CI-CD home
■ DVD/video ■ Doing business in China ■ Customer service in India ■ Contact us
■ Who we
are
CI-CD Centre for Inter-cultural Development
Doing business in
China
from
cultural orientation to inter-cultural competence
Contents Page and Preface of CI-CD
Handbook
Trading, Investing, Project Managing in China
by John Twitchin, BA Oxon; FCIPD
Director, Centre for Intercultural
Development (CI-CD),
Founder-tutor of post-graduate ‘MA
in Intercultural Communication in Business’ (Business Studies and Applied
Socio-Linguistics,
©
the author, 2004
It
is unlawful to make copies of any part of this booklet without permission of
the copyright holder.
CI-CD can
also supply Briefing Handbooks Cultural Sensitivity and Intercultural
Communication Skills for Trading and Investment Success for European
countries:
Contents
Introduction: How does this book
help in trading with
Module 1: The relevance of cultural values in trading
abroad
1: Why is cultural
sensitivity so crucial to trading success in
2: If
the Chinese we meet can speak English, why do we need to learn about Chinese
business communication styles?
Module 2: East/West contrasts in cultural values that influence ways of
conducting business
1: Chinese naming systems – with practical implications
for business cards
2:
Cultural differences identified by international business research
Individualism/collectivism
- Attitudes to risk-taking - Attitudes to hierarchy and status - Attitudes to time
- Long-term/short-term thinking
3.
Key culturally different features of Chinese trading and relationship building
‘Mianzi’:
concern for ‘saving/giving face’ - ‘Guanxi’: network contacts - Asian Business
Contracts vs Relationship - Luck, auspicious numbers, colours (vital for
advertising) - Dates, Festivals
Module 3:
Establishing
contacts and negotiating in China
1.
Practical tips for getting off to a good start
Finding a sponsor - Making appointments - Presenting cards - Making
initial small talk - Dress - Meetings etiquette - Food and dining – Gifts
2. Differences of business approach between mainland regions:
translations of how the Chinese describe these to each other:
3: Observations on Negotiating Style in
Module 4: Contrasts in Communication Styles
1: How cultural values
influence
High/low context -
Direct/Indirect - Structuring information - Turn-taking - Silence and Listening
- Body Language - Politeness forms - Intonation patterns - ‘Scripts’
2:
Why Chinese speak English in the way they do: deconstructing so-called
‘inscrutability’ by understanding how grammatical features of Chinese
affect speaking style in English
Module 5: Language Matters
1. Who’d be English
trying to learn to speak Chinese?
Briefing on spoken and written forms of
Chinese language/dialects
2. Who’d be Chinese
trying to learn to speak English?
English idioms and figurative expressions: A. in Sporting terms/usages B. in Business talk
3. English verbal usages Chinese find difficult when
communicating in English
Module 6: Skills of intercultural communication
1: Generic briefing on
awareness/sensitivity + skills of communicating across cultures
2:
Identifying symptoms of misunderstanding, and becoming one’s own ‘intercultural
mediator’ in
3: Ways of speaking in English that are helpful
for Chinese people using English as their second (learned) language: intercultural
communication strategies and skills to use in
Module 7: Case-studies of trading and investing in
What went wrong? UK firm receives a Chinese delegation, report by Helen Spencer-Oatey
Investing in
Introduction:
How can this book help trading success?
The entry of the People’s
Republic of
Already
The main growth areas for
2008-10 for UK exports/investment with China lie in providing expertise for
development in education, the law, financial services, medical supplies,
pharmacy and healthcare, IT, environmental protection, creative and media.
It’s against that backdrop
that you are seeking to do business with the People’s Republic of
Perhaps you are preparing
for your first exploratory marketing visit, taking in a Trade Fair.
Or you are getting ready to
receive a visiting Chinese company delegation here in
Perhaps you’ve made virtual
contacts with suppliers in
This briefing on Cultural
Sensitivity to Chinese ways of thinking and talking business will boost chances
of success.
If you are making a trip to
the People’s Republic, we assume you are expert
in marketing and negotiating; you've got information on the market for your
product or service there; and of course you know the financial parameters -
prices and terms - your company needs to achieve.
Now
this Handbook offers the key extra
ingredient: awareness and skills for communicating directly with
Chinese counterparts (a) to avoid misunderstandings that lead to damaging loss
of face, and (b) to positively win their confidence, even if you speak little
or none of their language. While designed as part of self-preparation in
advance of a trip, you should also take this book with you for back
reference while in
You’ll find this book
deconstructs that traditional image, showing ways to avoid the common misunderstandings,
and misperceptions of meanings and intentions, it is based upon. It will 1.
help you understand what’s happening if things Chinese people do or say leave
you confused, bewildered or irritated, and 2. provide a range of communication
skills and strategies, both for overcoming such feelings, and being your own
‘cultural mediator’ to achieve your objectives through winning their confidence
as ‘someone we can do business with’.
We assume you have already
found competent translators for documents, faxes and emails written in Chinese,
and a local interpreter for discussions with Chinese counterparts who are not
fluent in English. We presume you have considered the benefits of recruiting
people into your company who are Chinese-speaking, to build up such expertise
in-house. But as experienced international traders know, there’s vastly more to
communicating than simply translating
between the words of different languages. To communicate well with people
overseas, we need to be able to interpret their words and expressions,
through familiarity with the different social and cultural context from which what they say gains its full meaning. Without exception, you’ll find
businesspeople with experience of seeking business opportunities in China will
confirm that it’s essential in the People’s Republic to invest time to
understand the local culture,
behaviours, and communication styles you will encounter.
Each module of this book
‘opens a different window into the same house’: namely, how Chinese cultural
values and languages influence (a) the way business is conducted in the
different parts of China, and (b) the way they are likely to talk when using
English, as for them a (learned) foreign language. It offers insight into
Chinese ways of thinking and talking in business, so you can adapt your
own style as necessary to relate to these. To repeat: demonstrating cultural
sensitivity to (a) and (b) will significantly help you come across to potential
partners as someone they feel rapport with – even if you know little of the
language.
A cautionary point:
While there is a national
official language, and there are commonalities throughout East Asia in terms of
cultural differences from the West in general, there is huge variety of
dialects, and of behaviour and communication styles, between the Mainland
regions (Beijing; Central China; Guangdong; Shanghai; the North-East), and the
Chinese in the ‘Special Administrative Region’ of Hong Kong, the Chinese in
Taiwan, the Chinese in Malaysia and Singapore. Some differences are almost as
great between them as between each of those and the
Copyright:
John Twitchin, 2004