For my market cultural report I have selected the country that shows one of the most rapid developing economics in the world, and that is China. I have always been fascinated by this country and not only by their success in economic growth, but also by the country’s beauty. The nature of China is unique and magnificent as for me, there are nowhere on Earth such places as in this country. Moreover, authentic culture and customs of these people are also very attractive to me. There is the highest mountain on Earth, Everest, there and unique place called Tibet. Such places as Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Guangzhou are heard nowadays every day all over the world because deals on millions of dollars are performed there. So, my choice for the report stopped on China, because in my future career I definitely plan to have some business with this country and because of my personal reasons, as I am greatly attracted by it and I wish to travel over this country and to explore its charming culture. China is not far from Singapore, and I believe countries have something in common. Despite modern communications and network, China is not still known well by its neighbors and it is very exotic country, especially for those, who live in Western world countries. China is supposed to be oriental country, with its unique history and long-lasting traditions. First thing to talk about China is that it has the largest population in the world. There are calculated more than 100 cities with the population of more than 1 million people. The country has a very big territory, but still some sites there are densely populated areas. Even India does not have so many crowded cities.
So, let’s have a more deliberate look on the cultural aspects of China country to deep into this magic world. Culture is a very important factor which any foreigner needs to consider profoundly before going to one or another country, especially when it goes about China. Chinese culture has very deep roots back to its ancient predecessors. Chinese people respect their spirituality, customs and traditions. Modernization and ‘westernalization’ have made an economical giant from China, but its citizens strive to maintain their traditions and identity in terms of modern globalization and conversion of the world to one global village. China has very abundant cultural background and long history. Even nowadays, Chinese culture has a big influence on its citizens’ behavior.
Talking about Chinese culture, it is important to consider different aspects, which all have a sufficient impact on culture. So it will be honest to start with Confucianism. This Chinese philosophy comes from Confucius, who was a teacher and philosopher, created a lot of written works, which later became a philosophical background for Imperial Age China. A lot of Chinese are influenced by his works nowadays. The main principal of Confucianism is self-guidance, which is about total respect of other people who are around you – especially he outlined on respect of children towards their parents. Confucius stated that if people respect parents and have an order in their families; there will be an order in the country as well. Two other major aspects of his worldview were Dao and Tian. They stand for spiritual connection with ancestors, by reaching which the person can gain harmony in everyday life. Confucius is very popular among Chinese nowadays, they try to observe his main principles and his worldview was background for modern Chinese culture.
Another vital part of modern Chinese culture is Taoism. The main philosopher of this culture stream was Laozi, and main concept – Dao. According to him, to achieve the harmony in life, people need to follow concepts of nonaction and shade & light (Yin Yang). The principle of non-action is that the person needs to follow the natural calling and not to change the way. The concept of Yin Yang is about the balance of good and bad in life and that the person needs to balance between them in order to reach the inner harmony. Till nowadays, Chinese culture is inspired by the teaching of Confucius and Laozi.
The following are two main streams of Chinese culture. But there are also important sub-cultures which influence Chinese people’s lives nowadays. One of them is ‘Guanxi’ culture – which concerns relationships issue. China is very relationship-oriented community, which is about knowing someone’s position in it, fulfilling the obligations and everyday duties and following the strict standards of Chinese society. Guanxi is about the connection, building relationships between two individuals or organizations. It is a so called psychological Guanxi contract, which is to keep a long-term relationship, loyalty, duty and mutual commitment. The other Chinese subculture is collectivism. It is about that individuals cooperate in groups and make the judgments on their group norms. [Hofstede and Bond, 1988]
Chinese people are typical representatives of collectivists. That is about that they care more about group’s needs than that of separate individual. They are aware of mutual group’s dependence and of their obligation among this group. The distinctive trait of collectivists is that they prefer to be like others in the group, and not to distinguish themselves. Such thing as consensus and public voice is very important for these people and they are concerned much about what others will think about them. The subculture of ‘Mianzi’ stands for ‘Face’ issues. It is about the person’s reputation before other members of community. This subculture is connected with Guanxi and collectivism. It is about that for Chinese it is of great importance to ‘never lose the face’ in the eyes of other people and community. In Chinese culture and Public Relations, Mianzi is an essential component. Chinese people have the set of norms and rule how they have to behave in front of others in order to ‘keep the face’. Each element of Chinese culture is vital and all these factors form this unique and versatile culture of China country.
For people who are so jealous for their culture, it is obvious that they will maintain their culture behavior while doing business with the representatives of other cultures. Chinese transfer the cultural aspects to their business and decision-making. Talking about Chinese Business Culture, it is first of all talking about Chinese culture itself. As it was mentioned before, it is the same from Business perspective - the country is very collectivistic, they respect cooperation. China has a hierarchical structure and they have status quo. Regarding decision-making process, it is not an easy and ongoing, like US one, but Chinese people need to make very detailed and careful analysis before they can make any decision. European and American companies meet real challenges as their business behavior is just controversial to that of Chinese. Chinese employees have very little initiative on themselves, they are not individualistic and when they encounter the problems, they are very slow to report about them. Thus, when the situation goes too far, only then Chinese bosses become aware of the situation when the problem is very serious. All these happens because of Chinese fear to ‘lose the face’ in front of the society. It has bad consequences obviously. But slowly-slowly this trait is changed. Privatization is a rare thing in China, but more often it happens nowadays. The country is moving to entrepreneurship, but this does not go fast. China is in its transitional stage now. Before doing business in China it is important to do the Analysis of for and against of its culture. First of all, the bad things are those that China is communism country and it has socialist philosophy, the high levels of corruption, strict rules and limitations for foreign operations, monopolies and state-owned economy, low product quality standards, poverty among citizens and disconnection of rural areas. But on the other hand, the good things about Chinese business environment and its culture is that new working people are coming to the society, they welcome the foreign investments, economy has more tendencies to privatization, they became more aware of quality standards and in 2012 year it was created Standardization Administration, the middle class of people is rising up in the country, they have a big economical growth level, the government becomes more decentralized recently.
Singapore and China are both Asian countries and they have some similarities in their Business Cultures, but still two countries are much more different then they are alike. Singapore is the country with very high quality of living; by the International Ranking they place the first place by the ease of leading the Business, while China is down on 79th. Singapore is the place where is very low rate of corruption and many foreigners desire to come here for living and doing business, while in China foreigners are more afraid than eager to live and manage the deals. Due to the closeness of two countries and common historical heritage, they have many in common. One of similarities is ‘Mianzi’ culture in both cultures. It is very important to ‘keep the face’ in both countries, if you want to deal with these people you need to be polite and positive all the time, otherwise it will impact on your business negotiations. If something goes wrong and you need to make complaints, in no way you should tell this to the person in front of the group, but only individually. Being in these countries you need to show respect to older people and to those who are around you, otherwise it will be big problems. In any situation, you need to ‘keep the face’, never show that you are upset on the public. What is important here is reserve and tact. But what makes a difference in these two business cultures is that in China not only ‘Mianzi’ (face) is important to take into account, but also ‘Guanxi’ (connections). Guanxi in China is above the law and legal framework. Chinese dedicate a lot of importance to this subculture, while it is a bit lower in Singapore. Singaporeans are the mix of many cultures which are Chinese, Malay, Indian and European. Singapore has successfully blended all the cultures together which peacefully inhabit the country now. But still in Singapore group relations are important, they will think about the individual reputation in the eyes of the group, but not to such an expand as it is in China. This will not affect business much in Singapore. Singaporeans are polite and friendly people, but they are very concerned about their own goals. In the Business Culture they expect honesty, politeness, experience and team-spirit. People in Singapore are very hardworking and they will expect from their partners the same. Respect towards other people depends here directly from their age, status, education and achievements. People who place high positions are advanced in age than those who have lower positions. Culture rules in Singapore are not easy, but if to observe them, the person will live good and prosperous life. That’s why Singapore is such a desired placed for foreigners. What cannot be said to such extend about China.
The best known method to explore the culture of foreign country in the terms of doing business there is Hofstede cultural dimensions. They comprise of 5 dimensions, but not all of them can be measured for Chinese culture, due to closeness of business environment. Only one dimension can be measured exactly, but the others can be measured approximately. First dimension is the Degree of Individualism and it is measured in China approximately as 25 (US 91). Chinese individualism dimension is very low because of their collectivism culture. The group’s needs are of the first importance, not the individuals. Second dimension is power distance and it is also measured approximately at the degree of 70 (US 40). The numbers are so high in China due to the hierarchical system in the country, bureaucratic and state-owned economy. Third dimension is intolerance for uncertainty, evaluated approximately at the level of 85 in China (US 46). The ratio is also high due to the same factors as dimension two. But in this case, it has positive tendency, as it is moving lower with the higher levels of accepted risk in last year mostly due to the influence of foreign businessmen. Forth dimension is the degree of assertiveness; approximately it is 39 in China (US 62). Such numbers are also due to the group mind of Chinese people and hierarchical structure of the country. The last fifth dimension is long-term orientation and this is the only one dimension which can be evaluated accurately in Chinese culture. It takes the number of 118 (US 29) due to their biggest amounts of savings in the world (40% of country’s GDP) which is very good in this case.
This market cultural report is about the country, which I chose – China. The country has a very versatile history and culture, it is unique and that is what makes the country different from other countries in the world. The main influence on nowadays Chinese culture has such philosophies and subcultures as Confucianism, Taoism, collectivism, Mianzi and Guanxi. Each subculture stands for particular aspects of Chinese people’s life. In Chinese business culture plays a big role to ‘keep the face’ in front of the group and groups needs and obligations are of the first importance. Despite being an economical giant, China is a difficult place for people to lead the business due to the state-owned businesses and hierarchical structure. But the things are going better with the influence of West World. In comparison with China, Singapore has some similar traits of Business Culture, as they have a common heritage. But still Singapore is a mix of many cultures, besides Chinese, also Indian and European. Singapore has many similar traits of Business Culture with China, but doing business here is much easier due to legislation and acceptance of foreign cultures. But still China is a very interesting place to visit; it has one of the fastest growing economies in the world and huge cultural heritage, which is worth being explored.
References:
China's Most Famous Cities, 7 Well-known Chinese Cities. (2016). ChinaHighlights. Retrieved 28 March 2016, from http://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/most-famous-cities.htm
China -- A Country Analysis. (2016). Sixsmart.com. Retrieved 28 March 2016, from http://www.sixsmart.com/SSPapers/subchina.htm
(2016). Ccsenet.org. Retrieved 28 March 2016, from http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ach/article/viewFile/361/290
Huntington, S. (1996). The clash of civilizations and the remaking of world order. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Kroeber, A. (1952). The nature of culture. [Chicago]: University of Chicago Press.
China - Geert Hofstede. (2016). Geert-hofstede.com. Retrieved 28 March 2016, from http://geert-hofstede.com/china.html
PEST Analysis of China. (2015). PESTLE Analysis. Retrieved 28 March 2016, from http://pestleanalysis.com/pest-analysis-of-china/
Business culture in Singapore. (2016). Singapore.um.dk. Retrieved 28 March 2016, from http://singapore.um.dk/en/the-trade-council/menu-4/
Singapore - Language, Culture, Customs and Etiquette | global-etiquette | resources. (2016). Kwintessential.co.uk. Retrieved 28 March 2016, from http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/singapore.html
Business Culture in Singapore. (2016). Internations.org. Retrieved 28 March 2016, from https://www.internations.org/singapore-expats/guide/16086-jobs-business/doing-business-in-singapore-16065/business-culture-in-singapore-2
