Intercultural Communication

"It can be harmful to come, without thought, under the sway of utterly new and strange doctrines." -- Confucius

Student Julian Flear attempts to address some of the problems faced by American business people when they are dealing with the Chinese, particularly in light of the American experience in China in the 1930s and 1940s. He focuses on the problems inherent in learning Chinese and about Chinese culture, such as Chinese ethnocentricity and the nuances of their non-verbal communication, and also on the many pitfalls in not doing so, such as a heavy reliance on the unknown abilities of individual translators, and the dangers of assuming that "they talk like us, so they must think like us" when dealing with western educated Chinese.Since the Chinese brokers have a 12 to 14 hour day they must sleep when they can. Protocol is such that they would never leave for the day before the boss.