I came across a recent survey published on 三八妇女节/san1 ba1 fu4 nv3 jie2/International Women’s Day. The finding was that amongst entrepreneurs of more than 3 years of experience, Shanghai has the largest number of women entrepreneurs in China.
In a tongue-in-cheek manner, I thought Shanghainese women really are very well dispositioned to be entrepreneurs. Think about what we are famous for: high maintenance and manipulatively seductive. Those might translate into attention to details, demanding of herself and others, and fully utilize her strengths (and vulneribilities) to get things done. Some tough cookies.
When I look at my female coworkers, Shanghai women seem to have the most balanced prowess of toughness and likability. But then, I am speaking as a woman from Shanghai. My definition of prowess is probably very Shanghai-centric. But I do occasionally wonder what constitutes the je ne sais quoi of a Shanghainese woman. Maybe because there are so many women with je ne sais quoi that we keep upping each other’s game.
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March 12, 2009 6:41 pm
Interesting article. Just to correct your french : “je ne sequoias” should be written “je ne sais quoi”, and has nothing to do with the famous tree
March 13, 2009 11:34 am
Bastien,
Thanks very much for the correction. Duly noted and changed.
March 14, 2009 12:29 am
Your English is great…talking about ‘upping each other’s game.’ You’ve indeed upped your game!
March 14, 2009 1:52 am
dear Jenny,
I hope you had a nice 三八妇女节 . I just wanted to say that with the new color scheme /theme it’s hard to read your blog at work when the screen is glaring pink for everyone to see.
March 16, 2009 12:05 pm
Lin,
I try. Thank you for the encouragement!
March 16, 2009 12:09 pm
Feisan,
There were talks about renaming 三八妇女节 into 三八女士节，since 妇女 is a rather unglamorous term with matronly connotations.
I shall change to a less girly design very soon. In the meantime, I apologize for the eye brows it might have raised and thank you for reading my blog regardless.