the black China hand

A while back there was some discussion on a couple of highly respectable China blogs about the worth (or rather worthlessness) of cultural awareness in doing business in China. Since reading those posts, the idea has been laying in the back of my mind and finally made its way out and onto this post. But before I start, I’d just like to add this disclaimer:

I am one of those individuals that studied Chinese language in college (and beyond); took Chinese cultural courses in both the US and China and most importantly I am deeply interested in China as a whole (business, law, food, sports dengdeng). Accordingly, you can probably predict where I stand on this issue before reading further … so if you disagree you can stop right here.

Now, on to the topic at hand. It’s my belief that while don’t necessarily need cultural awareness to survive business in China, if you want to thrive then it is absolutely imperative that you do indeed have it and have it in spades. I’ll give you a couple of real examples of what happens if you don’t.

1. Once while I was waiting for a flight out of Beijing, we were informed that the flight was cancelled and that we would have to rebook our tickets on another partner airline. The line was originally long and now everyone had to grab out luggage and shoulder it to another island of clerks stands. Prior to the change the front of the line was mainly Chinese and the end of the line was almost totally expats. But in the newly configured line, the expats were at the head of the line and the Chinese were at the back (made possible because being at the end of the line it was easier for us to move to the next island). Naturally, many of the Chinese were upset at their new positions in the line and began complaining amongst themselves in Chinese about their predicament. Eventually a younger lady from the group walked to the front of the line and began talking to the Western manager in perfect English and asking for a new window to be opened up just for the Chinese passengers. She was polite and friendly and sooner then later the manager opened up a Chinese only window. Nothing wrong with that you say. Well, after she got the window to be opened she began speaking Chinese to the other Chinese (and anyone else who could understand Chinese) how stupid gullible and smitten westerners are to Chinese women that speak “their” language. The western manager stood there and smiled probably thinking that he had done well to advance Sino-American relations clueless that he was being ridiculed to his face.

2. I knew a Spanish manager of an Italian shoemaking company that was trying to expand their market into China by negotiating joint-venture with Chinese partners. After several months of crisscrossing the country trying to set up deals with no luck, he was frustrated. I met him for dinner and as we were about to leave I said that he recently got namecards made and so I asked for one for no reason in particular. They were quite nice but they also revealed why he was getting nowhere in his endeavors. On the English language side it introduced him as HEAD REPRESENTATIVE but on the Chinese languages side it introduced him merely as zhu shou (or assistant). Naturally, then when he went calling on companies, rather then being set to meet the top man he was set to meet the assistant or in more practical terms the person with no power to do anything.

3. I was at a dinner with a colleague of mine, who had spent quite a few years in China as a student and teacher, that was trying to set up a record store in China. He had invited several Chinese business acquaintances as he was trying to find someone he could partner up to rent a space. As the night went on, the drinks started to flow at a quicker tip. Eventually several of the Chinese guests decided to try to test the Chinese knowledge of my colleague. They asked him a range of questions dealing with Chinese literature and history. He feigned ignorance, my guess because he thought that they questioners were drunk but the more he didn’t answer the more sarcastic the questioners became even insulting him in Chinese. Finally, he spoke out in Chines and answered most of the questions asked of him. The questioned were silenced and replaced by a respect. Several months later he partnered up with one of those gentleman and opened up his record store in Wudaokou that as far as I know is still open.

My hope with writing about these incidents is to show that if these individuals had some cultural awareness skills they could better protect themselves from similar situations or in terms of the last example, take advantage of the perfect situation when it presents itself. Some have argued with me that it still doesn’t matter because if you have a dependable Chinese assistant or partner, they will able to help you navigate these little cultural peccadillos but my feeling is why rely on someone else if you can develop the skills yourself. That then will put you in the best situation in China not just to do the deal but to thrive at getting those deals.