopping. We had eaten duck three times.

 

After a busy day of touring, the last stop of the day was a visit to a pearl store.

Our tour group of 24 people was ushered into a meeting room and a salesgirl came in to do an introduction. She was a dynamic and charismatic speaker who engaged the audience well. Following that, a pearl researcher/scientist was meant to come to give us a presentation.

After a delay, the salesgirl came back to apologise, saying that it was a busy evening with many groups touring the facility concurrently - hence all the researchers were engaged at the moment. She asked us for a little more patience.

After another short delay, the doors to the room opened, and there stood a nervous young man dressed nattily in a sweater vest and dress suit, looking a little shell-shocked.

 

 

He was visibly very nervous, and although he didn’t stutter, he was choppy in his speech initially. Straightaway, he had my full sympathy because I knew how he would have felt in that instance – like a deer caught in the headlights of a speeding car.

After a brief self-introduction, he went onto jade and pearl - the types and grades; how they are valued; how to tell apart the real from the fake.

 

 

For some reason, as he spoke he kept looking my way (or at least, in my general vicinity) while he spoke and asked questions of the audience, till I felt shy enough to start avoiding his gaze.

As he continued, he hesitated briefly before he said: “To be very honest, I only know so much, and I can only teach what I know. I am not as learned as some of the others, nor as well-polished a presenter. I was pulled in to speak to you on the spur of the moment, I did not have any prior preparation and I was taken aback by how big this group is.”

He seemed to rally after admitting this, and as he continued on, he steadily gained fluency and confidence in his speech.

 

At one point, a revelation. He said: “Put it this way, if you come back in a few years, this entire enterprise could be mine. I am currently only doing work experience here, but hopefully given some time I would be working here. If you come back to visit, you can always come to look for me."

[The above is a literal Chinese to English translation, however, reading between the lines and taken in account what is lost in translation, he was essentially telling us that this was a  family business that could be handed into his hands to manage, given a few years (as told in a Chinese roundabout fashion)].

 

One of the cheeky ladies in the tour group boldly told him that in order to remember him by, a gift would be required. As they bantered, the gift being negotiated increased from a jar of pearl powder face/body cream apiece all the way up to the boldest suggestion of a pearl necklace each.

[In Chinese business transactions, gift-giving and receiving as well as the bestowing and returning of favours, are an integral components. It oils the cogs of the machine, so to speak.  This occurs in the context of ‘guanxi’, or the business network of people you know.]

 

He considered the request momentarily before he said: “I am not calculative when it comes to friendships. The following will only a small gift of my esteem. I believe that in conducting business, one needs to look at the long-term scenario, the big picture, and not on momentary gains. I only ask that you not tell the other salespeople about my poor presentation today, and also not to let the other customers out there in the main hall know of what I am doing here. Also, for you to not forget me.”

A tray of pearl mounted on rings was brought around, for us to select from, one for each person, and 24 in all were chosen and taken. There were white, champagne, pink and black pearls to choose from.

 

Later on, as he warmed up to us, he asked questions about Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore (as my tour group members were from these three neighbouring countries), and began to interact with the audience a lot more comfortably. He had not been to any of the three places, and was curious about our home countries. He mentioned that he hadn’t travelled anywhere else besides going to university in America.

 

At one point while he was speaking, I was so touched that I could have cried, had I not controlled myself.

Not because I was given a pearl ring.

Far from it, I am a person who is not motivated by money nor riches.

I felt like crying because I was touched by how honest and earnest he was – I don't meet the likes him everyday. He is a budding businessman, but he showed that he is human too.

 

Later on in the evening, he came up to me, with a name card in hand, his Beijing mobile phone number and email address written on it.

I thanked him as I took it from him.

His name is Yan Liang, and I wish him all the best in what I believe will be a very bright future.

 

“我相信你会成功的，因为你是真心的。”