In the west, we are told to be logical, and objective and to keep our feelings under control especially in public and in business relations. Our private lives are meant to be separate from our professional lives. Business is business. Judgments are meant to be impersonal never personal.

In direct contrast to Chinese culture.

However, what western culture adheres to is in direct contrast to Chinese culture. Every relationship, whether personal or business, involves “Jidong,” or personal feelings. These feelings always need to be considered and dealt with appropriately. Unfortunately, when the personal-emotional approach of the Chinese, meets head-on with the westerner’s objective-logical approach, misunderstandings, friction, mistrust, and ruffled feelings often result. But there’s more to it than just this.

Switch hitters.

This emotional aspect of the Chinese does not exclude any logical, pragmatic thinking and behaviour. In this sense, Chinese have an advantage as they can combine the emotional and the pragmatic and switch from one to the other as required. Whereas, in Western culture we are trained to leave emotions out of it and to focus only on the logical. This can put us at a disadvantage.

A strategy available

To westerner’s who are not aware of this, the Chinese can be mystifying and frustrating to work with. The personal relationships that are believed to be on solid ground can, and often are ignored or suspended when it’s expedient to do so. One strategy available is to build the relationship based on both rational business considerations and personal connections. Doing this will hopefully be enough to prevent changes in the relationships or avoid this situation altogether.