Many Western associates I know complain about the daunting cultural challenges of doing business in China.
For example, I’ve been to some business meetings where I saw wealthy Chinese men nonchalantly spit on the floor, toss bones and scraps of food under the table, or behind their chair, smoke cigarettes in restaurants that clearly say “No Smoking!”, cough without covering their mouths, and talk in very loud voices, among many other disturbing things.
(Shutterstock)
I’ve been to some business meetings where I saw wealthy Chinese men nonchalantly spit on the floor, toss bones and scraps of food under the table, or behind their chair, smoke cigarettes in restaurants that clearly say “No Smoking!”, cough without covering their mouths, and talk in very loud voices, among many other disturbing things. (Internet Photo)
To make matters worse, they seem to take this same attitude wherever they go.
For example, in Thailand, Chinese tourists had separate toilet facilities built for them at the White Temple in Chiang Rai City. Why? Because they were caught cleaning their feet in the sinks, defecating on the floor and in public places, urinating on the sidewalks, and desecrating Buddhist artifacts.
It got so bad, that the owner of the White Temple started charging Chinese tourists an admission fee.
Tourists from China are quickly gaining a bad reputation in countries like Thailand. (REUTERS)
I recall an incident in Lijing, China where a drunk business executive was walking up and down the corridor of a hotel where I was staying.
Apparently, he had forgotten his room number and was calling out his friend’s name in an effort to locate his room. His disturbing antics woke up me up three nights in a row, around 2am.
Three days later, I happened to see him talking extremely loudly to his friends at the entrance of the hotel. I immediately recoiled when I recognised his voice as the man yelling in the hallway.
A few minutes later, he and his friends came over to where I was standing and started acting confrontational. Since I don’t speak Chinese, I didn’t know what they were saying to me, but it didn’t appear friendly.
I calmed down and told myself: “No matter what they do, I will not fight with them.” Then, I completely relaxed.
When I looked into this man’s eyes, I saw something that startled me. Yes, I saw a vociferous, rude, selfish, insecure, man who liked to show off, but I also saw that the person I was looking at was not that person!
Sounds crazy, but let me explain. Of course, I saw how he was choosing to present his character to me and to the world, but I also saw that this presentation was not him.
Meaning, I could sense that there was something like a screen or veil between him and his true self.
After I got to talking to him at the front desk, through a bi-lingual person, it turned out that he was a very nice person and sincerely welcomed me to his country.
This puzzled me. How could such a rude selfish person, with no apparent regard for anyone else’s needs turn out to be a nice person? I was truly baffled!
So, I started looking into the matter when I got back home to Thailand.
What I discovered was that for thousands of years, before the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) took over China, Chinese people were known throughout the world as very clean, honest, kind and forthright people.
In addition, they had always respected virtue, charity, benevolence, justice, courtesy, wisdom and faith. However, since the CCP came to power, these values were ridiculed as “feudal dross”.
So, how did the Chinese become so deviant and warped over the past 100 years, since the CCP took over China?
This excerpt from the article, ‘Disintegrating Communism – Introduction’ found at http://www.chinauncensored.com, spelled it out very clearly.
The article pointed out that in most cultural systems, “ultimate values are derived from a supreme power beyond the mundane existence”, or the Divine.
This belief or relationship formed the basis of society, the morals and principles that guided and governed that society, and people’s interaction with each other within that society.
Back then, godly principles or Divine Law was embedded in people’s hearts, which served as a moral compass for people, thus protecting their society from chaos and ultimate destruction.
However, “Party culture”, according to the article, “is patterns of thinking, patterns of communication and behaviour based on the concept of values set by the CCP”. Meaning, Party culture has nothing to do with the Divine.
The article further pointed out: “party culture includes three types: the first type, a culture forcibly instilled into Chinese people’s minds by the Communist Party; second type, a deviant culture created by the masses who try to survive under Communist violence and lies; the third type, deviant and vile behaviours left from history, but re-packaged by Chinese communist theory, and widely promoted and applied.”
The disposition of today’s Chinese, is a by-product of the thinking and values instilled in them by the atheistic CCP. (epochtimes.com)
So, this is the main reason why it’s hard for foreigners to understand Chinese people. The disposition of today’s Chinese, is a by-product of the thinking and values instilled in them by the atheistic CCP.
Chinese people are actually very kind, but it is hard to see that in their mannerisms and actions, which are unwittingly steeped in CCP culture.
