ICG-THE IIS UNIVERSITY

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
PROJECT ON
CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT
BBM 503

SUBMITTED TO:
SUBMITTED BY:
DR. CHHAVI JAIN
SRISHTI SHEKHAWAT
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

CHINA
Chinaofficially

thePeople's Republic of
China(PRC), is located inEast Asia. It is the
world'smost populous country, with a
population of over 1.35billion, about a
quarter of the world's total. China, today, is
the wealthiest and the most powerful
country in the whole of Asia. It is the third
largest country in the world in area. It has
the world'soldest continuous civilization. Its
culture is fascinatingly different, people
enjoy learning about life in China very
differently from the West countries.

Cntd..
Capital-

Beijing
Largest city- Shanghai
President-Xi Jinping
Population-1.357 billion (2013)
Official languages-Standard Chinese
Government- Single -partysocialist
state
Currency- Renminbi (Yuan)
National sport- Table Tennis
Major religion- Buddhism, Christianity,
Islam, Taoism.

Do you know?
China

uses45 billion chopsticksper year.

Facebook , Twitterand The New York Times
have beenblocked in China since 2009.
The World'sBiggest Mall, located in China,
is99% empty.
The World'sFirstPaper Moneywas created
in China1,400 years ago.
In China, over35 million peoplestill live in
caves.
ThePlayStationis illegalinChina.
China hastreatment camps forInternet
addicts.

Cultural Environment:

Culture
Culture is the ideas, customs, and social
behavior of a particular people or society.
Cultureis a word for people's 'way of
life',meaningthe way groups do things.
Different groups of people may have
differentcultures. Culture varies from society
to society. It is shared, intangible,
transmitted, learned and continuous.
It is not right or wrong, good or bad, it
is just different

How culture influence

international business?

Cultural Understanding =
Success!
Lack of Cultural Awareness =
Paying a Higher Price for
Products!

Elements of culture

Language
Values and attitudes
Customs and manners
Material goods
Religion
Education
Aesthetics
Family

Chinas cultural
environment
Language- a system of communication used by a
particular country or community.
In

China, there are seven official languages and 59

other recognized languages spoken across the 34
provinces, municipalities, regions and special
administrative regions.

Some

of the ethnic minority languages (such as

Tibetans, Mongolian) flourish in China largely because
they continue to be taught as mother tongue language
in schools in China.

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Doing business in China comes with both

great opportunities and great challenges. If
you do not speak Chinese, overcoming the
language barrier will be one of the biggest
challenges you will face.

Example:
In

China, the KFC Chicken slogan "fingerlickin' good" means eat your fingers off.

Coca

Cola is famous for its mistakes in the

eastern countries like China and Taiwan.
In China, when Coca Cola had to translate
its name in Mandarin, they chose Ke-KouKe-La, very unwisely because it meant,
bite the wax tadpole.

Values and attitudes:

Value

and attitudes is principles or

standards of behavior and a settled way
of thinking or feeling about something.
Living in China, you soon learn that
Chinese traditions play an integral role in
everyday life for every person.
Traditionally, in china, a person's status
in the society is based importantly on
inherited characteristics such as age,
gender, and family.Chinese, value
traditional principles and ways of life, and
cling to these.

The concept of face and

confucianism:
The

concept of 'face' roughly translatesas

'honor', 'good reputation' or 'respect'.

Confucianism

and face is part of the ancient

tradition upon which Chinese culture is derived.
It includes that Chinese people focus on loyalty;
they believe in respect for parents and elders;
benevolence, and righteousness.

The

Chinese are highly patriotic and

nationalistic. Chinese see themselves as parts of
a whole whether that whole be society, family,
or some other group or collective unit.

Example:
In

2004, China banned a Nike television

commercial showing U.S. basketball star LeBron
James in a battle with animated cartoon kung fu
masters and two dragons, because it was argued
that the ad insults Chinese national dignity.

Fiat

released an ad in Italy in which actor

Richard Gere drives the car from Hollywood to
Tibet. Gere is hated in China for being an
outspoken supporter of the Dalai Lama there
was a huge online uproar on Chinese message
boards commenting that they would never buy a
fiat car.

Customs and manners

Customs

and manners: the traditional

rules of behaving in a particular way in
family, society or country. The way that
a person normally behaves especially
while with other people .
Handshaking is the common form of
greeting and in the Western culture.
Chinese still prefer a different form of
greeting: a bow. Chinas people prefer a
soft handshake. Strong grips are
interpreted as a sign of aggression.

Examples:
Here

are some customs and manners of Chinese

people:
Greetings are formal and the oldest person is
always greeted first.
Do not give clocks, handkerchiefs or straw
sandals as they are associated with funerals and
death.
Do not give flowers, as many Chinese associate
these with funerals.
Do not wrap gifts in white, blue or black paper.
In China, you'll make a better impression by
wearing red, which is considered lucky, than by
wearing white, which is associated with death.

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Other

customs and manners:

Do not use large hand movements. The
Chinese do not speak with their hands.
Personal contact must be avoided at all
cost.
Do not point when speaking.
Do not drop the chopsticks it is
considered bad luck.
Do not eat all of your meal. If you eat all
of your meal, the Chinese will assume
you did not receive enough food and are
still hungry.

Technology and Material

culture
Technology

is a term that includes many

other elements. It includes energy to
power products, transport infrastructure to
distribute goods to consumers, it includes
questions like How quickly does innovation
diffuse? Also of key importance, do
consumers actually buy material goods i.e.
are they materialistic?
Material culture refers to all human-made
objects concerned with how people make
things and who makes what and why.

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Chinas

car market grew 25% in 2006

and it has overtaken Japan to be the
second-largest car market in the world
with sales of 8 million vehicles. Vast
differences are noted in the ratio of
people to cars throughout the world,
ranging from less than 2 in the United
States and Australia to 15 in Mexico,
over 500 in India, and over 1,000 in
China.

Family:
Chinese

believes ones first loyalty is to the

family. Relationships between father and son,
husband and wife, and older and younger
siblings. It is expected that a Chinese should
sacrifice his own interests for the sake of his
family, sometimes even sacrifice his moral
standard.
While China has increasingly adopted Western
influences, the traditional family structure is
still highly valued. Both traditional and modern
Chinese families have similar values and morals
to one another, and these have been a part of
daily life for many centuries.

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In

the traditional Chinese family, the man is

responsible for maintaining, providing for and
protecting his family.
Traditional Chinese mothers usually stay in the
home to take care of the home, the children,
and the rest of the family. Many modern
Chinese women have careers, but still rely on
their husbands.
Marriage, family and children are very
important in the Chinese culture. Because
such a large portion of the population lived in
rural environments for so long, getting married
and having children are important in their life.

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The

Chinese culture has undergone many dramatic

changes in recent years, but the family structure
and theimportance of family valuesremain a
focus. Families are still cherished, honored and
respected, whether you live in the traditional, rural
environment, or the modern, urban city.

Coca-cola

advertisements the world over, feature

smiling young celebrities with product in hand
celebrating the "me generation". In China, Coke is
the real thing only if it's targeted at the entire
family.

Religion
a

particular system of faith and

worship.
The other major religions
areTaoism,Confucianism, Islam and
Christianity. Being brought into China
2,000 years ago, it was gradually
widely accepted by most Chinese
people and developed into three
sections, namely the Han, Tibetan
and SouthernBuddhism.

Example:
In

China in 2007 (which was the year

of the pig) all advertising which
included pictures of pigs was
banned. This was to maintain
harmony with the countrys Muslim
population of around 2%. The ban
included pictures of sausages that
contained pork, and even advertising
that included an animated (cartoon)
pig.

Education
A

good education has always been highly valued

in China, as the people believe that education
ensures not only the future and development of
the individual but also the family and the country
as a whole.

In

the Peoples Republic of China a nationwide

system of public education is in place, which
includes primary schools, middle schools (lower
and upper), and universities. Nine years of
education is compulsory for all Chinese students.

Examples:
Often

the problems inherent in

international business relate to
understanding what is written.

When Pepsi expanded their market to

China, they launched with the slogan,
Pepsi brings you back to life. What
they didnt realize is that the phrase
translated to Pepsi brings your
ancestors back from the grave.

Ethnodomination
Ethnic

group is socially-defined category of people

whoidentify with each otherbased on common
ancestral, social, cultural, or national experience and
Ethno domination refers to the predominance of a
particular ethnic group in a channel of distribution.

The

Han Chinese make up 91.9% of China's

population. The Han people dominate all of China
culturally and politically.
China's 55 recognized minority groups total about
8% of the nation's population. Major ethnic groups in
China are:
Zhuang, Uigur, Hui, Yi, Tibetan, Miao, Manchu,
Mongol, Buyi, Korean.

Example:
Chinese

dominate the trade of rice

and pineapples in the Philippines.

Chinese

dominate Vietnam with their

Chinese techniques ofdike
construction,rice cultivation,
andanimal husbandry.

Aesthetics
a

set of principles concerned with the nature and

appreciation of beauty.

The

Chinese Aesthetic Traditiontouches on all areas

of artistic activity, including poetry, painting,
calligraphy, architecture, and the "art of
living."Chinese folk art includes Paper cutting,
Chinese paper folding, Puppetry, Glove puppetry,
Chinese shadow theatre.
Literature includes Chinese literature, poetry, classic
texts etc.
Visual arts includes Pottery, Embroidery, Chinese
painting, photography and calligraphy.
Chinese music includes traditional and modern music.

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There

are programs in China, designed

as two-day and seven-day schedules
lessons in calligraphy and tai chi,
because Chinese people believes in
that "If you are a foreigner living in
China, you have a responsibility to
learn not just the language but also
about the nation's culture. The
programs are extremely valuable."

THANK YOU