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Legend I love sharing great connections and Dean is a wonderful one to have. I was lucky to take one of Dean’s courses on intercultural training a few years back with the Worldwide ERC. Take a look at Dean’s recent newsletter connecting to his blog! Enjoy!
What You Say in China May Not Be As Important as How You Say It.
If you’ve been reading any of my recent articles in my new column, “Culture’s Consequences” on Substack, you know it’s all about taking a look at the cultural reasons hidden behind the headlines. There are plenty of headline pundits who explain things according to politics, economics and policy…but most of the time, we don’t get the cultural explanation for what’s going on, and that, at least from my perspective as your culturalist, is the most important perspective for understanding why things happen as they do around the world.
In this week’s “Culture’s Consequences” column, I thought I would tell two stories, each about a simple chance encounter that happened to me, one in Hong Kong and the other in Shanghai. Though neither of these stories ever made the headlines, the cultural issues hidden in both situations are the same as those that often profoundly affect the success of business negotiations with China, and even the development of US government policy toward China and the evolving Taiwan situation, both of which which most definitely do make headlines.
All I wanted to do in Hong Kong was get the birdcages I purchased past the customs agent. All I wanted to do strolling the Bund in Shanghai was have a nice chat with some local Shanghainese. What happened in both cases, however, taught me more about effective – and not so effective – communications in China, and, more importantly, how these communication styles reflect deeper Chinese cultural values that must be understood and respected if non-Chinese are to be successful in China, whether doing business there, or responding to major Chinese political decisions, like Taiwan…or just having a stroll on the Bund in Shanghai. Interested? Here you go…
