As China goes fast global, its citizens try to get adjusted to international manners and customs, from eating with knife and fork to making different noises at the dinner table, Chinese turn massively to international etiquette and manners, tells business analyst Shaun Rein in the Korea Herald.
The Korea Herald:
Over the past decade, courses in grooming, business etiquette and public speaking have sprung up across China, conducted by universities, private enterprises and personal coaches alike. The trend started in the late 1990s, says Shaun Rein of China Market Research Group, and accelerated around 2003.
The Academy of Professional Education and Counseling, for instance, started etiquette classes in Beijing in 2003, imparting tips such as “Don’t ever sit in your hotel room in your underwear with the door open.”…
“It’s going to boom,” says Rein. “The Chinese know that it’s important to present a good face to non-Chinese, to move from China to Europe and be able to understand their manners.”
The rapid rise of China in the past three decades, lifting 679 million people from extreme poverty, according to the latest World Bank data, means that material comforts ― if not cultivated manners ― are now within the reach of many.
Just 10 years ago, few traveled overseas other than government officials and the elite, says Rein, who authored the bestseller, “The End Of Cheap China.”
In 2010, 15 million did. This year, an estimated 90 million will…
Today, amid fierce competition to stand out from a huge population, many Chinese still push, literally and metaphorically ― at the airport, going up the bus, making a business pitch ― because of their fear of losing out to others who are pushing at their backs too. Will those at the forefront of good manners thus lose their spot ― and lose out?
As Rein muses: “At Silicon Valley, the idea is ‘let’s make money and let’s push.’ If you become too burdened by these old manners, they could hurt you.”
Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.
China Weekly Hangout
Huawei is one of China’s major firms going international (although they gave temporarily up on the US). In the China Weekly Hangout we discussed on October 18, 2012 the companies companies at US Congress grilled them on security issues. Featuring David Wolf, author of Making the Connection, a book about China’s telecom giant Huawei, and Andrew Hupert, specialist in international conflict resolution. Moderated by Fons Tuinstra, president of the China Speakers Bureau.
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