The key question that every company interested in China asks is: How do we establish and maintain a branch office in the People’s Republic of China? Basically, having arrived, how do we make our stay in China a long and profitable one? Part of the answer is a strong cultural understanding. Culture and business practices are deeply connected, so understanding culture is necessary for success. The purpose of this article is to provide the professional community with some cultural insights to help companies and individuals reach their goals. The foundation of these cultural insights is based on five key values: guanxi, mianzi, renqing, qianxu, and renjian hexie. The first, guanxi, is discussed more fully the article entitled: "Effective Ways to Cultivate Guanxi".
SAVING FACE (MIANZI)
Mianzi can be translated as "face", the image you project to other people or your reputation. To the Chinese, positive public image, or good mianzi, is tied to the perception of your public value and prestige. Mianzi can be divided into two closely related concepts:
a) Mian is the more visible aspect. An accurate one-word translation might be "reputation". Your mian is based on visible achievements, such as your net worth or education level. Basically, mian is social status and prestige.
b) Lian has to do with a person’s morality. Those with solid morals are highly respected by the community, and vice versa. Therefore, if you lose lian, you often lose authority.
Understanding mianzi is fundamental to the success of business transactions. You are judged on the way you express yourself, the way you behave with the members of your staff and other Chinese counterparts. Especially at the beginning of business exchanges, any and all of your behavior could contribute to a gain or loss of face which could result in the success or failure of the business.
How to maintain mianzi
People at the managerial level must pay attention to how they interact with their subordinates and with their peers. This may sound trivial but in China these interactions can have a great impact on your reputation, which you must pay particular attention to preserving.
The Chinese manager - The extent to which a manager cares about mianzi is variable. Managers of a state owned enterprise (SOE) may be more traditional -- more concerned with mianzi -- than managers of private companies, who are usually more aggressive and accustomed to competition. Regardless, the Chinese conduct business with an eye towards mianzi and they expect their counterparts to do the same.
The foreign manager - For foreigners it is particularly important to avoid causing those you are doing
business with to lose mianzi or losing it yourself without realizing it. The first meeting is crucial. If you are tired because of jet-lag or have some other health problem, postpone the meeting. It is better to postpone and be fresh than make a bad impression. You never know how a person will react when provoked, or what guanxi he might have.
Also keep in mind that a certain amount of wining and dining is expected, such as gift-giving. Westerners are often leery of this type of behavior, mistaking it for bribery when it is really an integral part of the concept of face. Doing favors and giving gifts is a demonstration of generosity, and displaying generosity is an important part of maintaining face.
How to protect your company’s mianzi
Companies, as entities, also have mianzi, which must be preserved in the eyes of the public. One major
difference between public relations in the West and in China has to do with PR agencies. In the West, it is common, especially for larger companies, to hire a PR agency to deal with the press and the public, both for routine announcements and for disasters. In China, hiring a PR agency to deal with disasters or bad news of any kind is not a good idea. This action is perceived as cowardly because the company is not showing its own face directly but hiring someone else to speak to the public. The company loses mianzi, and that means losing business.
For example, if a company’s management decided to merge with another company, some reorganization would likely occur, such as mass lay off of employees. It is best for such a dramatic occurrence to be announced personally by the management in a diplomatic and polite manner rather than by a third party PR agency; management must consider saving face in the eyes of any and everyone because one never knows who others are connected to. Another situation in which we see that saving face is important is when start-ups want to buy or rent an office in prestigious areas or buildings. They may not yet be making high profits or be prestigious themselves, but are aware of the prestige that this location may bring.
How common people deal with Mianzi
A survey conducted by China Youth Daily provides some examples of how a person can gain or lose face. Failure to fulfill promises and being considered ignorant are at the top of the list. Many people also include not having enough money to buy trendy items or pick up the tab at a restaurant, because those who can spend, do so, in order to gain face.
As a general rule, the older generation and the wealthier strata of society care more about face than the young and the blue collar.
Technorati Tags: