A politician and a business leader came together to share their personal China experience with some 500 enthusiastic local students at the China-Quotient Student Forum held on 27 October. They were: Keynote Speaker Senior Minister of State (SMS) for Trade, Industry and National Development, Mr Lee Yi Shyan, and guest speaker CEO-Designate of CapitaLand Limited, Mr Lim Ming Yan. They are both Business China’s board members.
Co-organised by Business China and Singapore Polytechnic (SP), the Forum was themed ‘Bilingualism and Biculturalism: Maintaining Singaporean Youths’ Competitive Edge’.
During his engaging and lively keynote presentation, SMS Lee elaborated from macro perspectives to personal attributes on how being bilingual and bicultural would allow Singaporean youths to stay relevant in an increasingly competitive global workforce. He encouraged the youths to leverage on their unique edge as bilingual and bicultural individuals and prepare themselves for the emerging opportunities.
In his attempt to demonstrate how learning Chinese could be fun, SMS Lee surprised the forum by singing a classic Chinese song 《但愿人长久》by songbird Teresa Teng. Participants were quick to show their support by humming the tune along and waving their hands. Through this song which originated from the poem 《水调歌头》written by renowned Song dynasty poet Su Dongpo, SMS Lee shared that memorising poems through songs had helped him learnt the Chinese language and culture.
SMS Lee also gave out seven China DVDs from his personal collection to participants who answered quiz questions correctly.
Mr Lim Ming Yan, on the other hand, shared his business experience in his previous nine-year capacity as CEO of CapitaLand China. Mr Lim noted that the dynamics of China market is significant to the world economy as the country is rapidly emerging as the world’s biggest economy. He said that although doing business in China needs ‘guanxi’ (关系) but the ability to manoeuvre in a cross-cultural environment is even more valued. He also illustrated that if we can arm ourselves to understand cultural nuances, the unique values and skill sets that Singaporean possess can help to open more ‘doors’ in China.
Mr Lim is currently the Chief Operating Officer of CapitaLand Ltd. With effect from 1 January 2013, Mr Lim will helm the CapitaLand Group as President and CEO.
CEO of Business China, Ms Low Yen Ling, also encouraged the youths to keep pace with China’s latest developments in her closing speech. She said: “Through the panel discussion today, it is clear that it is only through active learning of Chinese and Mandarin that we can be better attuned to keep pace with China’s developments, and upkeep our ‘China-Quotient’ (CQ).”
This year as Business China celebrates her fifth anniversary, 43 different events were launched, among which are the CQ Student Forums. This Forum held at SP was the third and final run this year. The panel discussion was moderated by Senior Broadcast Journalist from Capital 95.8FM, Ms Lui Fong Ching. Business China Youth Chapter member, Ms Chang Ziying, was the emcee.
The series of China-Quotient (CQ) Student Forums were conceptualised with the aim to keep students and youths abreast of the changes in the rapidly morphing China society, to up their China-quotient, so that they can better prepare themselves for emerging opportunities.