For foreigners, communication is one of the key challenges in China. Projects and business situations go wrong if communication between people don't happen, or if messages are misunderstood. Chinese read between the lines, make assumptions which might lead into confusion or problems.
Sometimes it's not lack of information. Reason for failure might be interpretation of Chinese indirect way of communication.
When Chinese communicate with each other, it's often a kind of competition, who is smart in here now? To be indirect requires the discussion partner to focus, and then construct conclusion out of a proverb or a saying, in a situation. This method is intelligent and softens confrontation with imagination.
1. DON'T DISTURB ME - Beijing slang
Na er Liang Kuai, Na er Xie Zhe Qu
= Find a cool place where you go to rest
Meaning:
Not now, don't disturb me, this is none of your business.
2. WRONG TASK FOR ME - Beijing slang
Nei Hu Bu Kai, Ti Nei Hu
= The heater boiler not boiled, was picked
Meaning:
You just pointed to the one thing that I am not good at.
That task is not for me, find someone else.
3. YOU HAVE DONE A GOOD JOB - Proverb
Gou Nien Jaza, Kvaa Kvaa Xiao
=
Dog
chasing a duck, kvaa-kvaa
Meaning:
This is fantastic! It's enough to say just GouNienJaza, listeners know the second part and may respond and say it out loud together. At least Chinese say it in their minds and feel happy, united.
4. IDEA IS FULLY CLEAR - Proverb
Xiao Chun Ban Doufu, Yi Qing Er Bai
= Spring onion mixed with tofu, clear green and white
Meaning:
Pretty clear, no problem with this! This proverb was used by former Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai. His other famous saying was "When you are drinking the water, don't forget who did the well".
5. OVER-DOING - Proverb
Hua She Tian Zu
= Paint a snake by adding the feet
Meaning:
About overdoing something. First to draw a nice snake, people praise it. Then adding feet onto the snake to make it even better, and it becomes exaggeration. Snake is not right anymore and nobody likes it.
6. UNNECESSARY WASTED EFFORT - Beijing slang
Tuo Ku Zi, Fang Pi
= Taking off trousers and fart
Meaning:
A wasted and unneeded act which will not bring any positive results. Making things far too complicated with extra procedures. To say first part of this saying is enough, the rest is understood and repeated in the mind.
7. PURPOSE DRIVEN - Proverb
Hei Mao, Bai Mao, Zhua Zhu Lao Zhu Jiu Zhi Hao Mao
= Black
cat
, white cat, as long as catches the mice is a good cat
Meaning:
Purpose gets served. This saying was made famous by party's Secretary General Deng XiaoPing when China begun transition towards market economy. He also used to say When opening windows, also some mosquitoes come in.
8. EGG: ANYWAY YOU ARE WRONG - Proverb
Ji Dan Li Tiao Ku Tou
= Picking the bones from inside the egg
Meaning:
Trying find a mistake which was never done.
9. TIGER: CELEBRATE WHEN YOU CAN - Proverb
Hu Tou She Wei
= Starts with Tiger's head, ends with Snake's tail
New meaning:
Projects in China. Better have a big celebration already in the beginning, project kick-off, as result is unknown. May be there will be no second chance to celebrate.
10. DUCK: LOST BUT NOT GIVE UP - Proverb
Zhu Shu De Ya Zi, Zui Hai Ying
= Cooked duck, soft meat but hard mouth
Meaning:
Somebody has lost the debate but still defends hardly on his opinion. Knows himself there is no hope, but to save his face, still insists on.
11. PIG: THICK SKIN, NOTHING MATTERS - Proverb
Si Zhu Bu Pa Kai Shui Tang
= Dead pig is not afraid of boiling water
Meaning:
Knows himself as wrong or failure but doesn't care about it. It doesn't matter for him if categorized as a failure.
12. CHICKEN: WARNING BY EXAMPLE - Proverb
Sha Ji Gei Hou Kan
= To strain a chicken to show Monkey
Meaning:
To give a warning, to make an example by picking somebody else, but target may be you.
13. CROWS: PEOPLE SAME EVERYWHERE - Proverb (South)
Tian Xia WuYa Yi Ban Hei
= All crows under the sun are black
Meaning:
People are same everywhere (negative).
14. FROG: DON'T HAVE NARROW VIEW - Proverb
Jing Di Zhi Wa
= Frog in the bottom of the well
Meaning:
Don't be like a frog in bottom of the well, which sees only small part of sky through opening of the well.
Epilog
Foreigners might see perfectionism as boring. But Chinese respect perfectionism. They find the needed balance by using proverbs and sayings to make parodies of incomplete ideas without directly mentioning them.
Chinese mind enjoys to challenge others to make quick creative association. Indirect communication is Chinese word art. It is used in families, workplaces, during meetings and even in negotiations where attitude and tone also have strong roles. New catching sayings are invented daily.
In negotiations, If Chinese hold strong position, they can feel confident and be direct instead of being indirect.
Foreigners often find Chinese indirect communication frustrating, inefficient, and as means of avoiding responsibility.
My advise to foreigners who work with Chinese is to be a good listener. Don't try to change everything in China. If you make a question, try and learn also to listen what is not said but left out. Wait for the answer to come out. Due to Guanxi, relations which is much more than networking, connections, or social media, it is difficult for Chinese to be exact, especially when asked to estimate the future e.g. market size, status of a project, probability of a sales win, schedules. Other factors to remember in China are facekeeping, sensitivity, emotional linkage, respect, and fragmented information availability.
