If the title has caught your attention and you’ve decided to read on, I assume that you either want a better understanding of a foreign business culture, or you like to cook.

Whatever the reason is, keep reading and we’ll help you decode some key cultural behaviours and prevent misunderstandings with your Chinese business partners.

Cultural mind games

Assuming that you have previous experience of Chinese business culture, does any of the following sound familiar?

You’re unsure about the meeting etiquette.
You don’t know if you should “do” small talk or skip straight to business.
You endure a marathon of decision-making and sales cycle.
You rack your brains trying to interpret ambiguous answers and “read between the lines”.

Let’s discuss why you’ve faced these problems and how you can avoid them in the future.

Trust and Relationships

Consider these two factors:

1. Chinese culture is high-context (Hall, 1976). This means that a large part of communication is non-verbal, and relies heavily on the context and setting.
2. Chinese culture is collectivist (Hofstede, 2001). Genuine trust, strong relationships, and the individual’s image in the public eye are the main driving force for actions and decisions.

For these reasons, Chinese business owners may, for instance, prefer in-person meetings or at least a phone or a video call over emails. No real deal will be sealed until the parties have established solid relationships and trust.

Saving face and Responsibility for Decisions

You were hearing the word “yes” and you might even have come to an agreement during the meeting. But when you followed up the next day, the response was “we have to think it over”. It has left you frustrated and wondering “did I miss something?”.

Why does it happen?

The reason for that is the Chinese Face-Saving etiquette.

The concept of Face is somewhat similar to the western “respect” or “honour” but it refers to the person’s image in public eyes, rather than their own perception of themself.

Being praised by others helps a person ‘gain face’, while receiving criticism or dissatisfaction makes a person ‘lose face’. Face-saving behavior is aimed to preserve one’s ‘face’ in the public eyes.

When it comes to negotiations, you won’t always speak directly to the main decision-maker. Stressful and tense situations are high risk for the Face. In fact, the bigger the deal and higher the pressure, the more likely the decision-maker is to send someone in their place for the talks, and you will only discover who the head is through a long series of meetings. You may even hear ‘promises’ and signs of assent, which are not to be taken literally.

Confused? This leads us to the next point.

What’s common between relationships and onions?

It’s all layers.

When you first meet someone, you’re on the first layer of the ‘onion’. The more you get to know someone, the more layers of the onion you’re peeling off. Once you’ve gained their absolute trust, you’ve reached the centre, or the ‘inner social circle’ (Altman & Taylor, 1973).

As was mentioned above, relationships are key in the Chinese business culture. So, your goal is to form solid high-trust relationships with your partners. Of course, that doesn’t happen in a day and is rather built over time during numerous personal meetings and phone/video conversations.

Peeling Onions

It’s not acceptable in the Chinese business culture to pitch and sell right away. So, be prepared for the series of meetings which may feel like a long and slow process.

If you look at how big businesses negotiate in China, the extravagance may astound you: high-end welcoming activities, fine dining and expensive gifts. This doesn’t mean that for one day of negotiations you need to invest your entire annual budget, but keep this cultural consideration in mind. The resources you’re willing to invest into building and strengthening the relationships directly reflect your desire to cooperate.

And Finally

Rid your mind of stereotypes and generalisations.

Reflect on your own culture and society. Let’s say you’re a native English-speaking Australian living in New South Wales. Would you agree that people there are totally identical to the residents of Queensland? Are Australians the same as New Zealanders just because they all speak English? Thinking of your own culture in this way seems absurd.

And yet, consciously or not, we tend to judge and generalise other cultures in this way. Through simplification, our human mind attempts to categorise and explain anything new and unfamiliar.

So, what about the “Chinese”? The reality is this term refers to people from different countries and regions, speaking different languages and dialects. In Hong Kong, the vast majorityspeak Cantonese and their culture is unique and different from, for example, Mandarin-speaking Mainland China and Taiwan.

Bottom line: there’s no such universal ethnicity and language as “Chinese”.

References

Altman, I., & Taylor, D. A. (1973). Social penetration: The development of interpersonal

relationships. Oxford, England: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

Altman, I. & Taylor, D. A. (1973), Social penetration: The development of interpersonal relationships. Oxford, England: Holt, Rinchart & Winston.

Hall, E. T. (1976). Beyond Culture. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.

Hofstede, G. (2001) [1984]. Culture’s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviours, Institutions and Organizations across nations. London: Sage.

China - talking business and peeling onions