Chengdon't

Let’s go back in time to the early ‘80s, and Deng Xiao Ping, leader of the Chinese Communist Party, veteran of the Long March and seen by many as the founding father of modern China was touring the United States.  Part of the state visit saw Deng and his entourage pay a visit to the east coast seat of learning Boston.  After the business of the day was complete, Mr. Deng’s diplomatic counterparts decided to take him to see that most American of institutions, a basketball game at the team founded in tribute to the city’s Irish community, the Boston Celtics.

All was going well and the Chinese delegation seemed to be enjoying the action when things suddenly and unexpectedly took a turn for the worst.  As a token of friendship to commemorate the occasion, a state official attempted to present the Chinese leader with one of the Celtic’s trademark green hats, but instead of accepting it the usually unflappable Deng looked horrified, not only refusing to accept the hat, but vigorously and repeatedly pushed it away.  Bemused, the hat-giver looked over at the rest of Deng’s group, all of whom were looking as shocked as their illustrious leader.  The reason for such an extreme reaction?  Well, the phrase ‘wearing a green hat’ in Chinese mocks a man’s masculinity, as it implies that his partner is cheating on him.

In one sense adapting to life in China isn’t the enormous cultural leap that many who have yet to visit this vast and diverse nation imagine.  Globalising influences like television, movies and the internet have narrowed cultural divides, and especially in larger, more economically developed cities such as Shanghai or Beijing the Chinese are so used to dealing with foreigners that one can walk down the street without attracting so much as a solitary ‘hello!’

In modern China there are no vast religious, political or ideological barriers to adapting to life here that one might find in some parts of South America or the Middle East, and the Chinese themselves are, on the whole, a practical and flexible (if superstitious) race.  This flexibility may well be part of the reason that most Chinese who move abroad adapt and integrate relatively well into whatever society they arrive in.

However, with a country that was cut off from the rest of the world for the best part of the twentieth century there will inevitably be differences in attitudes and outlooks that come into play when people from two different societies meet, with the green hat incident serving as a high profile example of this.  Incidentally, I’m pretty sure that this particular issue has reared its colourful head in a diplomatic setting at least one before.  Sitting proudly in Beijing’s National War museum, presented to the head of the People’s Liberation Army by his counterpart in the Australian forces is a faded slouch or bush hat that makes up part of the antipodean country’s military uniform – in green.  It must have been a brave official who handed a green hat over to the head of the world’s biggest army!

There are countless other little cultural or linguistic faux-pas that an unwary and unprepared visitor can make in China, a selection of which can be found in the side bars, some of which are understandable, others slightly less so.  However, as pointed out above, none of these represent a catastrophic or unforgivable error, as most Chinese understand that their cultural norms are different to most other societies, and don’t generally take offense when these minor indiscretions are committed.  On rare occasions can even be an amusing way to break the ice between strangers from different lands!  Still, it’s probably best to leave that Celtics hat back at home for now, just in case…

• Never give a clock, as song zhong (the Chinese for give clock) sounds very similar to the phrase for making funeral arrangements, and clocks also represents time running out or slipping away i.e. impending death (strangely giving watches are ok)
• Scissors and knives symbolize the cutting of ties – not such a good move, especially when trying to forge a relationship with a new Chinese business partner
• Giving an umbrella (or yu san in Mandarin) is not recommended, as the san can also mean to crumple or disintegrate, and you don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade!
• Shoes are not a good gift, as xie sounds similar to the mandarin for evil
• ‘Giving a book’ in the Chinese language sounds the same as ‘delivering defeat’
• Never wrap your gifts in white or black paper.  Colours are important, red is lucky and used for celebrations, and white and black are bad as they associated with death
• When at a Chinese banquet, always try to leave a small amount of food left in your bowl when you are full.  Failure to do so symbolizes that your host didn’t serve you enough food – a grave insult in China’s culture of hospitality
• Also food related – do not stab your chopsticks into your rice bowl and leave them propped up, and this resembles incense sticks burnt at family graves – yet another reminder of death
• Numbers are also important, and just as the number 13 is an ill omen in the west, so the number 4 is frowned upon as it sounds similar to the Chinese word for death