| In Taiwan, when we’re talking with government officials or these kinds people, we are more interested in establishing a relationship. Once we have a relationship, we say that getting things done is no problem, méiyǒu guānxì. Méiyǒu guānxì as in “no problem.” [See note 1 below.] So, usually, we first want to establish a relationship. When we enter into business negotiations, we prefer to first understand each other’s backgrounds, each other’s likes, each other’s ways of doing things, each other’s values. In this situation, where everybody has a baseline for understanding one another, it becomes very easy to work together.
Once we understand each other’s backgrounds, we can imagine our own point of view as seen through the other guy’s eyes, and both can seek a midpoint. Therefore, in Taiwan, very few people will talk directly about the key issues on first meeting someone. Everyone usually passes around their cigarettes and exchanges background information about themselves. Once everyone begins to get a little more familiar with each other, between them, uh, they begin to share a little bit of tacit understanding, they begin to feel a little more familiar with one another. Then they address the issues. Everybody begins to express their thoughts. Now because of the more familiar environment that you’ve already established, the negotiations go more smoothly. At this point we, we usually talk in a reserved way, we don’t directly state what we want clearly. Of course, the Orient places more emphasis on a kind of so-called beauty of indirectness. And in business talks, being too direct is very taboo. The majority of situations in Taiwan are going to be like this.
Naturally, the current Westernization has brought in a lot of Western ideas. So, in some situations, what we were just talking about isn’t entirely accurate. Some people have a background in Western thinking, and s will have some different ideas about these kinds of situations. Basically, we are more reserved and indirect, but there are some people who are more direct. You could say that we’ve got all kinds of diverse thinking on this. Um, basically, traditionally speaking, we’re careful to be reserved. But the reality of industrial society is such that we can tolerate diving right into the issues immediately. So, in Taiwan, um, you need to be prepared to face this kind of diversity in people’s approach to business negotiations. That’s my view. Thank you.
1 Méiyǒu guānxì can mean both “no relationship” and “no problem.” The speaker is therefore clarifying his previous statement. He wants to make plain that he is not now speaking of a “no relationship” situation, but rather reiterating that once one has a relationship, negotiations can proceed without difficulty. | 在台湾啊大部分我们跟政府官员啊或者是跟这些人中在交谈的时候，我们是比较希望建立关系呀。一旦有关系呢，我们讲就是做事情就没有什么问题，没有关系，没有关系就是没有什么问题。所以通常我们希望先跟人们建立关系。 进行商业谈判的时候的话，我们比较希望说我们大家先了解彼此的背景，彼此的喜好，彼此做事情的方式，彼此的价值判断。在这种情况之下，大家了解彼此的一个底细了，所以因此我们做起事情来就非常方便。
那所以在彼此了解之对方的背景之后，那我们就可以根据对方的立场想象我们的立场，双方可以求得一个平衡点。因此呢，我们在台湾那，多数人很少在一见面的时候就直接切进商业谈判的主题。通常大家会先来交换啊一根烟啊互相呢交换一下大家的背景资料。大家开始熟悉之后，互相之间呢啊能够呢开始有一点觉得有一点默契，有一点开始熟悉的感觉。这时候针对问题，大家开始提出一些想法，那由于有前面的一个啊一个熟悉的一个环境的一个条件呢，因此，商业谈判就变得比较顺利。我们在这个时候我们通常讲话也是很含蓄的，不会很直接的把我们所要的那个东西太清楚的表达出来。当然，东方比较强调所谓一种含蓄的美，那在商业谈判也是很忌讳非常直接，啊，这是一个就台湾多数的一个情况。
当然因为现在西化了，很多西方的思想进来，所以某些情况之下，我刚刚所讲的也不完全绝对。有些人他有西方的思想背景，这时候他也会那有一些不同的思想。基本上来讲，我们是比较含蓄的，但是也有一些人是比较直接的，可以说是兼容并蓄的有多元的思想。啊基本上来讲，传统上，我们讲究含蓄。那由于工业社会实践的关系，我们也容许呢一开门就见山来谈主题的。那所以呢，在台湾，啊你要能够适应这种多元的这种商业谈判的方式。啊这是我的看法。谢谢！ |