When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in .

You've reached your limit of one free article.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime .

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Exclusive International news coverage

Ad-free experience NEW

Weekly digital Magazine NEW

9 daily & weekly Newsletters

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Free trial

30-days free access, then $2.90
per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
Economy

When Business Crosses Cultures, Etiquette Alone Won't Cut It

When dealing with 'distant cultures' like China, communication is key. But a bit of business-is-business pragmatism doesn't hurt either.

The Chinese two-handed method of presenting a business card
The Chinese two-handed method of presenting a business card
Claudia Labarca

-Analysis-

SANTIAGO — Ask Google "how to do business in China" and you'll get about 30 million answers. That's if you pose the question in Spanish. In English, it'd be closer to 1.2 billion answers.

Most of the search engine's Spanish-language tips are about the customs or cultural traits people seeking to do business in China should consider. It will advise you on basic points of etiquette: like presenting your business card with both hands, for example; exchanging gifts; or showing respect for Chinese culture.

Such pointers work on the essential premise of inter-cultural communication, namely trying to understand partners from another culture. And that's important. But as the sociologist Mark Granovetter argues, we also run the risk of "over-socializing" economic relations with China. By that he means emphasizing social criteria at the expense of rational and economic criteria.

The risk of over-simplifying Chinese identity, of assuming that there is a single, national conduct.

This over-socialization may even be deemed an example of "orientalism," as termed by the historian Edward Said. Orientalism positions your interlocutor as fundamentally different (and implicitly pre-modern or un-modern), and subject to cultural considerations that exceed strictly rational bounds.

At the same time, taking a strictly rational path doesn't necessarily spell success in inter-cultural business relations either. Based on conversations I've had with Chilean business executives who interact with China, there seems to be a range of approaches used. At one extreme are people who see cultural considerations as irrelevant. In their mind, business is business, regardless of where you live or work. On the other extreme are those who put themselves at a disadvantage by trying — often without success and generally on a superficial level — to assimilate alien norms of behavior and thus strengthen interpersonal ties.

With the latter approach, there's also the risk of over-simplifying Chinese identity, of assuming that there is a single, national conduct, and equal cultural and trading values across China. A society that has some 1.4 billion members and dozens of different ethnic groups, and that has undergone the globalization process at differing paces since the rule of the late Chairman Deng Xiao Ping, must, by definition, have a diversity of business practices and values. And yet, for people wanting to do business in China, those differences may be difficult to identify, try they might to take a culturally sensitive approach.

Perhaps the best way to avoid extremes is through constant interaction and observation of the other side, and by seeking reciprocity — what political scientist Robert Axelrod calls the "tit-for-tat" approach. An improved version would be a rational, collaborative model, wherein cultural variables effectively coincide to improve economic cooperation.

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

food / travel

When Racism Poisons Italy's Culinary Scene

This is the case of chef Mareme Cisse, a black woman, who was called a slur after a couple found out that she was the one who would be preparing their meal.

Photo of Mareme Cisse cooking

Mareme Cisse in the kitchen of Ginger People&Food

Caterina Suffici

-Essay-

TURIN — Guess who's not coming to dinner. It seems like a scene from the American Deep South during the decades of segregation. But this happened in Italy, in this summer of 2023.

Two Italians, in their sixties, got up from the restaurant table and left (without saying goodbye, as the owner points out), when they declared that they didn't want to eat in a restaurant where the chef was what they called: an 'n-word.'

Racists, poor things. And ignorant, in the sense of not knowing basic facts. They don't realize that we are all made of mixtures, come from different racial and ethnic backgrounds. And that food, of course, are blends of different ingredients and recipes.

The restaurant is called Ginger People&Food, and these visitors from out of town probably didn't understand that either.

Keep reading...Show less

The latest