Asia Magazine #11

asiamagazine 2008 I NO 11 I A MAGAZINE by Chalmers students in Asia

SINGAPORTUNITIES TOLLYWOOD TAIWAN THE URBAN HOME

fOUR DAYS WITH TADAO ANDO tHINGS ARE HEATING UP cITIES IN JAPAN

asiamagazine WHAT IS CHALMERS ASIA? Chalmers Asia was opened in March 2003 and is the result of a bilateral exchange agreement between National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) and Chalmers University of Technology. The Chalmers Asia office is strategically located at NCTU, near Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park.

PURPOSE - Increase awareness at Chalmers about the development in East Asia, with focus on Taiwan.

- Support mobility of students and staff between NCTU and Chalmers.

- Enhance Chalmers’ visibility in Taiwan and the neighbouring region.

THE CHALMERS ASIA MAGAZINE The purpose of this publication is to increase the awareness of Asia among the students and the staff of Chalmers. The articles are written by the Chalmers exchange students in Asia.

Editor Jonas Ådahl

jonas.adahl@asia.chalmers.se Editor pÄR HALLGREN

par.hallgren@asia.chalmers.se Art Director Emelie Smedberg

emelie.smedberg@asia.chalmers.se CONTACT ADRESS Chalmers Asia, National Chiao Tung University, 1001 Ta-Hsueh Rd., Hsinchu 300, Taiwan, R.O.C. web www.asia.chalmers.se Search YouTube for a movie about Chalmers Asia office “en sån riktigt god skola” phone +886 (0)3 573 73 69 +46 (0)31 780 41 55 fax +886 (0)3 573 74 69

asiaContents 20 THE 40TH TOKYO MOTORSHOW

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Ro

asiaOffice

asiaReport

2 Letter from head of office

6 tHINGS ARE HEATING UP

3 cHALMERS aSIA 5 YEARS ANNIVERSARY

8 tHAILAND - excotic paradise AND/or manufacturing nation?

4 office representatives

10 JAPAN - DEAD MARKET FOR INTERNATIONAL ENGINEERS?

5 NCTU Europe

12 fOUR DAYS WITH TADAO ANDO Architects & Associates 15 SINGAPORTUNITIES

16 tHE URBAN HOME

16 tHE URBAN HOME 18 CITIES IN JAPAN 19 hEALTHCARE IN VIETNAM 20 THE 40TH TOKYO MOTORSHOW 23 TOLLYWOOD TAIWAN 24 sรถk chalmers Asienprogram

8 cITIES IN JAPAN

asiaLetter

Fruit tray in HsinChu

Letter from Head of Office Text: Henrik Andersson Photo: Henrik Andersson

Another year of the academic exchange between Chalmers and NCTU is approaching its end. During this, the fifth year in total, ten Chalmers students have been enrolled in the exchange program. Together we have carried out the missions of Chalmers Asia given by Chalmers. In order to promote Chalmers, gather information and establish contacts we have visited more than 40 companies and organizations in Asia but also held many social activities at our office at NCTU. The work of the past year has resulted in many important and useful contacts. If you are a student and looking for an internship or somewhere to write your thesis in Asia, I encourage you to use Chalmers Asia as your first step to find an interesting company. Many companies in the region are expanding and looking for people with your background!

A couple of months ago I was invited for dinner to one of my local friends. The family to which I was invited is a typical Taiwanese family and after the delicious dinner me and my friend 2

sat down in the sofa in the living room. Soon my attention was caught by the fruit tray on the table in front of us filled with exotic fruits. As we enjoyed the lovely fruit my friend asked me about the different fruits grown in Sweden. A bit embarrassed I told my friend that the climate in Sweden is a little bit too cold for tropic fruit like those on the table to grow in. Amazed and with a slight touch of sorrowfulness in the voice, my friend looked at me with stunned eyes and said “I can’t imagine a life without fruit”.

Studying abroad gives you a change to explore other cultures but you also become an ambassador of your own. You realize and appreciate many things about your country that you might not have thought of before. Sweden isn’t privileged with tropical fruits but is has many other fantastic things. The Chalmers Asia ambassadors of the past year would like to thank everyone that have supported and helped us throughout this year, and at the same time wish the members of next year good luck.

asiaChronicle

Chalmers Asia 5 years anniversary Text: Ida Mattfolk Photo: Emelie Smedberg

Chalmers Asia Office has been active in Taiwan for 5 years now and approximately 50 students from Chalmers have experienced a whole new culture and country. To celebrate the office anniversary a big party were arranged. The students from Chalmers that are studying and working at NCTU at the present made a lot of effort to make the evening a success for all the invited. Among the invited were Taiwanese students that have been to Sweden during these years of cooperation, many representatives from different companies, NCTU professors and representatives from International Service Center, the NCTU’s Dean of International Affairs and two representatives from Chalmers University Management group.

The office also received flowers from many congregants which were very beautiful. The evening started with a typical Swedish “mingle” and the guests could choose between different Swedish snacks with a touch of Taiwan and also soda or sparkling wine a la summer. The mingle snacks were made by the Swedish students and were much appreciated. It was a kind of Swedish griddle-cake filled with prawn, Crème Fraiche and avocado; also salty crackers with cloud berry jam were served. After introductory welcome speeches and gathering of “AsiaFacts” about the successful collaboration, everybody headed for a restaurant on the campus area.

There were a great buffet waiting and the dinner proceeded with speeches and presentations. When the dinner was over a bus waited outside to transport everybody to a piano bar where the party continued all night long. We at Chalmers Asia office wants to thank all participants for making the evening wonderful.

Chinese food buffet at Chalmers Asia 5 years anniversary.

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asiaOffice Representatives Henrik Andersson

Head of Office

Student at the department of Management of Technology at NCTU. Background as a student at the department of Mechanical Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology.

Ida Mattfolk

Representative Responsible for the Alumni group.

Student at the department of Environmental Engineering at NCTU. Background as a student at the department of Chemical Engineering Chalmers University of Technology.

Anna Beckman

Representative Responsible for the Academic Exchange group. Student at the department of Electrical Engineering at NCTU. Background as a student at the department of Electrical Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology.

Thilak Rathinavelu

Deputy Head of Office Student at the department of Computer Science at NCTU. Background as a student at the department of Computer Science and Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology

Camilla Saltin

Representative Responsible for the Academic Exchange group. Student at the department of Electrical Engineering at NCTU. Background as a student at the department of Electrical Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology.

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Pär Hallberg

Representative

Editor of the Chalmers Asia Bulletin.

Student at the department of Mechanical Engineering at NCTU. Background as a student at the department of Mechanical Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology.

Tobias Karlsson

Representative Responsible for Corporate Relations.

Student at the department of Civil Engineering at NCTU. Background as a student at the department of Civil Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology.

Emelie Smedberg

Representative Art Director of the Chalmers Asia Magazine. Student at the Institute of Architecture at NCTU. Background as a student at the Department of Architecture at Chalmers University of Technology.

Jonas Ă…dahl

Representative Editor of the Chalmers Asia Magazine. Student at the department of Computer Science at NCTU. Background as a student at the department of Computer Science and Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology.

asiaNCTU Europe

Text: NCTU Europe

NCTU-Europe office is located in the campus of Chalmers University of Technology. It is the result of a bilateral exchange agreement between National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) and Chalmers. It is now in its fourth year of operation and its mission is to enhance the visibility of NCTU in Europe. The purpose of NCTU Europe office is to meet the following ends: First, to promote the exchange of students and academic staff between NCTU and Chalmers. Moreover, it increases awareness among NCTU students about the development in Europe, focusing on Sweden. Last but not least, it reports the progress in Swedish companies and universities, as well as the achievements of Taiwanese companies in Sweden and Europe.

To achieve our goals, NCTU Europe holds many activities. We have information evenings to provide useful information for Chalmers’ students who are interested in coming to NCTU as exchange students. Also, we celebrate traditional Taiwanese festivals such as Chinese New Year and Lantern Festival to broaden the knowledge of Taiwanese culture at Chalmers. Apart from these activities, the office is open to everyone during lunch time on weekdays. On the other hand, to enhance the visibility of NCTU in Europe, we actively participate in activities in Chalmers and other colleges in Gothenburg, and we have established contact with various academic institutions and industries.

We, the six students from NCTU taking part in the exchange between NCTU and Chalmers, are managing the office during our exchange year.

We never forget our mission. Taking care of studies and affairs of NCTU Europe can be challenging work, but we know it’s a good experience that gives us the opportunity to broaden our horizons. We hope we can make this office better and better.

NCTU Europe Adress: Skeppsgränd 3, Chalmers University of Technology S-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden Web: www.europe.nctu.edu.tw Phone: +46 (0) 31 7722588 E-mail: nctueurope.se@gmail.com Opening hours: Monday-Friday

12.00-13.00

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Things are heating up Text: Pernilla Hagbert Photo: Pernilla Hagbert

Traditional Japanese houses have for centuries survived the tests of climate and nature. Being the birthplace of the international agenda to prevent global warming, how does Japan relate to the burning issues of energy conservation and indoor thermal climate in building design? Further, which references can be made to Swedish policies?

When looking at historical Japanese building techniques, one fascinating observation is that even though there of course are minor regional variations, basically the same ideas of how the house should be composed and constructed are used all over the country. The frame structure of the old Japanese farmhouse is like the Swedish equivalence often wooden, with external walls commonly covered with clay or wood panels. The idea was that the outer layer of the house should be flexible, with wide openings possible to close off at night or when a typhoon strikes.

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The internal walls of wood frames clad with paper serve more as room dividers or as wind-protection than as thermal insulation. Depending on what time of the year it is, different levels of thermal climate of the house can be applied by adjusting the outer and inner layers. The farmhouse has eaves for solar shading, which also protects the paper walls from rain even when the sliding parts of the outer walls are open. By opening large portions of the walls, all around the house, natural cross-ventilation can easily be achieved. Most houses also have a type of veranda, neither outdoor nor indoor, but as a space in between.

This veranda can be used as extra space when in the need of enlarging the inner rooms. Useful both in summer and in winter, the veranda also keeps a temperate space in the middle linking the outdoor and the indoor climate. Preserving heat has always been of importance, even when there was no other heat source than the inhabitants themselves.

So then what about today? The traditional building techniques drastically vanished in the second half of the 1970s, when the wooden frame structure was replaced by the American style of panel construction and new mass-produced materials. In Japanese cities, you nowadays see a majority of concrete buildings, not at all taking the traditional values and techniques of indoor climate in consideration. Modern Japanese buildings rely mostly on mechanical climate control making the Japanese society, as the rest of the world, energy-dependant to ensure a comfortable living standard. In Japanese homes it is normal to use space heating instead of central heating, which is one point where perhaps the old way of life has made it into the modern mind. Space heating entails warming up the room that you are occupying at the moment and letting the “unused parts” of the house to be left unheated. Most apartments don’t come with a heating or cooling system, so you add your own portable heater, fuelled by either gas or kerosene or completely electrical. A traditional heater is the kotatsu. This type of “body heater” is still quite common and has low energy consumption. The kotatsu consists of a heating element attached underneath a low table, covered by a thick fabric and keeps you warm even if the surrounding air is cold.

This idea of space heating might be very unusual for someone used to the comfortable system of radiators connected to a warm water circulation. In a Swedish home, the entire apartment is usually heated up at once, although most people probably turn down or up the heat depending on the room. The concept of not heating a specific room at all though (e.g. most bathrooms in

Japan) seems unthinkable. One major difference is also the heating of communication space, like corridors or communal lobby areas. For a foreigner, used to western standards of abundance, the indoor climate in Japan in winter is freezing. Even so, the Japanese people seem unaffected. How is it possible, that even though there is no real physical difference in how we are affected by the climate, the cultural discipline makes up such a big part of how we handle the cold? So if Japan proves it is possible to keep heating down to a minimum, does that mean Japan isn’t as big an “energy criminal”? Like in other countries, the greenhouse gas emission from the residential sector in Japan has increased tremendously over the past decades. This increase is said to be a direct consequence of the growing use of heating equipment, hot-water supply apparatus and other household electrical appliances. More or less 1/3 of the entire residential energy consumption is used for heating. This number is however only about 1/5 of the residential heating use in Western countries. The aim is still to make the Japanese houses more “energy conscious” by for example lowering indoor living temperature, adding thermal insulation or solar shading and thus even further reducing the need to use electrical or gas-operated heaters or coolers.

When comparing all of this to Sweden, how can we learn from

each other? Swedish standards for insulation and energy efficient building systems are very high and our technologies are even being exported to Japan. The big difference is what we do once the technology is in place. For a Swede, further lowering indoor temperature to meet the Japanese level would mean a chocking adjustment. Girls wearing short skirts and only knee socks are a very typical sight on a Japanese street in winter, even when it gets below zero. How is that possible? Maybe more important is that Japan seems to have gotten it right. Even if old building techniques have had to give way for new ways of life, Japanese people still have a traditional outlook on thermal comfort. By incorporating other elements as for example the widespread timeless tradition of bathing in hot springs or simply wearing slippers indoors, keeping the temperature at a Swedish level is somehow non-relevant. Sweden has higher energy consumption per capita than Japan, even though for example our buildings often are more advanced. Our lifestyles and living standards are surely a big part of the root to the problem and a hard one to resolve. This suggests that perhaps a change in how we look at indoor heating and thermal comfort is in order, if we want to make an impact and continue exporting Swedish knowledge on building for a better future.

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Thailand – excotic paradise and/or manufaturing nation?

Text: Henrik Andersson Photo: Volvo Car Corporation

After graduating from High school many Swedish students go travelling for a couple of months. When you go backpacking with your friends, for many the dream of getting away from all musts and demands at home finally becomes true. Thailand is one of the most popular destinations for the young explorers, and no wonder is that. Thailand is enticing youths with lovely beaches, interesting culture and many other factors for a successful vacation. But Thailand is more than beautiful beaches and friendly smiles, among all of this there is a flame of entrepreneurship burning and the industrial development has been in progress for a long time.

However you travel through the city of Bangkok, by foot, taxi or small tricycle called Tuk-tuk, you will notice the capital, which is home for about six million people, sparkles of life and commerce. Almost everywhere there are food-stands, shopping areas or night markets. In the more business oriented parts of the town, skyscrapers are mixed with fancy restaurants and there is no sign of hectic bazaars. What really surprised me when I explored these blocks is that the names of the banks often are written in Thai as well as Chinese.

The Executive Director of the Thai-Swedish Chamber of Commerce, John Svengren, noted that many large companies and banks are owned by around 150 powerful Thai-Chinese families.

These families have been here for about two generations and are a major part of the development in Thailand, investing in and governing many areas, John Svengren continues. Financially and

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technologically Thailand has not been as successful as Malaysia nor reached the same economic growth as Vietnam in the most recent years. When I ask Mr Svengren, who visited Thailand for the first time in 1977 and have been working for the Thai-Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Bangkok since 2000, if there is any simple explanation to the relatively slowly growing economy, he answers: “The main challenge in my view is wealth distribution.

Thailand is a very segregated society. There are enough funds and resources to lift the whole country in terms of for example education and health care. Sadly this progresses very slowly.

Added challenges are political instability and corruption making investors careful before entering the Thai market. The recent handling of the Foreign Business Act is just one example.�

One from the beginning Swedish company located in Bangkok is Volvo Cars. Since 1975 it has a car factory located in about 30 km outside of the heart of the capital, which mainly provides Thailand and Indonesia with the models XC90, S80 and S60. Year 2007 it produced about 1000 cars but the production scale has varied a lot during the years. Before the crisis of the so called tiger economies in 1997, the factory annually produced almost 6000 cars and the expected number of produced cars for 2008 is about 1500 cars, trucks and buses. The Bangkok factory has about 250 employees and its Manager Oskar Falk is telling me that Thailand in the future is aiming to become one of the best car producing countries of the world. They are today number 12 in the world with more than 1.4 million vehicles produced in 2007. He also tells me that the frequent changes of regimes

and political instabilities of Thailand haven’t affected Volvo as a producing company that much. What more impacts the number of sold cars is the common economy situation of Thailand. The consumption habits of people with money enough to buy a Volvo, which is considered to be a pretty exclusive car, aren’t that much affected by the political instabilities within the country.

The fact that the beautiful country is export oriented well located and possesses cheap labour are both in favour for Thailand as one of the major car manufacturing countries in the future.

the county side I noticed that almost everywhere there is something growing, it can be delicious fruits, vegetables or bushes, and one thing is for sure; Thailand is blessed with fertile soil.

Taking advantage of the soil, Thailand in the future is hoping to be able to grow and produce environmental friendly Ethanol for green fuels like E-85. In the shadows of the parties and the beaches with blue water, as the tourist might think of Thailand as, there is a nation bothered by its political situation and at the same time doing its best to become an Ethanol and automotive producing country.

Thailand’s economy mainly relies on foreign manufacturing companies, fertile soil and tourism. When travelling the through

Hard work in the Body shop, Bangkok factory

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Japan – dead market for international engineers?

Text: Pär Hallgren

Photo: Patrik Nyman

With a prejudice that Japan didn’t have that much to offer for international workers without a great knowledge in the Japanese language did two persons, from Chalmers Asia Office in Taiwan, go to Tokyo and Japan in the beginning of April. One of our goal were to find out if this was the reality or maybe the market in Japan are so mature that there is no need for more engineers from abroad?

During two days did we visit four different companies someway related to Sweden inside or in the vicinity of Tokyo. Our heads were full of different questions that we wanted to be answered during our visit, for example; how conservative are the Japanese people, is it a requirement that you must know Japanese before you apply for a work in Japan, how is it to live in Japan and how is it to do business in Japan.

We soon realized that there are some big differences between our countries. When a Japanese worker goes to his first employer, the probability is pretty high that he or she will stay at the company whole their working life. This makes it hard for global companies who are trying to get into the Japanese market. Another difference is that if you compare to Sweden, when you graduate many students chooses to try different employers in different countries before they find the right one, if it exists. In general a Japanese student wants to be employed by a Japanese company. One example is that Toyota annually hires 3000 engineers, a strategy hard to implement in a global organization.

The companies we met told us about how hard it is to be a player in the Japanese trading arena. Japanese companies are generally conservative and buy products that they know about. It is not

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necessary that the domestic products are better but they know how it works. The companies we met are all big players in the global arena but when it comes to Japan they are minors or focus on specific market segments.

One of the companies we had the opportunity to meet in Tokyo was ABB Japan. Since ABB is a global company they focus on different areas and technologies in different parts of the world.

The divisions in Japan are Robotics Division, Process Automation Division, Power Products Division and Power Systems Division. One example of what Power Products and Power Systems Division focuses on in Japan is providing Japanese customers with power technologies, such as overall solutions for Japanese Power Plant manufacturers. The Robotics Division develops and manufactures electrostatic atomizers used in conjunction with robots for painting.

The meeting we had, with all of the divisions within ABB Japan, where long and full of interesting information. All of the divisions within ABB are personnel-intensive when it comes to engineers and the fact that they told us about the problem with recruiting competent manpower, made the meeting even more interesting for us as becoming engineers.

Since ABB and many other international companies in Japan are playing in the global arena the language barrier isn’t that big. So our prejudice was just a prejudice and we realized the big possibilities that exist in Japan. So if you are thinking about where to create your future, don’t forget about one of the worlds’ most developed countries where international companies are struggling with recruitment of good and competent engineers.

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Tadao Ando in the middle, on the right side Yu-Tung Liu, Head of departmehnt of Graduate Institute of Architecture, NCTU

Four days with Tadao Ando Architects & Associates Text: Emelie Smedberg Photo: Emelie Smedberg

Giorgio Armani, Bono and Karl Lagerfeld are some of the clients to one of the most famous architect in Asia - Tadao Ando. He established Tadao Ando Architects & Associates in 1969, and today his office is engaged in multiple overseas projects in Europe, The United States of America, Latin America, Sri Lanka, China, Korea, the Arab world and Taiwan. Although Tadao Ando has the opportunity to work almost wherever he wants, he still prefers to do projects in his home country Japan. He says that the Japanese builders are unquestionably among the best in the world when it comes to skill, industry and teamwork. During the last ten years work with overseas projects he has come to understand the difficulties in such projects.

“When you work abroad the distance becomes a problem, both the physical and the cultural. But it is because of the joy and excitement of that challenge that I continue to engage in work overseas.”

During four days in March I went on a trip together with 200 Taiwanese architects and students to see Tadao Ando’s work in Kyoto, Kobe and Osaka. His office is located in Osaka and around that area the office has been quite productive. His office organized the trip and guided us at the sites, to describe the original plans and ambitions with every project. We visited around 15 projects, both recent projects and older ones, and sometimes it was difficult to tell the differences which project was new and which one was old. Many of his projects follow some basic principles, he builds up the plan with basic shapes; squares, rectangles and circles. He consistently uses materials like concrete and glass, and the impression of the buildings is quite rough. In contrast to the rough materials, his work with details is done with extreme care; even the smallest lamp button is fold into the concrete wall.

The way he uses natural lightening in the building is stunning.

He often uses contrasts between open spaces and closed, narrow and wide, dark and light to create great effects and which makes it exciting to walk through the buildings.

The second day Tadao Ando met up with the tour group and held a lecture. He spoke about his life and his way to be a star architect. He said that: “When it comes to architecture, the most important thing is not how much you studied, but to you use

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Visiting Water Temple by Tadao Ando in Awaji, Japan

your heart when designing.” He also said that it is important to be ambitious and hard working. I heard a story that when he is using bricks for the floor, he does not want any of them to be cut, everyone of them should fit into the plan perfectly. Of course it takes a lot of hard work behind solutions like that.

In Ando’s office there are many young men in there thirties who follows Ando every step he takes. I asked them about possibilities for foreigners to work at his office. They answered quite positive but than added that of course you need to speak Japanese fluently. Tadao Ando wants to interview each and every one who is going to work for him, to hear their opinions and views about architecture. I heard that loyalty is very important to Ando and asked his associates what they thought about it. One of them replied and said that he worked for Ando for over five years, and except his work with projects one of his tasks is to clean the toilets at the office…

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Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Kobe, Japan

Singaportunities Text: Petra Lundström & Carl-David Granback

Singapore is a small if not tiny country in South east Asia, but it’s a great platform to make a jump start from. As a Swede entering the Asian market for the first time, living in S’pore is easy, comfortable and exciting.

Singapore is a metropolitan of different cultures, ethnic people and visitors from all around the world. Given the small arena, it’s easy to get connected into whatever local network is preferred.

The thing to remember though, is that the small playground of Singapore really is the gateway to the other surrounding giants, such as Hong Kong, Taipei and Beijing.

The tale of a girl, shows a former Swedish exchange student now is trying her grounds at an internship with one of the world’s major logistic companies. Through the various costumers there, she’s now wanted in both Hong Kong and Mexico.

The tale of a guy, also Swedish, gives us the story of an interview for an internship in S’pore, suddenly turning into a paid summer vacation in Hong Kong and a master thesis project in Shenzhen, China.

So once the close-to-jungle heat and special smells of the Hawker centre food courts are experienced, what’s there for a returning European? As the Asians start marching to a different beat and making remarkable progress, companies in Sweden knows that the future lies to the east. As of three years a certain popular Swedish construction company now has a purchasing central in Shanghai.

What makes S’pore the opportunity-given place is that it’s densely populated with international, high-profiled companies with dominating business headquarters? Because of the scarce space, it’s not the ideal place for production, instead Singapore’s put the focus on leading, operating and delegating.

Singapore is a hub for creating and maintaining international contacts while meeting and understanding different cultures.

Singapore in itself hosts mainly Chinese, Malays and Indians, but the international crowd is growing in the corporate as well as the university world. Contacts are easily made among the many open-minded foreign students and a luncheon with Spanish, Japanese, Taiwanese, Swiss and of course Swedish voices are a commonness often experienced. The equation stands, many growing companies + open minded, worldly students = great opportunities for internships, trainees, jobs and changing of jobs.

It’s a track worth getting on as it is filled with challenge, new responsibilities, personal development and all in the comfort of the English we all know, with a slight hint of Singlish.

And on a finishing note, there is even the possibility of walking down the street and suddenly having the chance of becoming nothing less than a model. It’s true ladies and gentlemen, exchange students have been spotted in extravagant magazine articles. Just think of what it can do for your CV!

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THE URBAN HOME Text: Ulrika Blom Photo: Ulrika Blom

Walking in a Japanese city, one cannot help but marvel over all the different activity constantly going on. People are running and socializing in the streets. Cafés, bars and restaurants are full of hungry costumers. The cities are populated 24 hours a day, and comparing a Japanese city to a Swedish with the same population, the big amount of street life in Japan is amazing. With western eyes you start to wonder when the Japanese people are spending time at home. This is when you need to stop. Stop and think again.

they are in a way private. When the home is lacking of space to fill the needs of its inhabitants the inhabitants simply move the functions to other places. The restaurants can be seen as the replacement of the kitchen table. Instead of having dinner parties for friends or families at your home, you have them in restaurants. The karaoke bars or manga cafés can be seen as the extension of the living room and the love- and capsule hotel could be considered as an urban bedroom. The vending machines are the extension of the private refrigerator.

Instead of having these functions static fixed like they are in our homes, they are now flexible. The kitchen table, for example, can be in any restaurant, depending on where you are and what kind of food you desire for the day. The table can easily be adjusted for one, for two or for the whole extended family of colleagues. The changeability is the key and also the benefit of living with your home spread out in the city. You will never get bored in the same way you sometimes get sitting at the same table, in the same room, day in and day out. The scale of how private the kitchen table is, is also flexible. When you have a kitchen table at home it is always yours, here you share your private spaces with your fellow human beings. And why would you have a big kitchen of your own when the time you spend in it is less than a couple of hours per day? In a country where they lack space, this way of sharing the public space is a necessity to make everyone fit.

Considering the Japanese size of houses and apartments, you realize that you have to think about the city in another way. Japanese people live in small apartments, compared to European, and this affects their surrounding areas, the “public” areas. Combine this with the fact that the Japanese have long working days and that the workplaces mostly are oriented in connection to the city center. This make you realize that the urban life have another meaning to be filled in the Japanese cities. The city is not only a place where you spend your spare time, it also has to function as an extension of your home.

Knowing this you start noticing that the Japanese have colonized the cities in a unique way. The former public functions such as restaurants, buses and karaoke bars are not only public anymore.

They also function as extensions of the home, which means that

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Lifestyle like this could be a key to the active street life and the informal meeting points which many Swedish cities lack. In Sweden, the ideal city is the mixed city, and the opinion is that it is up to the planners to create the street life. But being here you realize that the bubbling street life will not occur unless its’ inhabitants starts to occupy the city in the Japanese way. Instead of just spending some free time in the cities, the inhabitants must actually move out from their homes in to the city.

However, the bad sides of privatizing all the formal public space is that less and less places in the city are public. You can almost not do anything with an empty pocket. Values and the ability of being able to move as you please in the public city are all of a sudden lost when private businesses dominate the public business.

The public functions are being lost in favor for consumption.

What used to be a free and open city is suddenly not so free and open anymore. And maybe that is the most important function of the city itself?

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Sketch of Stockholm (Norrmalm) on the left side and Tokyo (Shibuya) on the right side.

Cities in Japan Text: Maja Peterson Sketch: Maja Peterson

Watching a plan of Shibuya in Tokyo next to a plan of a part of Stockholm, the homogenous pattern in the Swedish city is strikingly different to the heterogeneous pattern of Shibuya. What is shown in the plan of Stockholm is the typical image of a Swedish town as well as most of the older European cities. The strict web of streets creates square shaped blocks. The blocks are closed towards the streets, creating private backyards inside the blocks.

This pattern is fixed, and has not really changed much since it was first build some hundred years ago. The density of people living in the same space has though decreased during the years as people demand more space, but the structure of the blocks haven’t been altered much. On the ground floor there are stores and restaurants. It’s probably working well and will not change a great deal in the close future, even if new businesses are taking the place of the old neighborhood ones.

The picture of Shibuya show a high dense commercial center that have grown up in a low rise residential area as the new train line Yamanote was constructed and created an important joint in this point. Moving across the picture various densities and patterns occur. Here we find both what looks like organized as well as what in Sweden would be described as a quaint small structure of chaos. In Stockholm, this type of pattern, can only be found in the older parts, where the city was first born. Here, you go to almost escape the city, to stroll along the alleyways and enjoy the picturesque atmosphere. For Swedish eyes, used to thoroughgoing planned cities where every measure appears to comply with the regulations, -Japanese cities appear like vivid

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organisms, mixed and diversified.

In lack of a strong governmental City plan, private companies have been able to make a huge impact on the city landscapes in Japan. Both the railway system and heights of buildings in Tokyo have grown from this non-planning control. But the non-planning appears to be a strategy. The planning might not be something that Japan actually lacks. A Japanese city is allowed to grow more freely, with a life of its own. As it is constantly changing, even city centers can move and the meaning of the place is allowed to change as well.

The main impression of this Japanese “free structure” is the winding small streets without sidewalks but with lamppost and electrical cables making the streets look more like very busy paths in a forest. One must always interact with others not to get hit by a taxi or someone riding a bike. The interaction is intense and makes it unnecessary with regulations like what side you should run your bike on. Keeping left hand traffic is not that important either if the street only has one lane. All in all, maybe a freer city structure might allow a freer use of the city.

Healthcare in Vietnam Text: Anna Beckman & Camilla Saltin

Photo: Anna Beckman

AstraZeneca is a world leading company in medicines and health care products. The biggest tablet production is located in Sweden but AstraZeneca has production in 27 facilities in 19 countries and their products can be bought in over 100 countries. The company has over 66,000 employees and has bigger research facilities in 8 countries.

This makes AstraZeneca Vietnam very interesting, and we had the opportunity to visit Gabriel Baertschi, the general Manager of Vietnam and Indochina, to talk with him about AstraZeneca in Vietnam. While the company is having some problems in Europe and in Sweden, the company is expanding in Asia. In Vietnam AstraZeneca saw a market with a lot of opportunities. The mortality number was decreasing and the life expectancy was increasing. Vietnam also spends a lot of money on the health care compared to their neighbors is Asia. Therefore Vietnam was a suitable place for AstraZeneca to open an office. Today AstraZeneca is the fastest growing company in their field of business in Vietnam. Two years ago they were only 50 employees in Vietnam compared to the 200 employee today. In Vietnam AstraZeneca do marketing and selling of the products and are using 100 % imported products since the transportation costs are very low.

their medicines to the poor people in Vietnam.

Vietnam just joined World Trade Organization (WTO) and this has meant new rules and given the companies new opportunities. WTO works for their member countries by making the trade over borders easier by for example lowering trade barriers and ensure easy trades. This will hopefully help AstraZeneca to expand even more.

But one problem with running the company in Vietnam, which Gabriel told us about, is the recruitment of employees. Half of the labors are under the age of 25 which is a problem due to lack of experience and analytic skills. With so many young employees it easily gets a very childish attitude. It is also hard to find suitable people to hire in Vietnam due to the lack of education in the country. Foreign companies in Vietnam are only allowed to have 2% of foreigners within the company. Nevertheless, interns do not count since there is a six month employment minimum and foreigners are very popular to employ. If you want to combine exploring an interesting culture with an internship in a developing country Vietnam would definitely one of the hotspots on your world map.

But even though the main reason for choosing Vietnam was for potential high profit, AstraZeneca are also working hard to be an ethical pharmacies company. The company does not forget that they are working in a developing country and are giving 5% of

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The 40th Tokyo Motor Show Text: Tobias Karlsson Photo: Tobias Karlsson

The 40th Tokyo Motor Show 2007 closed its doors November 11 after 17 days of enthusiasm and excitement. “Catch The News, Touch The Future” was this year’s main theme and attracted a total of 1,425,800 visitors. With oil prices hitting new highs, producing eco-friendly, fuel-efficient cars has become the norm for most car makers. Chalmers Asia Office had two representatives attending the Tokyo Motor Show in order tell what the future car might look like. The Southeast Asia has many well-known and unknown car brands who release their concept car for the first time in the Tokyo Motor Show. Here is a roundup of some of the more recognized car brands designs from this 2007 years show.

- Toyota i-Real The Toyota i-REAL is a personal mobility vehicle made closely in human scale as a step toward commercialization in the near future. It uses three wheels, two at the front and one at the back. In low-speed mode it shortens its wheelbase to allow it to maneuver naturally among pedestrians at similar eyesight height without taking up a large amount of space. In high-speed mode the wheelbase lengthens to provide a lower center of gravity and better driving performance. To ensure safe handling for both to the driver and those around the vehicle it has monitoring sensors to detect when a collision with a person or object is imminent. Two joysticks controlling forward motion by hands, braking and turning, and once the speeds increase – up to 30 km/h – the seat tilts back to stabilize the i-Real.

- Mazda Taiki The hyper-aerodynamic Mazda Taiki is a car based on the concept flow of air. With good environmental and driving performance, it has the next-generation Wankel -rotary engine and front-engine rear-drive layout which may figure into Mazda’s future sports cars designed to help achieve a more sustainable society. Taiki has multicontrol switches for the respective systems that are integrated into the rotary-inspired steering wheel in a design that allows drivers to perform all driving operations without removing their hands from the steering wheel.

Toyota had one of the biggest exhibition areas and realized four new concept cars for the show, further down are some concept cars from their exhibition - Toyota RiN The concept car named Toyota RiN is designed to promote harmony with nature and evoke a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. The eco-friendly concept car features heated ergonomic seats, an oxygen level regulator, a spot humidifier, a steering control system that monitors the driver’s psychological state and greenish glass that protects against UV. - Toyota Hi-CT The Toyota Hi-CT, released a next-generation urban vehicle, that is built specifically for city streets. The hybrid engine is chargeable by ordinary plugging into wall outlets. Batteries are stored under the floor and interior 100V AC outlets provide passengers a convenient way to power their portable electronic devices. The rear deck is big enough to transport for example camping gears and surfboards.

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- Daihatsu Mud Master-C Daihatsu worked with mountain bike star to design the Mud Master-C, a compact and lightweight transporter ideally suited for transportation duty in mountainous areas. The Mud Master-C features a body-on-frame construction, an innovative hub reduction system and 16-inch off-road tires that provide more than 37 cm of ground clearance, allowing it to venture deep into mountain territory. Three giant gull-wing doors make it a snap to load and unload cargo.

- Suzuki Sustainable Mobility (PIXY + SSC) Suzuki’s Sustainable Mobility concept vehicle consists of two units — a low-speed personal transport pod called the “PIXY” and a minicar-based mobility unit called the “Suzuki Sharing Coach” (SSC).

Ideal for short trips around town, the PIXY is designed to transport individuals along sidewalks and into buildings. Pixy can only seat one person and if a longer trip is required, 2 PIXYs can “pair” up and go into a SSC. Pixy and SSC has a shared control system that allows the driver to operate the SSC from inside the PIXY. Electricity comes from a hydrogen fuel cell and solar energy, and the SSC recharges the Pixys as it drives along.

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- Honda CR-Z Honda displayed advanced environmental technologies such as CO2 emissions reduction, in its new CR-Z next-generation lightweight sports model. The car is equipped with Honda’s petrol-electric hybrid system, LED headlights and fin-shaped sublights. The concept cars goal was to create an all-new sporty feeling, and has used a mesh material on all interiors to convey a light, sophisticated feel. The car is likely to be on sale by 2010. It’ll be powered by a hybrid petrol-electric engine.

-Honda Puyo The Puyo is a unique fuel-cell vehicle covered with a gel-like exterior intended to make it feel like an “adorable pet”. The small wheels are placed in each corner which makes it easy to handle in urban areas, example when driving into parking lots. The control rises up through the stretching membrane when the fuel-cell Puyo starts up. The car, which is steered with a joystick rather than a wheel, also allows the driver to rotate 360 degrees to change directions.

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- Nissan Pivo2 Nissan Motor Co. unveiled the Pivo2. Powered by lithium-ion batteries, it features a “robot” that predicts the driver’s emotions through voice- and facial-recognition technology. The robot, fixed near the center of the dash, talks and makes suggestions to keep the driver happy. The car’s round body rotates 360 degrees, making it easier to change directions. The car is equipped with flexible fuel technology, which allows it to run on gasoline, ethanol or a mix of both. The exhibition of 2007th motor show offered many spectacular cars that gave a glint about the future.

The show gave lot of inspiration and thoughts and we could recommend it for people with a car interest that happens to be in Tokyo during that time of the year. Although the presented cars is probably not going to be produced in the next decade we think some innovations will be seen sooner on the market like the robot who keeps the driver alerted. For further reading about concept cars could we recommend more models like Daihatsu Mud Master C, Suzuki X-HEAD, Mitsubishi i MIEV Sport, Honda CR-Z or more unknown brands like Infiniti, Tata and Isuzu.

Tollywood Taiwan?

Text: Thilak Rathinavelu

Photo: Thilak Rathinavelu

The famous valley of Hollywood has over the years spawned a number of copycats over the world, in Sweden we have Trollywood. So what about movie production in Taiwan? In many ways Taiwan and Sweden are completely different, but one thing in they have in common is their size. Both are small countries and this reflects on their movie industries. In Sweden most of the movies in our theatres are American and that is also true for a lot of the movies in Taiwanese theatres, but not all. Taiwanese also enjoy movies produced in mainland China, Japan and Korea. The common language in Taiwan being Mandarin, Taiwanese have easy access to the large quantity of movies produced in mainland China and Hong Kong. Movies from Hong Kong are usually dubbed to Mandarin though, as the language there is Cantonese. The great interest for Japanese culture always strikes me to be some what odd, as Taiwan was occupied by Japan not long ago. But there seem to be no resentment, in fact were I to describe Taiwan as concisely as possible, I would say it is culturally a mix of China, Japan and Taiwan. Korean movies and especially TV series have also become very popular here recently, possibly due to the close trade relations of these countries.

Even though the foreign influence might seem overwhelming Taiwan itself has a rich cultural palette to draw from. No less than 3 major cultural groups can be distinguished, and each of these speak at least one distinct language of their own. However, most Taiwanese movies use Mandarin as it is the common language.

The most recent of these that made an impact at the box office is “Secrets”. It is basically a heartthrob story set in picturesque small town high school. Here the boys prefer piano duels rather than a crude brawl to settle scores and the girls prefer to swoon at said piano duellers. The lead piano dueller falls for a mysterious tune played by en equally mysterious girl, around which the better part of the story revolves. Now if you assume this is a high school chick flick, you assume correctly. Now if you fit the stereotype of a Chalmers student, namely a male engineering student, you might want to avoid this movie. In the remotely slim chance that you fit the stereotype but have a girlfriend, why not, she might even like it.

Going to the movies in Hsinchu is a much cheaper story than in

Sweden. An ordinary movie ticket here will run you 250 NTD or roughly 50 SEK. That is about half the price compared to Sweden.

If you still want to skimp, the alternative, which is rather popular among students, is hitting the one of the “second hand” theatres.

Most of these theatres offer a “all evening” deal: two movies for the low low price of 100 NTD or 20 SEK. The catch you ask? The movies are usually 6 months old, but who needs the latest and greatest anyway. Oh before I forget, there is no such thing as Tollywood in Taiwan. There is one in India though, go figure.

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asiaApply

National Chiao Tung University Vill du veta mer? Gå in på YouTube och se filmen “En sån riktigt god skola” om Chalmers Asia Office

Chalmers Asienprogram National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) är det främsta tekniska universitet i Taiwan. Universitetet har sin starkaste profil inom elektronik och informationsteknologi. I samarbete med National Tsing Hua University täcker utbytet alla civilingenjörsprogram på Chalmers. Utbildning ges på engelska för studenter från Chalmers genom anpassning av de kurser som utbytet omfattar. Utbudet på kurser som kan ges på engelska ökar men det är en fördel att kunna en del kinesiska varför företräde ges till de studenter som genomgått språkkursen i kinesiska föregående sommar.

Ekonomierna i östra Asien har visat en enastående ekonomisk utveckling under slutet av 1900-talet. Japan har fått sällskap av Kina bland världens ekonomiska giganter. Regionen är intres24

sant, dynamisk och utmanade. Allt fler med teknisk utbildning kommer att i sitt yrkesliv ha kontakter i hela området från Japan till Singapore. Därför har Chalmers utvecklat ett specialprogram som ger studenter möjligheter till studier och erfarenheter från dessa ekonomier.

Programmet består av följande delar: * Intensivkurs i kinesiska, 6 veckor i juli – augusti 2009.

Kursen är förlagd till Hsinchu,Taiwan. * Kurs i Ostasiens ekonomi och teknik, som planeras till våren 2009. * Studerandeutbyte med National Chiao Tung University * Utbyten med andra partneruniversitet i Asien: Japan, Singapore och Hong Kong.

chalmers in Asia Studying at Chalmers does not limit you to Gothenburg, Sweden. Through many exchange programs Chalmers students are given the opportunity to study at a range of Asian universities. Likewise, students from many different countries are invited to study at Chalmers in Sweden.

Sendai, Japan Tohoku University

Tokyo, Japan Tokyo Institute of Technology

Shanghai, China Sino-Swedish campus at Fudan University

Hsinchu, Taiwan National Chiao Tung University

Hong Kong, China The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Singapore Nanyang Technological University The National University of Singapore

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Chalmers University of Technology

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