5 Star Billionaire: The Book

I was listening to BBC on XM satellite radio channel 118 today in my truck when the author of "5 Star Billionaire" came on the air. He is Chinese I believe but raised in another country and the lady interviewing him was also Chinese but raised in another country as well. They were talking about Shanghai today and how people from all over the world (especially Asian Nations) were going to Shanghai to work. Obviously most of these people have college degrees but the author mentioned how "wide open" Shanghai is for smart educated people somewhat like New York was 100 years ago.

He also spoke about how wealth became the centerpiece  of life of foreignors there getting rich in the environment of Shanghai today. But, he also spoke about how lonely those same foreignors were in China because it could never be their home like wherever they came from. They would never have their childhood friends there. And most wouldn't be able to convince relatives to move there. So, wealth and loneliness becomes the subject of this novel based upon the experiences of the Novelist in his time he spent in Shanghai himself. I haven't read the book and don't know if it is good or not but I was impressed by the author and what he and the interviewer said about all this.

One of the interesting things they both said about Shanghai was that both had been there and both agreed that it didn't matter what country people were from because they were accepted working there. The important thing seemed to be that they all were working there and succeeding. This seemed to be what was important to all people succeeding there and where people came from didn't matter as much and I found this pretty interesting to contemplate.


As an American I remember the "Old China" under Mao and the conditioning of the people that "They were going to bury us here in the west". However, now in places like Shanghai in businesses there this doesn't seem to exist anymore. But, likely many in the "old guard" still experience the conditioning of the 40s, 50, 60s, 70s and 80s. So, I find what is happening in Shanghai paradoxical. But then, if I view my own country here in the U.S. many places I have been here in the U.S. are paradoxical in their own ways too.

For example, in California it is okay for white people to speak to black people. This is normal in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco. There isn't a lot of hatred between whites and blacks compared to the East Coast and South in the U.S. So, when I was in North Carolina for a wedding I went into a place like a Target Store or something and said "Hi" to a black man and he just glared at me and I realized I wasn't in "Liberated California" anymore. And I learned not to speak to Black people in North Carolina unless I had direct business with them since I am a white man.