Connecting with China: Business Success through Mutual Benefit and Respect

Chapter One

EMOTIONAL FOUNDATIONS OF THE CHINESE CHARACTER

By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart³

- Confucius

 

As we begin our journey of looking at relationships, we are about to lose some misleading stereotypes about the ‘Chinese’ character. From the imperious Mandarin to the inscrutable, calm exterior of Chinese business, to the diffident, non-personality driven face of the Chinese Government, we are about to see beyond these intimidating exteriors into the unfathomable depth of the Chinese heart.

 

Would it surprise you to know, for example, that the Chinese are one of the most emotionally intense and deep people in our world? It did me. Like many others, the more stereotyped views of the Chinese - their pragmatism, their ambition for skills and knowledge, the importance of money and status in their society and their apparently controlled, occasionally imperious exterior - kept the emotional base of this culture rather veiled from me.

 

Perhaps the greatest bar to seeing the deeply personal and emotional facets of the Chinese identity lies behind another facade: that of the driven, busy, ever -achieving, ever-acquiring way in which the Chinese appear to operate in life.

 

This deceptive acquisitiveness is perhaps the strongest masker of the depth of feeling and sincerity of friendship the Chinese embody.

 

This ‘busyness’ confuses the intentions, hides emotions and muddies motives in the eyes of the undiscerning Westerner.

 

It is helpful to ...