translation by Frances Chen
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Christine Lu of The China Business Network calls me Professor Gump because synchronicity invariably spirits me into wonderfully surreal places when I travel. On my business journey last week to Beijing I found myself in a mall in the Wangfujiang district of Beijing not far from the forbidden City. An eye-blink later and I was in the bar called Ganglamedo listening to the sacred and romantic music of Tibet.
My “working day” began at breakfast with the generous hearts and handsome ideas of Sweden’s Niclas Ihren and Gustav Astrom and their elegant administrative assistant/translator/organizer “Janet”. Niclas is the COO of Globe Forum and Gustav is the China Partner behind an imaginative initiative for Small and Medium Size Businesses looking to grow and prosper beyond their own borders. Globe Forum is a valuable event for corporate and government decision makers: More than a thousand attendees join contemporaries at these conferences, and make valuable contacts in order to create new business ventures in the most dynamic emerging markets of China, India and Eastern Europe–brilliant minds working in concert. We said goodbye and promised to work together–I will help new businesses navigate the Internet marketing Cyber-Curents in China– hoping to make this comings year’s conference a success.
In typical fashion I decided, with my spare time, to explore the area near the meeting while waiting for my next “scheduled meeting” with the China Charity Federation (CCF). On the lower level of a nearby mall I passed a half-dozen colorfully clad Tibetans standing in the lobby of a movie theater, and was quickly called back by one of them. I fast discovered that I had just wandered past the Beijing premiere of Ganglamedo. The movie was only minutes from beginning and the Tibetans were native cast members from the show, so I took pictures and autographs from the likes of CCTV director Dai Wei. She looks a lot more like a movie star than a director. Her gorgeous film is soon on its way to California along with Tokyo Trial and a handful of other powerful new films from mainland China.
Ganglamedo is a full of mystery, romance, passion, and grand photography of the most dreamed-of destination in the world. It is a movie that will embrace and enchant you during a visually sacred journey to Tibet.
After the film I drifted though time past Tiananmen Square toward my next “scheduled” meeting. Once there I was greeted at CCF by “Diana” an assistant to the Director of Foreign Affairs. Diana’s beauty and energy is in such abundance that it positively alters anyone or anything in its path. She and director Ma Guilin welcomed the efforts of the Dreamblogue and we found common enough ground to begin drafting a memorandum of agreement whereby and Dawei I will donate the proceeds of any of our speaking engagements to the CCF–specifically to aid leukemia victims, Chinese rural education initiatives and handicapped Chinese citizens lacking adequate financial assets for care.
In the next two days I experienced the poetic soul of Huilan Wang, gabbed with a Gaelic brother of blogging blarney, Brendan O’Kane, and suspended time in a warm literary communion over coffee with gentle soul Charlie Shifflett from China Daily’s 21st Century. I need more “business” trips like his to nourish my wandering expat heart.
On the flight back I chatted up two other coach travelers. The long-time sports loyalists, Tom Carleo and Matt Crean, are senior managers for Saucony shoes. It has taken me a week to recover from the pinched nerve in my neck caused by craning back to laugh, learn and reminisce about China, athletics, Olympic dreams and common friends; and it will take me months to sort through the hundreds of gentle memories they returned to me.
Lennon was right: Life is what happens while you are making other plans. May it always be like this…..
Run professor, run!
**The fantastic photo comes via Facebook Friend, and great shutterbug, Lydia Kong
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