Chinese New Year, SBS style

Last night, the ethnic Chinese students at SBS (and Mac) put on an incredible Chinese New Year event at the business school. I was in Singapore last year for Chinese New Year and had a great time so I was looking forward to seeing what would be in store for us this year.

We were in for a treat.

The evening started out with a fantastic lion dance put on by a local Kung Fu school. Things just kept getting better, I had no idea that there were so many talented students at the business school! There were several performances on Eastern musical instruments, a Kung Fu demonstration, a mock (?) Chinese wedding and a toe tapping, lighter waving rendition of a Chinese pop song by one of the MFE guys. Fantastic!

But in a way, totally expected.

Conversations
Recently my conversations with friends at the b-school have been centered around the diversity of the students here. With 1/3 of us from the Americas, 1/3 from Europe and Africa and 1/3 from Australiasia the experience you get here must be truely unique.

This term we've been doing a course called International Business and Global Governance (IBGG) and as you can guess, the opportunity to listen to someone who is Chinese speak about what it is like to do business in China is priceless. It's an eye opener for everyone involved, when you're talking about what you are familiar with, it's hard to imagine that the way that you are accustomed to doing things is quite alien to someone else. Especially when it's someone who you respect for their intelligence and ability to do a good job. Makes you think about interactions and frustrations that you've had with others in a past life in a new light.

"One's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions"

Oliver Wendell Holmes