Reflective Journal 5

It has been 4 months since the first lesson of SES started. Over these 4 months, there were many topics covered, ranging from the different styles of management of companies in China and America to the cultural backgrounds of the two different societies. It was a lesson that had made me realise the importance of cultural intelligence. 


The curriculum of SES was well planned. The first few topics had a specific scope, where we looked at case studies of the management styles of selected companies. Then, we moved on to broader topics such as the cultural context of China and the West, and whether it was possible or not for both societies to learn from each other to solve their respective societal problems. I personally feel that this allows us to understand the general picture more clearly as there will not be an information overload. It allows us to link the previous topics to the current topic and apply past knowledge to help us understand the current topic better. The curriculum was also well structured, with Term 1 focusing more on the societal aspects and Term 2 focusing more on the economic aspects. Also, the SES syllabus had certain similarities with the CSC module on the recent history of China, which allowed us to apply knowledge learnt from CSC into SES. 


The mode of assessment was definitely something new to me, and up till now I still have certain difficulties facing SES. Contrary to my beliefs, SES did not force me to speak up more in class. I have seen active participation from some students in class, but there are also others like me who prefer to remain silent. Although I believe that remaining silent does not bring any benefit, I think that it is the fear of failure that prevents me from contributing to class discussion. I am afraid that when I speak up, my point would be invalid and others would laugh at me. Although this was not the case (except when I stated the obvious), there is still this fear in my heart, making me hesitate when I want to speak up. Oh, also I forgot to get a new set of sticks from Jack after I lost the original set. The reflective journals have also made me think really hard and apply my contextual knowledge to the issue. 


Other than that, time management was also a major concern for me. At first, we had to go through all the readings given and bring our notes to class for discussion. Initially I thought that I would be able to finish the notes in a short amount of time. However, it took hours for me to actually formulate points from the articles and jot them down. This often resulted in incomplete notes or notes that were too brief. I tried to spend more time on preparing notes but sometimes I really could not pick out the key points in the articles. Luckily, our workload was lessened after Term 1 as the questions were distributed evenly amongst the students. This helped me to cope with the SES notes as I had to spend less time on making the SES notes and the time needed compared to before was easier to manage.


I feel that SES helps us to understand the way China and the West react to certain situations. As the economy of countries become more and more globalised, we cannot prevent ourselves from having work affiliations with Chinese or Western companies. This understanding not only allows me to be able to gain a better understanding of them, it also prevents me from accidentally causing cultural conflicts during interactions with other people with different cultural background. SES has also made me feel very curious about the cultures of different countries, as I have realised that actually obvious solutions to certain economic or social problems cannot be implemented in certain countries due to the cultural context of the country. I have learnt from this that there is no specific solution to address problems because what might work out in one country might not be able to work out in another country. In my opinion, I think that it is not the actual syllabus that will really benefit us in the future, but rather the skills that we acquire during the process of learning SES, such as researching skills, synthesis of ideas with past knowledge, taking more than one perspective to solve a problem etc. These problem solving skills will be of great use in the future as I will definitely be doing more research and problem solving in the future which requires the usage of such skills.

(777 words)

Reflective Journal 4

As the Chinese saying goes, each family will have its fair share of problems. This also applies to China and America, both which are trying to cope with their societal problems.

The first societal problem in China that catches my attention is the corruption in government. The reason why: it has a striking resemblance to Malaysia, which is also facing the problem of corruption. The government officials in China violate the people's interests through various means, like the seizure of land without appropriate compensation. Malaysia has a similar situation, where corruption by officials have enraged the people. Although the corruption is not as serious compared to China, the governing political party, Barisan Nasional had a close victory in the 2008 elections, garnering only a mere 3% more than half of the total effective votes due to people being furious at the government's inability to place the people's interest at top priority. Women, Community and Families Development Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil faced pressure for her resignation from her post due to her husband's involvement in corruption. Personally, I feel that it is hard for the government of China to combat corruption due to its political system which does not disclose policies to the people and also because it is impossible to monitor every single officer in the CCP to ensure near zero corruption rate. Unless the officials themselves possess integrity, it will be hard for the CCP to combat against internal corruption.

It is the corruption of the government that has lead to the people's disillusionment against the government. The people have decided to voice out for their rights, and I feel that this is a step in the right direction for China. Although this is not what is best for a global economic power, it certainly is what is best for the people of China. The change that the people wish for will never come unless the people are ready to stand up for themselves. Again, this bears similarity to Malaysia. The Bersih 2.0 movement, Stop Lynas Save Malaysia movement and other movements to fight for the people's rights show that the people refuse to have their rights being violated. I believe that in the near future, there will be more riots in China if the corruption continues to remain or worsen.

While China has to deal with corruption and other issues, America's public debt crisis is also a problem not to be ignored. Overspending on the military section has lead America into a public debt crisis. If we look back on America's economic history, America has been in public debt for the majority of the time. Although America has the responsibility as the leading nation to conduct military interference to ensure peace and to combat terrorism, I still feel that it should manage its budget more carefully to prevent the problem from worsening. More spending should go into boosting its economy to restore investors' confidence in the American economy and alleviate the debt crisis. Unless there is an urgent need for military expenses, budget spending on the military sector should be cut down.

Another problem existent within America is its high unemployment rate. Because more and more low cost labour jobs are being passed to China by American companies, Americans face strong competition to get a job with such limited jobs available. I feel concerned as America is a developed country but yet it faces the problem of unemployment. The young graduates will have a harder time finding a job and their parents will have to support them until they find one. The young people will therefore find it harder to support their families and there might be more poor people as a result, causing an even wider income gap, which will create even more social problems. Therefore, the American government should encourage local companies to set up their factories in America by providing incentives for the companies. However America needs to balance the incentives well in its budget or else America might risk either falling into a deeper public debt or a backfiring of plans.

In conclusion, both of these global economic giants are facing threats that might impede economic growth. The government of both countries should be quick to deal with these problems, or else they will become a thorn deep inside the flesh.

Reflective Journal 3

The people of China are seen as people who value society over self, while the people of America are perceived to value their personal freedom and human rights. The perception of self of people from both countries are assumed to be vastly different, and different sides of these values can be seen integrated into parts of our own daily lives.

For me, the Chinese values are more dominant in the society I grew up in as I was born in Malaysia. Since the moment I was born, my parents would teach me to respect omy elders, treat others kindly, be generous, thrifty, and follow many other Confucian values. They may not have noticed that these were all Confucian values as most Chinese families in Malaysia teach these same values to their children. Confucian teaching has been applied to children to ingrain the roots of these values deep inside them so that they would, as the parents feel, be a person who is valuable to the society. Various practices such as reunion dinner during CNY was common among Chinese, even though one might have to endure more than 20 hours of travelling time in the car. In Chinese primary schools, students read passages of Di Zi Gui twice a week before the lesson time. This is to further enforce the Confucian values in the student's mind so that they will follow the Confucian values.

The result of Confucian teachings from young has its effects: and it is rather clearly reflected in the students of Malaysia. Most students show great respect for their teachers, and do not doubt what their teachers tell them. This may stifle their critical thinking skills, which were already neglected in the education syllabus of Malaysia. I personally feel that Singapore provides a better environment for studying as topics are more open for discussion and students are often asked to provide their views on the topic. This allows us the freedom of speech as we can express our views and it will not be shut down immediately without consideration.

American views their rights as first priority, and will react strongly if they feel their rights have been violated. These rights include freedom of speech, action, thinking and others. Other than that, the public should have the right to choose their leaders. America is one of the countries that hold great authority and has greatly influenced the world. Instances of American culture in our lives are found aplenty, such as democracy, social networks and forums. All of these systems show clearly that the American's perception of freedom has influenced us, and this is proved by the craze over social networks because teenagers are able to express themselves freely through status updates, sharing of photos and others, which provides us the freedom of expression.

Both American and Chinese values have great impacts on our lives. For most Chinese people, the traditional Confucian values are deeply rooted in the Chinese culture itself, while the American values has shaped and changed the society physically through its beliefs, introducing systems that offer equal rights to all. In conclusion, I feel that the Chinese values have a greater cultural impact on my life as I am a Chinese and that the American values have greater impact on our daily life experiences. Both values have very great impacts on my daily life and I believe that it will continue to influence people for the generations to come.

-(572 words)

Reflective Journal 2

Google and Lenovo are both among the most influential companies in the IT field, but being run by people that come from 2 differing cultural backgrounds, the way they operate are very different. Google runs its company on a employee-oriented basis, while Lenovo operates on the traditional way where its' CEO, Liu Chuanzhi has the final say.

Google operates by allowing its engineers to have 20% of their time allocated on their own personal projects. This promotes innovation and creativity as people can let their imagination run free to create a product that will be able to compete with others so that the product can receive funding to be executed. The extent of freedom Google provides its engineers are amazing, because under such unimaginable freedom, they do not feel stressed at all. In addition, the reason why Google daringly allows its engineers such freedom is because of its extremely strict and demanding employment criteria that only allows the best among the best to be selected. Under such conditions, Google can have no worries on its engineers not carrying out their jobs. Google reflects how important freedom is in the American society, as Americans view freedom as one of the most basic necessities. This point is further enforced by the fact that the Obama Administration is greatly similar to the Google way of management. However, I personally think that such freedom should not be allowed, as it is highly possible for individuals to steer off course in companies or societies. An example would be Google itself, producing up to more than 83 products. But out of all these products, only the Google search engine has beaten all of its rivals in its field, and none of the rest have been as successful as the original product of Google-the search engine itself. Most of them end up like Orkut, Google's social networking website, which I have not even heard of. Apparently, Orkut has been a hit only in Brazil and Iran. Orkut may be a good example of how potentially great products of Google has been buried too deep inside its webpage, where people do not even know about it.

Lenovo's management style is based on Confucian values, where "sage leadership" is encouraged. Such a "sage" would be Lenovo's CEO Liu Chuanzhi, who has brought Lenovo into the global market. Liu Chuanzhi shaped Lenovo by himself since its' birth, steering Lenovo out of dangerous obstacles and leading it into success. If there had been dissent from workers in Lenovo, Liu would have probably ignored it. And he was right in doing so. Such a way of management would be great as the "sage leader" will be able to lead the company towards success, but if one day the "sage" left, like Liu Chuanzhi did in 2005, the company might collapse as there might be the possibility that the next CEO might not be able to guide the company to success. Lenovo's management style greatly reflects the Chinese society, where the people are instilled with Confucian values and also listen to the leader. There was once when I went to Suzhou for an immersion programme and we visited a town that created a economic miracle that was similar to Singapore itself. The town secretary emphasised alot on supporting the China Communist Party and its ideal, as the town itself also supported and ran on communism. Suprisingly, the town had been led by a selfless leader by the surname Wu, and it was under his guidance that the town was able to succeed. But whether the town would be able after Wu's departure, no once can be certain.

In my opinion, freedom similar to that of Google's approach should be considered as innovation and creativity are essential for the company's development, but at the same time a general direction should be set down so that the company does not stray too far away from its goals, resulting in a waste of time and resources. The most suitable approach towards a company's management style is not to set creativity free in a ocean of freedom, but down the great river of success so that the creativity is able to be guided in the right direction.

Reflective Journal 1

Last Friday, we had out very first SES lesson. We were briefed about the syllabus, the motive behind setting up such a lesson and also the mode of assessment, which is not by pen and pencil, but in the form of oral presentation. I believe this is because our school wants us to be able to communicate with others well so that we can share our knowledge and opinions with others. The lesson was set up because our school thinks that China and America will become the two major economic powerhouses in the future and therefore it is important for us to be able to work under the cultural scenes of both countries. Under the SES syllabus, we will be able to learn more about the different ways people from different cultures function and behave. There will be case studies that will enable us to explore how the society affects the economy and vice versa. Although I am not a person who often speaks up in class, I believe that this lesson will make(or rather force) me to speak up more as it is important for us to be able to voice out and also defend our opinions in the assessment.

Yesterday, we had our first official SES lesson. During the lesson, what I think was an important aspect of the lesson was the importance of cultural intelligence when interacting with others. Ms. Yeo raised the example of the HSBC advertisment. If one does not possess the cultural intelligence to understand others, there will often be misunderstandings when he interacts with other people from different cultural backgrounds. At the time, I thought that if a person who is working with people from different cultural backgrounds does not possess cultural intelligence, he will often make misunderstandings, which will leave a very bad impression for his superiors. This situation will definitely be more common in the future if China does develop into the economic powerhouse the world expects it to be as more Western people head towards China in search of a new economic hinterland. Subsequently, I also realised that to first be able to possess a high cultural intelligence, the most important factor is to have the drive to do so. If a person is not interested in the different cultures, he will not willingly learn the differences between cultures. A person with the passion to learn about other cultures will regard the differences very importantly, and so he will subconciously act differently in front of people from different cultures to avoid offending them unknowingly. Such people will be noticed easily by companies as a talent and will succeed in his career. This demonstrates the importance of our motivation to learn about different cultures. Having analysed the different aspects of cultural intelligence, I have learned that what will ultimately affect the way we interact with others is the strategic aspect of cultural intelligence. It is important sometimes for us to know clearly what to do, whether be it to be able to gain the attention of other companies or to draw the line clearly to other people. Strategic planning is important as it will affect the message we intend to convey to others. The desired outcome will be affected greatly if the message is not conveyed correctly, and sometimes a single mishap is the difference between having a job or none. It is therefore of crucial importance that we ensure through our knowledge of other cultures and strategic planning that the message that we intend to convey to others will be able to be understood very clearly.