Getting YOUR WAY with the CHINESE: Doing business with the Chinese

Simply because they control most of the private funds in most Asian countries, almost anywhere you do business in Asia today you are likely to be dealing with the Chinese. If you have tried to deal with the Chinese already you have no doubt come up against the cultural barrier of the ‘Chinese way’—the Chinese way of doing business, the Chinese way of personal relations, the Chinese way of guanxi and so on—a culture so different from western culture that the sheer lack of understanding of it literally creates an impenetrable barrier—a Great Wall. You can fond your way through that Great Wall by discovering . . . The meaning and importance of face. What guanxi is and how to use it. How to avoid insulting your host at a banquet. When to accept a dinner invitation and when not to. The meaning and importance of danwei. How to know you are dealing with the right person. When ‘no’ means ‘yes’ and ‘yes’ means ‘no’. That, “have you eaten ?” is a greeting, not an invitation. When to give gifts, to whom and what sort of gifts. The importance of building up trust over a period. The meaning and importance of the ‘we are friends’ game. About Chinese cultural pride. The importance of food and eating. Superstitions about numbers, colours, names, ‘sounds like’ words, and animals. The social rules and the code of etiquette.