When this topic comes to my mind,first of all,I keep thinking about what is “Cultural Norm”? and how does it exist in China’s society,in what kind of form,what are the differences of it between China and other foreign countries,how does it affect human being’s life as well. At least,in my opinion,cultural norm is not merely a simple notion,but like a flower,from a seed to a thriving flower,which needs to experience a long journey of development and has different definitions in different period. Now,I will firstly introduce it’s conception universally.
Cultural norm,similar to cultural custom,but not totally,we also can say cultural norm is a big part of cultural custom, a cultural symbol of a nation, covering all kinds of different fields, such as interpersonal communication,national education,thinking pattern,political system,and diplomacy etc.From a person’s cultural norm,sometimes we may know where he comes from and something about the country of him.The importance of knowing our own cultural and other countries’ cultural norm is self-evident,cause once you go abroad or make a business negotiation with foreign clients,if you just know little or even nothing about theirs’ cultural norms,it is easier to make cultural conflicts and lots of avoidable mistakes. On the contrary,if you have a well understanding of other countries’ cultural norms,there is no doubt that you can make a quick adjustment on abroad and have a high possibilities of concluding an agreement.Next,I will mainly focus on talking phenomenons about cultural norms in China.
Politically,from ancient China to modern China, with the transformation of social shape,it also brought a series of transformation of social political system. For instance,in feudal society,in some ways,all the cultural norms were made and released by emperors,common people’s behavior was strictly controlled by stereotypical maxims,which did harm to people’s development physically and mentally deeply.For example,the notorious “hangman” in Qing Dynasty, in fact,it appeared in very early dynasty and lied in all dynasty,just peaked in Qing dynasty.”Hangman” is an extremely cruel physical punishment ,mainly used to persecute well-educated members.Involved official department found some sensitive words like one word in emperors’ name or something like that on purpose.Once being convicted,those scholars would accept inhumane punishment,worse,their kindred also would be tortured until death. When it came to the under of KMT ‘s government ,society advocated “Democracy” and “Science”.In nowadays,China has been a socialist,citizens have become the owner of country,they also have been conferred much more rights than ever before.
Moving on to the field of China’s business negotiation.Generally speaking,Chinese businessmen will arrange a hotel for their clients in advance and invite them to dine in a restaurant .During the process of dining,China’s businessmen would like to talk something about their cooperative project and sign a contract but not in a conference.What’s more,China’s businessmen attach great importance to punctuation and formal dressing,if you come so late and fail to dress up well,which will give a terrible first impression on them,and you will not have the second chance to make a first impression,it means that you may probably fail to conclude a deal.
Compared with Mexican,we can find there is a striking comparison .In Mexico,when you make a negotiation with them,you need to make clear of the following several points: firstly,Mexican would not like to talk about business in the dining table,secondly,Mexican they will arrive at arranged time,thirdly,they like to invite to take part in all kind of party so that they can know better about you,lastly,they are unwilling to negotiate with female.To sum up,we can see that it is of great importance to get familiar with a country’s cultural norm.
In terms of national education,with the emerging of “Gaokao” ,it began to become the best way to achieve success for every child,especially for rural children .When we were a child ,our parents always encouraged us to study hard and should spend much time with our study ,if we could not study well,we would only live in village for lifetime .In big cities ,parents commonly sign up a number of extra courses for their children to develop their abilities in other fields so as to strengthen their competition in the future,which also make the urban children always live under huge pressure. In school,teachers always assign a large number of assignment to students and then give answers directly ,very seldom to give them time to think over the questions when western countries where young people are encouraged to think for themselves and make their own decisions.
I have heard it said that the Chinese are racists. In some ways I think this might be true, but generally they do not hate people based on race. They do not look down on people because of the color of their skin, or their religion. They merely insist that their Chinese culture is superior to foreign cultures, that Chinese culture ought to be maintained, and that foreigners should not force their foreign ways on the Chinese.
All in all,China is a big country with a huge number of people and a very long history of five thousands something years ,its’ cultural norm is long-standing and well-established .Therefore, there is a great need for you to know China through learning it’s cultural norm.
References:
International Business Negotiation :CASE C Latin American Negotiation . P245-P247
http://bbs.tiexue.net/post_5034695_1.html
http://blog.renren.com/share/243710106/1246417839
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