Koreans love massage. And China is a massage paradise. It’s much cheaper and better there. Now, with China’s booming economy, in 10 years, the situation may go reverse: it might be Koreans who might have to do foot massage to Chinese.
In a column, titled “The Day When Koreans Do Foot Massage to Chinese,” Chosun Ilbo Saturday described a trip by a group of Korean school teachers to China, who visited Beijing, Tianjin, Qingdao, Shanghai and other major cities. They toured factories run by South Korean companies such as Samsung and LG and Posco.
The visitors were quite impressed by the rapid adjustment of Chinese workers in the Communist country to capitalism-based work routines, including incentives for those high-achievers.
They also attended a lecture by a Korean manager there. They were told: “Now, Chinese people are better accustomed to the competition and incentive-based system of capitalism and they are actually more capitalistic than Koreans.”
The manager then proceeded to warn them: “If Deng Xiaoping had started the economic reform 10 years earlier, then the situation between Korea and China might have been different from what it is now. Korea achieved a rapid economic development while China shut its doors to the outside world during the Cultural Revolution.”
He continued: “Today, we receive foot massage from Chinese. But if we don’t work hard enough, in 10 years it will be Koreans who might have to do foot massage for Chinese.”
The article didn’t say whether that ‘warning’ will alert the teachers enough to educate their pupils better.
China, the world’s economic magnet, is confident that it will get out of the global financial crisis faster than any other country, Chinese state media said quoting economists.