The irony is not lost on Yeh Chih-yu. Quitting his university mass communication course opened up an exciting, though unconventional route, into communication.
Bored by his course work, Yeh, 34, threw fate to the wind and started from scratch as a floor sweeper for a TV production team. A decade later, he had become a major television director in Taipei. But the urge to try something new was not sated. He yearned for the challenge of an even bigger market than the island. More important, he wanted people on the Chinese mainland to experience what he describes as southern dominated humor.
"Humorous works on the Chinese mainland are dominated by the northern style right now - like crosstalk in Tianjin, and comic skits and errenzhuan, a song-and-dance duet performance popular in Northeast China. So I am trying to let more people know and appreciate the southern style of humor, especially humorous works from Fujian or Taiwan."
With an entrepreneurial wave sweeping the Chinese mainland, an increasing number of people from Taiwan are crossing the Straits to surf new opportunities for startups and ride the tide of mass innovation that a larger market provides.
In addition to high-technology entrepreneurs, some, like Yeh, are bringing a heightened sense of culture, rooted in a shared background and understanding of Chinese tradition, social customs and values.
Yeh's focus on humor is no joke. He believes a shared humor and outlook on life will enable him to make a splash in the commercial world of the Chinese mainland.
"People in southern Fujian and Taiwan speak the same dialect and share a common sense of humor. And I think there are certain advantages in southern humor," he said. "There are numerous puns and plays on words. They pay more attention to details and are better at using irony. Due to our common knowledge of Chinese history and similar life experiences, southern humor could be very attractive to people all over China."
Nearly two years after Premier Li Keqiang introduced the idea of mass innovation and entrepreneurship, there are a growing number of people unleashing their creativity, not only on the Chinese mainland, but also from the other side of the Straits.
According to the government, 4.44 million companies were set up on the Chinese mainland in 2015. By the end of 2015, there were more than 2,500 incubators for high-tech businesses and more than 4,000 innovation bases on the Chinese mainland.
In the coastal city of Xiamen, Fujian province, for example, there are three incubators especially created for startups from Taiwan that have been authorized by the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council.
One of them is First Maker, where Yeh's company is based with 100 other startups. Fifty percent of them, and the more than 100 people they accommodate, come from Taiwan.
Yeh, who directed the Chinese version of Duets and China's Got Talent, said the entrepreneurial wave is proving ever more popular.
"The mainland has a much bigger market compared with Taiwan, and the government here provides more favorable policies for new businesses, especially in their starting period. I think more people from Taiwan will come to the Chinese mainland to realize their entrepreneurial dreams," he said.
But his optimism does have a cautionary edge.
"I am afraid that the good basis for peaceful development may be destroyed after Tsai Ing-wen takes office this month. I hope the cross-Straits relationship maintains the status quo."
Also in the communication sector, but a different branch, is Cheng Sheng-lun.
Born in Kaohsiung in 1985, Cheng, founded a mobile application development company in Xiamen. He believes his new product will tap in to the Confucian spirit of sharing and value for money in Chinese culture.
Coming to the Chinese mainland just seven months ago with a team of three, Cheng is now working on a barter platform that enables people to exchange used items online.
"The sharing economy is a trend right now," Cheng said. "And I think this could be best implemented in a place like China where the spirit of sharing is deeply rooted in culture."
Cheng said Chinese people are familiar with lyrics like "She throws a peach to me, I give her white jade" from the Book of Odes, the collection of ancient Chinese poetry compiled around 600 BC.
"My barter platform is a perfect explanation and implementation of this sharing spirit, and I am optimistic that it will be understood and accepted by mainland people."
Cheng believes another factor in his product's favor is the huge mainland market opportunity.
"In Taiwan we had an online price comparison app that had over 500,000 users. We thought it was something to brag about," Cheng said. "Then I came to the mainland, and I realized how shortsighted I was. So this time, I made a goal to garner at least 10 million users."
However, entrepreneur Huang Li-min notes that market size alone is no guarantee of success. The 46-year-old founder and CEO of Liujing Mountain House, which sells top-quality handmade soap and cleansing products, points out that huge markets bring not only potentially more customers but also greater competition.
"When I first set up my company in 2009, barely anyone had heard of handmade soap, much less used it. But when it started to become well-known, many other companies started to make handmade soap," he said.
One bar of Huang's soap costs nearly 300 yuan ($46), one of the highest prices on the market. But when the top-grade ingredients used, as well as the long production time, are taken into consideration, it is a good value, he said.
Huang said his soap also evokes a Buddhist state of consciousness, which is shared across the Straits.
"Liujing in Chinese means the six roots of sensation are pure and clean. It is our company name and more important a Buddhist term to describe people in a state free from human desires and passions," he said.
"Many Chinese people use this term to cultivate themselves to reach inner peace, and I hope my soap can be used to help these people."
Yu Qiang, a leading Taiwan expert at the University of International Relations in Beijing, said the cultural and creative sector is a key emerging area selected by authorities on Taiwan for future development, but the strategy is doomed to fail without the Chinese mainland market.
"The common cultural background makes people understand products from the cultural and creative industry. But the small size of the market imposed a ceiling for the industry's development; thus investors from Taiwan have to make inroads into the Chinese mainland market," Yu said.
"Meanwhile, the mainland has been boosting mass innovation and entrepreneurship by providing easier market entry, less red tape and greater tax breaks. That's why an increasing number of Taiwan startups are coming," he said.
"This amicable environment for entrepreneurship doesn't exist in Taiwan, and I think there is still room for the mainland startup boom to continue in the coming years, as there are only 16 companies for every 1,000 people in China, much lower than 44 in Germany, 43 in Japan and 26 in the United States."
A drone attracts young people at an innovation base created for startups from Taiwan in Xiamen, Fujian province, in April.Chen Lijie / For China Daily
Contact the writers at humeidong@chinadaily.com.cn
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