Posts Tagged ‘China’
A Few Clues About China
I just came back from a 4 month stay in Shanghai.
I must say I read a lot of articles in the newspapers about China but I think it lacks some real life Chinese experiences. It’s always about how China is doing economically good for itself. Though you never learn much about the real China.
So let me give you a glimpse at China through my mind, through what I saw and experienced while living there.
Here are a few basic principles that come to my mind and that’ll help you understand a bit this whole new culture. Let’s be clear, the day you set foot in China, you will meet the biggest cultural shock of your life. So here we are:
Lesson 1: Chinese People cannot lose the face
Chinese people cannot show their feelings as they consider it as useless and gross. So do not be surprised if they hide their teeth when they laugh. It also means you should never make them uncomfortable in public so that they don’t show their feelings in public. You might think you’re encountering some hybrid of robot and human but this isn’t the case. Their real feelings are simply hidden under a strong exoskeleton of cultural repression.
Lesson 2 : Never take yes for an answer
There is no real word in China to say no. It is all linked with the “never lose the face” concept and because respect is being valued above all else. It basically means that Chinese people will always tell you yes. It is hard to understand BUT you must ask them open questions like “Can you explain me what you have understood?” in order to get the information you want while keeping them comfortable. It also means that you should never take yes for an answer. A friend of mine told me about this one time where after giving the address to the driver she ended up to the airport. She had a suitcase, the guy didn’t quite understand what she said but never said so…So you’d better check each time if your driver knows where he is going. Otherwise you can just call this call center with English-speaking Chinese ladies they created for the 2010 Universal Exhibition.
All this is beginning to change though. My French B-School opened a branch there on the campus of East China Normal University – NYU’s premises weren’t far from ours actually. And in our program were enrolled 20 Chinese students slightly older – 25 to 30 year old. And they would always tell us they wouldn’t act like this. In big modern cities like Shanghai, everything is changing fast. But keep in mind that China is the second biggest country on Earth, there are different languages and different types of people. Though most of all this is inherited from Confucius’ learning and Taoism so it is and remains true in most China.
