Chinese Business Etiquette: A Guide to Protocol, Manners, and Culture in the People's Republic of China (A Revised and Updated Edition of "Dealing with the Chinese") | 
 enlarge | Author: Scott D. Seligman
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $14.99
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Rating:  25 reviews
Sales Rank: 48069
Media: Paperback
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0446673870
Dewey Decimal Number: 306.0951
EAN: 9780446673877
ASIN: 0446673870
Publication Date: March 1, 1999
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
shows how to avoid costly misunderstandings, interpret behavior, avoid the unintentional gaffe, and make positive impressions -- all while closing million-dollar deals and forming priceless friendships.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 20 more reviews...
 interesting and practical July 10, 2008
Szendile (Hungary)
I really enjoyed reading this book, I found it useful. It uses a practical approach to meetings and negotiations in China, I mean it not only says "do that" and "don't do that" like other books on etiquette but explains it with concret examples and situations, so one can prepare well on how to behave in certain situations.
 This is The Second Step In A Journey of 1000 Miles May 7, 2008
China Maven (Seattle, WA)
I liked Chinese Business Etiquette: A Guide to Protocol, Manners, and Culture in the People's Republic of China a lot. I'm trying to get up speed real quickly on doing business in China. I think of it as a 1000 Mile journey. The first book The Gods of Business I read got me about 500 miles down the road real quick. It gave me the basics of the country's religion and their approach to business. After that I read this book and then read (Doing Business in China For Dummies (For Dummies (Business & Personal Finance))) each of which added another 250 miles of knowledge.
Great Guide to Chinese Culture August 20, 2007
William Kerney (San Diego, CA)
This book contains very useful information about Chinese Culture -- it's not at all just for business people, but for anyone who wants to understand the culture... or at least try to not stick their foot in their mouth when interacting with Chinese people.
Whenever I surprise my Chinese fiancee by knowing something about Chinese Culture (like the seating arrangements at a banquet), most of the time it was learned from this book. I can't rate it highly enough.
nice review March 12, 2007
Joseph Pickering (Delaware, USA)
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
Haven't finished the book, yet. But so far, it seems to be worthwhile.
Rich in cultural anecdotes but lacking in the big picture February 6, 2007
Dave Twain (Wayzata, MN USA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
To be sure, with its rich Chinese cultural anecdotes and the author's vivid writing style, this book is not only useful in helping the reader understand unique Chinese concepts like Guanxi, Mianzi and Lijie but also an entertaining read - suitable for business travelers.
However, after reading Wei Wang's The China Executive, I realize that Seligman has not been right on "the single most important and fundamental difference between Chinese and Westerners". On pages 44-47 of Chinese Business Etiquette, Seligman says that this is the difference between the "individualism" of Westerners and the "group-centeredness" of the Chinese. (Of course, Seligman is not alone in getting this wrong; since the publication of Geert Hofstede's Culture's Consequences in 1980, this Western individualism-Chinese collectivism dichotomy has become the most widely-talked assumption in almost every book on China business including the authoritative Harvard Business Review on Doing Business in China).
To elaborate on Seligman (page 45), "[In China,] matters are often debated at great length until agreement is reached on a course of action. Once a decision has been made, however, individual group members are expected to fall in line, embrace it, and act on it, and nobody presumes to question it, at least overtly."
Now, the reality is that, with nearly a hundred million dollars invested in China, one of the biggest complaints our expats have against local staff is the latter's inability to follow a pre-agreed course of action or plan. In addition, the Chinese do not like group discussions, not to mention "debates at great length"; most of them like to remain quiet rather than actively voice their opinions. Also, if the Chinese were group-centered, their state-owned enterprises would have been so successful that multinationals have stood little chance to compete with them - but the very opposite is true (most state-owned enterprises cannot be closed down fast enough because they are "a pile of sand")!
According to Wei Wang in his book The China Executive, "group and individual are the two sides of the same coin; one cannot exist without the other", and therefore Westerners actually exhibit dual individualism-collectivism. And the heart of human relationships in China is human feelings. In other words, Chinese and Westerners do not represent two poles of the same individualism-collectivism continuum.
In addition, "there is a limit to learning the Chinese way," says Wang. "There are things that you need to go about the Chinese way but there are also things that you need to go about the Western way - otherwise, you lose the purpose of going there in the first place."
To understand why and, more important, its profound implications for China business or indeed business in the China era (including management, leadership, strategy and worldview), you have to read The China Executive.
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