When doing business with a Chinese supplier or factory, you may notice there’ll be at least one English speaking staff member that will be in charge of dealing with the overseas clients. Chinese representatives in charge of communicating with their western clients are mostly young and inexperienced. But make no mistake, it doesn’t mean they aren’t capable of doing their job, but not every gap can be bridged if the two parties come from different cultures, even if the language doesn’t get in the way. One signature example is that Chinese people are way less inclined to say “No”, as many of them have been educated in a certain way in which there’s no room for a “NO” as an answer. Even when they do, they’ll word it very tactfully to a point where it won’t even sound like a denial or rejection, should it be their day-to-day life or a business scenario.
Also, it is apparently very competitive to do business in China. No one is the one and only for their clients. When you have plentiful options, naturally you won’t take “No” for an answer, which has led to a mindset that it is unacceptable to say “No” to their clients.
But it is too much to ask for a non-Chinese speaker to read between the lines. If you come across this issue, what should you do?
Simplify language
Use short and straight forward replies and explanations, use common words and terms to refer to the several elements involved in the production process, and be sure to emphasize on your needs. Sometimes westerners tend to use complicated terms and vocabulary when submitting RFQs or when contacting the suppliers, but that can easily cause confusion and as mentioned above, you suppliers may not give you a straight-up answer even if they can’t understand request.
Avoid Lengthy Emails
When writing an email, create a structure, use bullet points and numbering system, this will allow them to understand the order and hierarchy of the tasks and elements of the project. Writing long and complicated emails will result in an unpleasant experience, because again, the person you are in touch with may have been raised in a way to not say “No”. So whether they don’t get your instructions or product specifications correctly they will say they do or that they are capable to do it, and you’ll end up finding out that they can’t, sometimes very late in the process.
Use a chat app like WeChat
WeChat (Chinese equivalent to Whatsapp and SMS) is the most commonly used IM application in China with 1.26 billon users worldwide. [i] The population in China is 1.4 billion so you can do the math to figure out how it is an integral part of Chinese life. Using WeChat allows you to have an instant reply to whatever you need to clarify or to address, rather than waiting hours or even a day due to time difference for an email to be replied.
Have More Tolerance
Please bear in mind that, due to cultural differences, sometimes their language might seem a little off or even rude, especially in the writing. Their Chinese representatives may have a good command of the language but that isn’t always translated to proper business writing etiquettes in the English context as they may not be professionally trained, and in most cases they don’t mean to sound insensitive. Therefore, some more tolerance and understanding are crucial.
But the only thing that doesn’t change here is change. Young generations of Chinese are more comfortable with saying No than their predecessors. But after all, this won’t be changed overnight as this is embedded in their cultural DNA. Up next, let’s explore its relations with another Chinese cultural aspect, Face(面子) for our next CNY 2022 Special.
C2W, with its UK background and 16 years of experience in China, priding ourselves for our excellent bilingual team well versed in both Chinese and western culture.
Please feel free to contact us if you are interested in getting to know more about our services. You may feel like a fish out of water when it comes to Chinese culture that seems mysterious and complicated to a lot of westerners, but we are here to make sure you can stay grounded.
