callmefred
- 2007-06-10
In fact, cheating and deceptive business practices are an institution in China. It is Chinese culture, today. Many Chinese business leaders cannot sleep comfortably at night unless they,ve got the better in business over, or even ripped somebody off that day. Many Chinese people openly admit this.
Coming as one does (this one anyway) from a nation where the long held tradition of a gentlemans word is his bond, I find it incredible to believe that the business community of any country could act in such a crassly dishonest and dishonourable way. (except for Greeks, the mere mention of whom causes potential deal-makers to run for cover) as alleged in the above snippet from the clearly biased post by Lingwen Yaoshi.
At my old alma mater, just the mention of cheating some other poor chap would trigger the most awful beating by the head boy in front of the whole school, although for some reason he preferred to do it in private whilst wearing nothing but a black rubber balaclava. Odd to think he now a high court judge.
Nevertheless, to tar a whole nation of businessmen with the same brush is somewhat bizarre.
I once knew a Chinese business-girl in London and took her to see Madame Butterfly at the opera house, a lovely girl, honest as the day is long. She had to leave halfway through the performance for a pressing appointment. Funny thing, shes still got my wallet, but Id trust her, oh yes.
For those doubters and nay-sayers who are forever decrying the moral values of the humble business-person, struggling to make a crust to feed his children (sob sob), take it from me as one from a nation once described as Perfidious Albion, its nothing personal, just business, all over the world.
(I must look up that word perfidious but I think it means trustworthy and full of integrity.)
What Ho !!
Yingwen Laoshi
- 2007-06-09
"Your argument is emotion driven. You present no facts to back up your statements."
Regarding the following statement the same could be said about yourself, USMC.
"I've got a wakeup call for you, son - ALL business is TOTALLY money-driven. I know that this comes as a shock to you - but, business in the West is totally money driven."
Now doesn't that really sound like an "Emotion driven" statement?
I guess we need to understand what is meant by "TOTALLY money-driven". Surely if a business is totally money-driven, it means that NOTHING at all matters except profit. It would not merely mean that the MAIN priority for a business would be money, but it would surely mean that nothing else matters in the slightest. In fact the ONLY reason for such a business to exist, would be to make money. So surely you yourself are guilty of making an " ...encommpassing, across the board statement", because there are many businesses in the West that are not TOTALLY money-driven. Many are also concerned with things like professionalism, integrity, and in providing a good product or service. Of course, there are also plenty of businesses that ARE only concerned with money, too, but to say that ALL are, is not correct. Again, not ALL businesses in China are only concerned with money, either.
Even if all businesses were totally money driven, would that excuse what's happening in many Chinese schools today? Surely when it comes to important fundamentals like healthcare and education, there is even less justification for the "Only money is important" syndrome. Yes, we're talking about children's education here. Yet in China FTs in scores of schools are told to pass every student even if all they do is sleep in class, or worse still not turn up at all. The reason for this is to give the impression, through a high exam pass rate that the school is providing a good education for their students . Yet in reality such schools have scores of students graduating every year with "beautiful" degrees but hardly anything learnt except how to cheat in life.
That reminds me of another widespread practice in China- that of cheating in exams. My wife told me that before some exams begun when she was at school, the examiner would find a number of red envelopes inside his desk drawers. Such a sight of course was designed to interfere with his vision enough, so that he would not notice the cheating that would ensue during the exam. This kind of ruthlessness, does not just exist in EFL, in China. Again an experience of my wife: After being fortunate enough to gain a good position as an accountant in a company in the south of China, because of guanxi, she witnessed her manager ripping off all and sundry, so as to fund his boozing, and womanizing lifestyle. He even went as far as to not pay hundreds of building workers their salaries for months on end. Even then, it was only their mass presence in his office one day that resulted in their finally being paid. How often do we hear about building workers, in China, driven to desperate measures like murder or suicide, because of non-payment of their salaries?
There are significantly a much larger percentage of businesses in China that are TOTALLY profit driven than there are in the average Western country. In fact, cheating and deceptive business practices are an institution in China. It is Chinese culture, today. Many Chinese business leaders cannot sleep comfortably at night unless they,ve got the better in business over, or even ripped somebody off that day. Many Chinese people openly admit this (unless they are your present boss of course).
Should all this stuff be dwelt on? Well, as FTs or workers in other vocations, in China, we need to be wary of it. It's not healthy for us to obsessively dwell on this, however, and so miss out on the positives of working over here. The freer, independent, and less conventional lifestyle personally appeals to me, plus the satisfaction of meaningful employment as an English teacher. There are two main reasons, though, why I think the Chinese obsession with money, should be shouted from the rooftops.
Firstly, there are many potential FTs perusing forums such as this so as to be able to get an idea of what they are letting themselves in for, before commiting themselves to a year or more living and working on the other side of the world. They need to know what's going on over here, BEFORE they come over. WHY China has such an environment today is not the point. People should be forewarned.
Secondly, by trying to explain unethical business practices in China, by saying "China is developing, give it a chance...", we are being patronizing and could actually hamper it's development. Too much understanding is like explaining the thieving behavior of a child away by saying, "It's ok, he's only a child."
Many Chinese people are fed up with the injustices in Chinese society today. My wife watched a programme on TV recently where foreigners were invited to give their views on China. Most foreigners spoke their minds by stating openly the things that they hated about China. Did the Chinese media try to hide this by censoring it? No, they showed this on daytime television. The reasons for this openess was apparently to let the Chinese public know that there is still work to be done before the 2008 Olympic games come around, when this country will be swamped by people from all around the world. People who may get a bad impression of Chinese society. Also the foreigners were commended by many Chinese people for speaking their minds.
Those who invite well-meaning people from the other side of the world with the express purpose of ripping them off, need to be exposed, and told in no uncertain terms that what they are doing can not be excused, and that they are wrecking their country. If not, others will copy their methods thinking that it's ok, and the future prosperity of China will be in severe jeopardy.