Chinese frugality (London / China)

At SBTC (Sino-British Trade Council, now CBBC / China Britain Business Council; see Fog capital), we’d get requests from the Chinese side to organise visits to British companies or factories.  They’d give us details such as when they’d be arriving, staying for how long, what kind of companies/factories they’d like to visit, and we’d start compiling a list of likely candidates and find out if they'd like to host a Chinese delegation.  Once an itinerary was drawn up, we’d get back to the Chinese to see if it’d suit them.

In those days, we used the telex (sending out a tape punched with holes representing the letters of the alphabet).

On this particular occasion, we couldn’t get through to the Chinese side, so we’d try again.  And again.  And again.  As we got closer to their departure date, we decided to phone them, even though it was a lot more expensive.  There was also a time difference of seven hours which was tricky, because it entailed one of us (and it had to be a Chinese-speaker) ringing them no later than 10am London time.

I was that appointed Chinese-speaker.  When I finally got through to them, the first thing I asked was if their telex machine had broken down, for we had to get in touch with them a few more times about this imminent visit of theirs.  They were surprised at the question, “No.  Our telex machine is in good working order.  There’s nothing wrong with it.”  Then why were we unable to get through to them over the last few days?  “Oh,” they said, “it’s because we switch off the machine when we’re not using it.”

(London / China, 1985)