凤凰网今天转载了一篇选自《中国青年报》的署名文章：禾刀：看中国酒桌社交的江湖式诚信。文章对现流行的“酒桌文化”做了一番分析，探讨了社会诚信危机与“酒”之联系。转载于此共享。

如今，越来越多的外国人了解了中国从北到南，从商场到官场的“酒桌社交”，甚至明白了汉语语境下“关系”一词的含义。但他们除了依旧不能适应中国的 酒桌文化外，还认为这背后隐藏着制度、体制问题。英国《金融时报》形容说，在中国，“关系”是一个迷宫般的网络，外人很难窥得其中的奥秘，维护这个迷宫需 要昂贵的成本，而酒是其中一项。（《西安晚报》8月17日）

别说外国人搞不懂，就是置身于酒桌社交中的国民，也常常深感既被酒桌社交所累，又常常难置身于外，否则，要么与社会格格不入，沦为孤家寡人，进而工作推动起来自然十分艰难。酒桌社交风潮之下，形成了许多灰色关系哲学，比如“酒杯一端，政策放宽；酒足饭停，不行也行；饭馆酒醉，不是也对”。灰色哲学的背后，终其根本在于一个“求”字，即有求一方向被求一方以酒饭表达原则之外的感情忠诚。

平级如朋友亲人也有以酒饭盛情的，但真正对社会构成危害的则是不同等级为“求”而来的酒饭款待。如同下级对上级，项目争取方对审批方，乙方对甲方， 政策公关者对把关者……一些从事业务的人深知，酒桌是沟通的理想渠道之一，许多业务正是在觥筹交错的杯光酒影中达成的。正因如此，敬酒者唯恐意不真情不 切，宁愿以醉“殉忠”，唯此才可能达成请客吃饭拉拢感情的最终目的，这点很像武侠小说里大碗喝酒称兄道弟式的江湖式诚信，只是，在这种酒饭铰接的江湖式诚 信链条的同时，原则业已沦为夯实个人感情的筹码。也不知道万科的王石，在深感不行贿被孤立被嘲笑的背后，到底有多少幕后交易达成于酒桌之上。

关于诚信，《小康》杂志最近的一项调查表明，农民、宗教职业者、性工作者、军人和学生被选为本年度最讲诚信的五个群体（小康杂志8月16日）。这五 个群体并非酒桌社交主流，虽然占据着社会的绝对多数，但缺乏足够支配社会资源的制度平台，加之本身工作特性抑或制度宗教等客观原因，导致他们被迫置身于江 湖式诚信体系之外，反倒成全了他们诚信的清白名声。

《小康》杂志的调查还着重提到，“49％的人对政府、人际、公司三类的信用危机表示‘都非常担心’”。很显然，这才是社会关系中的核心部分，本来应努力构建社会显性关系规则的“三类”，其诚信却颇受质疑，这或许可以成为潜规则盛行的原因。

以社会发展眼光看，个人感情至上的江湖式诚信理当为文明社会所抛弃。社会诚信体系失守，同时意味着原则政策等潜规则失灵，江湖式诚信必然打着各种幌子趁虚而入，积极上位。实际上，被请吃者往往寄望于此种途径，表面上是考察对方忠诚度，实则也是判断自己打的那些小九九的安全系数。这也就是讲，所谓的江 湖式诚信并非只是因为一时兴起，仅仅贪图那一杯杯玉琼良浆，一时的口感之快，往往更在于政策失守背后的利益勾结。引用一句老话:没有无缘无故的恨，也没有 无缘无故的爱，酒桌社交将这种爱恨演绎得如此逼真，只是晕头晕脑之时，犹如那些醉驾司机，什么原则制度只怕早就甩到耳朵背后。

A recent article on China Daily cited some findings by the International Business Center (IBC, a US-based non-profit organization) on Chinese business culture and etiquettes. According to IBC, “the general nature of locals is conservative, reserved and disciplined”, and there are “specific codes of behavior” to adhere to.

Big Social Functions

Chinese value face and make decisions collectively and over a lengthy period. There is always respect for a host and many Chinese are passionate socialites enjoying functions.

Eating First, and Business Second

“…But in China, people meet for dinner and talk about general topics first before getting down to business.”

No Talking About Politics

The IBC reminds foreigners to avoid any ostentatious or overt displays of emotion or affection and to keep social conversations safe. Talking about culture, customs, travel or food are good topics. Talking about politics is not.

Many Speeches

…the continuous volley of speeches, which occurs at many local parties.
…When toasting, the host always speaks first.

Avoid Open embarrassment

…most Chinese will not discuss their feelings when dissatisfied

Relationship Important

In China, “relationships are everything”.
Open criticisms of others or admissions of guilt threaten such relationships, so these are avoided.

The research spotted some real and visible cultural formalities and practices, and it is indeed helpful for people from other countries to know. But knowing it is one thing, using it is really another. In many cases, not knowing is perhaps better than overuse it. You will need to distinguish between the bad and the good practices before you actually use them, since not all of them you see are regarded as good practices and suitable in all occasions, such as Huaquan. The article on China Daily (surprisingly) showed a picture of a Chinese man teaches his expat friend to play Huaquan (above), but in fact it is not taken as a civilized manner by general public, and is not suitable in formal occasions.

In most cases of Chinese people meeting with foreigners, there are invisible cultural elements quietly taking its functions during such intercultural encounters: Chinese people are always trying to show their respect and hospitality to foreigners and probably through Chinese ways: you will be asked to making speeches, as a way to show respect; you will be forced, as a way of showing hospitality, to take as much as you can, the food, the drinks, and the ‘intercultural dishes’ as well. As foreigners you will never be regarded as ignorant since you are foreigners. But the fact is that with increasing number of westerners trying to know more about the business etiquettes in China, Chinese business culture has reciprocally started to have its impact on international business practices.

Note: Picture from China Daily

Ever since 1997, the BMW Group has been inviting applications for the BMW Group Award for Intercultural Learning. The Award is divided into two categories, Theory and Practice, and invites academics in many disciplines, including education, to submit qualifying papers and research projects that represent innovative approaches to the advancement of intercultural learning. Entries should be closely aligned to the basic philosophy of the LIFE concept.

In the “Theory” category, we welcome papers submitted by academic researchers anywhere in the world, in any discipline, whose degree dissertations or other types of academic research project demonstrate a new approach to the advancement of intercultural learning and, moreover, are closely aligned to the basic philosophy of the LIFE concept. We particularly welcome innovative ideas in any discipline – from architecture to economics, from agriculture to urban studies, from linguistics to medicine, from education to psychology.

In the “Practice” category, we are looking for examples of innovative projects aiming to promote a better understanding of other cultures, languages or religions that have been realised in schools or nursery schools, as part of a parents’ or neighbourhood initiative, or in any public social establishment, or in connection with extracurricular sporting or cultural activities. We would like to encourage not only private individuals, but also groups and institutions, to enter the competition and present their projects to the international jury.

Prizes will be awarded to the three best practical projects; the jury also reserves the right to award a special prize for “Intercultural commitment”. The purpose of this special prize is to reward a person displaying exceptional commitment who has constantly endeavoured to promote international understanding (e.g. in the context of several projects and initiatives) and has thus rendered outstanding service to the propagation of intercultural learning.

You can find more details on the BMW Group’s website on the Categories, Philosophy and Topics of the award. The deadlines for this year’s application is: October 15, 2007.

According to Hospitality Net on July 19th, 2007, the Center for Hospitality Research (CHR) of Cornell University is “making available to the hospitality industry an intercultural education exercise that was initially developed for its executive education programs and has subsequently been used in college courses and corporate training.” It is in fact a Cocktail Party Simulation in which “participants examine their experience and apply it to their own professional lives”. According to Cornell Professor Daphne Jameson – the simulation developer, participants gain new insights about the following principles of intercultural interaction:

• Cultural values are relative, not absolute;
• Intercultural communication involves emotional as well as rational responses;
• Invisible cultural differences, such as values, attitudes, and beliefs, are more difficult to handle than visible differences, such as manners, customs, and rituals;
• Deciding who adapts to whom—and how—is the greatest challenge in intercultural interactions; and
• Cultural identity is multidimensional, involving far more than nationality alone.

The University has made the simulation tool available for free on the center’s website: Developing Hospitality Managers’ Intercultural Communication Abilities: The Cocktail Party Simulation.

German culture is actually something new to me and it naturally becomes a focus these days since I am in the country. Besides fascinated by Dresden’s Baroque architecture, I started to search for references in respect to German business culture etiquettes. Here come the results:

Business Etikette in Deutschland. Mind your Manners is a book that is written “to help the business professional or student prepare for an assignment in Germany”. The book tells you about the german business culture and is said to be “Your Compact Guide to Doing Business in Germany”

What behavior are expected in Germany, a country where the people are known for their guttural language, their obsession with “Ordnung”, their square-jawed seriousness, and other habits and sensitivities?

And, here is an more detailed introduction to the book.

The famous fast food company Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) was under fire for its controversial video advertisment showing an old Taoist surrounded by his apprentices enjoying chicken burgers and claiming it as a masterpiece. China Daily has this report citing China Business Post. The article on this weekly financial post criticizing KFC for dishonoring Chinese history and culture.

KFC entered China in 1987, and opened its first shop on November 12 at the downtown area of Qianmen in Beijing. Currently, it has more than 1400 shops in over 200 cities around the country. It employs totally 60,000 staff and its overall annul turnover is about 7.1 billion RMB yuan.

It is generally believed that intercultural awareness does contribute to successfully doing business in another culture. But when it comes to how and where it contributes, it becomes a question not easy to answer. With particular references to doing business in China, recently there are several articles discussing about how relevant some of the cultural tips for doing business in China are to the business successes in China. Diligence China published an article with the title of Look to the Future of China – Not just its Past, which

“admits knowing Chinese history can help gage where China is going, but asserts that a knowledge of emerging market trends is even more valuable. (A summery by China Law blog in To Succeed in China Know the Now .)

Aisa Business Law, looking at the question from a different angle, points out in Do the Top Ten Cultural Tips for Doing Business in China Really Help and Inquiring Whether the Top Ten Cultural Tips For Doing Business In China Really Help – Part II, that there are universal business principles which are in fact not cultural specific such as ‘guanxi’ – the most-talked cultural ‘tip’ for doing business in China and saying:

“there is just hardwork and guanxi, which is good networking, a pretty universal essential to doing business anywhere.”

China Law blog in posts entitled To Succeed in China Know the Now and China’s Culture Wars (continued), arguing that

“Knowledge of Chinese history and culture is an asset for doing business in China. However, because circumstances in China change so quickly, staying abreast of China’s current situation is far more important than knowing its past. The most successful businesses in China usually emphasize knowing their own businesses inside and out first, understanding China today second, and China’s history and culture third.”

I can not be more agreeable to these arguments and I think these insightful arguments put forward a new perspective on how one should relate Chinese culture phenomena (old and new) to doing business in China. Being a native Chinese and with limited knowledge of English language and culture, I feel it is interesting to notice that many of the teachings of how to do business in/with China tend to start or end up with listing out some stereotyped cultural tips and types, and my natural response towards it is that it is really inadequate. I do believe that cultural awareness contributes to business success, for

“Culture shapes our values, attitudes and our behaviour. It affects the way we communicate with each other, the way we expect to lead and to follow, the way we negotiate, the way we buy and sell, and the way we work together in teams.” (by Cultural Intelligence)

The stereotyped cultural tips, however, could be very misleading when delivered in an over-generalized approach or taken with an over-simplified manner without better and live understanding of the specific situation. In terms of China, the speed of change, the scope of the land, the complexity of systems, the span of history, the diversity of local cultures, the varied levels of educational development in different localities, and the gaps in economic development among areas would all affect business developments and successes, either domestic or international.

Moreovre, business success is composed of many factors and some of which are not cultural specific. For instance, as pointed out in the posts by Aisa Business Law, good networking is in fact universally essential. Good networking is certainly an intercultural skill but it is an interpersonal skill in the first place where attitudes towards differences is of the essence. So, either in business or in any other intercultural communications, it is important to be aware of cultural idiosyncrasies and actively work to overcome them.

I would also agree that cultural knowledge is not always a prerequisite, but I think it is not always a prerequisite in the sense that it will not guarantee a success, but rather, it is a plus, which, together with other business essentials, helps to pave the way to a success.

On April 12th, Google announced its Chinese name – Gu-Ge (谷歌), which literally and officially means “harvest song”. But if one does not know the official definition, and just by looking at the two Chinese characters Google has picked out, the new name could also be interpreted as “song in the valley“. “Harvest song” or “song in the valley”, those who applauded for it would tell you how “romantic” this name is as it gives you “the sense of a fruitful and productive search experience, in a poetic Chinese way” as Google says, while others might explain to you with a frown how “old-fashioned” it sounds, since it reminds one of a slow and remote agricultural scene.

Some Chinese media and internet users have in the past merely used Google’s English name, while others have nicknamed it as “Gougou” and “Gugou”, meaning “doggy” or “old hound”. Literally, the new name GU-GE does bear some extent of poetic and melodious tones, and is certainly better than those unofficial alternatives in the past. But interestingly, this new name of the world’s second most populous internet search company does not actually lead you to think in the least of an internet search.

Names are not mere codes in Chinese. Each character of Chinese language has its own meaning but when two characters come together to make a phrase, it very often becomes more meaningful. Two character phrases are most common and easy to remember.

Translating names into Chinese can be tricky, particularly so with alphabetic languages. In most cases, translation of a name is in fact a conversion of the sound. So as Google did this time. But since all Chinese characters have its meanings, the selection of the characters can be very crucial. The story about the Coca-Cola’s translation would tell a bit about the tricks:

The name Coca-Cola in China was first rendered as Ke-kou-ke-la. Unfortunately, the Coke company did not discover until after thousands of signs had been printed that the phrase means “bite the wax tadpole” or “female horse stuffed with wax” depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 Chinese characters and found a close phonetic equivalent, ko-kou-ko-le, which can be loosely translated as “happiness in the mouth” (from Funny Translation Errors)

Google will also be known as Gu-Ge in China. No matter what people would say about the new name itself, Google seemed to have made the right move in terms of pursuing its long term goals in China. With its new Chinese name, Google wants to be as “culturally-friendly” as its major local competitors like Baidu, whose name was in fact also taken out of an ancient poem. And with this new name, Google manifested its strong hope for further development in the local market by the local ways. At least Google demonstrated its “intercultural” efforts, despite all other controversies. Its new Chinese name would certainly help it to take more roots among millions of the internet users and in the general public where not all are willing to learn English, and some perhaps even dislike it for reasons that it has “corrupted” the Chinese language. There are people who are still taking a closed view and simply feel uncomfortable with anything that is foreign.

Google might have learnt from the strategies of McDonald and KFC that localization of these two companies have both emphasised the importance of the cultrual impact to the extent that you can even buy noodles and Sichuan flavoured food at their local stores. It is perhaps right to say that in terms of marketing what matters is if it would eventually help to sell.Browsing the Google Chinese page, you will now see the two characters of the new name crouching below the big colorful Google logo. “Harvest Song” should really mean that only when users enjoy “fruitful and productive search experiences”, Google then could celebrate its harvest by singing pastoral poetry in the valleys!