[時事討論] 《福布斯》：北京欠缺創意

本帖最後由 felicity2010 於 2014-10-23 08:45 AM 編輯

《福布斯》：北京欠缺創意
      tvb now,tvbnow,bttvb8 r3 [4 L. Z% t0 g/ @& N, p' N

6 M( [, l" T; J* t  n
美國《福布斯》雜誌昨日發表一篇由紐約國王學院傳理系助理教授格拉德（Paul Glader）撰寫的署名文章，題為＜雨傘運動展示北京欠缺創意＞（Hong Kong’s Dampened Umbrella Revolution Shows Beijing’s Creative Limits），講述這次雨傘運動及中央政府其他經濟政策，全都令他對中國未來的發展失去信心。
TVBNOW 含有熱門話題，最新最快電視，軟體，遊戲，電影，動漫及日常生活及興趣交流等資訊。: @: r  L7 J3 i$ f1 V( x6 U6 M( q
格拉德開宗明義，陳述當到過中國視察之後，發現創新科技行業過份依賴國內品牌（例如：阿里巴巴、微博），外資無緣問津，是以導致市場透明度低，窒礙創新科技的發展。另外，他亦覺得外資在中國得到的保障有限，就像當局有可能會對外資作背景審查，令人不安。他坦言，無疑中國政府近年積極提倡發展創新科技，但諷刺的是，卻是他們的政策讓自己纏足。
  \. X' N6 P* ^! Y( ?# U: K
乃至近期在香港爆發的雨傘運動，格拉德認為本來是個很好的契機，讓他在中國看見曙光；但隨著北京對於這次社會運動的種種打壓，他已經可以預料，中國對於創意與科技產業還未準備充足。現時中國國民生產總值增長按年下降（從2010年的10.4%下降至2013年的7.7%），加上黨內貪污問題嚴重，因此格拉德坦言若果沒有言論自由、新聞自由，那麼中國要超越矽谷、荷里活等地，猶如1958年毛澤東的大躍進。公仔箱論壇8 v9 @1 L' i! w) N
5.39.217.76  B- c/ o: B! b4 ^
格拉德坦言，儘管中國致力發展創新科技，可是其他方面未能配合。他特別提到，中央政府寧願圍堵群眾、阻礙群眾－－甚至當無法阻止對方膨脹時，就用暴徒打壓爭取基本選舉權的群眾，都不願跟群眾對話。這樣的行為，已經背棄了《中英聯合聲明》。格拉德引述該條約的內容，指出北京最好履行1984年以來一貫的政策，在港維持《第一修正案》式的自由，並將之推廣到中國大陸。

與此同時，格拉德堅稱行政長官梁振英要馬上下台，推行真正的普選。當然北京一定會覺得這樣會令社會混亂；但他卻指相反意見。只有如此，中國才可有蓬勃的創意產業，也會令其國民生產總值增長重回正軌。最後他引述搖滾樂隊Beyond的一首《海闊天空》：

原諒我這一生不羈放縱愛自由
也會怕有一天會跌倒0 V. o* B8 u6 J! l& q4 m4 \; D
背棄了理想誰人都可以9 n, n. V% h9 r
哪會怕有一天只你共我
公仔箱論壇, Q0 m9 ]$ v, V' Z( \# |1 t
公仔箱論壇& C% }" s3 U3 u+ H- C- |

Forbes: Hong Kong’s Dampened Umbrella Revolution Shows Beijing’s Creative Limits
By Paul Glader

- |! j1 R/ `$ x, r! e, y; W
After studying China’s attempt to move beyond manufacturing and into the lucrative creative industries of technology, advertising and culture last May, I returned to the US, logged into my IRA and sold all my shares in a China-focused mutual fund.

During my travels, I’d lost faith in China as an investment growth story, particularly in the tech sector in which the fund was heavily focused (with holdings in Ten Cent, Alibaba and Weibo). I decided these companies are propped up by the central government keeping Western tech companies out of the Chinese market. I felt I had a limited view of whether true innovation is happening in such an opaque market. I also believe investors have little protection if government censors decide to reward or punish players (e.g. what if they dislike something the richest man in China, Alibaba chief Jack Ma, says?). More than that, the Chinese government’s aims to kick-start creative industries from China seemed like a gross irony: Its own repressive policies stifle the enormous creative potential of the Chinese people. I can’t support that.
5.39.217.76: v, l) B- D4 [: C4 N! Y
The events in recent months that call for a continuation of Western-style rule of law, elections and free speech rights in Hong Kong (and extending to other parts of the mainland) is one of the few bright spots I see right now in China. Conversely, the dampening of the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong shows us why China isn’t ready to prosper in the creative and technology fields. The communist party in China may be feeling pressure as GDP declines in the past four years to 7.7% in 2013 down from 10.4% in 2010 and amid unrest about corruption within the party. China’s current crackdown on corrupt communist party leaders is, itself, rarely offering defendants due process or fair  trials – key components of an operative rule of law. The wishful thinking that China can conquer Silicon Valley, Madison Avenue, Hollywood, Korea, Japan and European tech hubs without freedom of speech and press amounts to Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward in 1958, a dream of industrial progress that fell flat.

tvb now,tvbnow,bttvb" U* s% C  u3 M% b$ q' N* Z
A 26 segment × 3 exposure (78 frames in total) panoramic view of the Hong Kong skyline taken from a path around Victoria Peak. Français : Vue panoramique de Hong Kong depuis un sentier de Victoria Peak. Image construite en assemblant 78 clichés (26 visées × 3 expositions) réalisés avecun appareil Canon 5D et un objectif 85mm f/1.8 réglé sur f/5.6. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
TVBNOW 含有熱門話題，最新最快電視，軟體，遊戲，電影，動漫及日常生活及興趣交流等資訊。, w% [3 c( g: y! s  K3 B
! ~8 Q3 _# H5 Q/ j* f
During my week in Bejing in May, I met a young man who was pursuing an MBA and started telling me that China is unlikely to turn out any “Steves.”
“What do you mean by, ‘Steves,’ ” I asked.

5.39.217.768 r+ C8 Y/ O8 w3 M' o
“Steve Jobs. He is the greatest innovator we know. Our schools and colleges and families aren’t developing anybody like him.”公仔箱論壇  V* Y, Y2 @- ]* {
He went on to explain that the central government has done a reasonably good job at pushing infrastructure improvement throughout the country and expanding the manufacturing economy in China. But he was highly doubtful this kind of approach can work in the creative fields such as technology, media, cultural arts and journalism. I tried to argue that Jack Ma and others are showing Jobs-like talent and promise. He disagreed and said they are largely derivative rather than innovative. We agreed the Chinese people are very bright, driven and enjoy a history of invention that includes paper, printing and gunpowder. But is their creative potential is being hindered by their own government’s Orwellian control and by a culture of rampant copyright infringement?TVBNOW 含有熱門話題，最新最快電視，軟體，遊戲，電影，動漫及日常生活及興趣交流等資訊。, `9 ]! V. j- {% e0 V& K$ t

TIANJIN/CHINA, 28SEPT08 – Jack Ma Yun, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Alibaba Group, speaks during The Future of the Global Economy: The View from China plenary session at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin, China 28 September 2008. Copyright World Economic Forum (www.weforum.org)/Photo by Natalie Behring (Photo credit: Wikipedia)+ l* i* K/ q6 v  X5 }; o

During my own MBA classes in Shanghai in May, some of our speakers argued that the era of “Cheap China” and “Dirty Manufacturing” is over and that leaders in Shanghai and the central government are focusing on building a creative culture, adding 4,000 museums, galleries and art centers in the past five years, designating Shanghai as a “City of Design” (focused on industrial, fashion, architectural and multi-media design) and creating multi-million-dollar tech incubators and “creative clusters.” The government is funding book fairs, film festivals and promotes artistic works by writers and artists of whom it approves.TVBNOW 含有熱門話題，最新最快電視，軟體，遊戲，電影，動漫及日常生活及興趣交流等資訊。' c( q' ^0 v" H. Q) f6 e* u

While blocking Twitter TWTR -3.06%, Facebook and other American giants from Chinese consumers, the nation desperately wants Alibaba and other tech firms to rival Silicon Valley and other tech hubs, to create its own luxury brands and to boast world-class museums. In 2013, Shanghai regional governments gave $48 million to creative industries, including more than half of it to the design sector in the form of grants, loans and bonuses. “China used to be a factory. Now, it’s a large market,” said Dr. Marina Guo,Head of Arts Management at the Shanghai Theatre Academy. “We are trying to change it from an industrial economy to a creative economy.”

Guo admitted that the country lacks expertise in many of these areas and is aiming to bring in foreigners who teach Chinese people to be more creative. And as my group of EMBA students with the Berlin School of Creative Leadership (many of them leaders in the media and advertising world) visited advertising agencies, cultural consulting firms, design studios and startup offices, we quickly saw that nearly every single company had foreigners from places like Mexico, Germany and the US leading the efforts. And many of these expat executives seemed frustrated with what they experienced in China.
5 u  @' R& A* d. R/ F3 N% h' _
“Not one Chinese brand can compete with a premium foreign brand. Most local brands are stuck in a downward vortex of commoditization,” said Tom Doctorov, the head of advertising agency JWT in Shanghai. “All leading brands (in China) are Western brands. An international brand signals cool and quality.” Later in his presentation, however, Doctorov noted that “it’s a myth that Chinese people can’t be creative. Their thinking is both lateral and lineal. They are some of the smartest people in the world.”

But he argued that the culture and government has limited that creativity.  “Chinese people want to stand tall, to be shoulder to shoulder with America. They want to achieve and get ahead. They have larger than life ambition,” he said. He noted that China has apartment buildings with names such as “RichGate,” “Tycoon Place” and, his personal favorite, “The Gateway of All Heroes Under Heaven.”

It sounds to me like he thinks advertisers should play on the Chinese insecurities and keep them yearning for Western brands. That may work in advertising and business as Starbucks, Nike, Converse and other Western brands proliferate store openings in China. But he also signaled something deeper: a yearning for freedom and individuality.
  5.39.217.76$ Q6 t9 M9 [$ T* N7 f6 J6 v9 x
“People are oppressed,” he said. “They have huge ambition in their heart but it’s not being let out. The Internet is a blank canvas. It’s a safe place. They are netizens. Online is about release and liberation.” He notes the 100,000 Internet “watchers” in China provide a good polling system about what people are thinking about. Will they listen to the masses?

Chinese people are creative. But their creativity is being inhibited by their government. Policies of greater individual liberty will only enhance China’s bright future. Expanding liberty, democratically-elected leadership and individual rights would only enhance China’s great history of innovation and its economic prospects.
公仔箱論壇$ C( j% G1 K  ?
The crackdown in Hong Kong is showing that the central government is, indeed, unwilling to listen to the masses. It would rather stonewall them, stall them and then, if unable to stop the opposition swells, to hire goon squads to beat and molest the citizens protesting for basic electoral and democratic freedoms which are being stripped from them. And the crackdown in Hong Kong breaks promises the government made to Hong Kong in 1984.
. }% }) V# ^  ]. v5 X( e
“We have also stated repeatedly that apart from stationing troops there, Beijing will not assign officials to the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region,” party leaders wrote in a famous “One Country, Two Systems” policy paper in 1984. “This policy too will remain unchanged. We shall station troops there to safeguard our national security, not to interfere in Hong Kong’s internal affairs. Our policies with regard to Hong Kong will remain unchanged for 50 years, and we mean this.”5 h8 h/ {; P* h3 X+ P

Chinese Stamp, 1950. Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong are shaking hands. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)tvb now,tvbnow,bttvb% t$ ]% Z; L4 v, Y, F, Y. O+ u
tvb now,tvbnow,bttvb; X2 [" I5 e& C$ p. \: k& J# E

The wisest move for China would be to follow its own policy from 1984, maintain the 1st Amendment style freedoms in Hong Kong and expand them in the mainland. For now, Hong Kong’s chief executive C.Y. Leung must step down and the city be allowed to elect its own leaders democratically. While the central government fears this would lead to chaos. I think the opposite would be true. China would experience a flourishing of creativity and invention. It might also get that GDP growth number growing in the right direction as well.* R1 V' @% R. W& f
0 y3 p) J: W$ m* S* x% ?4 D# E
The young protesters in Hong Kong are showing immense creativity with their joy, their resolute speech and their songs. One of the anthems they keep returning to is a 1990s rock ballad called “Under a Vast Sky” by a band called “Beyond.”
TVBNOW 含有熱門話題，最新最快電視，軟體，遊戲，電影，動漫及日常生活及興趣交流等資訊。, n) ]3 o" c( k3 w2 W$ f
Forgive me for being wild and yearning for freedom
Yet fearing someday I might fall down
To give up one’s dream
It isn’t hard for anyone
It would be fine if someday there’s only you & me….公仔箱論壇 c% t4 h! _' r7 n5 ]+ |
公仔箱論壇& X$ `+ T) t/ ~9 ?/ n

: p3 e7 H) ^! F; n; z8 e5.39.217.76

收藏分享評分

回復引用

訂閱 TOP

返回列表