Summary

	Westerners must understand Confucius' impact on Chinese culture.
	Symbols and images are an integral part of communication.
	Commit to building relationships slowly and for the long haul.

Napoleon called China a sleeping dragon and said there would be woe to the world when the dragon awakes. As the world knows, the dragon is more than stirring.

The statistics are staggering. There are now more Chinese learning English in China than there are Americans. Just the margin of error in calculating China's official population is greater than the entire US population.

Quick Tips Color Red: Traditionally associated with the emperor (and more recently, the communist party) is still symbolic of wealth and success when used with products and services. Gold and Yellow: Associated with success and power. White and Black: Typically associated with funerals, so they are to be avoided. Beliefs Feng Shui: Don't move things around in a home or office. They may have been placed there auspiciously. Chicken Heads: Kept at the business banquet table facing the host (if the head points to anyone else at he table, it is a symbol that they will be fired). The Number Four: Considered very unlucky, as the word is pronounced similarly to the word for death. The Number Eight: Very lucky, and any association with the number eight means lots of good luck, wealth, health and happiness. Eating Customs Chopsticks: At the banquet table, never stick your chopsticks into the rice standing up (a symbol used at funerals), and always lay them down parallel on the side of your plate when you are done. Never make an "X" with them or separate them on either side of the plate. Drinks: Never serve yourself a drink at the banquet table, always fill your neighbor's glass. This is his cue to fill yours. Dining: You should not take the last bit of food on the serving plate, and always leave a little food on your own plate to indicate you are finished.

While China is most definitely still a developing nation, it is the largest developing nation in the world. You simply won't get anything done in China without understanding some fundamentals about this extraordinary civilization and culture.

Confucius Rules

Confucius, a philosopher of sorts who lived more than 2,500 years ago, still has the greatest influence over every aspect of Chinese society. Westerners attempting to work in China should understand the profound impact that Confucian ideas have on the average Chinese citizen.

Essentially, Chinese society was in considerable disorder when Confucius observed that the path to happiness for any society lay in the degree to which individuals understood and obeyed their given roles in the order of things. For example, the child always obeyed the teacher, the father obeyed the leaders, and the wife obeyed the husband. They believe in the value of individuals not desiring to change their place in the world, not seeking individual acknowledgment based on individual achievement, and the requirement that anything done right must be done with consideration for how it impacts others and the correct or righteous order of things.

Subsequently, the notion of guanxi, or networks of dependent relationships, shaped the way things were done and relationships built. Personal obligations and the degree to which individuals promoted such obligations became the driving force in Chinese daily life.

Working in China today still requires recognition of guanxi's power. For example, gifts are given as a token of respect and allow individuals to build obligations between themselves and others who can assist them in China's business and social world.

Consumer Yin and Yang

The great paradox of modern political reality: How can the world's largest communist nation also be the world's largest consumer market? Easy, when it is also the society most experienced in manipulating symbols based on ancient traditions that emphasize integrating potentially conflicting opposites into a harmonized whole.

Communicating in China, therefore, means employing symbols, reducing text and mastering implied meanings when words and pictures are used. Consider that all Chinese languages are still written with pictographic characters and the old Chinese saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words."

Speech is often guarded and filled with symbolic and metaphorical meanings. Look for the meaning of things not in the words, but in the context.

Turning a Bar of Iron into a Needle

There is an old Chinese puzzle: How do you change an iron bar into a needle?

The answer is by striking the iron bar over and over again. The moral of this story? Perseverance. Tenacity. Repetition. The Great Wall was built brick by brick. Time and action are different in China.

Another old Chinese saying states, "If you go to the stream in the morning, you observe that a rock in the stream has the power to part the waters rushing over it. But if you return to the same stream in 100 years, you see that the water has washed away the rock."

Your Chinese associates should perceive you as someone who is working in China for the long haul. This takes long-term thinking and commitment. Remember: Trust and relationship go a long way in China. Adjust to the culture's requirements and do not expect immediate results. You can sell those billion toothbrushes, but you are selling in China, and that makes all the difference.