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| McConnell Scholars Natalie Smith, Victoria Allen and Mary Elizabeth Young with students at Shanghai Maritime University. |
Class of 2016
On our first full day in China, while half of the group was still on their way to Shanghai after a rough couple of days of travel, Philip, Kevin, Mary Elizabeth, and I had the opportunity to sit down and talk to Mr. John Richter, the Vice President of operations and coating for the Asia/Pacific region. Although I can't say that I knew much about PPG or the paint industry in general (or perhaps I never had the interest), I have to admit that our meeting was fascinating, and our group left much more informed about how personal life and business relations existed in China from an American perspective.
Mr. Richter, who we discovered is a cousin of our very own Dr. Gary Gregg, was able to offer us insight into living in China as an American. Though he was born in Pennsylvania and traveled very little while he was younger, when he took a position at PPG industries he began traveling internationally quite frequently. For the past few years, he has lived in Shanghai, and so we were able to find out what daily life consists of for him here. Shanghai is interesting in that it is incredibly westernized, but also contains many unique elements, most obviously in the language and cuisine. We all found it interesting that Mr. Richter speaks very little Chinese himself, as our group has already had some trouble with the language barrier!
Although he works in all of Asia, Mr. Richter was able to teach us about the particular difficulties of doing business in China. Essentially, the entire negotiation process is slowed here because PPG cannot work directly with businesses and often must go through the government in order to make deals, which, as can be assumed, presents a difficulty in time-sensitive projects and allows for an overall sense of frustration.
Regardless, Mr. Richter told us that he enjoys living in Shanghai because he had always wanted to live in New York City, and in some ways, Shanghai comes pretty close. In others, though, it is very different--he misses the luxury of clean water, for example. From our short time here, I can understand why Mr. Richter finds this city so captivating and appealing. Over the course of the next few weeks I'm looking forward to discovering for myself the aspects of China that make it simultaneously a home away from home and a faraway mystery to Americans.
Natalie Smith, of Elizabethtown, Ky., is a senior McConnell Scholar at the University of Louisville. She is studying English, political science, history and linguistics.