Michael Hugos, Board Chairman

Going to China for Art and Business

(excerpt from Michael Hugos' blog in CIO Magazine)
http://advice.cio.com/michael_hugos/going_to_china_for_art_and_business

The what’s-next-after-the-meltdown world now taking shape comes in part from the mixing of China and America; the mixing of the world’s largest population with the world’s largest economy. China is the Yin to America’s Yang. We are opposites in so many ways, yet since China is perhaps the epitome of eastern culture and America is perhaps the epitome of western culture, it’s safe to imagine a future heavily influenced by a blend of the art, business, science and politics of these two countries.

Over the next three weeks I’ll be traveling in China for art and business. Art is what brings me to China this time, and business is what may bring me back next time.

Art brings me to China because I’m chairman of the board of a Chicago contemporary dance company and the company artistic director has gotten a grant from the MacArthur Foundation to take the company to China. They will be in residence for a week at Nanjing Normal University where they’ll learn Chinese dance and teach American dance. The company is Concert Dance Inc. (CDI) and the artistic director of the company, Venetia Stifler, is also a professor in the Music and Dance department at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. The trip is part of an exchange program called the “International Dance Learning Project” sponsored by the two universities. The dancers and Venetia will be documenting their experiences with daily updates of pictures, video and essays posted to the company’s blog “CDI Travels to China”.

Doing Prep Work to Make the Most of this Opportunity

In addition to time in Nanjing, we’ll also spend several days in Shanghai where I'm scheduling some business meetings, and Beijing where I'll be the featured speaker at a seminar on agile supply chains. Everybody from the dancers to the tech crew and the marketing director and me has been getting ready and reading books on Chinese culture, etiquette and business customs to prepare ourselves. I’ve found out a few things that will be helpful.

One of the most important things is the pervasive influence of two concepts expressed in the words “mainzi” and “guanxi”. Mainzi is the concept of face or your personal prestige and standing in your community. Guanxi is the concept of your social and business network, the people you know and the favors you have done for them that entitle you to ask for favors in return. (Chinese words here are spelled in the Latin alphabet using the pinyin Romanization system of the People’s Republic of China.)

I also learned that the Chinese are very careful not to say anything in public that would cause a possible loss of face (mainzi). As a consequence, Chinese have many ways of saying yes, but they rarely come right out and say no because it would cause embarrassment and loss of face.

This is illustrated by the fact that in Chinese there aren't any words for "yes" or "no"; instead positive and negative replies are made in the context of the question being asked. A Chinese word close to yes is “shr” meaning “is” or “is definitely” (shr sounds like the Chicago pronunciation of the English word “sure”). A phrase close to no is “bu shr” meaning “is not” or “not definitely”; the word “bu” negates what follows. So when you make a suggestion that people like, they’ll reply with a variation of shr and offer specific steps to make your suggestion become a reality. When you make a suggestion people don’t like, they'll reply with a variation of bu shr; it will be non-committal or vague. This means they’re not very interested; they’ll think about it; and don't push your suggestion any further.