Porcelain Study: Cheng Sun's essays on migration deadlines, the yen and foreign clients' data

The home page divides into a narrow left column and a wide right one. On the left stand Cheng's arch-topped portrait, his name in the display serif, an eyebrow reading Chief Executive Officer / China, his availability for board appointments and speaking invitations, and a contact link. Below a hairline rule, in italic, sits his philosophy: a client abroad is buying what it can defend to its own lawyers and live with for twenty years.

The right column opens beneath a double rule. An eyebrow, the subject Domestic substitution, the date 2026-09-14 and a five-minute reading estimate lead to the headline, A substitution deadline is not a verdict on the software, and his standfirst on state enterprises replacing foreign databases against fixed dates. A bracketed [1], like a footnote, leads to the full essay. On a phone the columns reverse: the argument comes first, and the portrait shrinks to a small arch beside his name.

Under the heading On the reading table, his other essays sit as numbered references with subject and date: [2] When the yen fell, the person-month stopped working, and [3] Foreign clients are buying distance from their data. With nothing but title, subject and date shown, each title has to state a position.

Three figures follow: RMB 4.36 billion of revenue in 2025, 11,800 colleagues across six delivery locations and a Japan gross margin back at 28 per cent. An About the author panel quotes the opening of his biography, 600 printed pages of Dalian code returned from Tokyo in 1999 with every page marked in red pencil. His thesis, introduction, four proof points and current focus follow, and a closing record sets his three executive directorships beside his audit committee chair's account of a lapse he reported within a week.

The palette sets dark slate text on an almost white ground, with pale grey panels and cool grey rules. A muted indigo carries the double rules, bracketed reference numbers, eyebrows and links. The Study loads IBM Plex Serif for the name, headline, standfirst, italic marginal note and slightly enlarged essay bodies, and Jost, a geometric sans-serif, for navigation, labels, dates and captions.

Cheng's readers include systems managers at Japanese integrators, compliance officers at German manufacturers and independent directors in Hong Kong. They read specifications and prospectuses for a living and distrust anything resembling a vendor's brochure. A quiet white page with a serif reading voice looks closer to a design document, and it prints cleanly for meetings where papers still cross the table.

The career page carries his own heading, Six appointments, one question: who carries the risk? Each role keeps company facts, mandate, outcomes and reason for leaving in the main column, with a ruled margin note giving number, dates and employer. NOTE 1 is the chief executive's office from April 2019; NOTE 3 is the Japanese integrator's captive centre in Dalian, where he sat on the buying side; NOTE 6 is a programmer's desk in August 1997.

On the Board Readiness page the main column holds his contribution, three judgements including a declined headcount subsidy, a first year framed as three tests, his conflicts and his independence statement. The margin lists the committees he would join and chair, twenty-five available days and three current directorships. Beneath a double rule sit five exposure entries, each labelled by capacity, and his governance learning, with a plain note that India's databank does not apply to him.

It serves leaders whose standing rests on a few arguments made at length, for readers who expect restraint: a software exporter's chief executive, a compliance head at a manufacturer in regulated markets, a general counsel with views on cross-border data. It suits less well a leader without essays, since the reading table then disappears, or one whose evidence is mainly visual. Every designation can use it.