UAFS students complete ‘Business in China’ class

story submitted by the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith

Students enrolled in a Business in China class at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith now view China in a whole new light after spending a couple of weeks “going to school” there.

The students traveled to China to learn about key issues for American enterprises doing business there, the influence of cultural differences on doing business in China and the cultural and economic cooperation between China and the United States.

Participants included Ashley Garris of Alma; Kimberly Sayavongsa, Charleston; Curtis Adams, Nicholas Brown, Andrea Martin and Casey Millspaugh of Fort Smith; and Fabiane Nass and Matheus Silva, UAFS international students from Brazil. The students were accompanied on the trip by assistant professors Jerry Peerbolte of Fort Smith and Dr. Sharon Wu of Van Buren.

Sayavongsa said it was good to be able to compare the Baldor Electric Co. plant in Fort Smith with the one the group visited in China.

“When we toured Baldor’s factory in Shanghai, we noticed a huge difference between the factory that we toured in Fort Smith and the factory in Shanghai,” she said, relating how the Shanghai plant was more spacious, but the Fort Smith one had more robotic machines. She added that the Shanghai employees are treated very well, with transportation and food provided, along with 90% of medical expenses covered.

“From the questions that we asked and from the tour we were given, I believe that Baldor’s employees are treated very well,” she said. “You also realize that maybe you shouldn’t always listen to what you hear about China’s factories and their sweat shops.”

The students also had a first-hand view of the stock market, which differed considerably from what is seen in the United States.

Brown said that although China’s stock market is fairly young, it is “moving along.”

“We looked at some numbers of how the market is doing, and you can clearly see the drop off when the world financial crisis hit,” he said. “The thing that caught my eye was how quickly it rebounded. This is most likely due to the fact that there are very few foreign investors in it.”

Millspaugh said the way business is performed in China is much different than business by American standards, particularly on the stock exchange floor, where there were no raised voices from the pit with traders yelling at each other to make a trade.

“The government controls the majority of things in the economy,” he said. “Most noticeable was the futures exchange. The floor of the exchange was very calm. This was much different from what I see in the New York Stock Exchange.”

Millspaugh said they talked with the tour guide about it and asked about the calm demeanors of those on the floor.

“He said that this reflects the volatility and volume of their futures market,” he said. “Their market is consistent and not very volatile. Their market is young and controlled by the government to protect it from a crash.”

Millspaugh said the trip “is changing the way I view the world.”

“It is giving me a better perspective of the way the world and the world economies work,” he said, calling the Chinese infrastructure “absolutely incredible.”

Millspaugh said they visited a wind turbine plant and a power transformer factory.

“The wind turbine company was a great visit for me personally, as my city is awaiting a Mitsubishi plant that is going to bring jobs to my local economy,” he said.

Garris added that the Maymester trip has “completely changed my outlook on life as well as business,” commenting on the cultural aspects of the trip after visiting Hangzhou, the City of Love.

“As we drove around, we saw many people in wedding dresses and men in tuxedos taking pictures,” she said. “We went to Lingyin Temple … where people were burning incense and praying to Buddha. This is something I had never seen before so it was a different experience for me. They had several temples, and there were statues everywhere.”

Students, who earned three credit hours for the class, visited Shanghai, Hangzhou, Changzhou, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Beijing and Hong Kong. In Tianjin, the students spent time at Tianjin University of Technology, meeting two students who will be coming to UAFS to study.

The main topic between UAFS students and Tianjin University students transcended world borders — Facebook. The students talked about Facebook, Google and Baidu, the search engine in China.

Sayavongsa said the Chinese students would love to have access to Facebook, even if they didn’t use it much.

“They do have a similar social network, but they just wish they had the options that Americans do,” she said.

UAFS offered several Maymester classes, which provide intensive, compact educational experiences that result in college credit for participants. The classes are offered during the period in May between the end of the UAFS spring semester and the beginning of the first summer term.