Quote:
Originally Posted by PTLou
quanxi
*guanxi
while you'll get some neat tidbits and anecdotes, nearly all that stuff you'll find online is via the lens of an amateur who at best correctly translated in his head 85% of all the words he hears when spoken to - I've never seen anything publicly written that I found remotely helpful/accurate and it often includes a bunch of outdated old wives tales or things like obscure table manners like don't stick your chopsticks in the food so they stand up
i don't pretend to be an expert, but those things detailing guanxi and how it works online are written like a vegas poker guide that says check raising is unsportsmanlike and discouraged
if you're not chinese this is something you will never understand nor possibly excel at but that's ok because it's expected since you're not chinese
you can get an advantage by learning how interactions go but that is an advantage over other outsiders as you'd be easier to deal with
i've had countless interactions where afterwards my chinese colleagues criticized how "i royally ffed up" because i didn't understand i was supposed to do or say x, y, z during a meeting - even basic things like you get a closed fist for cooperation emoji and you should reciprocate back with the same one otherwise you're giving the cold shoulder
but most importantly, you largely get a free pass as a foreigner and they aren't factoring in their relationship with you because of your ability to navigate their business culture but rather only dealing with you because for whatever reason a chinese person/company can't provide what you can and if they are dealing with you it's possibly a short term cooperation while they figure a way to cut you out of the loop
ie a Chinese company wants to do tv advertising in Italy, they'll hire an Italian ad agency and the agency is thinking this'll be a long term partnership and the chinese firm tells them it will be as well but meanwhile they are hiring chinese who studied abroad in Italy and having them learn by observing and working with the Italian agency until they feel like they understand enough about the process to suddenly terminate the contract halfway through but they do so not by terminating it but rather taking the old office space approach and ceasing payments and letting it sort itself out naturally - consulted and worked for a number of chinese firms and you wouldn't believe how many times I witnessed something like this happen
but going back to guanxi, nearly every large company has at leat 1 guy and maybe even an entire department whose entire job is take out clients, officials, investors and other vips to go golfing, eat at a michelin star restaurant then off to the brothels - they stories those guys have are amazing - apparently there's this blowjob where the girl hangs over you on a rope attached to the ceiling that's twisted around so she is slowly spinning from above as she sucks you off
that's guanxi, and no, you'll not read about that on some blog telling you about which seat to sit at and how to hold your chopsticks
but yeah, the advice i always give out anyone who does business with china is to always send out a representative to do a meet and greet in person, even if it's some dry and boring interaction done through an interpreter, if they can visualize your face when they see your name in the email or hear your voice over the phone you suddenly go way up in priority - if a shoelace factory supplies 5 american shoe companies and has a labor shortage so can't meet obligations it's the companies who have sent reps in person in the past who will get the priority
ps suncity is a massive developer with skyscrapers all over china, i used to live in one of their complexes