A Review on “Living and Working in China: Understanding Communication Requirements”.

Firstly, the information provided and the efforts put on by the authors for the article can be highly appreciated. They were adept in elucidating every key point in detail and meticulously focusing on that key point with very good instances of the situations involved in them. The intended audience was the technical personnel who are going to work or working in the Chinese business world. The Authors were successful in distinguishing the key points and common mistakes that new visitors to China make. This article depicts the way Chinese culture influences the people involved in its business world. Finally, the authors were successful in offering their perspectives both as Westerners who have lived and worked in China and as a Chinese person who currently resides and studies in the U.S.


One of the aspects I liked about this article is the way how the authors mentioned, addressing the Chinese people differs from the way the westerner’s addressing. I should say one should be very careful before addressing a person. It was very interesting to read how the approach of calling the person in the opposite sex with their first name or just first letter in their name changes the understanding of relationship between them. If you do the same here in the western world it does not make much of a difference. Another is the way usage of powerful words in the communication helps the Chinese remember a person and how the Chinese standards differ in understanding English even with a simple change of sense. I liked the way Chinese people use slogans in their day to day communication. I do think it is a very effective way to communicate with people. I liked the way they follow their unique tradition of using the official letter jie shao xin.


The Authors clearly mention how scrupulous one should be while communicating with the Chinese people and presenting themselves officially through a sealed letter. They told us to follow the rules of English Grammar strictly while communicating with Chinese people as English is their second language and they strictly follow the rules of the language according to text provided by the Authority. As the Chinese people have good memorization, even a simple grammatical error in our language creates ambiguity and it lets down our being accepted by the people with whom we are supposed to work. And, the way contradicting a person’s ideas or even calling the word “plagiarism” in the communication can put us in trouble. We need to understand and develop our own way to combat chen mo shi jin(“silence is golden”) attitude which does not really help in effective communication with our colleagues. They say that we should not be really frustrated with the un-specific response we get from the Chinese people. Actually, it is quite common in most of the countries. So, it is better to get used to this.


The aspects in Chinese culture which depreciates the effective communications are the way the people follow the “chen mo shi jin” attitude. The authors mentioned a way to overcome this situation. But, I don’t think it will work all the times. It is always good to question or contradict someone’s ideas even if they are higher officials. It can solve lots of problems. It is mentioned that the Chinese people are good listeners. It is also actually necessary to be a good speaker for an effective communication. The 4 hour classes will be more interesting if there is interaction between the listeners and speaker.Also, The Chinese practice of using someone else’s ideas or words without the attribution of the owner for their own profit which we call “plagiarism” in western culture is not at all a good practice for communication, esp. for Technical communication. One should not get credit for other person’s intellectual property. It is highly illegal. The Article says that “The traditional structure of the educational system in China both promotes and rewards what Westerners consider plagiarism”1, I strongly think that measures are needed to be taken to stop this kind of practice. Even though, if it is followed as a tradition, the Chinese need to stop this even if it impacts on their cultural sensitivity. It also has a bad influence on their culture from other cultures.

I conclude that this article was very helpful in understanding the Chinese communication behavior. One can clearly understand the Chinese cultural sensitivity and challenges involved in their communication styles after reading this article. I liked the way the authors support their article by stating “Ru xiang sui su, which means “enter the village, follow the custom,” is the Chinese equivalent of “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” 1. Because, it is quite true and makes our life easy when we go to a new place like China.

References:

(1) Living and Working in China: Understanding Communication
Requirements - William O. Coggin, Betty F. Coggin, Xiaoli Li