Through the Bamboo Curtain: Understanding China and the Chinese Psyche

THROUGH THE BAMBOO CURTAIN
© Minim Consulting 2016
Thanet –2016

Credentials
What is the difference between a
CHINA CONSULTANT and a CHINA
EXPERT?
to quote a joke
doing the
rounds in
China a few
years ago …

Credentials
A CHINA CONSULTANT is someone
who knows more about China than you
do!
A CHINA EXPERT is someone who has
been in China for thirty minutes!

Credentials
BJ

SH 
GZ

中文版
To be the natural choice for the
next licence issued by the Chinese
government to an UK insurance
company – including by means of:
 raising the company’s profile
and influence in China-based
Chinese and UK government,
diplomatic and business circles
 establishing a “circle of friends”
from whom to select a joint
venture partner
 market intelligence and
competitor watching

Introduction to
Course, China &
Chinese Psyche:
Foreign Devils in
Middle Kingdom
Understanding
Chinese: How can
West and China
improve mutual
understanding?
Guanxi
(Relationships):
The “Mother of all
Networks” - or the
“Root of all Evil”?
Keqi (Humility),
Miànzi (Face), &
Xiao (Filial Piety):
Why do Chinese
behave as they do?
Understanding,
Differentiating &
Defining Cultures:
Why don’t Chinese
behave like us?
Confucianism:
Outdated Past
Philosophy - or
Today’s Model Code
of Conduct?

THROUGH THE BAMBOO CURTAIN – 1
An Introduction to
China and the Chinese Psyche:
Foreign Devils in the Middle Kingdom
Thanet – January 2016

Session Overview
LEARNING OUTCOMES
To enable you briefly to
describe in lay terms:
• Why bother about
China? Key facts about
China, both past and
present
• Misconceptions that the
West and China hold
about each other
• How and why the
Chinese view themselves
and the rest of the world
METHODOLOGY
1. Presentation
2. Group Discussion
and Presentation
3. Presentation and
Group Exercise

(c)MinimConsulting,2016
Why bother
about China?

2013:
Chinabecametheworld'ssecond-largesteconomy
2014:
Economygrewby some7%andlikelyto do so againin2015
2002– 2011:
UKexportsto Chinarose400%to £12.5bn
FirstHalf2015:
UKexportsto Chinaincreasedby20%to £9bn
Chineseexportsto UKincreasedbynearly10%to £16.7bn
WereChinato sellhergoldreservesintheUS, shecouldruintheir
economy
WhybotheraboutChina?

Of world-widesalesforthefollowinggoods,
Chinamanufacturesat least:
75% 70% 30%
30% 25% 20%

KeyfactsaboutChinatoday
• 20%ofworld’spopulation
• 5%ofearth’slandmass
• c. 4000yearsof recorded(written)
history
as follows…

TheRiseofChina
500BC
Confucius’“GoldenRule”of reciprocity
anticipatesJesus’SecondCommandment
(Session3)
1/5

TheRiseofChina
221BC
Constructionbeginsof
GREATWALLOF CHINA
Length:1200(later1500)miles
Watch-towers:every200yards
Height:25feet
2/5

TheRiseofChina
995AD
Chineseinventpaper,printingwith
movabletype,gunpowderandmagnetic
compass
3/5

TheRiseofChina
1274
MarcoPoloreportsseeingpapermoney,
paddleboatsandcoal … andis called
“TheManof a MillionLies”
4/5

TheRiseofChina
1421
AdmiralZhengHediscoversAmerica?…
andoccupiesFalklandIslands?
as follows…
5/5

TheRiseofChina
15th& 16thCentury
Navigators

15th& 16thCenturyNavigators
Zheng He
Nationality Chinese
Number of
Voyages
7
Dates of
Voyages
1405 - 1433
Number of
Ships
41 - 317
Number of
Men
27,500 – 30,000
Led the world’s earliest
extensive naval
expeditions, visiting 37
countries from Vietnam to
East Africa
Christopher Columbus
Nationality
Italian-born, sailed
for Spain
Number of
Voyages
4
Dates of
Voyages
1492 -1504
Number of
Ships
3 - 17
Number of
Men
104 – 1,200
First European to explore
the Americas since a
largely forgotten Viking
foray 400 years earlier
1/4

Zheng He
Nationality Chinese
Number of
Voyages
7
Dates of
Voyages
1405 - 1433
Number of
Ships
41 - 317
Number of
Men
27,500 – 30,000
extensive naval
East Africa
Vasco de Gama
Nationality Portugese
Number of
Voyages
3
Dates of
Voyages
1497 - 1524
Number of
Ships
4 - 14
Number of
Men
??
Discovered the sea route
from Europe to India, by
rounding Africa’s Cape of
Good Hope
2/4

Zheng He
Nationality Chinese
Number of
Voyages
7
Dates of
Voyages
1405 - 1433
Number of
Ships
41 - 317
Number of
Men
27,500 – 30,000
extensive naval
East Africa
Ferdinand Magellan
Nationality
Portugese-born,
sailed for Spain
Number of
Voyages
1
Dates of
Voyages
1519 - 1522
Number of
Ships
5
Number of
Men
270
Led the first
circumnavigation of the
globe. He was killed in the
Philippines, but one ship
made it back to Spain 3/4

Zheng He
Nationality Chinese
Number of
Voyages
7
Dates of
Voyages
1405 - 1433
Number of
Ships
41 - 317
Number of
Men
27,500 – 30,000
extensive naval
East Africa
Francis Drake
Nationality English
Number of
Voyages
9
Dates of
Voyages
1567 - 1596
Number of
Ships
2 - 30
Number of
Men
166
When not battling Spain,
Drake led the second global
circumnavigation and
explored the west coast of
North America and the
Pacific
4/4

TheRiseofChina
1725
EmperorYongshengcommissionsthe
10,000chapterCOMPLETEWORKSOF
THEFOURTREASURIES
(largestencyclopaedia ever)

TheFall ofChina
THE
OPIUMWARS
1839- 1860

TheOpiumWars– 1839to1860
According to the CIA:
“For centuries, China has stood as a leading
civilization, *outpacing the rest of the world in
the arts and sciences. But in the first half of the
20th century, China was beset by major
famines, civil unrest, military defeats, and
foreign occupation”
HOWEVER, this view conveniently overlooks the
gradual invasion of China by Western traders from
the end of the 18th Century onwards, as epitomized
by the Opium Wars
(* also the leading trading nation) 1/7

TheOpiumWars- 1760
The British East India Company had started
trading in Guangzhou [Canton] for porcelain,
silk and especially tea
This created a huge balance of payments in
favour of the Chinese, as they were willing
exporters but disdained importing Western
goods
2/7

TheOpiumWars- 1793
Britain’s attempt to establish a trade treaty with
China was rejected by the Chinese Emperor on
the grounds that Western and other
“barbarians” could never have equality with
the Celestial Empire (an allusion to the
Confucian elevation of the Chinese Emperor to
the status of the “Son of Heaven”)
To restore the balance of trade, the British
East India Company began smuggling into
China cheap Indian opium - a drug only the
very wealthy Chinese could afford until now
3/7

As a result, the number of opium addicts
amongst ordinary Chinese escalated to such
an extent that China's trade surplus became
a deficit
The Chinese Emperor
• outlawed the opium trade
• ordered the punishment of dealers & users
• appealed to the British Queen Victoria to
end the traffic
but all to no avail
4/7

In another attempt to enforce the ban, the
Chinese authorities seized and burned
chests of opium in Guangzhou [Canton]
Consequently, the British retaliated by:
• waging the First Opium War (1839-1842)
• forcing the Chinese to open their doors to
foreign trade (giving rise to the expression
“gunboat diplomacy”)
• imposing on China the Treaty of Nanjing,
as a means of exacting the trade
preferences Britain sought 5/7

During the next two years France and the
USA extracted similar treaties (1843-1844)
As China’s observance of the Treaty’s terms for
the expansion of trade fell far short of the
Western powers’ expectations, Britain and
France found an excuse to renew hostilities
During the Second Opium War (1856-1860),
new treaties (known collectively as the Treaty
of Tianjin) were signed, further favouring the
West 6/7

However, the Chinese Emperor refused to
ratify the treaty. Consequently, a joint Anglo-
French expeditionary force:
• invaded the Chinese capital (Beijing)
• destroyed the Imperial Summer Palace
(allegedly in retaliation for Chinese atrocities
to Western prisoners)
• enforced the ratification of earlier treaties
by enacting the Beijing Conventions
7/7

TheFall ofChina
THEUNEQUAL
TREATIES
1860- 1943

TheUnequal Treaties– 1860to1943
The treaties that the Chinese were forced to
sign by the Western powers during and at the
end of the Opium Wars - known in China
collectively as The Unequal Treaties - and to
observe for the next 100 years (until 1943)
forcibly and unfairly:
• prohibited China from isolating herself from
the rest of the world
• dictated her relations for approximately the
next hundred years with the West both at
home and abroad
1/5

• changed the course of China’s social and
economic development – for example by:
• opening Shanghai and four other Treaty Ports
(known as “concessions”) to foreign trade and
residents
• ceding Hong Kong and Kowloon to Great
Britain
• handicapped the Qing dynasty permanently:
• Under Most-Favoured-Nation Clause, privileges
“granted” by China to one Treaty Power auto-
matically applied to all Powers
(This eventually spawned a network of foreign
control over the entire Chinese economy) 2/5

• down-graded the Chinese to second-class
citizens in their own country - for example:
• banning them and dogs from Huangpu Park in
Shanghai’s former British Concession
• subjecting them to local courts presided over
jointly by Chinese and foreign judges
• favoured foreign nationals of the Treaty
Powers living in China, granting them extra-
territoriality status, by which they were:
• subject to the laws of their homeland only
• tried by their own judges and/or at their
consulates 3/5

The Treaties also:
• capped the import-duty into China at 5%,
to stop China arbitrarily imposing excessive
duties
(This denied China sufficient import duties to
protect her domestic markets and promote
economic modernization)
• enforced the presence of foreign gunboats
on the rivers and coasts of China
(Hence the origin of term “gunboat diplomacy”)
4/5

“Such treaties were looked upon by the Chinese as
unpleasant but necessary concessions dictated
by unruly barbarians – who today, sadly, either
are unaware of, or choose conveniently to forget,
their inglorious colonial past, much to their shame
and China’s chagrin
Is it any wonder then that, having been treated so
badly, the Chinese may still be cagey about doing
business with foreigners; and try to exploit
Westerners’ remorse for damage their forefathers
did to China, as one of their negotiating tech-
niques”
[The Chinese Business Puzzle, p. 36]
5/5

TheFall ofChina
19th Century Sino-
European Relations

19th centurySino-Europeanrelations
China’s attitude to the West during 19th century
was based on the inability of its ultra-conservative
Imperial dynasty to conceive of a community of
independent and equal nations. In their view, the
world comprised China on the one hand, and
the rest of the world on the other - a view that:
• was so pervasive that Chinese who promoted
greater flexibility in China’s dealings with the
West were accused of being *“Westerners with
Chinese faces”
• still persists today, to a certain point
(*Today: cf. “bananas” vs. “boiled eggs”)
1/4

The West’s attitude to China during 19th century
was contradictory, as they simultaneously tried to:
• undermine what they deemed restrictive trad-
ing practices by means of the “Unequal Treaties”
• support the Imperial dynasty, weakened by its
defeat in The Opium Wars
Paradoxically, their:
• objective was to carve up China for their own
purposes
• strategy had to be to keep China together
In which they were thwarted by the outbreaks of
the Chinese Revolution (1911) & World War I (1914) 2/4

By means of the “Unequal Treaties”, the West
humiliated China by:
• reducing her to a semi-colonial / semi-feudal
country
• forcing her for approximately the next 100 years
to replace Confucianism with Western
science, technology, industry and management
practices
• relegating her to just one more backward
country under the heel of imperial powers
(especially Britain, France and the USA)
3/4

The continual demands by foreign traders for
ever-increasing concessions gave rise to anti-
foreign popular uprisings in China - most notably
the:
• Taiping Rebellion (1851-1864): bloodiest civil
war in history with 20-30 million dead. Led by
failed civil servant, Hing Xiuquan, claiming to be
Jesus’ brother
• Boxer Rebellion (1898-1900): fierce repression
of change by Dowager Empress Tz’u Hsi causes
anti-foreign uprising and eventual end of 2,000
year-old imperial rule (in 1912)
4/4

GROUP DISCUSSION - 1
“EAST IS EAST AND WEST IS WEST
AND NEVER THE TWAIN SHALL MEET”
[The Ballad of East and West, Rudyard Kipling, 1889]

“What misconceptions do you think that
the West and China hold about each other,
for example as regarding the following?”
Gender Roles
Customs and
Conventions
Etiquette
Greetings Non-verbal
Communications
Confrontation v.
Harmony
Individual v.
Group
Political
Perspective
Neutral v.
Emotion
Religion
Clothing
Family
Climate
Architecture
Food and
Drink

Howdo Chinaandthe
West perceiveeach
other?

Whilst YOU may have no misconceptions about China,
so many Westerners do that the Chinese with whom you
come into contact may assume that you share them - and
treat you accordingly
Whilst the CHINESE WITH WHOM YOU COME INTO
CONTACT may have no misconceptions about the West,
so many Chinese do that they may assume that you
assume that they too share them - and treat you
accordingly
EAST / WEST MISUNDERSTANDINGS

“Different is not
wrong“
How do youperceiveChina?

“Justbecause70%of the world’s
populationbehavesoneway does
notmeanthat they are right”
(American tourist in China,
September 2007)

“Judge not, that
you be not judged“
(RSV, Mt 7.1)

The West’s
view of
China
China
foot
binding
fu manchu
tiananmen
square
QUOTATIONS FROM
CHAIRMAN
MAO TSE-TUNG

China’s
view of
the West
foreigndevils
longnoses
technologically
advanced
morally corrupt

Harris Poll, Sep-02
“an unfriendly country”

Beijing Review, 23-Jan-03
“Americans are from Mars,
Chinese are from Venus”
“We are ready to be your
friends while keeping our
characteristics: how about
you?”

China’s
view of
the UK
City Weekend, 13&26-Feb-03
foggy
sherlock
holmes
“a nation stuck
in the past”
City Weekend, Feb-03
“men in bowler
hats walking at a clip
with noses in the air”
?

“doffing servants living below stairs in large country houses”

“Britain is seen by the Chinese as an
expensive, old-fashioned, bureaucratic
and slightly miserable place to visit,
according to British tourist chiefs”
“With the Olympics in Beijing less than
a fortnight away, they are preparing to
launch a charm offensive on the world's
most populous nation to break down
the stereotype that the British are all
about Charles Dickens and Sherlock
Holmes”
“Prospective Chinese tourists view
Britain through detective novels and old
films such as The 39 Steps, associating
the country with bowler hats, fog and
bearded men with walking sticks”
The Times, 28-Jul-08

The Chinese
Psyche

The West’s
view of
itself
China’s
view of
herself

The West’s
view of
itself
China’s
view of
herself
1839
2016
“If you don’t like us, we’ll beat
you up” (Unhappy China, 2009)

Explanation
of …
China’s
view of
herself

Value change --------------------------------|--------------------------------- Value tradition
Specificity in communicating -------------|------------- Vagueness in communicating
Analytical, linear problem solving ------|---------- Intuitive, lateral problem-solving
Emphasis on individual performance --|--------- Emphasis on group performance
Communication primarily verbal ---------|---- Communication primarily non-verbal
Emphasis on task & product -------------|---- Emphasis on relationship & process
Preference to express differences -----|-------------------- Preference for harmony
More horizontal organisation -------------|------------------ More vertical organisation
Informal tone ---------------------------------|------------------------------------ Formal tone
Competition -----------------------------------|----------------------------------- Collaboration
Rigid adherence to time -------------------|----------------- Flexible adherence to time
WHAT ARE YOUR PREFERENCES (“X”), AND WHAT DO YOU
THINK ARE THOSE OF THE CHINESE (“Y”), AS REGARDS …

Handouts
Daily Mail Weekend Supplement
9th June 2001
BRIEF HISTORY OF CHINA and OPIUM WARS
E-book
(Unknown)
20th CENTURY CHINA IN PHOTOGRAPHS
Andrew M Williamson
How to Books, Oxford, 2003
THE CHINESE BUSINESS PUZZLE - 2: SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT

Any Questions?

Understanding, Defining and Differentiating
between Different Cultures:
Why don’t the Chinese behave like us?
Thanet – February 2016

Session Overview
LEARNING OUTCOMES
To enable you briefly to
describe in lay terms:
1. the sociological concept
of “culture” and how it
may affect behaviour
2. the behaviours that
differentiate cultures
3. how and why Western
and Chinese behaviour
differ, with reference to
established cultural
models
METHODOLOGY
1. Group Discussion
2. Presentation
3. Group Exercise

Through the Bamboo Curtain: Understanding China and the Chinese Psyche

Through the Bamboo Curtain: Understanding China and the Chinese Psyche

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Editor's Notes