Some say I have abandoned this blog. I have not. I constantly think about what I want to post here, share here, and have started many drafts that were never complete. It takes a big chunk of time to generate the focus that will result in a good post, and as I have come to learn, while it is possible for a banking analyst to make time to balance out work and play, allocating that additional few precious hours to sit in front of a computer to write is much harder when you’ve already sat in front of a computer for the most part of a 24-hr day.
So here we are, capitalizing on the Chinese New Year break, blackberry-free and too lazy to move after consecutive nights of festivities having consumed as much food and liquor as my body could handle without getting sick, I am ready to share the snapshot of my 2012.
Leaving Columbia and NYC
2012 was an important year for me. Originally the class of 2011, I took a gap year and moved my seat to the class of 2012. Many people asked me what it was like to be back in school again. It felt like home. Like how you leave home for a year to school and return for the first time in 12 months. And like returning home after a long year abroad, I became more appreciative of what being in school had to offer and came to appreciate my alma mater. Learning was more fun (but only on a relative basis compare to previous semesters), because I finally had some real life experiences to convince myself the things I was learning were relevant. While the typical senior year results in borderline F’s and increased risk of alcoholism, I did better than any previous semester and forged new friendships based more so on common interests rather than social cliques.
But however nice school was, my mind had already felt like I was a graduate. Home, metaphorically or actually, was never a place where I dwelled extensively. Exactly a year ago, I finished my degree and came back to China to take part in starting a local VC/PE shop in China, in search of the kind of experience that I knew I’d never get once I set foot on the sacred pilgrimage of bulge bracket investment banking.
In May, I returned to NYC for the graduation ceremony. In June, I returned to NYC one more time for the global IBD training. When I boarded Delta 173 at JFK on August 17th, 2012, I knew I had ran out of degrees of freedom to go back to the greatest city in the world.
Asia - the Here and Now
During my college years, most of the ambitious college students with Chinese heritage have a China dream of sorts. Some chose to put those dreams to action right away, while others chose to gain more experiences abroad before returning. Having left China at the age of 10, and having engaged with a serious group of like-minded individuals through GCC, I simply did not have the patience to be part of the second group.
Hong Kong is a unique place. It’s filled with more exclusive clubs and associations than any other city I’ve lived in, and the whole city itself seems to be built on the elements of capitalism: consumerism, materialism, elitism, pragmatism - doesn’t sound like the most friendly place to live in the world, but there is upside. The combination of early exposure to capitalism, a small geographic area, dense population, and the Hong Kong people’s desire for achievements and global recognition has created one of the most efficient cities ever built by mankind. The most advanced mobile technology, transportation systems, public infrastructure, low-cost of domestic helpers and the simple close-proximity of everything spoil the expats here to consider almost every other city in the world, inconvenient. And I have, for better or worse, become one of them.
As one can imagine, not everyone likes it this way. I am not short of friends who have shied away from Hong Kong because of its culture and the difficulties involved in adjusting to this city because of the challenge of Cantonese, the jaw-dropping rent (usually followed by varying degrees of claustrophobia) or a combination of all of the above. Luckily, having learned to appreciate Cantonese culture since TVB was available in China in the 90’s, and growing up in the beautiful Hong-couver, I saw no challenge in the language or culture.
Though I’ve always been interested in Hong Kong, the firmness of my decision to work in Hong Kong was purely a result of my gap year. I saw first-hand the types of opportunities that were available to young graduates in PRC, where the training of new grads never seems to make it to the top of CEOs’ agenda, I knew it was better to start in a more cosmopolitan environment with 1. English as the main working language and 2. a high degree of efficiency from mobile services to elevators to public transportations and 3. access to a great diversity of people. And Hong Kong has all three - always has, always will.
When I landed in HKG at 11pm on Aug 18th, 2012, I was on familiar ground.
Everyone of us desired our China dream. And here’s mine.
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