| Avoiding offence is really important in Chinese culture. Chinese people often say “harmony is valuable.” What this is saying is that unless there is an absolute need, we should do our utmost not to infringe on the other guy’s dignity or privacy. Therefore, when doing business, there’s often an unstated rule that when we’re doing business, we won’t discuss things that the other guy is sensitive about. I’ll give you an example. Chinese people have very deep feelings about their culture and their ancestors. So, uh, but Westerners don’t understand this, so sometimes, when discussing things, Westerners are often derogatory in their tone or critical of Chinese culture. This makes, uh, hurts Chinese people’s feelings. So in this… when similar issues [arise], Westerners would be best to show some cultural sensitivity, or have an egalitarian attitude.
Another problem is that Chinese people, uh, are fastidious about the ethical principle of… or let me give you an example. We often say, “Young and old are different; host and guest are different.” This means that when Americans go to China, they are guests. So many times… we say, “When in Rome….” So, typically… [you should] respect your guest [sic]… respect your host’s opinion. Another thing is that when you meet a Chinese person who is older than you, you should express an appropriate degree of respect, just like in the West you would show appropriate respect to a woman. This, uh, moving on…. Of course, there are still a lot of other issues, some small issues. I can’t list all of them here. In sum, I’m saying to pay attention to cultural differences and avoid touching on things that the other guy has a hard time with and doesn’t really want to talk about. OK, thank you. | 啊，避免冒犯是非常重要的，在中国文化里面。中国人常常讲“和为贵”，也就是说我们除非绝对必要，我们尽量避免去触及对方的尊严和隐私。这样在商业活动中，就常常意味着说，我们做很多事情的时候，我们不要去讨论对方感觉到敏感的事情。我举个例子讲。中国人对自己的文化，对自己的祖先，啊，有一种很深的感情，所以，啊，但是西方人由于不了解这些，在有时候谈论的时候，西方人常常会以一种调侃的口吻，或者是以一种批评的态度去看待中国的文化。而这样会使，啊，中国人感觉到很受伤害。所以在这、类似于这样的问题的时候，啊，西方人最好有一种文化的敏感的态度、或者说一种平等的态度。另外还有一个问题是说，中国人，啊，讲究一种伦理，或者举个例子说，我们常常说，啊，长幼有别，主客有别。也就是说，美国人到中国去，是作为客人。所以很多时候，啊，我们说客随主便，所以很多时候要，啊，尊重客人，啊，尊重主人的意见。啊，另外一个是说，如果你见一个比你年长的中国人，你要表达出一种适度的尊敬，就好像在西方你对妇女要表达出一种适度的尊敬一样。这就，啊，通过。当然还有一些很多其他的问题，一些小的问题，啊，我这里不能够一一的讲。总而言之就是说注意到一种文化的差异，避免去触及对方感到难堪和不太愿意讨论的问题。好，谢谢。 |