Lai See

seeing red

The East may be more pink these days but red faces still seem to be in fashion at China Unicom.

At the firm's recent spring dinner, the troops were allowed a little revenge on the bosses via a series of embarrassing games.

Even retired chairman Yang Xian Zu was 'summoned' to attend. Humiliation was heaped upon executives such as Mr Yang, Shi Cuiming, William Lo Wing-yan and newly appointed executive director Zhao Le.

Mr Shi, who speaks poor Cantonese despite living in Hong Kong for almost seven years, was asked to read a tongue twister in our fair dialect. Other executives were bound in gift wrap while some were forced to sing.

taking credit

A major problem - and opportunity - for foreign banks keen to establish credit card alliances with mainland partners is the lack of an established credit culture in China. A joke doing the rounds in Shanghai sums up the challenge:

Two ladies, one Chinese and one American, meet in heaven.

'I hated debt and by the time I died I had saved enough money to buy a house,' the Chinese lady says.

'I was different,' said the American woman. 'When I got married, I borrowed money to buy a house and paid the final instalment on the day I died. Which of us had the better life?'

QUESTION OF THE DAY

Received by e-mail yesterday from The Repulse Bay:

'Dear [Lai See],

'Are you an incurable romantic?'