Huawei founder on leadership
Ren Zhengfei's "flour paste theory"
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1. Ren Zhengfei on leadership - 浆糊理论 (Jiàng Hú lǐlùn) “flour paste theory”
Ren Zhengfei had a session Huawei’s 2020 ‘gold medal employees’ on 6 May. The transcript was released last weekend.
Ren likes to use animal metaphors to talk about Huawei’s weaknesses and strengths. Probably the most famous is ‘wolf culture’ (狼文化 - Láng wénhuà).
In this discussion he talks about Huawei as:
A cat (猫 - Māo)
虽然我们在向“猫”学习，但其实学得还不像，至少我们还不会“上树”
Although we are learning from "cats", we’re not doing that well. At the very least least we still can't "climb a tree" […how can we become a tiger…?]
A baby bird (小鸟 - Xiǎo Niǎo)
鸟妈妈含着虫子飞回鸟窝，这么多小鸟嘴张开着，嗷嗷待哺，它怎么知道哪一只喂过，哪一只没有喂过呢？这就需要调度好
The mother bird flies back to the nest with bugs to feed her young. With so many little beaks open, chirping, how does she know which ones she has fed? This needs to be managed through coordination […Huawei can learn from this….]
And…. you’ve guessed it….
A rotifer (蛭形轮虫 - Zhì xíng lún chóng) - [asexual microscopic slug-like organisms that can survive for thousands of years through self-desiccation and splitting their genetic code to self-breed]
科学家发现蛭形轮虫的基因链会断裂，又会重新整合。华为文化就是一条单基因链，必须有冲突来促变 - scientists have found that the genetic chains of Rotifers can break and then re-form. Huawei is like a singular genetic chain, it needs to [bring in] conflict [through new team members] in order to drive change
Useful words
Three words and one idiom to better understand where Huawei is, where it’s going and how it will get there:
土包子 (Tǔbāozi) - ‘soil buns’, country bumpkin
有些高级干部是“土包子”，自己不懂技术、没有能力，还按照自己“土包子”方法 - [until now] many of our high level managers have been ‘country bumpkins’, they don’t understand the technology, they have no ability and use their own ‘country bumpkin’ ways
游击队 (Yóují duì) - ‘guerrilla force’ - Huawei’s approach to growing it’s business until now through aggressive, but somewhat chaotic, ‘guerrilla tactics’, which Ren is keen to change…
对“游击队”进行整改，让我们逐步转为“正规军” - change our approach from Guerrilla tactics to become like a proper army
浆糊 (Jiàng Hú) - “flour paste”; which means ‘team cohesion’ - Ren’s secret to strong leadership which is now called the ‘flower paster theory’ 浆糊理论:
我什么都不懂，我就懂一桶桨糊，将这桶浆糊倒在华为人身上，把17万员工黏在一起，朝着一个大的方向拼死命地努力 - I understand nothing. All I do get is pouring a barrel of flour paste all over Huawei’s people, bringing 170,000 employees together, working tirelessly towards a common goal
精益求精 (Jīng yì qiú jīng) - keep improving
工程领域要精益求精，这不叫内卷，内卷是发生在不应该进行精益求精的地方。Engineering is a sector which requires continual improvement. This is not ‘involution’; involution happens in places where [competition for] continual improvement should not happen (…Huawei needs to continually improve…)
[see 1 May newsletter for more on involution - intense social competition]
Links
The Paper: 任正非：华为要从“游击队”逐步转为“正规军” [full transcript of the discussion, worth a read if you have time]
Jianshu: 任正非的浆糊理论 [more on flour paste theory]
2. Colloquialism of the week: 老鼻子 (Lǎo bízi) - ‘old nose’, lots of…
Stand-up comedy show Rock and Roast (脱口秀) sketches are always a great source for new words and colloquial phrases.
Comedian Li Xueqin (李雪琴), who first appeared on Rock and Roast in 2019, was the subject of some debate on social media this week. But not because of her jokes.
From SupChina:
a recent photo shoot […] featuring popular stand-up comedian Lǐ Xuěqín 李雪琴 in sexy outfits with low-cut necklines […] ruffled feathers among her long-time fans, who suggested the revealing looks were “hypocritical”
There are some useful Internet words in the Weibo commentary. You can use them to rant on social media, if you really have nothing better to do.
Or, try to deploy in real life and stun people with your authentic Chinese:
特么 (Tè me) - an Internet word to replace 他妈的, TMD - ‘f**k’; how creative netizens avoiding censors removing their content
特么什么垃圾造型师 - who is this f**king crap stylist!
很水 (Hěn shuǐ) ‘very watery’; Cantonese meaning ‘crap or low ability’ which has crossed over into an Internet slang word
我想说造型师摄影师都很水 - the stylist is really shit
[Note: to add to the confusion it’s also Hakka (闽南话) describing someone who is ‘very beautiful’! I think its the Cantonese meaning here]
绝了 (Jué le) - colloqial word for ‘amazing’, ‘the best’
好好看 绝了绝了 - she looks amazing
Useful words
Li has a strong north eastern drawl and speaks with pace.
Try getting through these two 6-min sketches without reading the subtitles:
Here are some good words with a north eastern dialect feel:
贼 (Zéi) - ‘very’ or ‘extremely’; previously in 19 June newsletter, but included here again because it’s such a great word
红了之后，贼能接广告 - once I became famous I was getting a lot of interest from advertisers
霍霍 (Huòhuò) - ‘scrape’; ‘pull a fast one’ on somebody, ‘take advantage’; similar to 欺负, 折磨 or 占便宜
老板你不能这么霍霍我 - boss, you can’t treat me like that
老鼻子 (Lǎo bízi) - ‘old nose’ - lots of
我爸一年挣老鼻子钱了 - my dad makes a huge amount of money each year
Links
Weibo: #李雪琴男人装大片# (The For Him Weibo post)
3. Xi Speeches - Idioms about blood baths and swallowing mountains
Two big Xi speeches this week:
29 June - at a ceremony presenting the centenary medals to 29 ordinary heroes
1 July - the big one at Tiananmen Square
Much attention was given to this idiom in the 1 July speech:
头破血流 (Tóu pò xuě liú) - ‘split head, blood flowing’, battered and bloody
…必将在14亿多中国人民用血肉筑成的钢铁长城面前碰得头破血流 - "…will face broken heads and bloodshed in front of the iron Great Wall of the 1.4 billion Chinese people."
The official translation:
“On a collision course”
NYT version:
“crack their heads and spill blood”
Sky interpretation:
“broken heads and bloodshed”
I think it actually means:
“absolutely futile” - like banging your head against the wall until it bleeds
But of course it’s heavily loaded and intended to make a strong rhetorical point - which clearly it did, judging by the reaction it got on the day, and in the subsequent media kerfuffle.
The character for blood 血 crops up eight times in that speech.
It’s a confusing one for language learners because there are three pronunciations:
xuè - usually for technical words like ‘blood type’ (血型 - xuè xíng)
xiě - used in spoken langauge, for example ‘blood’ (血液 - Xiěyè)
xuě - colloquial / regional pronunciation which comes up in certain expressions that use ‘blood’ figuratively - such as the idiom above. Another good one which uses this pronunciation, and has been mistranslated by the English language media, is:
杀出一条血路来 (Shā chū yītiáo xuě lù lái) - “blaze a trail” of blood [credited to Deng Xiaoping from a speech in Shenzhen in 1979]
Bonus idiom: here’s one more idiom in the 1 July speech about bloodshed:
浴血奋战 (Yùxiě fènzhàn) - a bloody fight [but which pronunciation is it? Please reply to this email if you know ;)]
A poem and idioms about the elements
One line of the same poem was in both speeches:
敢教日月换新天 (Gǎn jiào rì yuè huàn xīn tiān) - “Which dares to make sun and moon shine in new skies”
保持“敢教日月换新天”的昂扬斗志，埋头苦干、攻坚克难 - Maintain the high morals of "daring to teach the sun and the moon to change the sky", working hard and overcome difficulties
It’s a line from Shaoshan Revisited (七律·到韶山), written by Mao Zedong in June, 1959, about sacrifice, having the bravery to ‘teach the sun and the moon’ [‘move heaven and earth’] and rid the countryside of evil influences.
Read the full poem in Chinese and English here.
A similarly visual and powerful idiom about overcoming the elements was in the 29 June speech:
气吞山河 (Qìtūnshānhé) - imbued with a spirit that can swallow mountains and rivers
谱写了气吞山河的英雄壮歌 - written a song of bravery and heroism imbued with the spirit that can conquer mountains and rivers [meaning: “we can achieve anything”]
And, if you can’t stomach an entire mountain and/or river, build a tunnel and a bridge….
逢山开道、遇水架桥 (Féng shān kāidào, yù shuǐ jià qiáo) - build roads through mountains, build bridges to cross rivers
敢于斗争，善于斗争，逢山开道、遇水架桥，勇于战胜一切风险挑战！- dare to enter the struggle, adept at the struggle, [with the spirit of] overcoming mountains, bridging rivers, and with the bravery to overcome any danger or challenge
Idioms about struggle
Here are three idioms from the speeches that you might also hear an entrepreneur or big boss saying to motivate his team to work even harder.
苦干实干 (Kǔ gàn shígàn) - working hard and working real - “hard work”
苦干实干，充分展示了共产党人无私无畏的奉献精神 - working hard, fully demonstrating the selfless and sacrificing spirit of CCP members
不畏艰险 (Bù wèi jiānxiǎn) - fearless in the face of danger and hardships
尽职尽责作为人生目标，不畏艰险、敢于牺牲 - showing responsibility as [our] lifetime goal, fearless, willing to sacrafice
奋勇前进 (Fènyǒng qiánjìn) - advance courageously
向着中华民族伟大复兴的中国梦奋勇前进 - bravely working towards realising the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation
Links
Xinhua: 习近平：在“七一勋章”颁授仪式上的讲话 (award ceremony speech - much shorter and easier read)
Xinhua: 习近平：在庆祝中国共产党成立100周年大会上的讲话 (much longer and more challenging 1 July speech)
Zhihu: 「血」的 xuě 音有何渊源？ [more on pronunciation of 血 if you’re interested]
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