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YC China and Qi Lu

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: YC China and Qi Lu

#151

Post by seanmcdirmid »

Jommi wrote: post #146
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone can learn how to say 你好are you? But seriously, getting basic taxi cab mandarin down in 6 months is pretty easy. Heck, when I did it it was much harder since real beijingers back then had thick 儿 accents. You definitely don't need 大山-level mandarin to do business in china these days.

Yeah but it's still not honest to say you don't need to learn Chinese at all. I would say that you will need atleast 6 months to be able to live normally, 12 months to get respect in business meetings, 3-4 years to be understood and make it a comp. advantage.And I'm not talking about 上海。

I'm always shocked when I visit shanghai and the taxi drivers can actually speak English. Nothing like that ever happens in Beijing.

Plenty of foreigners work in China having much less than 6 months of Chinese. Most of them weren't even at my level. They still got by. Business meetings held with foreigners are usually in English anyways, it is only the old guard (Xi's generation) that can't English very well. And those people aren't so common in tech.

Re: YC China and Qi Lu

#152

Post by Cthulhu_ »

fsloth wrote: post #51
ulfw wrote: post #44

I find it funny how YC is focusing only on places where the majority of the world won’t or can’t easily work (US visa policy is atrocious and getting worse every year + raising xenophobia in recent times) and China isn’t an easy country to navigate if you don’t speak Mandarin, let alone succeed in as a foreigner (for a variety of reasons). Asia and Europe are big places as are Canada and Australia. Time to think broa…

1. It's not about empowering everyone on the planet, it's about creating companies which become billion dollar unicorns 2. The probability of Unicornism is directly related to the size of the market you can access. US is the biggest single market on the planet. 3. Accessibility of markets: While EU is the second largest single market [0] US companies have entered european markets just fine. On the other hand, to oper…

> US is the biggest single market on the planet.

By which measure? China has nearly five times as many inhabitants, the biggest economic growth over the past three decades of any country, and out-produces the US by over nine thousand. If it's not yet the biggest market on the planet yet, it soon will be.

Re: YC China and Qi Lu

#153

Post by Gwaih1r »

fsloth wrote: post #51
ulfw wrote: post #44

I find it funny how YC is focusing only on places where the majority of the world won’t or can’t easily work (US visa policy is atrocious and getting worse every year + raising xenophobia in recent times) and China isn’t an easy country to navigate if you don’t speak Mandarin, let alone succeed in as a foreigner (for a variety of reasons). Asia and Europe are big places as are Canada and Australia. Time to think broa…

1. It's not about empowering everyone on the planet, it's about creating companies which become billion dollar unicorns 2. The probability of Unicornism is directly related to the size of the market you can access. US is the biggest single market on the planet. 3. Accessibility of markets: While EU is the second largest single market [0] US companies have entered european markets just fine. On the other hand, to oper…

Are you sure nominal GDP is the right metric to be using to compare market size? By adjusted (PPP) GDP it's China, EU and then the US. Those billions can go a lot further in China and the EU than they can in the US.

https://www.thebalance.com/world-s-largest-economy-3306044

Re: YC China and Qi Lu

#154

Post by explainplease »

dang wrote: post #100
fusiongyro wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The comment may be referencing this post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17737942

The root comment didn't reference that or anything else. The problem with bringing such links into arguments like this is that no one does so for reasons of intellectual interest. For example, in this case, people aren't actually interested in the plight of the Uighurs. Rather, it's convenient ammunition for justifying pre-existing political and national feelings. Such a move is not part of thoughtful conversation at…

[flagged]

Re: YC China and Qi Lu

#155

Post by jacobush »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #152
fsloth wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. It's not about empowering everyone on the planet, it's about creating companies which become billion dollar unicorns 2. The probability of Unicornism is directly related to the size of the market you can access. US is the biggest single market on the planet. 3. Accessibility of markets: While EU is the second largest single market [0] US companies have entered european markets just fine. On the other hand, to oper…

> US is the biggest single market on the planet. By which measure? China has nearly five times as many inhabitants, the biggest economic growth over the past three decades of any country, and out-produces the US by over nine thousand. If it's not yet the biggest market on the planet yet, it soon will be.

It will be, sure, but it's not there. Also the markets are very different - the Chinese government is much more likely to take an active role in the governing of large companies.

Re: YC China and Qi Lu

#156

Post by hungryhobo »

ForrestN wrote: post #150
hungryhobo wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what about the millions of people that have been lifted out of poverty in China? they don't count?

This is a false choice—are you saying that internment camps were required to lift millions out of poverty in China?

no, i'm simply stating things that the tax money have gone to for the benefit of chinese citizens, that most people here seem to ignore.

Re: YC China and Qi Lu

#157

Post by stevechu »

natch wrote: post #112
fhe wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

to live in China, one could get by with little to no mandarin; but to do business in China, mandarin is a must.

Considering that there are over 300 million, yes million, people in China who do not speak Mandarin, I'd say yes one could get by. I'd even venture to say many of these 300 million people also do business in China. But yeah, I know what you meant.

If you mean that these 300 million do not have Chinese as the first language https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_China then it would be correct. But every kid growing up in China has to learn Chinese in school (plus TV etc).

Re: YC China and Qi Lu

#159

Post by seanmcdirmid »

stevechu wrote: post #157
natch wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering that there are over 300 million, yes million, people in China who do not speak Mandarin, I'd say yes one could get by. I'd even venture to say many of these 300 million people also do business in China. But yeah, I know what you meant.

If you mean that these 300 million do not have Chinese as the first language https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_China then it would be correct. But every kid growing up in China has to learn Chinese in school (plus TV etc).

I’ve run into old people in China who don’t speak a word of mandarin, especially in Tibetan areas. They get the kids to translate for them.

Re: YC China and Qi Lu

#160

Post by jumelles »

dang wrote: post #77
friedman23 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doing business in China is unethical.

No flamebait or flamewars, please. Least of all nationalistic ones.

It's not flamebait to discuss the very real, very troubling human rights issues that exist in China. It's certainly not just an "opinion." I'm seriously concerned by your calling out the parent comments like this, and even more concerned that you're doubling down in other comments. I don't think it's the best look to shut down criticism of a government like China's (no one is talking about the Chinese people here) that routinely, demonstrably commits human rights abuses. They are documented and real. The Chinese government commits murder, torture, theft...

I'm not sure what to say if HN's position is that it's too controversial (or is it that "all denunciations are the same"? They are not) to call out such actions. These discussions are clearly related to the topic at hand.

Maybe those of us criticizing the Chinese government aren't saying anything new, but that doesn't lessen the need to speak out. It's neither "rhetoric" nor "grandiosity" to point out that it's morally wrong for a government to act the way China's does.

I would expect the PRC to put a lid on this sort of criticism, not Hacker News. It's bordering on complicity.

> For example, in this case, people aren't actually interested in the plight of the Uighurs.

What an awful sentiment. Please don't profess to know my own moral compass. I am deeply concerned and sickened; we all should be. These people are being forcibly relocated and tortured by their own government.

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