BEIJING, June 15 (Reuters) - Micah Truman jostles through crowds on Beijing's subway as he races to business meetings, silver rings jangling from his earlobes,
ÿÿÿÿ At 27, the Seattle native has taught English and traded underwear in China. Now he runs an Internet start-up company with a staff of 30 and expects revenues of $1.5 million this year.
ÿÿÿÿ Truman represents the other face of American business in China: young entrepreneurs out to make their fortunes in the new frontier of capitalism.
ÿÿÿÿ They live in cheap apartments down Beijing alleyways, speak fluent Mandarin with a local twang and run their businesses on a shoestring. Usually, they come armed with a degree in East Asian Studies rather than an MBA.
ÿÿÿÿ "I unequivocally believe that China is the land of opportunity," Truman said. "I could not have succeeded at this in America. I'd be making coffee at the mall."
ÿÿÿÿ Operating out of three computer-filled rooms tucked down a back alley lined with vegetable hawkers, Truman's Pearl Product Launch Services has evolved from printing promotional hats to website design and helping corporate giants such as IBM pitch their products online.
ÿÿÿÿ ARABICA ROASTERS
ÿÿÿÿ Halfway across town, 28-year-old Stuart Eunson from Princeton, Massachusetts, about 70 km (45 miles) west of Boston, heads Arabica Roasters, a company that sells premium coffee beans from Colombia and Ethiopia to cafes that serve hip Beijingers.
ÿÿÿÿ "I just fell in love with the country -- the people, the culture, the food," Eunson said outside his factory filled with aroma of roasting beans.
ÿÿÿÿ Other arrivals are more mercenary.
ÿÿÿÿ Ted Hornbein came to China in 1989 to pursue his dream of becoming an industrial baron in the style of a bygone American era.
ÿÿÿÿ "You hear about those boat people, well, I'm an economic refugee as much as they are, but I came on a plane instead of a boat," said Hornbein, who ran a company selling industrial equipment until it went bust earlier this year.
ÿÿÿÿ Reflecting on his job prospects back home in State College, Pennsylvania, Hornbein laughed: "No one in their right mind would ever let me into a factory, let alone sell things, but in China it was assumed I knew things."
ÿÿÿÿ "There is a sense of freedom and empowerment because I'm doing a job that I'm maybe not qualified to do," said Hornbein, 28, who turned to Chinese studies after failing as a cartoonist and an engineering student.
ÿÿÿÿ JEANS AND SANDALS
ÿÿÿÿ For young Americans on the make, business attire is often jeans and sandals -- and deals are clinched at least partly on the strength of Chinese language skills and youthful charm.
ÿÿÿÿ Lacking the financial backing of a Motorola or a General Motors, they make every penny count.
ÿÿÿÿ "You find yourself debating whether to spend 10 kuai ($1.2) for a taxi or take the bus for five mao ($0.06)," said Hornbein.
ÿÿÿÿ Scott Savitt, a former United Press International journalist, borrowed from friends and family to raise $250,000 to start what became the most popular guide to the Chinese capital, a giveaway newspaper called "Beijing Scene."
ÿÿÿÿ In a spartan apartment strewn with expensive desktop publishing equipment and little else, Savitt said the prospect of life among China's 1.2 billion people stirred his creative juices when, aged 17, he first set foot in Beijing in 1982.
ÿÿÿÿ "I'm an enterprising type," Savitt said. "I would have been an entrepreneur in the States, but to do it here is more exciting."
ÿÿÿÿ Hornbein for months relied on sympathetic friends for a bed while he fought to close his biggest deal ever, selling an apple juice concentrate line to a company in eastern China.
ÿÿÿÿ One of his first jobs, with a Hong Kong Chinese trading firm, ended in disaster. Forced into a drinking bout with a prospective Chinese client, he threw up over his boss's girlfriend. He was fired the same day.
ÿÿÿÿ ONLINE ROMANCE
ÿÿÿÿ Young Americans are scrambling for niche businesses overlooked or ignored by bigger companies. They can afford to push into politically-sensitive areas.
ÿÿÿÿ While Beijing frets about the Internet and its potential to spread dissent, Truman is busy with plans to launch China's first Chinese-language chat room where web surfers can even seek online romance.
ÿÿÿÿ "This is old hat in America, but these highly organised social sites don't exist in China," Truman said.
ÿÿÿÿ He has also launched , an online magazine with news about marketing and advertising in China.
ÿÿÿÿ Savitt's "Beijing Scene" is testing the boundaries of communist China's tightly controlled media.
ÿÿÿÿ The full-colour broadsheet handed out in restaurants, hotels and bars focuses mainly on innocent topics such as where to find the best beer or discos.
ÿÿÿÿ But social satire can be found between the lines in sections such as "Ask Ayi," where a curmudgeonly Chinese spinster dispenses wisdom on life in China that often borders on the politically incorrect.
ÿÿÿÿ STREETS OF JADE
ÿÿÿÿ Truman, Savitt and Eunson insist that setting up shop was remarkably hassle-free in a country infamous for its Byzantine bureaucracy, rampant corruption and a backward legal system.
ÿÿÿÿ "What was surprising was how easy this was. It was so easy you couldn't believe it," Savitt said.
ÿÿÿÿ Nevertheless, they warn the road to success is not without potholes.
ÿÿÿÿ Hornbein complains his company went bust when a Chinese bank backed out of financing the apple juice line.
ÿÿÿÿ "Beijing Scene" was shut down for a year, Savitt believes, because of pressure from a Chinese-owned rival magazine.
ÿÿÿÿ And Truman frets about having to explain his ideas to officials with little concept of what the Internet is.
ÿÿÿÿ But the setbacks only seem to add to the adventure.
ÿÿÿÿ "I love getting up every day and really not knowing what's going to happen to you," Truman said.
ÿÿÿÿ "The streets aren't paved with gold. They're paved with jade, with a thin layer of spit mixed with chicken bones and garbage." |
