They had discovered that when China went to the outside worldafter the open-door policy， the world also came to China. However，an imbalance of information often hindered foreign enterprises andinternational investors from doing business in China. They decided tohelp those international corporations and foreigners to remove the barrierto information caused by language. At first， they provided Englisharticles containing information translated from 20 newspapers andmagazines to The Washington Post. At that time there was no Internet，so they had to send faxes. The Washington Post was very satisfied andurged them again and again privately not to sell their work to the NewYork Times. From 1992 to 1995， they developed their business simplyby sending faxes to their customers and potential customers.
Their first try was very successful and achieved good results.
They realized their press clipping company could grow quickly. Sucha way of providing information was the first in China and relativelynew abroad. Many companies from abroad encouraged them that therewas a bright future for this business. Their company subsequentlygrew from only the couple in 1992， to five， fifteen， and to over 10at present. It has developed into a qualified， well-established mediamonitoring and analysis service. Their customers are not limited to themedia， but to clients outside China， such as Fortune 500 companies.
Besides inspecting news reports for their clients and client’s competitors，they also provide English summaries of news from China everyday. They write news reviews， industry analyses， and media circulationreports for clients. All this is done in English.
David says proudly， “We track and inspect the Chinese marketand Chinese industry information for more than one hundred internationalcompanies， and our clients include world Fortune 500 companies，such as Boeing， Intel， Motorola， Nokia， General Motors，GE， and Microsoft. And our list of international clients grows longeryear after year.” David tells us that they inspect national newspapers，14 0 magazines and other journals， altogether over 700. “That almost coversall of the mainstream media in China，” we exclaim. David smiles，“Now our inspection range has expanded to television and the Internet.
At least 20 television stations and 400 websites are under our oversight. As David talks， at the height of his enthusiasm a look of disappointmentsuddenly appears. “However， my historical study had tostop completely. I have gotten lazier too， and write less. And my Arabicis almost completely forgotten.” Actually， David is not lazy. Hespends all his time and energy in registering the company and runningit. Doing business is not an easy job. If he hadn’t put aside his historicalstudy of the Middle East， his company， “Saiweng”， would havebombed. He has forgotten his Arabic， but he has mastered Chineseinstead by self-study. “Yes， I can console myself with the Chinese saying，‘When the old man on the frontier （“Saiweng”） lost his mare， whocould have guessed it was a blessing in disguise.’ As David mentions this Chinese literary quotation， he praises thedialectic involved. He liked the idea so much that he named his companywith the expression in Chinese — Beijing Saiweng InformationServices， which in English is Beijing SinoFile Information Services.
If you look at the logo of his company， you can easily find two smallcharacters “Saiweng” under the English “SinoFile”， with a portrait ofa Chinese old man drawn in Chinese style beside it. David tells us thatthe painting of this old man is a self-portrait by Weng Tonghe， tutorto Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty （1644-1911）。 The paintingwas in his father-inlawYang Xianyi’
s collection. Such
a logo displays the
cultural detail of hiscompany. It showsthat a scholar whoruns a business willsurely promote thecultural quality of the company. One of his employees evaluates David and his wife， “Thecouple are not businessmen at all， but scholars. David’s company has over a hundred employees and many areyoung people returned from overseas study. It also has four foreignpolishers. In the office， they communicate in both English and Chinese，and both bosses don’t act like bosses at all. They keep a harmoniousworking atmosphere and treat each other equally. Everyone workshard， but is not tied to fussy regulations. Employees can bring theirpet cats and dogs to work， and at four o’clock in the afternoon， Davidoften takes the lead calling out， “It’s time to play！” Then a badmintonmatch might begin. It might continue till the end of office hours， wheneveryone returns home feeling content.
