Work amidst Fun- Aaron Sampson

Work amidst Fun

 

Aaron Sampson

While there was a lot of tourism involved and beautiful trips and excursions involved during our stay in China, we were still there for research on the tiehua industry so we couldn’t have all fun and no play. During my stay in China I had two different occasions where I changed my analysis of the status of the tiehua industry.

Before being accepted as a member of the team from McDaniel College to study the tiehua industry, I had no prior experience in economic or historical fields so all I learned was on the spot or from viewing others’ research. My original outlook on the stability on the business was slim; I assumed the business was failing or becoming less important and falling by the wayside per say. I assumed this due to key fields such as technology, engineering, sciences and the sort dominating the topics on most college campuses and in daily conversation. During our weeks in China, however, we began to interview different Masters in the industry, both private and state-financed, and I had to rethink my point of view. After interviewing Master Ye Hu’s business and the Flying Dragon’s business, I changed my analysis to a more positive form. I now decided that the business was beneficial only to those who were privately run or funded. In addition to this, I noticed that Master Ye Hu’s business was involved in sculpting in addition to the iron tiehua. This point of view changed yet again, as I conducted more research. Eventually after interviewing many different persons involved in the field, I determined that the tiehua industry was a unique industry that still is a profitable business field to enter. I determined this due the support certain businesses received from the government, the amount of interest in tiehua on college campuses and online, and through how well advertised the industry was in Anhui Province.

What I learned throughout my time in China was how little I actually knew and how little I still know about the industry. I studied a market for about 4 weeks, and I changed my point of view 3 times. If this isn’t evidence to not ‘judge a book by its cover’ I don’t know what is. This just shows me how much I can learn about a topic in so little time, yet it also shows me how much more I still have to learn.