Well after a 18 hour delay, I finally got home for about 23 hours before I jumped on my plane out east. Now that I've gotten somewhat moved in and caught up on sleep, I decided it was time to write my final thoughts from my Asian Invasion.
Japan:
I loved Japan. They are some of the most hospitable people I have ever met and were genuinely excited that we Americans were visiting to learn more about their culture. In all honesty, their swine systems are vey modern and based off of US swine production. And that's their goal: companies send many students to the US, specifically to Iowa State, to learn how to maximize their pork production potential. Unfortunately, they are losing young interest in agriculture so their systems are gradually decreasing in numbers. This does open a lot of opportunities for US exports since they can't feed themselves. They also are willing to pay for the best quality, which in their eyes is first a foremost their own producers and then United States producers. Luckily, we have built up a very strong relationship with the Japanese so they are more than willing to work with us. They are a amiable and wealthy culture, and as Americans we need to keep this relationship a top priority for future endeavors.
China:
While I loved Japan, I will still admit that I enjoyed China. There are things, however, that I did not enjoy. First, it amazes me how the population can basically worship Chairman Mao when he was the cause of 50 million deaths and sent the people into starvation. They refuse to see the bad in the government. For example, Tiananmenn Square is a tourist attraction that does not even mention the 1989 massacre of thousands of innocent people. The culture is a very fast paced culture, and you can tell that instantly when you sit in traffic. In my opinion, the government strives to keep the people constantly working and moving to give them little time to stop and think. Now I don't think these people are so naive to not realize some things need to be changed, but rather have known worse or their ancestors have known worse so they're thankful for where they are now. There's no doubt that China has made leaps and bounds in the past couple decades but they are no doubt still a developing country. It's evident as soon as you drive into the rural areas and see just how big the wealth gap is between urban and rural areas. Some of the living conditions are just awful for some of these people, yet the government can still drop money on their tourists attractions to make them the best possible. It's almost a false guise when you visit the tourists attractions and know the living conditions of s majority of the people. As for their agriculture, I don't even know where to begin. Their government skews the numbers and statistics so many different times that it's impossible to know what exactly they are producing. In terms of export potential, I think there is some there but they have a stronger relationship with the EU and add so many extra regulations on US imports that it seems that they really don't want US products, besides soybeans. I would rather wait for them to come begging for our products than try to cater to their wants that seem to change every other day. While they don't want our products, I do think there is an opportunity to sell them our methods and systems of agriculture. As stubborn as they can be sometimes, they do admire US agriculture systems. It will be tricky and frustrating, but I do think there is potential for US agriculture to make a huge profit in China, just not necessarily directly through exports. As for the culture of their people, they can come off as extremely rude and selfish. However, if you know the history of China in the past 100 years, you have a better understanding of the people. Personally, I think the population has a strong sense of self survival and trust no one, simply because that's the mindset they/their parents/their grandparents had to have to literally survive certain periods of history. While they aren't the most friendliest, they are extremely proud of their Chinese culture and want to showcase that pride. They should be proud! China has done some amazing things in history and are improving at a rate that is simply unbelievable. They aren't quite to the US level of modernization yet but with some more time I think they will be.
Going into this trip, I was not expecting a big difference between the two cultures but their definitely is. Like any country or culture, neither of them are perfect by any means but they each do have their perks. I would return to both of these countries some day, but I don't think I could ever live in China. Not that I really have a desire to relocate out of the US anyways, but China would definitely not be my first choice if I had to relocate. I see a lot of potential for US agriculture in both countries, however the approaches would have to be completely different. I strongly encourage anyone in the agriculture industry to visit an Asian country since our export industry heavily depends on these nations. I feel extremely blessed and humbled to have had this opportunity and I know that what I learned on this trip (which was a lot) will be useful in many of my future endeavors in the swine industry.
Japan:
I loved Japan. They are some of the most hospitable people I have ever met and were genuinely excited that we Americans were visiting to learn more about their culture. In all honesty, their swine systems are vey modern and based off of US swine production. And that's their goal: companies send many students to the US, specifically to Iowa State, to learn how to maximize their pork production potential. Unfortunately, they are losing young interest in agriculture so their systems are gradually decreasing in numbers. This does open a lot of opportunities for US exports since they can't feed themselves. They also are willing to pay for the best quality, which in their eyes is first a foremost their own producers and then United States producers. Luckily, we have built up a very strong relationship with the Japanese so they are more than willing to work with us. They are a amiable and wealthy culture, and as Americans we need to keep this relationship a top priority for future endeavors.
China:
While I loved Japan, I will still admit that I enjoyed China. There are things, however, that I did not enjoy. First, it amazes me how the population can basically worship Chairman Mao when he was the cause of 50 million deaths and sent the people into starvation. They refuse to see the bad in the government. For example, Tiananmenn Square is a tourist attraction that does not even mention the 1989 massacre of thousands of innocent people. The culture is a very fast paced culture, and you can tell that instantly when you sit in traffic. In my opinion, the government strives to keep the people constantly working and moving to give them little time to stop and think. Now I don't think these people are so naive to not realize some things need to be changed, but rather have known worse or their ancestors have known worse so they're thankful for where they are now. There's no doubt that China has made leaps and bounds in the past couple decades but they are no doubt still a developing country. It's evident as soon as you drive into the rural areas and see just how big the wealth gap is between urban and rural areas. Some of the living conditions are just awful for some of these people, yet the government can still drop money on their tourists attractions to make them the best possible. It's almost a false guise when you visit the tourists attractions and know the living conditions of s majority of the people. As for their agriculture, I don't even know where to begin. Their government skews the numbers and statistics so many different times that it's impossible to know what exactly they are producing. In terms of export potential, I think there is some there but they have a stronger relationship with the EU and add so many extra regulations on US imports that it seems that they really don't want US products, besides soybeans. I would rather wait for them to come begging for our products than try to cater to their wants that seem to change every other day. While they don't want our products, I do think there is an opportunity to sell them our methods and systems of agriculture. As stubborn as they can be sometimes, they do admire US agriculture systems. It will be tricky and frustrating, but I do think there is potential for US agriculture to make a huge profit in China, just not necessarily directly through exports. As for the culture of their people, they can come off as extremely rude and selfish. However, if you know the history of China in the past 100 years, you have a better understanding of the people. Personally, I think the population has a strong sense of self survival and trust no one, simply because that's the mindset they/their parents/their grandparents had to have to literally survive certain periods of history. While they aren't the most friendliest, they are extremely proud of their Chinese culture and want to showcase that pride. They should be proud! China has done some amazing things in history and are improving at a rate that is simply unbelievable. They aren't quite to the US level of modernization yet but with some more time I think they will be.
Going into this trip, I was not expecting a big difference between the two cultures but their definitely is. Like any country or culture, neither of them are perfect by any means but they each do have their perks. I would return to both of these countries some day, but I don't think I could ever live in China. Not that I really have a desire to relocate out of the US anyways, but China would definitely not be my first choice if I had to relocate. I see a lot of potential for US agriculture in both countries, however the approaches would have to be completely different. I strongly encourage anyone in the agriculture industry to visit an Asian country since our export industry heavily depends on these nations. I feel extremely blessed and humbled to have had this opportunity and I know that what I learned on this trip (which was a lot) will be useful in many of my future endeavors in the swine industry.