Entries from August 2006 ↓

I just got a chance to watch this video about conducting business negotiations in China. The speaker has years of international business and negotiations under his belt and his tallk about business negotiations in China reminds me a lot about my encounters in China.

[googlevideo]4634363396909200237&q[/googlevideo]

Testified by my own encounters, what the speaker says about business negotiations in China is fairly true, especially in the following aspects:

1. The Chinese like to tell you they look for a win win deal in business. But in reality, they look for a deal that they win only.

2. Contracts mean nothing in China. They can be changed, modified and ignored any time any place.

3. The Chinese are very patient in the negotiation process. They wait to wear you out and then get the upper hand when you are most tired.

4. The Chinese take time to find out more about you and your business and they never strike a deal with you right away.  So if you’re imbued with western culture, and aim to get the deal sealed as soon as possible, do remember this cultural difference.

5. The Chinese will tell you that you cannot do this and do that because the regulations forbid it. Don’t trust them. Go and find out the truth yourself and in most of the cases you will find that your Chinese negotiation counterparts did not tell the truth.

And of course, “mianzi”, the face, is very important to the Chinese and if you can give them some face in the negotiation, they will be happy and may in the end reciprocate. 

I am a Chinese but I am very discomfortable with the Chinese culture exhibited in business negotiations. What does this tell?

The article ”Empire of Signs”  engages me - it was written by Guardian’s China correspondent in February 2006. The observations and comments made on Chinese language and China are both interesting and insightful. Here’s a quote:

Given that studying the basics of Chinese identity is likely to take up so much of the curriculum, it is easier to understand why so many people here are so nationalistic: they simply do not have much time to study the outside world.

The article gives you a lot of ideas about what it is like learning the language, and what the language is like actually. It would be interesting to those wanting to study Chinese or studying Chinese.

Go to the article here. 

The quality of mandarin Chinese textbooks on the mainland is still quite poor, though in the past few years more books of better quality have popped up. The conversations produced and texts chosen/written in the books often frustrate me. They are dull, uninteresting and stiff, among other things. The grammer explanations are usually overloaded and too much.

I take notice that mandarin Chinese textbooks produced outside of Chinese are of better quality and can better meet the needs of international students. Go to www.amazon.com and search for mandarin Chinese textbooks and you will find loads of information there. Look out for the reviews - they are very helpful. Students who have used the books make comments, providing very useful tips on which books are good, which not.

It is obvious why the textbooks produced outside of China are of better quality. The authors are usually linguists who have lived overseas for a long time, and they teach Chinese to international students in universities/colleges. As a result, they know the learning needs of international students and can author the book in a way that suits their needs.

“Teach Yourself Chinese Complete Course” by Liz Scurfield, “Basic Chinese” and “Intermediate Chinese” by Yip Po-Ching and others, “Beginner’s Chinese” by Yong He, “Schaum’s Outline of Chinese Grammer”, etc. have gained good reviews.

Hong Kong publishers also have Mandarin Chinese textbooks on offer. Peggy Wang’s “100 Putonghua Situations” is my favourite, good for learninng spoken Chinese and beginners. I am afraid books like this you cannot find over amazon. Try this big publisher in Hong Kong www.cp1897.com and you can search in English.

If you know a little bit about China, you know the importance of guanxi, or connections, in doing or conducting business in the country.

Say, there is an opening ceremony of your business in somewhere of China. You may know that you will have to invite the officials of various authorities to the ceremony. But you may not know that you will have to do it in person, not just sending your assistant to deliver the invitation. Otherwise the consequence would be grave.

Read this news from South China Morning Post dated 5 August, 2006. It is appalling that how abusive and corruptive many of the Chinese officials are, and how women are being taken advantage of in the still male-dominant business world.

The management of a new five-star hotel has found out the hard way that guanxi, or connections, still play an important role in doing business on the mainland - and that it is not a good idea to ruffle the feathers of local officials.

The Yintian Hotel, located in Liuyang in Hunan province , was suddenly plunged into darkness at 8.40pm on Monday, its opening day, after local electricity bureau officials retaliated for what they felt was a slight by the hotel’s management.

The order to cut off the electricity supply to the 150 million yuan hotel was given by two senior officials of the city’s electricity bureau, Zhou Jiaoyao and Li Licai , Xinhua reported. The pair were apparently miffed because the hotel director failed to deliver personally an invitation to the hotel’s opening party. The invitation was delivered by an assistant, Xinhua said.

As the entire hotel - and nearby residents - sat in darkness, and as hotel operations came to a standstill, a female manager of the hotel and an assistant raced to another hotel, where the two angry officials were drinking with colleagues.

Mr Zhou and Mr Li insisted the power would remain off for the whole night - but promised to reduce the duration by one hour for each bottle of baijiu, or grain alcohol, the two female hotel employees consumed.

After the women downed seven bottles of the strong alcohol - and rebuffed unwanted romantic advances - the order was given for the electricity to be turned back on.

The hotel said the incident had caused financial losses, as customers in the hotel, restaurants, health club and other entertainment venues demanded refunds and compensation.

I would suggest you take one-on-one lessons if you come to China to study mandarin just for a short period of time. The reason? Quality of group class teaching is not guaranteed, and one-one-one lesson is not expensive.

With one-on-one lessons, you can control the pace and focus of your learning and your tutor has to listen to your need. With Mandarin House in Shanghai,  the fee is 130-170 yuan per hour. This charging scheme is at the high end. If you look for private tutor yourself, you can easily find one who charges about 50-60 yuan per hour. This seems to me the average price, and a fair price.

In Beijing, diqiucun (global village), a language school near BLCU, is quite popular because of its low pricing - about 20-30 yuan per hour for one-on-one lessons. And you can try your first three lessons with three different teachers to find the one that suits you most.  

This price is way too attractive compared to the price of one-on-one lessons you have to pay to learn, say spanish in Spain. Why bother to take group lessons?

Of course there is upside to learning in a group. I shouldn’t be too judgemental on this. But what I want to say is, if you think one-on-one lessons are all you need, why don’t you go for it? It is so cheap in China. And the result is usually guaranteed.

To continue from my last posting about Anji bamboo forest…

Anji bamboo forest (Da Zhu Hai in Chinese) is increasingly popular among the Chinese as a destination for a taste of idyllic life in a green environment. Dozens of guesthouses with restaurants attached are being run by the local. You can play majong, a popular Chinese game, sing KTV, fish, have local farmer dishes, etc. These kinds of things appeal to Chinese, obviously, and these guesthouses fill up during the weekend, especially in summer.

The accommodation price is very cheap for international standard. Typically, a standard double room in a farmer’s house is priced at 65 yuan per night, a 3-person room at 85 and a 4-person room at 110 yuan.

If you come to the Anji bamboo forest and like the environment, just check into one of the guesthouses and spend the night there. The surroundings is peaceful and very green. And the people here are very friendly. The white tea, a local specialty, is as good as Longjing tea, the famous Chinese green tea from Hangzhou.