Sino-British interaction in professional contexts

This paper consists of two main sections. Section 2 provides a brief overview of and background to basic aspects of communication in a Chinese context. It provides some introductory information on the Chinese language, on naming patterns and on forms of address in the Chinese culture. It thus helps the reader gain some useful background information on Chinese communication, some of which applies to the interactional differences addressed in Section 3. The second section forms the largest part of the paper and discusses issues that members of the eChina-UK Programme (http://www.echinauk.org/) found particularly salient. It draws on case study examples, including recordings of project meetings, in order to exemplify communication issues that can impact on mutual understanding. We hope that these materials will help people with little experience of interacting with members of the Chinese culture to grasp some of the communication differences they may encounter. However, we strongly encourage the reader to refrain from forming immutable expectations of what communication with Chinese partners will be like. Rather, our aim is to increase sensitivity to the Chinese context and to raise awareness of the differences in interactional norms and principles that people may experience

Chinese hydropower companies and environmental norms in countries of the global South: the involvement of Sinohydro in Ghana’s Bui Dam

The paper examines the role of environmental norms in Chinese overseas investment in hydropower dams, exemplified by Sinohydro’s involvement in the Bui Dam in Ghana. While the investment of Western companies in hydropower dams in the global South is decreasing owing to changing notions of sustainability in the West, the investment of Chinese companies in hydro dams in Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America is accelerating at great speed. The emergence of Chinese companies in international markets in the context of China’s Going Abroad strategy has sparked a debate on whether China can be considered a norm-changer in international development. The paper considers this question in the context of the status of environmental norms in Sinohydro’s investment in Ghana’s Bui Dam. The paper argues that the role of international norms in Chinese investment is dependent on two factors: the contractual arrangements under which Chinese companies operate abroad and the political institutions of host countries

Hidden Spoor, Ruan Xiaoxu, And His Treatise On Reclusion

In early medieval China great attention was paid to compiling accounts of men in reclusion, yet the prefaces to these compilations often contain only vague or stale reasoning concerning the nature of reclusion itself. A preface by Shen Yue (441-513) is a notable exception: Shen differentiated between disengagement and reclusion. A slightly later contemporary of Shen, Ruan Xiaoxu (479-536), took issue with him in a unique and tightly constructed disquisition on what Ruan saw as a basic dichotomy in the Way of man: the root and overt traces. Ruan\u27s overlooked treatise is examined here, as are some relevant facets of his life

Topos And Entelechy In The Ethos Of Reclusion In China

While the topos of reclusion was ubiquitous in the scholar-official culture of traditional China, there was already in medieval sources a discernible differentiation between essentiality and semblance, between bona fide men in reclusion and men who took office, between reclusion per se and its synthetic translation into the political, intellectual, and literary repertoire of the scholar-official. Men recognized as having practiced reclusion as a way of life categorically eschewed official appointments. Many scholar-officials espoused precepts ordinarily associated with reclusion, but on an occasional or purely noetic basis; their conduct, rationale, and writings evince the entrenchment of topoi of reclusion within the scholar-official ethos, but do not evince the ethos of reclusion

Guanxi and the organization of Chinese new year festivals in England

This article explores how Chinese diaspora communities use guanxi, a unique Chinese interpretation of personal relationships, in the organization of Chinese New Year (CNY) festivals in England. A case-study approach that incorporated mixed qualitative methods was used to investigate the interactions and interrelationships between the ethnic Chinese communities involved in the organization of CNY festivals in five English cities. The article argues that Chinese diaspora communities use their guanxi to establish collaboration at CNY festivals. However, the process of organizing CNY festivals has also exposed divisions among Chinese communities. The article proposes that guanxi has important implications for the relationships among Chinese diaspora communities in the context of CNY festivals. Although it facilitates collaboration and promotes solidarity among Chinese communities, it may also intensify competition for power. Diaspora festivals in general are a neglected area of research and this article is the first to study the organization of Chinese New Year festivals in detail

Cemetery Squatting and Anti-Chinese Tensions: Insights from Central Java

Over the centuries, the Chinese minority in Indonesia has lived in an environment characterized by social tensions. This paper will explore Chinese-Javanese relations in the microcosm of a Javanese squatter settlement that has invaded a Chinese cemetery. Four issues will be considered which will illustrate the nature of long-standing tensions between these two ethnic groups: 1) the manner in which informal sector housing is developed; 2) economic attitudes of the Javanese with respect to the Chinese; 3) the relationship of the Chinese to law and authority and how conflict resolution is approached ; and 4) the linguistic context of Chinese-Javanese relations. Although cemetery squatting has been an incremental process, it has been the result of a fundamental perception of the weak position of the Chinese in Javanese society. Similarly, the illegal occupation of land also results from perceptions that both the Chinese and public officials will ultimately acquiesce to the squatters\u27 aspirations