Many non-Chinese find the behavior of Chinese business people to be difficult to understand. To understand it, one must understand Chinese culture.
While China is a diverse country, it also has a large degree of unity. While there are 200 dialects, there is a common written language. 90% of the population belongs to a single ethnic group called the Han. Perhaps the most important source of unity is Confucianism, which has endured for more than 2500 years. Confucianism governs every relationship, including business ones.
This did not change when the Chinese emigrate from China Mainland and become citizens of other countries in different places in the world, most still consider themselves to be Chinese, even after several generations. Many families and individuals of those who left China before the 1949 revolution consider themselves as traditional Chinese compared to those in China today because the emigrants did not experience the communist influence on their traditional values.
Westerners consider Chinese culture and organizations vastly different to their own standards, while Western culture seems extremely different to the Chinese people. We need to comprehend these differences, so we better can develop a wider global understanding.
One must know that according to a well-known proverb, when a Chinese individual is honored, his whole family is honored. When he is damned, his whole family is damned. In a matter-of-fact the family had a strong meaning in China’s agrarian society, but Confucius added a moral aspect and broadened it to mutually dependent societal relationships. Every person has an important role as a link in the network of society.
In Chinese organizations the family is the foundation, including business ones. In the West, one often refers to “family businesses”. For the Chinese, the term “business families” may be more getting to the point since the family comes first and the business comes second. Rather than creating wealth, the Chinese tend to see their business responsibilities more as duties to the family and ancestors.
The family-based business model is strong, especially for Chinese living outside the Mainland. More recently, the decrease in the number of state businesses, has helped the family model of business to reappear which is not always positively influencing the professional, western way, of doing business.
The story to be continued…… (search ChinaGateConsult)
