BENZHI - June feature article

The June issue of BENZHI looks at some of the fundamental aspects of Chinese culture. The issues provides some insights on how to better understand what makes the Chinese people different from the rest of the world. The more you understand, the better you can do your job as an EFL teacher.

It has long been said China is a sleeping dragon, and there would be woe to the world when this dragon awakes. As the world knows, the Chinese dragon is opening its sleeping eyes more each day.

Some of the statistics coming out of China are staggering. For example, there are now more Chinese students learning English in China than there are Americans. America is not the world’s largest English speaking country.

China has more people speaking English on an almost 4 to 1 ratio. Another fact is just the margin of error in calculating China’s official population is greater than the entire US population. That’s right. The error margin (you know – usually represent by the +/- 2% found at the bottom of most surveys) is larger than the population of all of America.

Quick facts
Color coordination

Red: This color is associated with the emperor (and more recently, the communist party) it remain a symbol 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. Fashion is changing this to an extent, but be careful picking your wardrobe.

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.

Dining 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: You should never serve yourself a drink at the dining table, always fill your neighbor's glass. By doing so you are cueing him 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. “Cleaning” your plate is an indication that you are still hungry and that you are not full.

While China is most definitely still a developing nation, it is the largest developing nation in the world. You simply will not get anything done in China without understanding some of the fundamentals about this extraordinary society and culture.

Confucianism Rules

Confucius, a philosopher of sorts who lived more than 2,500 years ago, still greatly influences most aspects of Chinese society. Westerners attempting to work and teach 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.

The Chinese 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 Guan Xi, 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 and teaching English (EFL) in China today still requires recognition of guan xi'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.

As an EFL teacher, you should be aware you have a high ranking amongst the Chinese social order. A teacher should attempt to remain free of obligations from others. This consideration is even more applicable when the teacher is a foreigner. Obligation results in a degree of favoritism; something that should not be exhibited in China. Use discretion when accepting gifts. But, by all means, feel free to give them.

Consumer balancing - 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 rod of Iron into a Needle

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

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

Another historical Chinese saying demonstrates the belief in these 3 traits, "If you go to a 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 will see the water has washed away the rock."

Your Chinese school or employer 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 may already be a teacher, or even a teacher with years of experience, but you are teaching in China, and that makes all the difference.