Sunday, March 26, 2017
Week 7 Posts due March 31
I hope you all are not only enjoying your reading, but also looking forward to the journey ahead. When you have time, check out this short documentary about the people and culture of the Yunnan province in Southwestern China. While we will not be visiting this area, the documentary will help you to realize that China is a much more diverse nation than many at first suppose: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r9nHrGten8.
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During my reading this week, I was very interested to read about how the Chinese do not like to hear the word "no". I vaguely remember hearing about this before, but had never given it much thought. It discussed how the Chinese rarely use this term and that it is a good idea that visitors refrain from using the term as well. Rather, it is recommended that you use words like, "I will look into it," or "I'm not sure if that will work." Instead of being blunt, this is the way to go.
ReplyDeleteI am very excited to travel to China but am also slightly worried that I might end up offending someone while there as "yes" and "no" are two very important words in the English language and American culture. It will be interesting to see how literally this is taken while we are there.
As the trip comes closer, I am becoming even more exciting and am anticipating the day of our departure for China!
That is very interesting, I had not heard that before. I am glad I know that now, I also do not want to offend some one because of my language. It will be interesting once we get to China, I will really have to watch what I say, do, and how I act. Thanks for sharing! This is great information!
DeleteThat is very interesting that they do not like to hear the word "no" at all. I need to remember this while trying to buy something and bartering with them. Like Prof. Erskine said, just say thank you and wave a hand haha.
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DeleteHmmm... This is very interesting. I struggle with the thought of conforming to a culture just because people don't like to hear, see, or do some "thing".
DeleteDon't get me wrong, I believe that being culturally sensitive is very important, but the bible clearly says "Let you yes be yes and your no be no." (Matthew 5:37) From the word of God, Jonah changed an entire culture by a single warning...
Various cultures have many nuances that may seem strange, and often times are, and should be taken into consideration. However, I firmly believe, many should be contested straight on, including our own that shape the "American Dream".
It is not a sin to offend someone for standing up for truth.
I think this is mostly talking about in either business communication or in polite conversation. Remember, saying no to someone - especially in public - is a loss of face. So if you want to say no, just find a more creative way to say it. Polite Chinese will understand and immediately give you a way out. Pushy Chinese will push, then just be firm and say no. Surprisingly Chinese don't often use the word yes either, at least not as often as we use it. It isn't because they don't want to say yes, rather it is because when they mean yes they just use a different word. "Have you eaten yet?" will get a response of "Eaten." A much more common usage of yes is "shi," which means "is" or "am." The closest equivalent to an English yes and no, which is used but less often, is "dui," or "bu dui." Pronounced "dway" and "boo dway." So it is both about how the language is used AND about the culture of being polite. Consider the flip side of the coin. The directness of American language often is offensive to Asians. We Americans are very much "in your face," and Chinese don't always appreciate this culture of communication. It is important when thinking of Chinese communication styles to NOT compare them to American communication as the benchmark, as the standard. Perhaps the American style of communication should be compared to the Chinese style as the benchmark. :)
DeleteThis week I read some really cool stories from the Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom. The story that really intrigued me was about Li Xiaquing. Xiaquing really inspired me by the things that she accomplished for being a woman and Chinese in her time. She was a movie star that turned towards aviation. Xiaquing became an actress when she was young and her first movie she played in was Mulan.
ReplyDeleteAfter receiving her pilots license she wished to enter combat, but was declined; so she went to the U.S. to try and get support. While there she became friends with Hilda Yan, who was inspired by Xiaquing and got her pilots license too. The two flew together raising awareness.
When Yan crashed it pushed her to become even more famous than she had hoped, which got the two women even more recognition than they had ever hoped for. People began raising money for the refugees and war bounds. These two women are really inspiring, even after Yan crashed she became a hero to women all over the world.
This is truly amazing to read as I had never heard about Li Xiaquing or Hilda Yan before. It is amazing how one or two people can become so great whenever they do something they love. This just goes to show that we should continue to purse our dreams because we never know what might become of them!
DeleteFor another class one of the reading assignments was about Gladys Aylward, who was a missionary to China from Britain in the 1930's. While the book was not about Chinese culture directly, there was this story about a time she was doing ministry in a prison. There was a new inmate and things had not been going well, as he was leaving she placed her hand on his shoulder to get his attention. They had a short and tense conversation, but then she recalls thinking right after she did this that she had made a horrible mistake as at that time a women should not touch a man in public.
DeleteIn the end that short conversation did convert him but it seems the idea that women hold are seen as being a of lesser importance is very deeply rooted in Chinese culture.
There is a strong argument for Mao's policy having provided more freedom for females because they emphasized socialistic equality and expected females to do the same work as males. This is a simplistic explanation as there are many other factors to consider, but it is definitely intriguing.
DeleteThis one is good. keep up the good work!..
ReplyDeletethings to do in toronto
For this weeks reading I learned that when the one child policy first was launched in the 1980s that it was not enforced in all areas of China to the fullest extent. In some places officials just kind of ignored a pregnant woman. Other areas where it was enforced to the max they would handcuff pregnant women and force them to have an abortion.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that I learned is that at the same time of the one child policy being launched there was a marriage law that lowered the legal age for women to be able to get married to 20 and men to 22. The reading said that "this was done to combat illegal marriage and sex crimes." Of course with the lower age more people would marry leading to more babies. These two laws (one child and marriage law) conflicted greatly.
It still blows my mind that China has a one child policy and not only that they do but that it was a policy created so many years ago although it makes sense why they do. It's interesting to hear how some areas of China enforced the rule and other parts didn't. My question is: how did the officials know for sure whether the pregnant woman was having her first baby or if she was breaking the policy?
DeleteIt's interesting that you mentioned that. My aunt grew up in China in the 80s and 90s with two siblings. I asked her about the one child policy and apparently they left her family alone as long as they paid a lot of money in fines.
DeleteAnd to your question Venessa my guess is they had information on families and they'd look you up in a book or something. The government was pretty controlling, especially back in the day.
The forced abortions and sterilizations were often happening in smaller counties and villages where officials had the power to basically do whatever they wanted to do. In some provinces you get abuse of power and in other provinces you don't get abuse of power. When a child is born he/she is registered and so the local government knows who has given birth and who has not. When women gave birth to subsequent children they would hide the birth. The child was then unable to have the same health care and education as registered children unless they bribed an official or a doctor or teacher. No one is quite sure how many of these people live in China, how many unregistered citizens there are. Perhaps 100 to 200 million? As for the OCP it is largely gone at this point. There are so many exceptions to it that almost everyone who wants to children can now have them.
DeleteThis week my book talked about the importance of immersing yourself into the situation you find yourself in. Particularly, it talked about how the Wei brothers (Founders of a Chinese company) where from Taiwan but had made sacrifice to move to the mainland in order to effectively run their new company. The reason this is of such importance is because many who live on the island of Taiwan love it, and it is much more comfortable, or so the book suggests.
ReplyDeleteFurther, the brothers built villas with full amenities so that other families from Taiwan and elsewhere were able not only to immerse themselves in the situations and culture of the mainland, but also their families were able to join thus increasing moral... Happy Wife = Happy Life... Or something like that. ;)
Anyways, there are also downsides to this immersion viewpoint. Managers and entrepreneurs may go "native" while falling prey to the "herd mentality", or take a parochial (narrower) view and ignore the trends of the global market - These are just to name a few.
The main three advantages that the book discussed were:
1.) Supporting opportunities and threats
2) Building a holistic picture
3.) Having a stake in the outcome
Talk to you guys next week.
I like this concept of immersion. I believe it could be applied with balance - simply being present throughout the many adventures of life. I think that we tend to get caught up look towards the our goals, towards the future. Which isn't a bad thing, we just need to remember to be present and immerse ourselves in the experience of moving to our goals.
DeleteFor this week's reading, I came across an interesting encounter that Mao and his trusted friend experienced during their years in school. For a while, Mao and his friend decided to live as beggars for a while and see what they could get off of the streets. They went around and begged for some food and refuge. As they continued their nomadic lifestyle, they encountered a palm reader who read both of the men's hands. Since Mao had been born in the year of the snake, the palm reader mentioned some of the characteristics of those who are born in that year. These included being sly, cunning, but mysterious and dangerous. She made a comment implying that death could be seen on the Mao's hands. I found this extremely fascinating because during Mao's dictatorship, millions of people died from either famine or political reasons. Although mostly insignificant, this event was interesting to note in Mao's life. My only question, is how did the author discover this brief encounter? I think it would be interesting to see the process that the author took to discover this event.
ReplyDeleteThis was actually really interesting to hear about. I do also wonder how the author could have gotten a hold of this information. I also think this was a great addition that the author made because it made readers (like you and I) think about how that could have connected that palm reading to Mao's rule. Also, I find the whole activity of pretending to be beggars to be really interesting. I wonder how much the book goes into detail about Moa's experience in that role or if it shaped his views on Chinese society at the time.
DeleteI'm not sure which book you are reading Adeline, but Mao was very public about his early life. He made it a point for people to know that he was a commoner from a rural farming family. Some of what historians think they know about Mao is probably unsubstantiated, other than as told by the myth surrounding Mao. But what you relayed is likely true. As to how researchers have gathered some of the information about the famines? Leading into the 2008 Olympics the Chinese government loosened up the archives (among other things), hoping to put a more open face on their country and give people confidence that they could safely travel to China. After the Olympics things began to close back down again, and the new president of China is also more of a hardliner than the previous president.
DeleteThis week as I continued to read my book about China's economy I learned about how China will affect the world as their economy continues to grow. One of the things I found most surprising was that if China becomes the world's biggest economy nothing much will change or happen. This does not mean that China does not gain political leverage or increase their global influence from economic strength but I feel like we think something incredibly life changing will happen when it is actually something gradual that happens over time. It makes sense to me because China's population is over four times larger than the United States and up until the 1800s they were the world's largest economy. The reason many people worry about China becoming a world power is because China is not a part of the US alliance structure and they are their own independent country with its own military capability. China has grown over the last few decades into the world's second biggest economy, the largest trading nation and one of the most important manufacturing bases.
ReplyDeleteThat is very fascinating to see how limited or limitless China's influence can be to the world through an economic standpoint. I'm interested to see how this can progress and also influence our world today.
DeleteYes, I think we forget how big China's economy already is currently and seeing looming on the horizon as something to fear. Traveling their will definitely add a feeling of reality to some of the many things you've already read. China is an impressive country and so is its economy.
DeleteThis week, I focused on the continuation on the book that I am reading which is "Made in China" by Winter Nie and Katherine Xin. The chapter I finished reading was about soap company that goes by the name of Nice. What makes "Nice" a nice company on the financial statements is the penetration and special marketing tactics. the privately owned enterprise started by marketing itself as "Nice: Eagle Shooting Campaign (or Shooting Eagle Campaign)" by represents Diao which is a pinyin or symbol for eagle. With it's penetration, Nice was able to occupy more than 40% of china's washing powder market and 67% of China's soap market. Similar to Wahaha's business model, Zhuang Quichuan was fascinated by the growth of Zong's company and grew Nice similarly to Wahaha. He started by rising to the top of leadership in the company and built a strong distribution model by sourcing the product and distributing it locally and privately. Zhuang attacked the market by finding a specific niche: implementing a product that fits in the middle of the market. Nice was able to do this by providing mid-range soap and detergent products in a market that only had poor laundry soap to high class detergent. Chinese customers were accustomed to using lower class soaps which created a lazy market for Nice to shake up. WIth their proactive marketing procedures by advertising quality, natural products to commercials that exemplified an emotional connection with the customers, the Nice company brought a competitive brand on the market. Their slogans from "Choose what is right, not what is high of price" and cheap distribution methods scared the high-end companies and created a way to provide a better, all around product for the consumers.
ReplyDeleteI found this post very intriguing, Darryl. It is always so important to find the perfect niche and market for an individual to begin business in. Without doing so, can make or break a company. Entering in a lazy market is often very beneficial if they have a well developed plan and product, which will most certainly shake things up.
DeleteThis week, I read about the role of the family in Chinese culture. Chinese tend to hold a very traditional view of the family, with the older males having power over the other family members. Families who have four generations living in the same house are proud. This is a big accomplishment in China. However, family size is decreasing. Part of this is because of the one child policy, but also because cost of child-rearing has gone up.
ReplyDeleteMany Chinese youth want to be independent like Americans are, but they can't afford to. Chinese parents typically pay for their children's apartments and cars so that they can get married. If they displease the parents, they might cut off financial support. Moreover, many parents believe that they always have the right to tell their children what to do, regardless of how old they are.
There is a lot of conflict between family members. The husband and wife not only love each other, but they are very loyal to their parents. When they have to choose between their spouse and parents, they often choose their parents and that leads to divorce. Grandparents also insist on raising the children. They often say, "I raised you and you turned out alright."
I find it wonderful that the elders get respect in the traditional Chinese culture. I also understand that it can be a challenge being young and told what to do by elders who do not understand the generation that the grand kids and great grand kids are living in. I know many cultures that would cut their children off of financial support if they do not do what they are told by the older and that can be scary.
DeleteThat is so interesting how they respect their elders to the point of a divorce! (Although should it ever come to the point where a spouse says "me or your parents" it might have been heading there anyway.) Sometimes I wonder why some countries have these unspoken rules and others don't. Such as where it started and why it never carried to other countries. It's very interesting to see how close knit the families are too.
DeleteThe few chapters that I read went over how companies only hire 20% of post-university students. Securing a job in China is tough and many lose hope of ever finding one. After scoring high on Gaokao and going into the top universities of China, many rural students unfortunately face the reality that many no matter how high they score, they will never achieve upward mobility because to receive a decent paying job you must come from a wealthy and powerful family. The author suggests that a main factor that triggers the problem is the number of students in the university. In 1999, only a million Chinese students entered into the universities. After 2002, two million students enter the universities each year, but the amount of jobs has not increased. Many rural students, one in particular that I read about, went back home with his head down, disappointed that he didn’t get a job and being ashamed in front of his whole village.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds interesting. It seems to describe how different life is outside of the U.S. Here, we are told from a young age that we can achieve anything we want and live the "American dream."
DeleteThis sounds very relevant considering the capacity of the job market today. Too many people go to college with the intent of success based on attendance, I doubt this is the same for China, but the concept is probably consistent. - Jesse Darwin
DeleteSo the Gaokao (literally "tall test") is similar to the SAT, except you don't actually apply from college separately. Your gaokao score is what determines where you go to college. Rural dwellers get something similar to what we call affirmative action; they get a bump in their scores simply because they come from a poor district. But yes, bribery and corruption are rampant and many cannot get jobs. Beijing is aware of this problem, and the fact that there are 40m more men in China than women, and are keen to avert the conditions that would make social unrest more likely. Thus the Chinese response to Trump's threatening rhetoric of restructuring trade relationships. The Chinese want to maintain globalization, it is their only path to prosperity.
DeleteThe next two stories follow families that went even more undercover. One family left their daughter with no way to trace them. Still left on the doorstep of a family but this time did not keep in contact with them. They instead would hear updates on the child's well being through talk in the neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteThe second story follows a family that left their child in a town. The father took the child into town with him and left her in a cart attached to a truck. He stayed around nearby but not so close as to be suspicious. While he was farther from the cart the child got taken. The husband overheard onlookers talking of how a nice couple with state jobs had picked up the child. He was relieved that a good family took the child but was also sad.
Reading about how these children got left and how heartwrenching it was for the parents to leave them is quite sad. It's interesting to see that many of them had children prior to abandoning the other and there were even ones who had a daughter, abandoned a daughter, but then had another daughter and kept that one.
Wow! How sad some of these stories are Allie. I appreciate your point about how heart wrenching this decision was for some of the families involved. Being born a female in many cultures has long been a risky thing and still is. Jordan said recently that he'd heard in a Chinese history podcast he's been listening to that during the famine that followed Mao's Great Leap Forward, families would trade girl children to eat, so they didn't have to eat their own children and they could help their boy children survive. The same thing had happened in earlier famines of previous centuries.
DeleteThroughout my reading this week, the author of "How To Do Business In China" emphasized having a plan B and expecting setbacks. In the past years, China has caused many companies setbacks due to their portrayal of swallowing up capital and technology with questionable benefits and poor returns on investments. Joint ventures are not the most common way to enter the market in China due to the changes in the investment rules. Although many companies experience setbacks or fail at business in China, with a developed plan that can respond to possible negative outcomes throughout one's career can be saver of that company's success. The author also emphasizes instead of letting a negative event break you and your company, you should instead learn from your setback and work on ways to improve it. As business students, it is important to take the advice from the author throughout our everyday lives. There are going to be times where we fail or make a mistake, but you cannot let that mistake determine your overall outcome. Instead, we should learn how to correct our errors so we can not only grow as business professionals but also overall individuals.
ReplyDeleteIn preparation for our trip to China, I have learned a great deal about Chinese history and culture (at least compared to where I started). I have been continually surprised at the depth and diversity of culture and history in China. Chinese history is oftentimes as interesting as a good novel - Particularly the last century. The more I learn about Chinese culture, the more I realize the vast amount there is to learn. In the concluding chapter of this weeks reading of Business Leadership In China, Frank Gallo states:
ReplyDelete"The interplay over time between the various locations in China, the numerous empires that ruled different parts of the country at different times, the huge number of diverse cultural groups, and the enormous outside influences that have touched different parts of China at different times, make the country impossible to fully comprehend." (page 211).
I am very excited for our trip!
Jordan, I to share your excitement for this trip. Although I have done much travel over the years, I have never been to the Far East. I think one of the reasons why China is so attractive to me is their complete difference to the Western mindset. While some could argue that that has changed of the past few years, China is still very different. Their history is so deep that it is hard to even imagine how much there will be to learn on this trip. I really like the fact that we are being required to read and learn some about China before going. I believe that this will greatly enhance our experience.
DeleteThis week I continued to read about ancient Chinese Strategies. This week I again read about battle and military strategies. "Clamor in the East, Strike in the West" is the title of stratagem 6. The idea simple, distract in one area and then strike where the enemy is not expecting it.
ReplyDeleteThe opening story takes place during the reign of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty a rebellion broke out among seven states. General Zhou Yafu was ordered with capturing the rebels. He built a wall to keep the enemy out. He then led the rebels to believe that he was attacking from the east because he brought lots of men there. However, these men were the sick and injured. His strong men he sent to the other side. And when they least expected it, he took them from the west.
Modern Application. The application to be learned here is that a business can use a distraction or even a loss to actually win. Lost leader pricing is a great example of this. A business will lest a low price that the lose money on to get people to come into the store or use the product (clamor in the east). Then they will charge outrageous prices in other areas to gain profits. A good example is Spirit Airlines. This company offers ultra-low prices but then gives you no quality of service. In fact they nickle and dime people for every spare penny. For example, if you don't check in online you will be charged ten dollars to do it at the airport.
I liked this application and found the story and the modern application to be very interesting and informative. I am very interested to get out the section on war and learn of other Chinese strategies.
For my reading this week, it focused on the main character's grandfather and his story. The book described how he met his wife and traveled to America and eventually served in the war. He died in the Cold War. The murders were never exactly solved, but the KMT maintained that the Communists had killed the grandfather and his team. I thought this part of the book did a really good job of illustrating the affects of the Cold War on other people outside of America and Russia.
ReplyDeleteIn the second to last chapter of the book, the author talks about an entirely new topic. She goes into detail about how life is especially hard for women who are abused by their husbands. The most impactful one to me was the story of Wang Mei. Wang Mei had been continually abused by her husband and she had no support privately or publicly. Even though she had made nine reports to local police and hospitals of her injuries from domestic abuse, but they had done nothing for due to ambiguity of intimate violence in Chinese law. Privately, she was ridiculed by her husband's family for airing out private family matters. They had even blamed her for the abuse she was suffering. In the end they got divorced, but Wang Mei was left with nothing and the husband got custody of their son because legally the husband had done nothing wrong. This part of the chapter revealed the realities of real issues that exist in both China's legal system and in society as well.
ReplyDeleteThis story was extremely difficult to read, but it did a great job of contributing to the author's main argument. The author sometimes became repetitive about how the denial of property ownership was key to women's inequality, but this chapter shows how legally and socially women suffer. This also adds to the argument that women should have property in their name so they can have security in their marriages. In a lot of cases, including Wang Mei's, since they had nothing in the marriage, divorce is almost not an option because then wives would not have a security net. Property ownership is not just about women being able to move up in society, but merely to have security in life.
My book and others (as well as in our class sessions) have talked about who the Chinese will take great measure to save face with each other. In your reading did your author talk about this in regards to this story?
DeleteHow I understand it, this could explain some of the potential apathy toward Wang Mei (and other like her). The risk of embarrassing the family and others that they know would outweigh, at least on their minds, the seriousness of the situation. You mentioned the family's reaction as well and that is sort of what I am referring too.
In essence, my book encapsulates the notion that speed overrules balance of the industry. Following Jack's narrative, he concedes to business deals he would not have otherwise considering the incessantly changing climate in China. Rapid development has turned fishing villages into factory towns and factory towns into financial hubs, but it has also taken a toll. Heavy investment has crowded out consumption, and heavy industry has muscled out services, as if making stuff mattered more than serving people.
ReplyDeleteSome of the results cause political change. Such as inflicting more stringent bargaining rules that ultimately influence the power of the consumer. In doing so, they strive to achieve a market with a semblance of balance between domineering competitors and emerging companies.
During this weeks reading, I gained valuable insight about the english language schools and the china culture. Many people want to learn english and want to be promoted for a better job. I also learned that woman are becoming very successful in china and that highly educated woman find it hard to get married. They do not want to marry someone who is not educated like them or less successful. But it is hard to find a man who meets everyones successful lifestyle. One woman said, I can't find anyone interesting enough to marry everyone else is less educated and less successful then me and the really successful are intimidated. Unfortunately, Chinese woman are not alone in this, American woman find it hard to marry because so many men know a days are not pressing graduate degrees like there woman counterparts. More and more women are finding men less educated and dull. This is interesting since there is a hugh Man ratio compared to woman in china. But sadly there are just not enough dull woman to go around.
ReplyDeleteManagement is what I've been reading about lately. Many in the western culture believe it is hard to manage Chinese workers, but in reality it is because there is a big difference of expectations and how each culture approaches the workplace.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of saving face in the Chinese culture highly affects interactions, both in business and personal lives. In the work place the difference between western and Chinese cultures is that westerners are more direct and open to sharing, while the Chinese will try to avoid saying anything that will make someone else look bad. This an lead to a western manager think that nobody is willing to share ideas and offer suggestions, but in reality they are trying to avoid "putting other down."
One of the common elements that I found in reading about management was the fact that Chinese employees overall want respect, and I believe that holds true for western employees as well. Although, how that is shown does vary.
The author shared a question that often has asked Chinese manager, "What values underlie their motiviation?" He says that consistently the answer is "respect for other." I think it would be interesting to ask this same question when we are there and see if we get the same answer.
My book talked about saving face and much of what your book talks about correlates with what my book talked about pertaining to face and the differences between the Western and Chinese business culture. I would also like to see what they say to that question.
DeleteThis week my book talked about the American Automobile manufactorer Ford. Ford was the last of the big U.S. automobile brands to start exporting and manufacturing vehicles in China. Because they are the last, they have the weakest reputation in China. Ford did not start manufacturing vehicles in China until 1992. when they did start to manufacture automobiles in China, Ford did not strive to put the most recent technology in their vehicles that were being manufactured in China, therefore, GM (General Motors) became the most popular American automobile in China.
ReplyDeleteIn my reading this week my book went into the Chinese negotiating style. The first stage has to do with roles and relationships and basically differentiating between those roles. Often the Chinese when deal with foreigners will have a big group playing different roles between being the negotiator and the decision-maker. Ordinarily when negotiating with Americans it is easy to tell who makes the deal or who is the person in charge but the Chinese are more secretive because they all take a role and say they will relay the negotiated terms with their superior. Stage two deals with patience and compromise, often Chinese businessmen like to digest the information when making a decision. During this stage they try to develop a friendship with the organization they plan to work with; also unlike the Koreans or Japanese the Chinese will try to bargain if they see the offering of concessions during negotiations.The final stage of negotiations is finding the win-win orientation.
ReplyDeleteA big part of negotiating also involves many banquets which are used to establish a relationship, demonstrate your capacity to conduct business, explore possibilities, and take a break all at the same time.