Connecting with China

How much of a culture shock was it for you to go from China to Europe?

I experienced severe culture shock when I went to the UK. Later, when moving to Germany from the UK, I thought I didn’t need to prepare myself much. I thought that, because they’re neighbours, the cultural differences wouldn’t be that big. But I was wrong.

I still remember that first week in the UK. It was International Welcome Week, and we met the head of the business school at the university. At the end of the day, he asked us to join him at the pub. I was really shocked: going to a pub, drinking alcohol in public, especially for young women, is not considered appropriate. I just couldn’t go. But afterwards, I realized that pub culture is harmless, in a way. You can go and drink water and talk about whatever you want because it’s a very relaxed atmosphere.

How was it when you started working in banking?

China is very hierarchical, so when I spoke to my branch manager in the UK, I would make sure that I showed my respect by not looking at her directly. When she talked to me, I just looked at the floor. One day, she had just had enough. She said, “Tina, can’t you be a bit more polite?” I didn’t understand. When Chinese people face accusations from superiors or older people, they don’t talk back. I just said, “Yes, I’m sorry.” But I realized that I had to find out what the problem was. One day, I gathered all my courage and I went to her to ask if we could talk about what had happened. I realized that she was actually very friendly. She explained to me that I needed to look at her when we talked. And I explained to her that there were cultural barriers I had to overcome. She gave me a lot of support.

Your book describes some of the “dilemmas” of working with China. Can you give some examples?

Let’s imagine a trip to China, where I’m assisting a group of Europeans meeting potential Chinese business partners. When we land at Beijing Airport, the first thing we need to do is turn on our smartphone to use WeChat. We might use it not only to tell our families that we have arrived safely, but for lots of other important things. It’s a combination of WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook and pay as you go. It’s a very powerful app. And because many shops don’t take cash any more in China, we also need WeChat to make purchases.

In addition, it’s essential to have all our important documents ready on our laptop because internet access in China is limited. You can’t use Google, Facebook, YouTube and so on. Of course, there are special programs to enable access, but they are extremely slow. Then, when we go to meet our Chinese business partner, we may be greeted by one of the company managers and we would shake hands. But handshaking is very tricky. In the UK and in Germany, a firm handshake is important because it presents a self-confident person. Chinese people prefer weak handshakes, and its duration is much longer. For example, if a host wants to express his hospitality while we are chit-chatting, he will be shaking my hand the whole time.

Can adopting a Chinese name help when doing business in China?

Yes, because it can sometimes be difficult for Chinese speakers to pronounce European names and this can lead to misunderstandings. The Chinese pronunciation of “Ben”, for example, means “stupidity” in Chinese. Also, Chinese surnames consist of just one syllable. European surnames with three syllables, such as Woodmansey, are hard to remember and Chinese people find them hard to pronounce.

How important is restaurant and food culture for the Chinese?

I saw how important this is when working with a small German pharmaceutical company. They received a Chinese visitor who decides investment plans — a very important person. They took him to a winery with a restaurant that serves cheese. The Chinese visitor didn’t touch any of the cheese, and he didn’t really like wine. It was lunchtime and the food was cold. Afterwards, the German company didn’t hear anything from the visitor. It would have been important to know what food the visitor liked. After a long journey, Chinese people want something warm to eat. Not cheese, which in any case is quite new to many Chinese people.

What do European business travellers need to know when invited to restaurants in China?

There are two things I particularly want to draw attention to. The Chinese person with the lowest position sits next to the door. The door is a place that is not linked with high status. The most important people sit next to the window and as far away from the door as possible.

Secondly, dinners tend to be very long, maybe two or three hours, most of the time with alcohol. Chinese business people can broadly be put into two categories: those without foreign experience and those who have a lot of experience abroad, and maybe lived abroad. The latter are aware of the separation between private and business lives, and they would keep all contact at the restaurant as professional as possible. People without experience abroad may ask guests to do ganbai, which means “bottoms up” or “drink up”. I remember a few years ago accompanying a group of German delegates on a business trip. The Chinese CEO was really offended that one of the German delegates refused to drink alcohol with him.

How much flexibility do you have to intervene here?

It depends which side I am on. If I am accompanying a group of Chinese delegates, I would tell them beforehand what to expect: what to do and what not to do. But if I am accompanying a British or German delegation, I’d be in no position to tell the Chinese business people how they should act.

Do such things sometimes put you in an awkward situation?

Yes, sometimes in very awkward situations. For example, I was in China with a European delegation and a slightly older lady had a problem getting out of the car. But I knew she wanted to do it herself — it was about her independence — so I couldn’t give her any help. And one of the Chinese officials said to me: “Mrs Li, why didn’t you help her? It was very clear that this person needed your help.” And I just thought, “What am I supposed to do now?”

In your book, you write about guanxi, the network each Chinese person has. How important is this?

Guanxi is very important. Lots of people get their first job through their network. This is also true in Western countries, but guanxi in China is more intense and functions as a social currency. It’s very powerful. The difference between guanxi and other networks is that guanxi has an emphasis on mutual obligations and also reciprocal relationships. This means you have to invest a lot of time in building guanxi because Chinese people divide people around them into two groups: an inner group and an outer group. Information in the inner group is exchanged constantly. People from the outer group have no access to this.

One of the topics you are particularly interested in is different presentation styles. What are the main differences?

Presentation styles are very important. In general, there are three styles. One is persuasive persuaders. In this case, people focus more on the character of the presenter. The presenter should be very confident and have charisma. This is very popular in an American business context. Another presentation strategy is based on statistics, figures and expert advice, with a lot of evidence to support your opinion. This would be a preferred German presentation style. In Asia, especially in China, they prefer a third style, which is indirect. That means the key messages are wrapped in a story or a fable. Then people can use their own imagination to grasp the key messages.

The Western media often run negative stories about China. Do you advise Europeans not to discuss politics with their Chinese counterparts?

Germans just love talking about politics — that’s my personal observation. Politics is a very sensitive topic in China, and I don’t think people should risk entering into discussions about it. It’s not worth it. Especially in the first few meetings, when people don’t really know each other. If you become really close friends with someone, you can talk about politics the whole day. But not in a business context. If people engage in such topics, the Chinese delegation officials could really be in trouble. I think that in every government exchange that I have organized, one of the suggestions from the Chinese side has been to please tell the German delegates to stay away from the topic of politics during the visit.

Finally, how has the 18-year-old lover of Shakespeare Tina Li changed over the past two decades?

When I was young, the quote “Foul is fair, and fair is foul” from Shakespeare’s Macbeth perplexed me. Twenty years later, I view many things, including this quote, from a different perspective. Indeed, it is true that not everything is as it appears, and appearances can be deceiving. Every culture has its own hidden form of unconscious culture. We must be more aware of how culture works and the influence it exerts upon all of us — in order for us to work together on our common problems. It is important to bear in mind that what seems “foul” might actually be “fair”.