I Saw my Name on BusinessWeek

By Jian Shuo Wang on 2004-07-29 22:02 · Media Coverage

Matt who grow up in New York City picked up the latest BusinessWeek at work and read the special report named Cult Brands. In the report, he found a IKEA fan named Wang Jian Shuo who has a blog talking about his IKEA experience. He was very interested in IKEA and “wanted to read what you had to say about IKEA in China.”. After surfing on this blog for some time, he finally dropped an email to Wang Jian Shuo. In the email, he said “Just wanted you to know you were mentioned in BusinessWeek in case you didn’t know about it.”

This is the story I learnt this morning. Matt is the first one to tell me my name is mentioned in the special report of the August 2, 2004 issue of BusiessWeek. But he is not the only one. I got more email like this soon.

I was very surprised and went to Google News, then in Wangjianshuo and there is no result. Then I searched for Wang Jian Shuo and the online version of the article Matt mentioned came out.

Content in courtesy of BusinessWeek

The article on my experience of IKEA is More IKEA Furniture in my Home. I have more information on IKEA on this site. I have an IKEA category

IKEA (Shanghai) Pictures, IKEA Becomes Cheap in China and New IKEA Store Opens in Shanghai. I thought I will end my IKEA experience after I grow older, but Wendy and I finally did the largest Bulk Purchase from IKEA just one week ago.

Nice to be Noticed

I shared this information with my close friends and one said “Oh, my God!” when they see my name in the famous magazine. Wendy said “You started to be passionate about personality cult (Zi Lian) these days.” :-D Just as Cult Brands in the article, people started the cult of personality of oneself. :-D

It is just interesting. It does not prove anything, at least, I am not on the cover and the article is not about me. Wait a minute, what if I do put my photo on the cover? Haha. Just kidding.

The online version of the article is here:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_31/b3894094.htm

The paragraph is under section “Group Think”. Check it out if you are interested.

Update Sorry again July 29, 2004

Oops. I thought I have fixed the email notification problem but it seems even worse. I sent out the same notification for 18 times today. I suspect it should has some relationship with MTBlackList. Sorry. Sorry. The good thing is, nobody complained yet. I will close the notification service for a while until I finally confirm the notification will never send multiple email.

10 Comments

Wow, you're indeed more famous now! I think I will buy that latest Businessweek with your name on it. Now, you're featured on the "Cult of Personality." What if on the next magazine edition, you'll be featured as the cult leader, hehehe. Just kidding! Congrats, JS for a job well done! :D

— earthmilk · 2004-07-30 00:24

Hey, that is good. You were on US radio, now are on US magazine. So what is the next? US TV? :-)

— JH · 2004-07-30 07:14

Not really a complain, but just want you to know that you didn't sent 18 notifications; I got 25 of them :)

— horsoon · 2004-07-30 15:55

Don't worry about the notification. I just changed the Message Delivery from Individual emails to Daily digest. You have done a good job to promote the Yahoo! group feature. :-)

— rayhu · 2004-07-30 16:16

Jian Shuo:

You're a famous man now. Keep doing what you are passionate to do, someday, we might just end up on the cover of BusinessWeek.

— Shawn · 2004-07-30 21:04

Sorry, not we, just you will be on the cover of BusinessWeek:)

— Shawn · 2004-07-30 21:06

Shawn, you are right to say "We might just end up on the cover of BusinessWeek". As you see from this article, the community around this blog is the key reason why the editor quoted this site. If there is anything reported about this site, I'd like the reporter to mention the great community and the wealth of high quality comments we have.

— Jian Shuo Wang · 2004-07-30 21:34

Congrats - just shows how good the blog is.

I iked the Ikea bit - in one way it is trivial but at another level it is a real insight into China and everything.

Keep going.

— George · 2004-07-30 23:13

Hi, I too am on that BusinessWeek article... i.e. the part where it says "Malaysian fan who started his own Ikea Forum"..... haha! what a laugh riot. The forum is sadly still small though... :(

— Boon · 2004-08-02 11:14

Hello SHAWN!!!

I am a African-American female, from New York, considering going to japan to teach english as a second language. I'm reading japan is a competitive market for teaching. Can you give me an idea of how I will fair. Will I easily get a job with my tesol certificate and college degree. Will I be able to get lots of students to teach privately, or will I be heavily discriminated against? (I read your previous post about China's attitudes towards blacks)

— Nicole · 2006-03-13 04:44