Guanxi, Face and Asian Culture
The myth of the inscrutable Orient is often played up by Western writers. Nowhere is this more apparent than in business texts, but books about everything Eastern, from spirituality to travel, claim to be able to decode those strange folks overthere for us overhere. While the minute differences between the East and the West are far more interesting than the overwhelming similarities, the emphasis on the exotic is more often damaging than it is helpful.
Guanxi
Guanxi is an exotic Oriental concept that is just so unknowable by Westerners that it cannot even be translated into English. All sarcasm aside, guanxi is a great word (Kahal, p. 181) for which there is no single-word transliteration in English. That doesn't mean that it is difficult to understand or unique to Chinese culture. The easiest way to describe guanxi is to say "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours." The concept as sold to Western business readers is that guanxi is some all encompassing, all important idea that you must understand in order to do business in China. It is sometimes even suggested that guanxi is more important than profit. In both business and personal relationships, guanxi is a network of people and institutions that owe you favors or that you reciprocally owe favors to.
Of course such business and personal relationships have "existed for thousands of years in both the East and the West." (Lee, p. 147) Are they more important in China than in the U.S.? Perhaps. "Guanxi is how things get done." in China, according to the Web site Cultural Savvy. Guanxi is often cited as the reason why a particular Western business initiative failed in China. This might be true, but no one should be surprised that a Shanghai company might go with a local company over one from Texas, primarily because of relationship. The concept of guanxi is more more formal and explicit in China than it is in the U.S., but is guanxi a totally alien to westerners? Of course not.
Face
Face is often cited as being a part of guanxi. The China-Britain Business Council (CBBC) defines "face" as "having a high status in the eyes of one's peers, and is a mark of personal dignity." The CBBC's paragraph goes on to say that the Chinese are "acutely sensitive" to "face" and that losing face is bad. They suggest that you can cause someone to lose face by insulting them or criticizing them in front of others, and that Westerners can accidentally cause someone to lose face by "making fun of them in a good-natured way." So, let me get this straight: Chinese businessmen like being admired and having high-status and dislike it when people insult or criticize them, especially in public. Wow. That is totally different from Western culture, where people love being looked down on and insulted.
One book cautions westerners in China against venting one's frustrations or throwing harsh words "across the negotiating table." (Brahm, 2003.) Great advice, no? In Chinese Business Etiquette (1999), D. Scott Seligman claims that "Name-calling, playful dressing down, and sarcastic commentary... seldom occurs among Asians, for whom face is always very serious business." (Seligman, p. 55) Please. I'm not sure what bizarre and sheltered part of China Mr. Seligman lived in, but the Chinese people I've lived and worked with engaged in an awful lot of "name-calling, playful dressing down, and sarcastic commentary." Did they engage in this behavior during formal business meetings? Of course not.
I'm not picking on these writers: there is nothing remarkable or particularly unique about what they say in these books. For example, Seligman goes on (in a very typical way) to say that "Complimenting a worker to his superior and publicly recognizing someone's efforts" or "thanking someone who has worked hard on a particular project" are good ways of "giving face." Wow. What a radical concept.
Don't Touch Monks on the Head
The funniest example of worthless advice is more light-hearted and easier to understand. Any travel book about Thailand will warn you not to touch anyone on the head. (Ackerman, p.122) Sometimes Westerners are specifically admonished not to touch women, girls, children or monks on the head. I've also seen this warning in books on Japanese, Indonesian and other Asian cultures. How often do you touch anyone's head? I suppose it doesn't hurt to warn belligerent Americans not to be rude. And a Thai probably does take more offense at a head pat than a Westerner would.
By the way, it is not entirely the West's fault for misunderstanding these Asian values: any and all of the examples in this essay could very well have come from Eastern sources. I suppose we can retrieve some useful advice from the dozens of books and articles designed to help Westerners understand the Chinese: don't act like an ass. The rest of the world probably does see Americans as a bunch of rude, loudmouthed Texan goodoldboys and it is probably best to tone any inclinations you have towards this stereotype down, especially when negotiating business contracts.
There are cultural differences between the East and the West (however you'd like to define those terms). These differences are fascinating and important and worth studying, but we humans are much more alike than we are different. So my advice to the Western businessman traveling to the Orient: try to be polite, don't be an ass, don't insult anyone and, forgodsake, don't BennyHill any monks on the head.
Created: 23 September, 2003
Updated: 16 December, 2003
Online References:
- <http://www.cbbc.org/china-guide/gstarted/ten_tips.html>
- <http://www.thailand.com/travel/facts/fact_dodont.htm>
Print References:
Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses. Vintage Books; (1991).
Laurence J. Brahm, When Yes Means No! (Or Yes or Maybe): How to Negotiate a Deal in China. Charles E Tuttle Co; (August 2003).
Sonia El Kahal, Business in Asia-Pacific. Oxford University Press; (2001).
Charles Lee, Cowboys and Dragons: Shattering Cultural Myths to Advance Chinese-American Business. Dearborn Trade Publishing; (March 2003).
D. Scott Seligman, Chinese Business Etiquette: A Guide to Protocol, Manners, and Culture in the People's Republic of China. Warner Books; (March 1999).