Winning in the land of Confucius: Overcoming cultural barriers in China by using Chinese Classics

China, the name itself attracts you to pack your suitcase and book your flight ticket. It’s a country with 3000 years history and also the largest developing country in the world. It’s modern and yet traditional. Nearly all major corporations in the world now have their oversea offices in China and some of them even shift the headquarters of their Asian-Pacific businesses to Chinese cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. However, many of them do face obstacles and challenges when it comes to integration in the Chinese society. How can foreign businesses improve their understanding on the Chinese society and business culture? How can foreign businesses build a successful relationship with the local community? This article aims to offer some advice from a humanist perspective.

Foreign businesses can improve their knowledge on the Chinese society and business culture through reading Chinese Classics. Many people will ask how can literature help my business to succeed? Well literature and philosophy are the two best representation of the spirit of a nation. We must understand the literature and philosophy of a country in order to understand its past, present and future. This theory applies perfectly to the character and spirit of the Chinese nation. As a nation that has a strong emphasis on the importance of learning and wisdom since the Age of Confucius(551-479 BCE), Chinese people have produced many masterpieces that reflect their wisdom and world view throughout history. Some helpful Chinese Classics for foreign business leaders to understand Chinese society include The Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong and The Analects by Confucius and his disciples.

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a great text on understanding the society of China and the novel itself is greatly valued by foreign people. For example in Korean society there is a famous saying in the business world, “Don’t make friends with people who haven’t read the Three Kingdoms before.” The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is considered to be one of the four greatest classical novel in Chinese literature. The novel summaries the legacies of the prominent warlords and statesmen of the Late Eastern Han Dynasty and their journeys on achieving their own goals. Many of the famous heroes in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms are greatly admired by contemporary Chinese audience. The world of the Three Kingdoms itself demonstrates the complexity of the Chinese society by showing complicated human relationships. Every individual in the Three Kingdoms had different aspirations and goals and the way that they interacted and cooperated with each other offers great wisdom on human interrelationships. Many of the warlords in the Three Kingdoms were like entrepreneurs themselves. Started from the bottom of the society, they eventually built their own kingdoms. You could see that the power of these warlords grew just like a new start up business. Initially they started with their founding team members and gradually they expanded and hired new talents to grow the business. The way that Liu Bei, Cao Cao and Sun Quan selected their talents and the ability to place the talent at the most appropriate position is greatly valued by many Chinese business leaders. If Chinese business leaders greatly value this text, then it will certainly be in the interest of foreign business leaders to read this text in order to understand the mentality of their business partners. Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu had a famous saying in his masterpiece The Art of War, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.”

The Analects by Confucius and his disciples is arguably the most important and influential philosophical work in Chinese history. It is a great summary of the political views, ethics and moral philosophy by Confucius, the greatest sage of Chinese philosophy. In ancient times, the Analects was part of the ‘four books, five classics’ and was read by all literate men and women. This work is the fundamental text of Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism which influenced Chinese society and ethics for nearly three thousand years. It is fair to suggest that if you want to understand the Chinese view on life and many other important issues, you will have to read to the Analects. Business leaders in China greatly value the importance of the Analects on improving corporate governance and making business strategies. In fact some of the moral standards set by Confucius in the Analects are greatly valued by Chinese businessmen when it comes to making a business deal. Confucius described the five main characters of a gentleman(junzi) as 温、良、恭、俭、让；temperate, kind, courteous, restrained, and magnanimous. He also described 仁、义、礼、智、信; benevolence, righteousness, manners, wisdom, trustworthiness as the five kinds of moralities. Businesspeople in China emphasise on the importance of 信（trustworthiness) when it comes to making a business deal. They also believe that trustworthiness is the basis of an entrepreneur in the business world. Trustworthiness is what secures the reputation of an entrepreneur and also his image in the minds of his business partners. Many Chinese companies also emphasise on the importance of hierarchy within the corporation. They believe it is necessary to build a hierarchy in the corporation because it is important for the employee to respect his senior. A corporation could only succeed when the employees cooperate well with their seniors and this relationship could be built through mutual respect. And finally social responsibility is also an important moral responsibility emphasised by Confucianism. Mencius emphasised the importance of this belief by arguing “make yourself better, or make the world better. Be good on your own when you are poor, and share with others when you are rich.” A successful corporation should always place taking social responsibility as a core business value. Under the current Chinese government, poverty alleviation has been a major political agenda. And many famous Chinese corporations follow this government initiative on helping provinces and regions in poverty to tackle this issue. After the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, Xiaomi Group donated significant amount of ventilators, masks and other protective gears to the province of Hubei and the city of Wuhan. These actions by the famous Chinese companies all demonstrate this noble ideal held by Mencius. Foreign businesses operating in China could follow the examples of their partners on serving the society and giving back to the community. This will greatly improve their brand image in the hearts of billions of Chinese people.

China is not an easy country to understand and it’s certainly a country with its own characteristics. We must also understand that there are fundamental differences between Chinese and Western Civilisation on so many issues. However as entrepreneurs and businesspeople, these differences shouldn’t be a barrier for us to enter the Chinese market and making business with the Chinese people. Mutual trust and respect could be constructed through mutual exchanges in almost every sector. And I believe the exchanges in the field of Humanities is a major catalyst for foreign businesses to succeed in China. Maybe let’s start from reading the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the Analects first!