This Seminar in China

This seminar in China marks the end of our master and feeds very well with the international content of our program. This seminar lasts 7 days, from the 11th to 17 of December, and was located in Qingdao and Beijing. In this week, we had the opportunity to be accustomed to the Chinese culture, notably by visiting some universities, companies, the customs organization and the harbor of Qingdao. All these events help us to understand more the cultural values and beliefs of the China (e.g. harmony, focus of community, emphasize on relationships between person, not "loosing faces").

1. This seminar helps me more to understand the Chinese way of thinking and theirs values, especially by being in class with them. Thanks to that, we "broke the ice" by going beyond our prejudices about each other. (We considered on the other hand, Chinese people as only "cheap labor factor"; and on the other, they considered us as being "sufficient" and using "Chinese people to make money".)There is indeed a part of truth of this judgment. Even we got a real capital of confidence and sympathy in china, this French "sufficiency" annoys particularly the Chinese people even if they are also self-pride and feel superior. There is no doubt that the Chinese are proud of their culture and be attached to the values that they carry. Contrary to French people, they didn't pretend to impose to others, but they are conscious about the relativity and the movement of things, up and downs that a civilization goes through. This awareness allows them always to keep deeply a huge modesty. What I didn't know before this seminar is that successful relationships with Chinese people depend more on "manners" than on "know-how".

The relationship aspect is more important than something else. Therefore, the first rule that I establish, is that Chinese people only deal with person of good-fellowship. They have to know the person and to appreciate him before any negotiation is starting. If this first rule is carrying through, it allows to reveal if there are or not convergence of interest between both parties. If there are, the signature of a contract leads naturally to that. The negotiation stage is just a secondary episode, crowning a "mutual arrangement" (win-win situation), which was already initiated at the first stage. The important thing resides in the common strong motivation to sweep aside all the future "little obstacles". It means that each party has to make reasonable efforts in terms of sacrifices, solutions, compromises, until the signature of the contracts. These efforts must not be prejudicial and should preserve the principle of equity. Chinese people are much attached to these rules because there are realistic and enable efficiency. As the Chinese proverb says: "When do you don't find your own interest, you will never find mine".

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