Chapter 232: Differential Treatment

“It seems that the relevant ministries and commissions are very dissatisfied with the provinces’ joint exhibitions. This arrangement simply makes their attitude clear.” Yang Liming, with a camera hanging around his neck, and Xie Hushan shuttled through the Canton Fair complex arranged in the Sino-Soviet Friendship Building, speaking as he looked around.

Xie Hushan smiled when he heard what Lao Yang said: “The country encourages each province to develop its own economy. Not only are state-owned enterprises dissatisfied, but leaders of various ministries and trade companies are certainly not happy about it. After all, if you really want to talk about it, it’s like the country has delegated many of their businesses to the local areas. They are angry but dare not confront the country openly, so they can only treat them differently at this time to vent their anger.”

The two of them had been wandering around the exhibition hall for a long time. All state-owned enterprises organized by ministries and commissions to participate in the exhibition not only have good exhibition hall locations, but also are equipped with special business negotiation rooms. The negotiation rooms are bright and clean, and two young and beautiful female waiters are specially assigned to provide tea, coffee and cigarettes to both parties in the business negotiations.

Moreover, the translators employed by those companies are not very skilled and speak with an authentic London accent.

The reason why we emphasize that the translator is not a jack of all trades is that just now when the two of them passed by a chemical exhibition booth of the Jinzhou Province Trade Delegation, a British customer came to inquire about something. The translator’s level was a bit poor, and it was Xie Hushan who spoke up to translate and helped out in an emergency.

The translator who was assigned to provide translation services for the booth confused the British when he spoke to them.

The British guests curiously asked how old the translator was, how old the exhibition representative next to him was, and how many years they had worked in the factory.

Judging from his age, this translator might be from the first batch of college students after the resumption of the college entrance examination, and he has a heavy accent. He might have meant to say: I am thirty.

As a result, what Xie Hushan and the British guests heard was: I am dirty, You are welcome.

The British were very confused at the time. They thought, “You are so dirty, why are you still here to welcome me? Go wash yourself.”

In addition to the different levels of translation, the locations are also very different. For enterprises that lead their own teams to participate in the exhibition, the booths of each province are located in the corners of the exhibition hall that are not easily discovered and the places that are suitable for guerrillas to lurk and fight the Japanese.

Of course, a negotiation room is also provided, with only one room for each province. Even if a hundred companies from your province come to participate in the exhibition, they can only share this negotiation room.

According to this arrangement, if it were 2024, the exhibition hall corridors or any open space where one can stand would become a battlefield for exhibitors to attract business.

Unfortunately, this was 1980, and most of the representatives of the participating companies were very conservative, either out of restraint or because the business belonged to the country and was not worth their attention. They stayed in their own booths and just looked at the foreigners passing by outside with curious eyes.

But Xie Hushan had to admit that the conservative ones were basically the inland provinces, while the trading groups from several southern coastal provinces were not conservative at all.

Although several trading groups from coastal provinces were also sent to remote corners, they were still more professional than many trading groups of head offices.

Some delegations from Shanghai even brought their own English typewriters, and did not need the translators provided by the organizers of the Canton Fair. Everyone knew English to prevent the translators from being inadequate and affecting business. When foreign businessmen sat down to discuss business, the typists from Shanghai used typewriters to make contracts on the spot. Their professional style attracted many foreigners to stop and watch, and representatives of trade delegations from other brother provinces even came over to watch the fun.

Moreover, the delegations had unified clothing. Many trade groups wore the same old three things: the men were more decent and wore black or gray Zhongshan suits, the women wore blue navy blue work clothes, and those with a retired military background wore old green military uniforms.

The male representatives of the Shanghai trading delegation all wore suits, ties, and black leather shoes, while the female representatives wore ladies’ suits, knee-length skirts, nylon stockings, and low-heeled black leather shoes.

If a foreigner passes by and stops for a moment, he will immediately stand up to greet him and say hello in English. As long as the other party shows an expression that he wants to know more, he will immediately take out his business card box and hand the business card to the foreigner with both hands.

Don’t worry about what is being sold at the booth. Just the attire and demeanor of the delegation attracted many foreign businessmen to walk over and take a closer look at where this delegation came from.

“When I was a child, I always heard that in the old society, young people from our Zhili Province and Luzhou Province either went to Tianjin or went to foreign concessions. Now it seems that this foreign concession is indeed extraordinary. Maybe the people there have seen the world and their brains are quick.” Yang Liming pushed his glasses, took the camera given by Xie Hushan, took a few photos of the Shanghai trading delegation booth, and then said with emotion.

Seeing that Xie Hushan was not in a hurry to go to the Zhongping booth, but instead pretended to be a Hong Kong businessman to eat and drink in various negotiation rooms, Yang Limin asked Xie Hushan, who had just returned with another Zhonghua filter cigarette, with some doubt:

“I say, on the first day, shouldn’t we hurry to our own stalls to have a look? Those are the tea, water and cigarettes that the country has prepared for foreigners by tightening its belt. You’re good enough.”

Xie Hushan held a cigarette in his mouth. “You have seen how hidden our prime location is. Even if the Japanese carried out a large-scale sweep, they would have to go back and forth four or five times before they were discovered. Doing business here is not like going to a big market in the countryside. It takes a month. Why are you in such a hurry? From my observation, this batch of foreign businessmen who came early are all here to purchase various industrial raw materials. Most of them are Japanese. They are in a hurry to order cheap raw materials to go back and start work. Brother Bao has done research. Most of the middlemen in Europe and the United States are still in Hong Kong Island and Macau to experience the Asian style.”

By the time he and Yang Liming arrived at the small exhibition room belonging to Zhongping at a corner on the third floor, the other six companies had already set up their exhibitions using the allocated shelves.

The product group of knitted garments in Zhili Province is not like some provinces which are good at textiles, where many exquisitely shaped Jinling silks, Jiangling brocades and the like are displayed on the shelves. What is displayed on the shelves are mainly cloths, interspersed with a few bedding items such as mandarin ducks playing in the water sheets, dragon and phoenix quilt covers, pillowcases and other bedding made from fabrics. There are only two kinds of real garments: Dacron shirts for men and Dacron dresses for women.

The similarity of the products also means that if you don’t look carefully, it is easy for people to think that these six companies are actually one company.

“Comrades, you…” An interpreter assigned by the organizer to the exhibition room asked when he saw Xie Hushan and Yang Liming swaggering over.

Xie Hushan took out Han Hongzhen’s registration card and his own letter of certification: “Captain of the Zhongping Production Brigade, the shelf inside belongs to our brigade. Our representative was pulled away for an interview by a female reporter from Hong Kong Island. I am here to set up the exhibition today.”

(End of this chapter)