Reality check in China

Professor leads students on a trip through the poorest parts of a country on the rise

Over Spring Break a group of 21 students accompanied Professor Yasheng Huang to the Yunnan province in China where they were exposed to the many challenges faced by entrepreneurs and business leaders in one of the poorest parts of the country.

The group's goal was to experience what Lei Zuo, lead student organizer, describes as “the real China.” It is a China separate from picturesque tourist spots; a China struggling with poverty, while at the same time supporting a dynamic local entrepreneurial sector.

“When westerners think of China,” Zuo explains, “they think of what they see on TV: Beijing or Shanghai, where everyone is getting rich, and people are benefiting from the economic boom. But the reality is that 70 to 80 percent of the population is living in rural areas and is still not benefiting at all. We wanted to expose MIT students to this side of the Chinese economy so they could better understand the entrepreneurial environment from both an economic and a social development standpoint.”

Over the course of the trip the group visited a wide range of private-sector companies, as well as a number of NGOs and developmental organizations, giving them a breadth of experience that reached into all realms of China's economy.

A look from the inside out

One of the most valuable aspects of the trip was the fact that students were able to interact with the people who are true economic agents in China.

“In the past," explains Professor Huang, “when coming to China, our students visited offices of foreign firms in big cities. And while foreign firms are important, they do not represent real China.”

Seeing firsthand how smaller Chinese companies function from within allowed students a deeper insight into the customs and challenges faced in this rapidly changing region.

“It is something you can't really get from an academic case study or a book,” says Zuo. “The challenges you face as a multinational from the Western world are very different than those you face if you are a local entrepreneur trying to start your own business in the Chinese environment. So we wanted to get an understanding of what that looked like from the inside out.”

Managing the gold rush

For many students, the most enlightening experiences of the trip were the several visits to Chinese NGOs and developmental organizations.

World Visions, a well-known relief and development organization working on a number of poverty-alleviation projects throughout China, introduced the group to a project in which micro-loans were given to migrant workers in an inner city setting.

Another project, run by Ford Foundation grantees, was working to establish sustainable tourism in the mountainous regions of the Yunnan province. And a trip to a middle school constructed in a migrant worker shanty town provided valuable insights into some of the deep social problems that have developed as a result of the economic boom.

These experiences were eye opening for the students. And for Lei Zuo, who was raised in China and has aspirations of returning to work in social entrepreneurship or economic development, they further solidified his dedication to social and economic change in China.

“I think there is a tendency to feel like there is a gold rush and everyone has to jump in as soon as possible, and often the social and environmental consequences are ignored,” he says. “This is going to be at a huge cost to the country and even to the world in the future. ... One thing I am trying to figure out for myself is my role as a business person in the future — how to shape the direction of a company in a way that is both socially and environmentally responsible, and at the same time profitable.”

Newsroom