As I told you at the beginning of this Blog, I was very curious to discover how similar the Chinese and the Vietnamese cultures were similar, providing that I have worked 6 months in Hanoi in 2005. None of you ignore the long history that links North Vietnam and China, so it may not surprised you too much if I tell you that I have found hundreds of similarities in both cultures! My work experience in Chengdu, for a not-for-profit organization funded by the government, reminds me a lot of my experience working for a Vietnamese NGO:
- the management structure is very similar, with for each department one young manager and one senior executive (who tends to be the decision maker);
- there is lots of official meetings where the whole department attends the meeting, while mainly only the manager speaks (it is not good to show off in front of the boss);
- there is an extreme respect of hierachy and discipline is the best compliment an employee can get from his/her superior;
- and also those special red banners created for each important meeting or workshop!
"Loosing face" or "gaining face" is the major preoccupation of most Chinese people, like it is for Vietnamese people. I think as Westerner we can understand that concept to a certain extend, but when people tend to "not say the truth" in order "not to loose face", that is where our cultural sensitivity sometimes gets stucked.
It is a very big challenge to do some consulting work in this context, when you need to gather information and facts and when your business partners do want help from you but at the same time and moreover do want to keep face so they will tend not to hide their weak points, and often embellish extensively their strenghts...
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