Bingfeng Teahouse

i find that "guan-xi" is a favorite topic for westerners who are doing or will do business in china. this afternoon i come across three articles talking on "guan-xi": Up close and personal (via: cnn); The Changing Value of "Guanxi" (via: asia business intelligence ); Guanxi and common sense (via: china herald), all are pretty interesting.

in Mr. Kuslan's post, he observed the difference between americans and chinese and commented:

A personal connection to a decision-maker, wherever on the globe, is valuable. But, it is presumed, Chinese hold far greater sway with any given connection than other ethnicities. There is more than just a grain of truth to that. Most Americans, according to my experience and observation, will generally not perform favors for even dear friends, unless either the request is logical or there is a direct and immediate benefit to the person who receives the request.

Chinese, on the other hand, are quite willing to perform favors -- without investing a great deal of ratiocination -- merely because a request has been made by a personal contact. Chinese are extraordinarily sensitive to the needs of their personal contacts – a faculty one might wish more Americans might develop.

in my view, chinese just behave in the same vein as americans do, except their time spans for "investment return" are different - americans expect doing a favor could result in immediate benefits to themselves, while chinese expect that favor would be paid back in many years to come. this has become the social norm for chinese people, and those who don't follow the rules will be punished by excluding from this "guan-xi club", nobody will help them because they have a bad name for not paying back the favors they received before.

over years, this social norm has become a kind of "cultural DNA", people are guided by it but are not aware of it.

chinese men, especially those who live in big cities and are exposed to western business practices, become too logical and near-sighted in their way of thinking, start to treat "guan-xi" as a quick investment tool, as a result, they are either too anxious to get the "investment" back and therefore annoy the favor-receiver, or, they can not see when they could get the "investment" back so they just don't "invest".

on the contrary, most successful women around me are "people people", they love people so much that they are willing to invest a lot of time and money for their friends and making new friends, without fearing that their time and money are gone in vain. over years, they build up a huge network of "guan-xi", which is a big advantage to their business sucess.

pic take from baidu.com

links:

why girls are more successful? - I