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Thread: Guiding Piece: Chinese Cultures vs. American Cultures

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[quote=MARRIE,305102]Personal Anecdotes

The first experience I had with signing a contract was with the first private school I worked at in China. I found out very quickly that when mainland Chinese sign contracts they will always verbally promise and expound upon the wonderful future benefits which will inevitability be received. The future will hold no such benefits if you do not conform to their random demands, drastic changes, strange requests and chaotic organization.
Every contract I signed always ended up in the same way: the boss ignored every single point which implied an obligation while demanding everything and more from me.

This is typical of almost every contractual agreement between a mainland Chinese person and another party. When a Westerner faces this situation they will become frustrated, upset and angry. They will verbally and physically express their dissatisfaction. This only feeds the fire and more and more will be required, further pushing the foreigner to a breaking point. The harder the foreigner fights the dirtier and more unethical the Chinese boss will become.

I personally saw dozens of foreigners come and go because they couldn’t adapt to the unreasonable demands and chaotic nature of Chinese business transactions. The contract will always start out in the honeymoon stage where there will be many promises of future benefit, glory and success. Mainland Chinese business people always use this as a hook to catch the business. Whatever you say you want they will promise to get it for you. They will claim to want only certain things but this will only be partially true. They always hide their true intent and goal (to make more money at your expense).

The Westerner will be good natured, honest and straightforward but in China this is one of the greatest mistakes one can make. One can never openly express their true goals and desires. This will become a weakness as it will be at the beginning used to attract the business and sustain it successful but gradually it will be changed to a tool to manipulate the other party.

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