China is the world's largest power region, achieving economic growth rates that exceed those of most industrialized countries. In this book practitioners of international companies are offered valuable insights and lessons from established and successful managers, academics and consultants. The book is divided into three parts: 'Opportunities and Challenges in China', 'Strategies for Market Entry and Business Success' and 'Practical Insights from China'. It covers a variety of topics such as business strategies, branding, pricing, market research, legal constraints and successful business relations.

A Guide to Business Success in China for Foreign Enterprises (S. 101-102)

Kang Gang Hu

GE-AS Co. Ltd., Shanghai

1 Introduction

China‘s fame as one of the four ancient civilized cultures is well known, and people are also familiar with China’s achievements after 1978 when the country opened to the outside world. Many foreigners believe themselves to be sinologists, or„China Experts", after they have made several trips to China. This assumption is a big mistake. In fact, even native Chinese cannot claim to be totally familiar with this country, particularly in these rapidly changing times. A Chinese proverb states„only study can make people aware of their ignorance", and this proverb is important both to individuals interested in China and to enterprises that want to succeed in China.

1.1 China’s Age-old Tradition

The first difficulty for foreigners is, of course, language. Firstly, the Chinese characters are pictographs and Chinese also differs from Western languages in that it is a monosyllable language. Secondly, foreigners will find it hard to communicate with Chinese, because most Chinese receive a more limited education than westerners and have little proficiency in foreign languages. Even after foreigners have stayed for a long time in this country and have mastered Chinese sufficiently to be able to communicate without a translator, however, they are still likely to meet obstacles when talking with Chinese people.

This cultural obstacle stems from a lack of unvoiced understanding of the different culture and is by no means a phenomenon unique to China. Everyone can experience it when meeting foreigners in one’s hometown, but this lack of unvoiced understanding will become more obvious, if the history and culture of the country are long and rich. China is a country with a 5,000-year old civilization. The Han Nationality has ruled this country for more than 2,000 years. Therefore China’s profound cultural influence can never be underestimated. Since the Han Dynasty, Chinese culture began to evolve with Confucianism at its core.

This culture was not spread or extended through schools, but took root in the people’s minds by social ethics through the people’s self-regulation. This cultural influence can be found everywhere, and a failure to understand it will create obstacles. This is why foreigners will still find difficulties in communicating with Chinese even after they have mastered the language. Understanding a foreign culture and forming an unvoiced understanding of this culture will take more time and be harder than just learning the local language, and for some it will even be an insurmountable task.

Conclusion 1: Mastering a language is only the beginning: understanding a culture constitutes the basis for communication.