you may have heard comments from your friends or colleagues about the Chinese such as: “We wasted so much time on them, in the end we realized they were never that interested and could just have said no to us at the start” or “They clearly said NO to our conditions so we stopped pursuing them, but our competitors who also got the NO message kept engaging the Chinese and eventually succeeded. How can we deal with people who can't even clearly give you a Yes or No answer?”


Westerners often find the Chinese way of talking about business bizarre – they tend to spend ages talking about irrelevant topics and may even be unfocused and unclear when they finally start discussing the “real” topic. Conversations may involve obscure references to a character from some old historical novel or a long-dead military general or public servant whom neither you nor your interpreter knows or understands. You may keep trying to clarify exact details but the answers may serve to only deepen your confusion. Alternatively, you may be too polite to ask for clarification, wondering whether the interpreter is up to the task or not. You might even begin to suspect that you are just talking with a dud Chinese businessman, wondering how he could collect so much wealth so quickly while being such a nutcase.

As a generalization, Westerners tend to be straightforward and structure-focused while the Chinese tend to be more conceptual and key point-focused. Westerners love legal definitions, terminologies and relish going through contracts point by point, over and over… This represents a precise and straightforward approach to problems. The Chinese can be a lot more pragmatic, creative and non-linear in their approach. They tend to process issues in layers based upon their priorities and principles rather than a set structure or procedure. For example, a Chinese negotiator may not have an established process of dealing with an issue so would prefer to test them all. Thus, it's not always easy for him to give an exact YES or NO response, his actual position being closer to “Yes, but we would like to explore the other options” or “No, but if the other options don’t work we will come back to this issue.”

Westerners may ask “Why make it so complicated? Aren’t the Chinese tired of this themselves?” The answer to this being that ambiguity has been deeply rooted in Chinese life and culture for thousands of years. Throughout their childhood, puberty and early employment years, Chinese people learn to swallow the words they want to say but cannot, using a calm and humble expression to cover their real passion, ambition and emotions lest they challenge the accepted consensus. An old Chinese expression emphasises that the early bird will be the first to be shot, in stark contrast to its Western counterpart that stresses the importance of being the first to do something. Learning how to express oneself ambiguously allows the expression of thoughts and ideas that may otherwise receive censure if expressed explicitly.

The culture of ambiguity also reflects the nation's contradictory focus on mutual feelings that co-exists with a strong core base of reason or rationality. Probing for these feelings is often behind the many “off-topic conversations” in China. As such, the Chinese often care less about what you say and more about how you say it.

Understanding Chinese ambiguity begins with the interpreter. Being fluent in a language needs to be supported by a thorough understanding of the culture. Very few interpreters understand the importance of explaining inferences and underlying intentions which impedes Western understanding of this Chinese trait.

Also be cautious about understanding Chinese business culture through the action lists of “dos and do nots” that appear in various publications and journals. These are fine to use as a reference but can’t be applied strictly. For most people, it would be just as useful to apply your own common sense and judgement, take a learning approach and be realistic about your learning a curve. Understanding Chinese business culture takes years of practice and can't be achieved by just reading a few hot-selling China books.

In the end, an over-emphasis on clarity may create conflict, preclude new opportunities and result in unnecessary legal obligations. On the other hand, appreciating ambiguity may bring mutual understanding without formality, knowing by the heart rather than through words. The meaning of a word is limited, while a “sense” can be established quickly and applied broadly.

If you have now concluded that I am trying to confuse you – welcome to the ambiguous world of the Chinese. As long as it makes sense somewhere then the “clarity” is within.