Working in the Careers & Employment unit of Swinburne University I get a lot of exposure to international students. Being of German origin I count myself as a member of western culture. Lots of international students attend our daily resume and cover letter checking services. What I find quite fascinating about cover letters from Chinese students in particular is, being asked what they think makes them the right candidate for the job, they respond that they are well presented, harmonious and polite, rather than explaining the skills and experience they have and why they want to work for this particular organisation.
Today I attended the VIC/TAS meeting of the National Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (NAGCAS). Part of the program was a lecture by Dr Jane Orton, who is the director of the Chinese Teacher Training Centre at Melbourne University.
Her lecture was about the difference between the Chinese and the Western concept of self.
Here are the major facts in brief:
Chinese have difficulties to distinguish between themselves and their parents. The ego, the way we know it doesn’t seem to exist in the Chinese perception of self. If you put the three words, Mum, Dad, and Me in a group and ask someone with a western world concept of self to draw a circle around what he/she regards as him or herself, the person would definitely put a circle around Me. Using the same scenario and asking someone with a Chinese concept of self to draw a circle around what they regard as themselves it will be drawn around all three words: Mum, Dad and Me. From a Chinese view to think about “me” or “I” as a solitary thing is childish and immature.
It is the same thing with getting angry. Getting angry is an absolute no-no, a lack of self control and discipline.
Dr Orton came up with a great example of the Chinese self and how it shows in the context of a western world environment:
A manager’s secretary, who is of Chinese origin, has to collect monthly sales numbers from different branches of the organisation. She is used to this routine and therefore confident about the process of collecting the data and forwarding it to her boss. One day one of the sales representatives delivers sales numbers that are about ten times the usual numbers. The manager realizes that there is something wrong and addresses his Chinese secretary about it. She feels that his outrage is silly, because it is not her fault that the numbers are wrong. She did what was expected from her – she collected the data and passed it on to the manager. The manager asks her to get in contact with the sales person in charge and get the right numbers. As the sales person is older than her, she cannot just call him and tell him that he did wrong. She is not in the position and would also make him loose his face. To address the sales person, from her point of view it requires somebody else who is older than the sales person and in a more senior role. Anything else would be completely unacceptable, even rude.
In Chinese culture, worthy are the valued, not able. Chinese expect to be appointed because of their kindness, while individuals from western society expect to be appointed because of their skills and abilities. Learning this I also understand why Chinese cover letters are always emphasizing on not doing any harm, not causing any trouble or being a nice person. Who in the Western world would want to find something like that in a cover letter? It says nothing about abilities, but everything about worthiness.
In Chinese world view, intelligence is knowledge about how to behave, while merit is a pretty low concept.
“You have to make things discussable on the Chinese person’s behalf.” Chinese are good at routine and keeping to processes. That is why they are great at ICT or Accounting. In Face-to-face situations (HR Management) things can become quite complicated, because western and Chinese culture is so overly different.
Before I came to Australia I did a lot of translating, mainly Australian books into German. Although Australia and Germany are much closer in both culture and the concept of self than either of them compared to China, I realized that it is not enough to simply translate from one language into another. The culture part also dictates the way of thinking. Living in Australia for quite a while now I understand the Australian self much better than I did, living in Germany. I now am aware that I needed not only to translate the language, but also culture.
Revising what I noted during the lecture I realize that regarding what Dr Orton said, the very different concepts of self and the different world views of western and Chinese culture, this definitely needs consideration when addressing a Chinese audience with an article. Otherwise the audience would have no idea what you are talking about – even if it’s in Chinese.
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