My objective for this newsletter is simple: I try to translate China to the world and the world to China, so we do not have to go to war for nothing.
Welcome to Lost in Translation, the personal newsletter of Robert Wu (aka Robert Woo). I am the CEO of BigOne Lab and co-editor of the Baiguan newsletter, which is your go-to newsletter for data-driven and actionable insights about China, along with my teammates
, , among others.This personal newsletter is your practitioner’s guide to China, where I will give you my personal weekly review of events that actually matter beyond news cycles, about China.
What do I expect to read here?
My fundamental motive for also starting a personal newsletter is the same as starting
. I see too few people actively bridging the information gap between China and the West, in a way that’s contextualized, empathetic, informative, and trustworthy. And I think this is an increasingly dangerous situation, because the rise of China is the most impactful geopolitical event of this century, but the world still only has a shockingly low level of understanding of this country. This lack of understanding (sometimes misunderstanding) will someday lead to catastrophes. At some point, I realize I just have to do something about it. In short, I do not wish to lose our civilizations to bad translations. Hence the name of this newsletter: Lost in Translation.Additionally, I personally have things to say that may not fit well with Baiguan’s editorial style or rigor, so I’d better not mix things up.
In Lost in Translation, I will give you my personal review of the most profound, the most interesting, and the most under-reported events in China of the past week. I will touch on events related to the economy, finance, domestic policy, social movements, discourses, and very importantly, narratives. But I will try to shun topics related to elite politics, and diplomatic and military affairs, which I know too little to say anything about. I will also heavily skew towards events that have long-term, structural implications, but will just lightly skim through even bigger headlines that only have temporary value.
Occasionally, I also plan to write in Chinese, to help the right people in China understand the world better.
Needless to say, views here are strictly personal and do not represent views either of BigOne Lab or of Baiguan. If you want information that’s more directly related to investment and business opportunities (aka more relevant to making money), go visit
, it’s among the best in the market right now. If you have even more budget and want something more sophisticated, go to our company BigOne Lab.Who is Robert Wu, and why should I care about his views?
Robert (LinkedIn, X) is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and thinker. Originally dreaming of becoming a journalist, he ended up in the world of business and finance. His unconventional career record includes sourcing human hair in Myanmar, setting up a travel agency in Switzerland, and working on exotic investment and corporate restructuring deals in Hong Kong. Eventually, he ended up working for BigOne Lab, China’s leading data & information service provider, first as an employee/partner, and later, with a buyout, became its CEO.
All throughout the years, he never stopped seeking truth and thinking about the deeper questions. Where are we now in the grand scheme of things? What are the merits and weaknesses of different social and political systems? What explains the rise and fall of civilizations? What does a combination of globalization, polarization, social media, AI, and nuclear proliferation mean for global peace and prosperity? Can China rise peacefully?
Robert brings onto the table a unique set of qualities:
Cross-cultural understanding: I am educated in China mainland, the UK, the US, and Hong Kong. At 14 years old, I managed to read Time Magazine and National Geographic, publications technically banned in China. I studied Confucious and Rousseau at the same time. I get equal goosebumps when hearing the stories of Dunkirk or of Mao Zedong’s successful Four Crossings of the Chishui River. I am native in Mandarin, even more fluent in English, conversational in Cantonese, and currently learning German. This kind of hybrid background leads me to realize that most of the world’s problems stem from cross-cultural mistranslation, and here is where I can help.
Thinking + Doing: I am not an academic. I am a business manager with 70+ people asking me for paychecks and 100+ clients relying on my service. So I have no time to waste thinking about things with no practical value. I root my thinking deep in the world of the practical, not the world of ideologies. I only care about what is true or false, what is knowable vs unknowable, what works and what does not, the macro and the micro.
Long-termism: There is too much noise and hype, amplified by social media. But as I said, I only care about things that can stay longer. So let me become your personal, anti-hype China analyst.
What do I get from a paid subscription?
Compared with a free subscriber, you will get:
Access to all paid articles immediately upon publishing
Access to all “Ask Me Anything” live webinars and chats
Access to all paid member-only community chat groups
