As part of BFIC’s ‘Foodie Elite’ interview series, Charles Prior met with Rosemarie Gong, partner at a leading asset management company, Austen Morris, to learn about her career to date and the best summer sandwich. They were hosted by Face Pudong, an elaborately decorated villa containing three excellent restaurants, Thai, Indian and Moroccan.

日前，作为“Best Food in China 美食中国美食名家”系列专访之一，Best Food in China 美食中国美食评论专家Charles Prior就职业发展、美食文化等话题，采访了著名的财富管理公司Austen Morris的合伙人龚阿玲。专访在Face浦东分店举行。这是一幢装饰精美的乡间别墅，内有三间各具特色的餐馆：泰餐，印度餐和摩洛哥美食。

An experienced banker and innovator in China’s fast growing mutual fund market, Rosemarie Gong has an enviable track record in the financial sector. Surely, she would arrive for dinner straight from a meeting with a client. For her this would be nothing more than a filler, a chance to refuel after a caffeinated day of meetings.

阿玲是经验丰富的银行界人士，同时也是中国快速成长的基金市场之锐意革新人物。她在财经界的经历令人称羡。龚阿玲常常在会后宴请客户，对她来说，这不仅仅是填饱肚子，更是“马拉松会议”后恢复精力的良机。

I arrive half an hour early and begin a tour of the villa before I learn that Rosemarie is already waiting for me. I find her sitting unassumingly in the lobby, drinking water under an enormous statue of a Chinese lion guardian. She has brought along her 16 year old nephew who is shadowing her to learn what a career in finance is like. Demure and wearing a dark floral dress, Rosemarie greets me in perfect English. On her lap she has the list of topics I had said I would like to discuss.

我提前半小时到达，逡巡采访环境，才发现原来阿玲已然等候多时了。她娴雅地坐在大堂饮茶，威武的石狮雕像护卫在旁。跟随她前来的是她十六岁的侄子，正欲在其庇护下了解财经领域。阿玲身着一件深色小花连衣裙，端庄美丽。她以流利的英文打开话题，手边是我提供的采访提纲。

Rosemarie graduated in engineering from university in Hubei before working in various international banks and financial institutions over the last years. In 1990 she helped open China’s first branch of McDonalds and in 2000 she opened China’s first Western veterinary practice. She has an MBA from Marshall School of Business and also conducts cross-culture training for expat executives of Fortune 500 companies in China.

阿玲毕业于湖北省武汉的华中理工大学机械工程专业。在过去数年间，她曾供职数家国际银行或财经机构。她于1990年协助开张和管理中国第一家麦当劳餐厅，并于2000年创业开设中国第一由英国兽医问诊的宠物医院。她拥有美国南加州大学马歇尔管理学院的MBA学位，并为供职中国的世界500强企业外籍专家开设跨文化交流课程。

We are taken on a tour of the different restaurants of the villa by Face Pudong’s charming manager, Joe, before being seated to eat, along with BFIC founder, Simon Pan. We are in a private room in the Thai restaurant. The main restaurant is a large room on the first floor, full of Thai curios and carvings. In the middle of the restaurant, a long table stands on a raised platform with glowing birdcage lanterns crowding together overhead. In our room we are watched over by a print of a Buddhist grotto painting that covers the whole wall. Rosemarie is interested at the prospect of trying Moroccan food, and Joe obligingly suggests he bring us an eclectic range of dishes from Face Pudong’s three restaurants.

就餐前，我们和“Best Food in China 美食中国”网站创始人潘新先生一起，在气质优雅的Face餐厅经理Joe的带领下，参观了别墅内几间餐馆。最终，我们落座于泰餐厅包间内。主营业厅是二楼的一间大厅，四周陈列满是泰式古董和雕花器皿。餐厅中央，一方长条几案架设于隆起的平台上，头顶悬挂五彩斑斓的各式鸟笼。在我们的房间内，佛教壁画覆盖了整面墙壁，仿佛注视着我们的一言一行。阿玲对摩洛哥美食饶有兴趣，Joe温和地建议我们选择组合式的菜肴方案。

Rosemarie grew up in Gezhou, Hubei. “I was a wild child, but a top student.” She is reticent to talk about her childhood and education and quickly moves the conversation on to her experience opening China’s first McDonalds restaurant. “None of us had eaten a burger before and we knew little about burger culture. As the management, we were first taught how the burgers were cooked and were given wooden models of burgers to practice frying. Only a week later, it was us who were to train the new staff, who also had never tried a burger”. Demand for the restaurant was incredibly high, and thousands of customers were served on the first day. “Visiting our McDonalds restaurant was such a novelty that people even took their red chip box with the golden arches home and would use it as a desk-tidy or a toothbrush holder.”

阿玲从小在葛洲坝的长江边长大。“我小时候是个淘气的孩子，但成绩优异。”她不愿多谈她的少年时光的求学经历，而是很快将话题转至开设中国第一家麦当劳餐厅。“我们对汉堡文化全然不知；也没有人吃过汉堡。作为管理层，我们首先学习汉堡包制作，就用木制的模型学习制作堡胚和炸制食品。一周后，我们就去培训新员工了。他们也从未吃过汉堡。”开业第一天，顾客多得出奇，来了上万人。早上6点钟，人们就衣冠整齐地开始排队，到11点正式开门营业时，队伍已经排得有差不多两公里长。“在当时，来麦当劳就餐是相当新奇的事。人们甚至把印着金色拱门的薯条包装盒带回去，钉在办公室墙上当做时尚的文具盒，或者钉在家里墙上当牙刷架。”

But in 1990, the process of opening up and reform was still in an early stage. Was the restaurant successful across the board? “We definitely had our challenges,” replies Rosemarie, “such as in the area of food wastage. Chinese people hate to see food go to waste, but at McDonalds we had a strict rule that food not sold within 10 minutes of being made had to be disposed of. This was unthinkable for many people and indeed we had offers from people willing to set up a restaurant next door that would sell the food that we had not managed to sell within 10 minutes.”

然而，在1990年，中国的市场开放尚处于初始阶段，其经营会成功吗？阿玲说，“我们当然面对巨大的挑战。比如说食品浪费吧，中国人不喜欢浪费食物。但麦当劳有严格规定，食物制成10分钟内，若未售出，必须扔掉。这对许多中国人来说不可思议，甚至有人想在我们旁边开一家店，销售我们十分钟内未售出的产品。”

Rosemarie’s calm and understated manner is not how I imagine that of somebody who has a high-pressure job. As she answers my questions she slowly spoons couscous onto her plate and finishes her anecdote before her next mouthful. “White collar workers, and particularly young white collar workers tend to see food as a means of repowering their body or a side-product of socialising. They eat as fast as possible and take no pleasure in the food itself or the experience of eating. I have recently come to see how negative this is. We should all take more time in our lives to enjoy things like eating. Now when somebody tells me they are going for lunch, I say ‘Well, eat slowly!’”

阿玲举止安静内敛，出乎我意外。她一面回答我的提问，一面慢慢地盛了一点蒸燕麦粉在盘中，讲完她的轶闻趣事再细细咀嚼，全然不像压力巨大的职场中人。“白领，尤其是年轻白领，常常把食物看作是补充动力或社交生活的副产品。他们吃饭很快，不懂得体会食物的美妙、咀嚼的乐趣，我发现这很可惜。我们应当花更多时间感激生活，享受美食。现在，如果有人告诉我要去吃饭了，我会说，“欧，慢慢吃。”。

Curious about Rosemarie’s taste in food, I ask her what she likes eating during the hot Shanghai summer. “Just a simple sandwich: ham, tomato and egg.” And her favourite restaurant for friends from out of town? “Crystal Jade because the food is good can give foreigners a taste of real Chinese food.”

我很好奇阿玲的食物品味，问她在上海的炎夏吃些什么。“中午只是一份简单的三明治：火腿、西红柿、蛋。”那么跟朋友外出，你最喜欢的餐馆是哪家呢？“我喜欢新天地的翡翠餐厅，因为那里的菜不错，可以让老外了解真正的中国美食。但是，如果是中国的外地朋友来访，我喜欢带他们来FACE这样充满异国情调的餐厅体验。”

Over the course of her career to date, Rosemarie has worked extensively with foreign colleagues and clients. Learning about other cultures often helps us better understand our own. I wonder how working with foreigners and visiting other countries has changed Rosemarie’s understanding of Chinese culture. “Visiting the West has helped me come to love China more. When I was younger, and particularly before I had visited the West, I imagined that it was perfect and that China was not. However, after visiting, I discovered that in fact the West has its own problems too. This helped me accept problems in China. This is a theory that I have also found useful at a personal level. When we see flaws in others, we come to understand our own shortcomings better.”

在阿玲的职业生涯中，她有许多老外同事和客户。通常来说，学习异域文化常常有助于我们更好地了解自己的文化，我想了解与老外共事及出访国外如何改变了阿玲对中国文化的理解，“游学西方国家使我更加热爱中国了。前些年，尤其在我看到西方世界以前，我想象西方世界趋近完美而中国相对落后。然而，看过之后，我发现事实上西方国家也有他们的问题，这使我接受了自己国家不好的一面。同时我发现这一理论也适用于个人层面。当我们看到别人的缺点时，我们更了解自己的不足。”

“For example, in China we are always driven on by how we feel we are perceived by others. Whether in education or in work, it is always about the score. And this score is always something that is decided by others. But we never question the scoring card, and whether a high score is something that will even make us happy; people find it difficult to value choices that make them happy personally.”

“比如，在中国，我们总是很在意别人对我们的评价，无论学习或是工作，总有人给你打分；而我们根据别人的打分滋生了傲气或者沮丧，从不对评分卡的标准产生质疑，也很少人思考是否得高分就使我们幸福快乐？所以，人们觉得很难评价究竟哪些抉择能够真正带来个人心灵的幸福快乐。”

“But goals can often mislead you”, Rosemarie continues. “When you achieve the goal, you realise it is not what you wanted after all. Instead, I think people should follow their dream and not be distracted by goals. It is a little like golf: don’t think about where the ball will land, just concentrate on making sure you’re swinging right and the ball will go towards the hole by itself.”

阿玲继续讲到，“目标有时候会误导人，因为目标大多是根据外界的要求设定的。当你达到目标时，你发现那并不是你想要的，所以还是痛苦。相反，我认为追寻自己的梦想才是生活的方向，不要因为是否达到某个目标而牵动悲喜。这有点像打高尔夫球：别老想着球会落在哪里，只专注于打球过程且确保球的运行方向是对的，就能享受其中的无穷乐趣。”

As we finish our mint tea and Moroccan sweet pastries, I notice that it has already grown late. Leaving Face Pudong we reflect on the evening’s happy chance to enjoy good food, converse unhurriedly and above all, eat slowly.

品过薄荷茶，吃过摩洛哥甜饼，天色已晚。离开Face餐厅，回想起这真是个愉快的夜晚：我们享受美食，悠然对谈；当然，要细嚼慢咽。