The Hidden Rules
of Chinese Business Lunch
Training for
business lunch
"Breaking
bread breaks barriers," as it is
famously expressed by Robin Jay, a business
lunch guru with The Art of the Business
Lunch to his credit. Following his
instrument, the West businessmen and women
spread across the table salads, biscuits and
sandwiches, get a pot of tea and coffee
ready; if the guests are so important to
their business, then hot roast meat rolls,
beef or pork steaks would be on the menu, and
even BBQ and even a cocktail reception. Then,
as they have expected, over the refreshment,
a few deals have been sealed, the old
commitments have been renewed, and much has
been decided. All is well, until one day they
usher in honoured Chinese guests,
particularly when the guests are officials
(China has a lot of officials). Or when they
go to China to meet their clients, especially
when the clients are officials (Chinese
business can’t run without officials).
Suddenly, they find Robin Jay’s trick no
longer works. Breaking bread alone does
little, if anything, in helping them to break
barriers.
Fortunately,
there is a case study drawn from the personal
experiences of a Chinese vice-professor who
has decoded some hidden rules in the Chinese
game of barrier-breaking, and below is a
brief summery of his business lunch/dinner
report:
Once
upon a time, the vice-professor took a
business trip to a city. Upon arrival, his
old college pal Mr. Tang, a chief executive
of a private company, arranged a business
dinner (饭局) to
welcome him and to introduce him to the city’s
VIPs, i.e. the local officials.
The
dinner was scheduled to start at 6:30 PM. By
5.50 PM, Tang and the vice-professor arrived
at the restaurant’s VIP room in a
star-ranked hotel. No one else appeared until
five minutes past the 6:30 PM when Mr Li, a
chief of an administration office (科长),
surfaced. Li’s boss Mr Zen, a section head
(主任),
arrived seven minutes after him. Eight
minutes and twenty minutes later, Zen’s
boss Zhang and Li, two bureau chiefs (局长),
emerged respectively. When Mr Wang, a
secretary to the city mayor, showed up, it
was well past 7 PM, nearly 45 minutes after
the scheduled time.
So the
vice-professor kindly illustrated the two
hidden rules of the Chinese style business
lunch/dinner:
1)
According to Einstein's theory of
relativity, time itself changes with the
speed of motion of the instrument that
measures it. In here, the instrument of
the measurement is the rank of position.
With the notion of the relativity, the
idea that a public time exists is
unattainable, so we see the more massive
the body (i.e. the heavier the social
weight, the higher the position rank),
the slower the time appears to run (i.e.
the later to arrive at the restaurant).
2)
The official title of an official does
not always reflect the actual rank of the
official, and that explains why the
secretary to the mayor was the last to
show up. It is not because he was a
secretary, but to mayor.
After
much delay, the dinner finally started. When
Tang introduced the vice-professor to other
guests, he emphasised "professor"
but didn’t bother to mention
"vice". And he did the same when he
introduced the officials to the professor.
So the
professor (with vice) revealed the third
hidden rule:
3)
Always remember to address your guests
with title of position, but forever
forget to include little extras like
assistant, deputy or vice.
Before
lifting your chopsticks there was one more
task to accomplish: toast. Tang the host
toasted the secretary to the mayor, then the
two bureau chiefs, then the professor, and
then the section head and the office chief.
The secretary toasted bureau chiefs, the
professor and the host, but did not toast the
section head and office chief. Two bureau
chiefs toasted the secretary, the professor
and the host, but did not toast the section
head and the office chief. The section head
and the office chief toasted everyone and
each other.
So the
professor disclosed the forth hidden rules of
the Chinese style business lunch/dinner:
4)
Doing toast is not just a token of
friendship. It is more the power of
recognition.
Over
the dinner table, Tang the host let slip a
line from a Tang verse: "酒逢知己千杯少".
The professor quickly added his scholarly
contribution, "葡萄美酒夜光杯".
Then the section head followed, "借酒消愁愁更愁".
Then a bureau chief uttered, "今朝有酒今朝醉".
Then the office chief recited, "醉翁之意不在酒".
Then another bureau chief expressed, "酒不醉人人自醉".
So the
professor imparted the last hidden rules:
5)
During the Chinese style business
dinner/lunch, you shall talk less about
what was on the office desk but more
about what was on the dinner table. If
you talk more about wine and food, you
may eventually get the business; if you
talk more about the business, you may
just have a nice dinner/lunch.
酒场就是战场，酒风就是作风，酒量就是胆量，酒瓶就是水平.
China
stories are told at wenhousecrafts.com
