I was almost finished a year of studying Chinese in Shanghai and decided to try and get experience as a sound engineer in China before going back to Ireland. I started to research film and TV companies and prepared to make contact. Around that time a friend wanted to start a type of finance business. There was someone I knew already working in that line of business so we went to meet him at his office and they discussed how they could work together. After the meeting, we left his office and walked out into a sunny Shanghai afternoon, my friend asked me what I wanted to do now that my studies were coming to an end. I told her that I wanted to get work in a film or TV company. She happened to be going for a dinner with a guy who was in the animation industry that evening and asked me to come and meet him.
We went to the restaurant and sat in a small room with one table. The guy who was in the animation industry arrived along with someone from the government. My friend explained who I was and asked if he could introduce me to an animation company. He said sure, he could do that. We chatted about the film and animation industry. I had researched a little bit about it and we seemed to have some similar ideas.
I went to watch a traditional Chinese singing performance in the main room of the restaurant. When I came back, they asked me if I’d be interested in working for a new entertainment company that they were setting up. They wanted me to work on the business side of things and said I could also do sound engineering if I wanted. I said that it sounded good and everybody stood up, tapped their glasses together enthusiastically and said cheers and well wishes. I didn’t know if they were serious about me working with them or if they were just talking about all this stuff so we could say cheers and have a fun dinner.
A few weeks later I took a train from Shanghai to Guangzhou in the south of China for an interview with them. The animation industry guy met me at the train station and a driver took us to Knowledge City, which, at that time, was a city with no people that was just about finished being built and was due to open in the coming months. We were driven around the city and talked about his new entertainment company. He was full of energy and had many plans for what he was going to do, we discussed a lot of ideas throughout the day about projects we could do.
The city was huge and they had built a lot of tall apartment and office buildings. Most buildings were complete but some weren’t furnished yet. They had developed big areas of scenery like lakes and woodland and it was to accommodate half a million people. We stopped on a hill and walked along a path which led to a view of a lake and some of the city. I was taken back by the scale of it as I looked out across the lake at the view filled with the tall buildings, roads and some green areas that made up part of Knowledge City. We got back in the car and drove to another building. There was a room with standing cardboard displays from film and TV companies, one was for the movie his company were making. It was hard to figure out what his company was going to be like and what the set up was there but I really liked the adventurous looking animated characters from his movie and thought that was a good sign. Aside from some reception staff and security guards there was no one in the city.
We went into a building and waited in the lobby to meet the guy from the government I had met in Shanghai a few weeks before, he had been working on building Knowledge City for the past few years. He sat down on the couch opposite me and greeted me, he spoke very quietly and seriously in Chinese and asked me some questions. I strained to hear him and to understand what he was saying but just about could. He left and I went to have dinner with the animation guy, who informed me that the guy from the government thought I was okay and that they’d be happy for me to work with them. I didn’t really understand the setup or what the role of the government guy was. I went back to Shanghai the next day. The animation guy asked me to write a letter about how I could help the company. I wrote some ideas and strategies to carry them out. He replied that the plan was in keeping with industry trends and that we should do it.