csleee wrote:
Now my questions are:
-Should I bring gifts?
-Who should I give them to? The person who helped me find a job? Supervisor at work who I haven't talked to (interviewed with someone else)?
-Would it be more appropriate to give gifts towards the end of my stay?
-If I bring gifts, what should I bring?
1. you should bring some small gifts. just in case it can be useful.
2. depends. give people gift when you will still have some kind of connection, e.g. you need to get service from him/her in the predictable future/you work in the same organization and will see each other.
if your supervisor is a Chinese, then prepare two gifts, one for the team, and one for your supervisor, hand it out when you are formally introduced to the team that you are going to work with.
3. no. byebye gift is very different from the hello gift (见面礼).
4. I would suggest some kind of simple food, e.g. chocolate made in your hometown. Don't spend too much, $5 each should be enough unless you are going to give them to some high level officers/managers.
in Chinese culture, it is not important what you give people, it is just about an open message to the people that "I have you in my mind". that is all.
csleee wrote:
Also, since I will be working there, what should I know before hand as far as business etiquette and certain unwritten rules? I have read several articles on business etiquette but thought I'd ask here anyway to get it from real people rather than a book that has been written several years ago. Any helpful information to get me prepared would be appreciated.
Thanks
1. don't challenge your supervisor/old people in public, make your suggestions/questions in private, talk to them face to face in private and in an open minded manner, you get more chance to have your suggestions accepted/questions answered.
2. always small, never say NO unless you really have to. e.g. when asked would you like to have lunch together, the polite way of saying NO is to avoid using the word "NO". you should say something like "I would like to, but I have to be back in 10 minutes".
for the same reason, when chinese people tell you "we will talk about it later", depends on the context, with very high probability it means "No, forget about it".
3. don't talk about politics/democracy, most young people don't care and those old people already got too much such stuff in the 1960s/1970s.
4. family value is always No.1, but you only mention people's family members when you two have known each other at least weeks. for example, when you finish your work and want to give "byebye" gift to your friend Mr. X, prepare something for his child/wife/parents, it makes you "more polite".
5. Guanxi (i.e. social/business connections) is everything. Exchange business cards, shaking hands doesn't means you two now know each other. real Guanxi is only formed after you two have had lunch/dinner together on the
same table. Don't forget to cheers to everyone on the same table.
if you can manage to have lunch/dinner with their family members, then you two have good Guanxi.
eating is the most important part of culture, all business starts on eating table, got finalized on eating table. after eating, try your best to pay for the whole table, that is something like "we are honored to do business with you".
you only split bill with your friends, friends are people who you have very very very good Guanxi with.
6. don't judge anything unless you really have to, don't talk bad problems to any local. They are in general very sensitive. sometimes something even like "The service of China Mobile (a local company) is crap" will be regarded as offensive to the Chinese people whom you are talking to.
7. Be on time for all business meetings.
8. no tipping. don't get fooled. only people have note printing machines in their back yard give tip in hotels/restaurants. you give tips in front of your business partner, you have 50% chance to be judged as alien.
9. under the table money (gray income) is widely involved in business, however you need to be more "civilized" and "innovative" to do that.
10. the word "housewife" is in general offensive, usually means "useless"/uneducated, but in modern Chinese culture, women are 100% equal to men. don't be surprised to see so many female engineers/doctors/other professionals, be surprised if you don't have a female boss in your company.
shaking hand should be the only physical contact with girls in work place.
11. red color means lucky to Chinese, that is the best color for Chinese. a hat in green color is the most offensive thing, never have anything green on your head.
12. only kiss girls/ladies who have sexual relationship with you. only gay males kiss each other. these are not gays, these two are close friends:
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_WILGcMqb_mY/SHwo8jWnrhI/AAAAAAAAADc/BPv5M3OJo1M/DSC00332.JPG
okay, the above things only apply when you have to have some local connections, they usually don't apply to foreigners. most foreigners/expats in China/Shanghai live in their own small kingdom without much interaction with locals.
