Encountering the Chinese: A Guide for Americans (Interact Series) [Paperback]

Hu Wenzhong (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1877864587 | ISBN-13: 978-1877864582 | Publication Date: November 1998 | Edition: 2nd

As the economic and diplomatic climates in China have changed, Chinese and Americans are interacting with each other more and more. Encountering the Chinese: A Guide for Americans presents a straightforward, practical and sensitive cross-cultural analysis of a complex culture and people. Authors Hu Wenzhong and Cornelius Grove provide a comprehensive cross-cultural guide to Chinese cultural, along with insights on how best to communicate and interact with Chinese people in both business and social contexts.Encountering the Chinese provides fundamental information on basic Chinese values and cultural norms, identifying cross-cultural factors that often lead to failed business negotiations and misunderstandings. The advice and skills in this book enable Westerners and the Chinese to establish more effective and rewarding relationships, inside and outside of the People's Republic of China.Encountering the Chinese is an insightful book with the practical cross-cultural analysis of Chinese culture. The book's intention is to decrease anxiety and make things easier for Americans interacting with Chinese. It is neatly structured, and the language is kept as simple as possible with a friendly tone.-Hongmei Pang, visiting scholar, Department of Applied Linguistics and ESL at Georgia State UniversityEncountering the Chinese literally transformed my life. You see, when I first arrived in Taiyuan (Shanxi Province), China, I never expected to have a tremendous culture shock-I thought I was 'prepared' to live in China, but just the opposite happened. I was looking for any excuse to return home to my comfortable life in Mexico. Fortunately, an American friend lent me a book that helped her adapt to China, [Encountering the Chinese].The book became my companion, as I read it every day for about a month. It helped me understand the aspects of daily life that I was experiencing . . . [T]hanks to my gradual understanding of Chinese culture, I became interested in China and decided to make this country my home. [T]hank you for sharing your experiences in the book. I am sure that it has made a difference in many other expatriates' lives who are now living in China! It definitely changed mine.-Victor Garza, Dragon International Communication Consulting, Hangzhou, ChinaContentsAcknowledgmentsPrefaceIntroduction to the Second EditionIntroduction to the First Edition1 A Brief Background to the Chinese Way of LifePart I: Advice for Americans Interacting with the Chinese2 Chinese Titles and Forms of Address3 Greetings, Conversations, and Farewells4 Chinese-Style Dining5 Appointments, Visiting, and Time Use6 Chinese Modesty and Humility7 Making Friends with the Chinese8 Education and Training Among the Chinese9 Negotiating and Institutional Decision Making10 The Concept of Face in Chinese-American InteractionPart II: Advice for Americans Living and Working in the PRCAppendix A: Glossary of Chinese TermsAppendix B: Chinese Titles and Forms of AddressRecommended Readings

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Hu Wenzhong, Ph.D., of the Beijing Foreign Studies University, is also president of the China Association for Intercultural Communication and Fellow of the International Academy for Intercultural Research.Cornelius Grove, Ph.D., is the founder of Grovewell LLC, providing leadership development, executive coaching, team performance, and strategic consulting services to individuals and businesses in the international marketplace. He has authored numerous books and articles, including coauthoring Randomia Balloon Factory, the cultural diversity training game. Visit his website at www.Grovewell.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 230 pages
• Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing; 2nd edition (November 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1877864587
• ISBN-13: 978-1877864582
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #236,941 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is worth the encounter, October 10, 2005

By 

Tom Reynolds (Wuhan, China) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Encountering the Chinese: A Guide for Americans (Interact Series) (Paperback)

This book is primarily directed at Americans involved with China but much of what it refers to is also valid for other English speaking westerners. In fact, it is the best book I have read in terms of explaining Chinese culture as x, y, z. It is said that everything you hear about China is true, but not necessarily where you are. This book includes valuable information that is true in most locations in China, not only the coastal cities, nor just Beijing, nor only in academic circles. The book is broken into two sections. The first half of the book contains general culture information about Chinese people which should be applicable to Chinese in general, no matter where they live in the world. The second half contains information specific to Mainland China and situations you may find yourself in there.

A poignant example would be the fact that when Chinese people are visiting you and decide it is time to leave they do just that, leave. There is no extended time of talk after an initial, "I need to go soon," rather they just stand up and say goodbye. This surprised me the first time it happened with some students but I quickly became used to it. I have read other books which recommend against reading books like this because they will only cause more harm than good. However, almost everything in this book was relevant to my time in China and if I had read it before I went my learning curve would have been shallower.

I would hope that they will come out with a third edition of this valuable book. A few items are dated and China is changing so rapidly that some details are sure to be very different in the future.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended, April 21, 2004

By 

Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Encountering the Chinese: A Guide for Americans (Interact Series) (Paperback)

If you are going to China and seek a better understanding of the courtship between East and West, Hu Wenzhong, who is Chinese, and Cornelius Grove, who is American, wrote this culture-bridging book for you. They clearly reveal not only the differences between Chinese culture and the Western culture, but the origin of many of those differences. They explain both history and culture as a context for contemporary social standards, from practical etiquette to how to conduct yourself on a daily basis as you travel, live or work in China. The authors accomplish their explanatory goals, avoid silly generalities and give the visitor just enough knowledge to avoid being completely humiliated. When you read this, you'll have a framework for determining what else you need to learn before you go. Meanwhile we highly recommends this very readable, consistently interesting book.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an experience leading to a Must read and better understandin, April 12, 2005

By 

ALJPH (Intercultural Divide, TransPacific, China-USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Encountering the Chinese: A Guide for Americans (Interact Series) (Paperback)

I have just finished the book, twice; Encountering the Chinese; A Guide for Americans. by Hu Wenzhong & Cornelius L. Grove.

This is a great book for help in making cross cultural or intercultural communication between Chinese and Americans more rewarding while trying to avoid abrasiveness regarding deep fundamental differences.

Before reading this book I did not know that Chinese culture is one of collectivism, I had thought that everyone is individulistic in the world, I had never known anything different. It was hard for me to understand Chinese life until I got some help from these two authors. It explained many of my questions and concerns for why Chinese do some of the things they do and act in such ways in response to things I do. Why i was treated the way I was, for the way I acted, which I had no idea, was only a response of a disliking of my fundamental character and individualistic personality, one of American born and raised in the Heartland U.S.A..

It showed me the reason, for alot of my confusion and why I received the response I did for my actions.

I acted like an individual and showed anger, which I read to the Chinese are two of the worst ways to act. This difference in fundamentals between myself and the Chinese culture may have led to the misunderstanding and consequential accusations, and or just the overall way of bringing anxiety and frustrations to the surface in my life here in China.

I recommend this book to anyone who would like to know the difference between collectivism and individualism, the predominate theory or doctrines of China & The United States, for better relations between these two ways of thinking for more harmony on both sides for neither one is right or wrong for without education the other has no idea of the inherited fundamental differences each have.

It has helped me see the Chinese way of thinking and acting in response to my way of thinking and acting in my daily life, something that rarely do Americans need to or have to think about. I will forever before instinctly acting on my own individualistically trained nature to see how such acts would be seen from the perspective of one of collectivistic. Like I would never complain aloud in anger about poor pay, nor openly criticize a Chinese person, nor think only of the betterment of myself in matters of personal likes and dislikes. I would also refrain from wearing expensive, name brand, clothing while in the presence of less educated and fashion sensitive people who may feel I am just a selfish American taking advantage of being able to travel the world freely as I my country has given to its citizens. The sometimes I really feel that it is not about cultural differences but something we all have subltely within us, something very known which we all can recognize; jealousy, envy, concite, revenge, hate, and many others that if one is not careful, and educated can appear very similiar to the other as a possible excuse as to say that we have named it a fundamental difference in cultural perspective one of the friction between individualism and collectivism.

>> also if you don't have an idea yet why this book is so important>> a letter to a friend, referring this book and what I had learned from it>

Dear Professor xxxx,

I am not quite sure how to thank you and Prof.xxxx, except to acquire the utmost from this gracious learning opportunity.

Before receiving your email, I had just finished one of the required readings, Encountering the Chinese; A Guide for Americans. By Hu & Grove

How true it really is, I am probably not the first nor the last to say that, but wow I was both amazed and glad that I had read it, to confirm what I had questioned repeatedly and already dealt with and deal with every day. True to it that Americans are fundamentally individualistic, I at least understand that as I was raised by my hard working, blue collar, U.S. Veteran and father, to be self sufficient and self promoting in work and daily affairs, that my survival muchly depended on myself, and that to act in way to promote myself and my priorities is what will make success for myself and family. To depend on another was and is looked down upon, as an American, as one needs to become a compitant providor both to society and his/her family. Such a phrase for this I remember being told as I was growing up, "you need to make a life for yourself, no one else is going to do it for you."

On the other hand, or at the other end of the "continuum," the orientation of the Chinese, collectivism.
Like I had said before, my wife is Chinese, though we are both young and she is somewhat even younger then myself, I have indeed and will continue to make observations on this fundamental orientation in the difference between individualism and collectivism, which if not observed and prepared for will indeed as I have experienced many times, surely cause faux pas, conflicts, and downright hard to explain your way out of -misunderstandings, for it is hard to teach that we both are right from our own orientation, though each of us find from our own conditioning and orientation that the other is wrong. In the moment of such misunderstanding it is not common and hard to say, "ohh, our conflict is one which stems from fundamental differences," instead it is best to be informed beforehand, to be eguipped, and that is exactly why I feel that this course and this book of which is a required text, is of very high importance and benfit.

I am indebt to you for allowing me to expand my knowledge, not only academically but also the practical knowledge that will allow for me to put into practice, at once within my immediate family and that of my surroundings.

Thanks,
-An American Citizen (born & raised on U.S. soil)
-Married interculturally w/ a Chinese Citizen born and raised in one of the two systems one country,-HK
-living with an all Chinese Family, except myself