The majority of people in China are proud to be Chinese. They are proud of many things – their country, their army, their flag, their food and their inventions. Before starting business in China you need to know something about their culture. Knowing some basic information will be welcomed and can leave a good impression on your Chinese supplier.
When we read printed text, pay with a banknote, drink tea from porcelain cups, pass an exam, pull the trigger of the gun, rejoice with fireworks or put a pair of sunglasses – we can thank the Chinese for it. Paper and paper money, printing, gunpowder, and all other things are Chinese inventions, mostly from the early Middle Ages. The above list can be extended indefinitely.
For a long time the Chinese have shown a surprising ability to achieve results with minimal effort. Try to recall the effectiveness of ergonomic traditional pump driven by leg muscle strength and body weight, or well-balanced Chinese wheelbarrow, requiring much less force to keep it in position and put it in motion than its western counterpart, in which half the weight falls on the hands. Ability to save effort can be seen even in worn on the shoulders pole, whose mild fluctuations followed the footsteps of man carrying the weights.
Chinese creativity was so great that it is surprising that the industrial revolution occurred in China later than in the West. Chinese were able to cast iron thanks to their long experience of working with high temperatures during the preparation of ceramic many years before the Europeans were able to do that. At the end of the thirteenth century they have already used water-powered yarn machines. However, since the mid-fourteenth to mid-nineteenth century, when Europe was entering a rapid development stage, in Chinese history there has been a long and not fully explainable period of stagnation. But now things are changing. China is becoming a Global Manufacturing Centre.
I hope that this example of Chinese creativity can help you to leave a good impression on your Chinese supplier during a business meeting. Understanding Chinese culture is the key to success in China.