Getting to know China

Message from Carrie Waley, Chief Executive

The Year of the Rat

I hope you will enjoy this, the first issue of our monthly newsletter entitled Getting to know China.

With its authentic, uncensored and easily digestible stories from China, this newsletter aims to provide you with a source of enjoyable and informative reading. All the articles are sourced and written by our own candidates, who are looking for job opportunities in the UK, where their genuine understanding and knowledge of China will be appreciated and fully utilised. Through reading these stories, I hope you will get a sense of the high standard of candidates that we have. We believe these bright, young, Chinese people will be the future of Sino-British business development in the UK, particularly in the City of London.

In this issue, as the celebrations for Chinese New Year fell on February 7, we want to introduce you to the Year of the Rat and tell you how people in different parts of China celebrate the most important day of the Lunar year!

Carrie taking her first flying lesson
(Nassau, Bahamas)

Mandarin Consultant offers UK and worldwide clients professional bilingual consultancy services, supported with fully researched and established networks in China. For our Chinese clients, we assist them to achieve their international business ambition by providing a full range of commercial and financial advisory services.

Mandarin Recruitment specialises in placing bilingual personnel of Graduate level and above who understand the cultural nuances of China and Chinese business.

Stories written by our candidates

Wanli Zhao (Kaitlyn)

BSc (Hons) Information Management

MSc International Business and Management

Are you a rat person?

The year of the Rat begins the zodiac of animal signs and the year of the Pig finishes the circle, in which 12 animals represent the years when people are born. When socialising, the Chinese will ask another person for their animal sign, to find out their age and as a means of breaking the ice.

In olden times, people had to ascertain the sign of a woman or man before they went on a date or got married, to find out whether their signs matched. People born in the year of the Rat are considered easy-going, hard-working, thrifty, and generous to only those whom they love, so if you receive a precious gift from a person born in such a year, he or she likes you very much.

You may find these 'Rat people' are

reticent. Do not be fooled: they are easily agitated deep down, but they know how to control their temper. Cautious 'Rat people' would rather put their savings into a bank to earn low risk interest than step into risky projects.

Jia Liu (Rob)

BA in Law

MA in International Journalism

It all started with a mouse

During the eight day Chinese celebration in the Beijing area, people wear new clothes, display as much as they can of the lucky colour red, and set off firecrackers to expel the 'Nian' the devils and ill fortune of the year. Filled dumplings whose shape resembles Jin Yuan Bao, the ancient monetary gold ingot, represent a wish for wealth for the whole family.

Rats are talented money managers, as my mother, who lives in Tianjin, reminded me recently by recalling an ancient story which speaks of a big family about to cook the dumplings on a New Year's Eve. Their planned food had vanished -- they found out that the mice had run off with this nutritional 'wealth.'

Reviewing the success of his global business, Walt Disney once said: "It all started with a mouse," so this period,

sometimes designated as the year of the mouse, should bring good fortune to everyone doing business in China.

Kwok-po Yu

LLB

Currently studying Legal Practice Course (LPC)

Feasting for good fortune

Entering a Cantonese house, you are greeted by red paper cut-outs wishing you prosperity and good health. On the floor, you will spot a kumquat tree, symbolising long lasting relationships and fruitful marriages. Passing the bathroom, the faintly bitter note of pomelo leaves enlivens your spirit. The leaf is used to wash away misfortune and hopefully bring health.

Walking into a sitting room, a 'tray of togetherness' will be presented symbolising fortune and family gatherings. Eight compartments are filled with festive treats: popular ones include melon seeds (for wealth), lotus root seeds (for fertility), pistachios (for happiness) and sweets for a rewarding new year.

In the dining room, a lavish line-up of

dishes alongside a big wooden bowl of golden rice includes whole corn-chicken (wisdom); fish (abundance year after year); roast pork with pig's tongue (profit); goose (prosperity step by step); lettuce (growing wealth); and seaweed with dried oysters (good business and growing fortune). Mouths watering, the family turns to the elders, and with the words sic fan - let's eat, the feast begins.

Jinying Su (Sophia)

MSc in Financial Mathematics

MSc in Finance

Songs and gongs

Among China's 56 officially registered ethnic groups, the Zhuang minority is the largest, and over 90% of Zhuang people live in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, my lovely homeland. Fun-filled events include fetching fresh water, drinking lingli (literally "smart and capable") water, dances celebrating the rooster and the ox, and singing.

Zhuang women draw fresh water from small streams and pick up stones resembling domestic animals, putting the stones into pigsties and cowsheds to express a wish that all the animals will thrive.

Village women drink lingli water brought by a young woman recognised as clever and capable, in the belief that this will

make them smarter, a ritual that unmarried girls take very seriously.

To the accompaniment of gongs, young villagers perform the fighting cock dance, using birds made of wood, and in the Spring Ox show, a joyous crowd, beating gongs and drums and singing special ox songs, surround a wooden ox driven from village to village.

Please contact us on +44 (0) 207 376 1037 or email us at info@mandarinconsultant.com / info@mandarinrecruitment.com

223a High Street Kensington, London, W8 6SG, UK.