When a Chinese friend is struggling or needs a little encouragement, often another Chinese friend will come along and either say “fighting” or put a well-placed emoticon of an arm flexing to symbolize and encourage the same thing: “keep fighting.”I wondered where this came from.  My Chinese friend told me it actually originated in Korea, where Korea used this term to encourage their team on before the 2002 FIFA World Cup.

Nonetheless, I believe this “fighting” description aptly describes many of the emerging leaders I have met in China. They are ambitious, they work extremely hard and they take most opportunities afforded them to develop as individuals. They have grown up in incredibly rigorous conditions (see http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/05/china/middle-class/leslie-chang-text).  As a company, we bring American professionals to China on “voluntouring” trips where they speak at universities, almost exclusively to audiences that had the option to attend the seminar or not. Optional seminars like this in the USA might be lucky to draw 5-10 students where in China they often draw audiences in the hundreds, 70% of which are female.  You can see why Americans who want to build into the next generation are enjoying these teachable audiences.

In 2010, when the city of Philadelphia postponed a football game because of snow, the governor of the state felt the postponement was an indictment on our U.S culture. He said, “We’ve become a nation of wusses (ie. “weak). The Chinese are kicking our butt in everything,” he added. “If this was in China do you think the Chinese would have called off the game? People would have been marching down to the stadium, they would have walked and they would have been doing calculus on the way down.”

In branding Ascend International, we chose a mountain image……..and “ascend” means to climb. So, by my side, I am blessed to have a score of volunteers who are “fighting” and “climbing” to develop themselves and others, but I’m also surrounded by some of the greatest fighters in our world today: Chinese emerging leaders. It’s a wonderful community. Thanks for “fighting” with me.