A dialogue between Christine Liu, Founder of sHero, and Xiangwei Gong, President, DSM Hydrocolloids
Dec 18, 2017
女性领导力组织sHero创始人刘慧和帝斯曼亲水胶体总裁龚湘伟的一场对话
2017.12.18
Click for Part 1，Part 2，Part 3 and Part 4
点击打开第一部，第二部，第三部和第四部
Part 5
第五部分
C: Wow, Xiangwei, so you did have a very rich career path with 20 plus years across industries, functions, and also continents especially, the very solid track record in both functional and leadership positions, which you are proud of yourself. But in the same time, you are also a world citizen. You’ve lived and worked in numerous locations. So, how is this experience, and how does it give you the different perspectives of the world and your life?
C: 湘伟, 你确实有着非常丰富的职业生涯，20多年来跨行业、职位，尤其跨洲际的工作经验，在不同的职能部门和领导角色都有非常成功的记录。这个我相信你也很骄傲。而同时，你也是一个全球公民。你在很多地方生活工作过。这是一段怎样的经历并且这段经历对你从不同角度看待这个世界以及你的人生旅程有什么帮助？
XW: I think… that’s a big question. When I was young, I read a lot from this novelist, writer, San Mao. Probably my whole generation got inspired by her, her life story, and her writing. And she went very far, she traveled the world, and saw the world, and then presented the world through her lens and her writing. I was very inspired by that. I always wanted to see the world. So, and … yeah, so that’s part of me. I always wanted to go to see different places of the world. And then I always wanted to do something also with what I saw, and what I experienced. It’s an amazing feeling. It made me feel free… I feel free. I feel, again, like I said, there is no boundary inside of me, in a way. I feel very free, at this stage of my life.
XW: It’s actually amazing, being a world citizen is great. But what’s really great is that I also feel home everywhere I go to. So, when I was young I always wanted to go far to see the world and travel to different places. But, on this journey, sometimes you get lost, you will start to question where am I and why am I doing this and where is home to me. But then you continue. And eventually you arrive at a place. I’m not talking about a physical place but really mentally, and also in your heart. You feel like, wow, actually the world has more similarities. The different places or countries or cultures have more similarities than differences actually, because at the end of the day we are all the world citizens in a way, the Earth citizens. We have just one mother Earth, and there is soil everywhere, there is land everywhere. So in that sense, I discovered I can feel home everywhere. I can find connection with every culture everywhere. So it feels great.
XW: 我觉得……这是个很大的问题。当我年轻时，我读过一个小说家、作家的书，三毛。可以说我那个年代的人都受她影响，她的人生，她的故事，还有她的书。她去过很远的地方，她畅游了世界，看了世界，又用她的视角、她的笔为我们呈现了这个世界。我深受触动。我也总是想看世界。所以，这也是我的一个方面。我总是想去世界各地。而且我也总想用我所见到的和经历的来做点什么。这是个很美秒的感觉。它让我感觉……很自由。我感觉，就像我之前说过的那样，我的内心是没有束缚的。在我人生的这个阶段，我觉得很自由。
XW: 这段经历真的是很棒。做为一位世界公民自然是极好的，但真正妙不可言的是我对自己到过的每一个地方都有家一样的感觉。当我还小的时候我总想去看这个世界并去不同的地方旅行。但是在这趟旅途中，有的时候你会迷失自己，你会开始问自己，我在哪里，我为什么这么做，我的家在何处。但当你继续下去时，最终你会到达一个地方。我所讲的地方不是指地理位置上的地方，而是在你的大脑里，这个地方也在你的心中。你会感觉到，哇，世界上的各个地方原来有这么多相似点。不同的地方和国家，他们的相似点多过不同点，因为说到底我们从某种程度上来说都是世界公民，地球公民。我们有一个共同的母亲。到处都有土壤，到处都有大地。所以就此而言，我发现无论在何处我都有家的感觉。我能够发现我与不同地域文化之间的联系。所以，这种感觉非常奇妙。
C: It helps with your work, too.
C: 这对你的工作也有帮助吧。
XW: Yes, it helps with my work. Because we work in a global environment, and who does the work? And it’s people. So whether people are Americans or Europeans or Africans, Chinese, Japanese,... I always find nowadays easy to build connection, build connection with these people, no matter where they come from.
XW: 是的，这的确对我的工作有所帮助。因为我们在一个国际化的环境中工作。那这些工作谁来做呢？是人。所以不管是美国人，欧洲人，非洲人，中国人，还是日本人，...... 现在我都能和他们比较容易地建立联系，不管他们来自哪个国家。
C: Wow. ... One more question to you, since you are here, we would like to have your insights or observations regarding women in the workplace in China?
C: 哇。还有一个问题，对于中国职场中的女性你有什么见解或者观察吗？
XW: I probably can only say anecdotally… I’m not really an expert in that regard. It’s a real paradox, you know, we have heard that eighty or eighty-five percent of the world’s self-made female billionaires are from China, so more than the rest of the world combined. It happens in China, so that’s great and very inspiring. On the other hand, you also see a lot of other things that are maybe not as, you know, not as satisfactory, especially at the grassroots level. So you’ll see successful self-made billionaires more than any other place in the world. But you also see still a lot of struggles of women, and they are lost, ... and they are the single child generation, they are burdened with a lot of social pressure and pressure of taking care of the family and how to balance everything... and they are lacking role model. Nobody is showing them a clear path to follow, or how to walk the path.
I also don't know how to really address this topic.
XW: 我可能只能说的比较表象…...我并不是这个领域的专家。这真是一个矛盾体，我们都听过世界上百分之八十或八十五的白手起家的女性亿万富翁都来自中国，比世界上其它地方加起来还多。这个现象出现在中国非常振奋人心。另一方面，你会看到一些其它事情，尤其来自底层人民的状况，并不尽如人意。你会看到中国成功的女性亿万富翁多过世界上其他国家。但你也会看到很多女性在挣扎，以及你会看到她们的迷失，她们，独生子女的一代，由于承受很多的社会压力，要照顾家庭的压力，以及如何去平衡一切，再加上榜样的缺失，没有人能给她们指明一条清晰的道路或者可以让她们知道这条路该怎么走。
我也不知道如何谈论这个话题。
C: That’s OK. Because When we talk about women’s leadership, I always say there are three lines, one is time -line, it takes some time; and one is bottom-line, so when more women are educated, and also, you know, employed, and developed, the companies and countries are richer. And another line is story-line. So Thank you so much for sharing the story line with us.
So, lastly, we would like you to give some words or best wishes for China Women and Diversity Talk. As this is the best timing, or perfect timing we can try to eliminate the false feelings and noises about men and women across the country. And we can also, you know, learn from each other so much, and also globally with other women in the world.
C:没有关系。因为当我们谈论到女性领导力时，我总是会说有三条线，一个是时间线，因为它需要时间；一个是经济线，当越来越多的女性接受教育，你知道，并且找到工作，得到发展，到那时一个公司和一个国家都会变得更加富有。另一个线是故事线。非常感谢你给我们分享了你的故事线。
所以，最后，我们希望邀请你在此为中国女性和多元化访谈传递一些美好的话语和希冀。这是一个最好的时间，一个完美的契机，来试图消除关于男性和女性的错误观念和杂音。我们也可以借此机会相互学习，包括和世界范围内的女性一起相互学习。
（To be continued)
（未完待续）
