Jī Means More Than Opportunity
By Marion Marking

Marion Marking is editor in chief at China Business – Philippines, a monthly magazine available at National Bookstore, Powerbooks, Fully Booked, Bibliarch, leading newsstands nationwide, online via http://ChinaBusinessPhilippines.com ,and to clients of leading hotels and upscale coffee houses in the metro. She can be reached at editor@fairnewsmedia.com.

Over dinner with Raymond Yip of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council and a handful of local friends, the lazy conversation after dinner got around to the topic of the current global financial crisis. Raymond pointed out that it seemed like the Philippines was insulated from the crisis, especially since Filipinos are still all smiles.

Whether it's delusion or optimism, it seems that way for many people who still have jobs. But to citizens like the farmers who have to lobby Congress for the land they've cultivated for ages or those who nightly get sick to their stomachs because they're still stupidly brave enough to watch another corruption saga unfold in the evening news, there appears little to smile about these days. Unless you have something to look forward to.

After-dinner talk also got around to the famous translation of the Chinese word for “crisis.”

I recently learned that the Chinese character for “crisis” (wēijī ; 危机) doesn't really break down into the two characters of “danger” and “opportunity.” But thanks to JFK, a host of motivational speakers, and the natural evolution of contemporary folklore, many have come to consider jī to mean “opportunity.”

The fact is jī (机) can mean everything from an airplane to a secret. It is jīhuì (机会) that translates exactly to “opportunity.”

Liguistic experts say that the jī in wēijī is more exactly translated as “pivotal point.” I think that best describes where we, as businesspeople, are today.

Over the last few issues, our columnists have tackled the various things businesspeople must do to deal with and thrive during pivotal times. When Raymond asked how we were dealing with the crisis, I replied that we simply got creative.
We brushed the cobwebs off our marketing strategy, changed our business model, explored opportunities in areas we wouldn't have bothered with in pre-crisis times, and became more aggressive. And we sought help. Not a bailout plan, but something far more valuable. We asked everyone, from readers to advertisers to kibitzers, what they thought about our magazine and our business practices. Then we weren't too lazy to change.