References to a ‘meiyou banfa’ mentality or outlook have been used on expat boards of various forms for many years now. It actually means more than ‘no choice’, it can refer to a sense of unconditional obedience and a blind acceptance of fate. Several more professional terms could be referred to, some could discuss the role of uncertainty avoidance or traditional Confucian values in a long winded manner instead. However, on expat forums, we don’t tend to do that, we just laugh about it and not take excuses. After all, even Chinese managers in international companies based in China seem to be aware of the problem with local employees too.

‘Guanxi’ is a word that means more than ‘interpersonal relationships’, it can not be directly translated. ‘Wenming’ is another example, it means more than ‘civilised’, it is apparently very difficult to correctly translate that particular word perfectly into English.

Yes, pinyin is used in such cases. After all, some of these words will even become loanwords in the English language. Who talks about dumplings anymore, when we can talk about ‘Jiaozi’?

However, writing whole sentences in pinyin to try to show off the Chinese that you picked up off some tart in a bar is just cringeworthy. Go to Xinhua bookstore and pick up a good ‘Chinese for beginners’ coursebook and study alone, please. Then use your Chinese on QQ. Even your bar tarts can do that together with you.