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Chinese culture is commonly described as the complex product of three systems of thought: Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. A Chinese may reflect all three and more at the same time while not caring too much about any of them (Hsu, 1963). History brought later additional figures in the global picture such as the Chinese patrimonial bureaucrat (Weber, 1964) followed in recent times by his Maoist version (Lieberthal & Oksenberg,1986).

In China, what can be observed are behaviors. Behind the behaviors, deeper in human personality, are anchored the values. Values elicit behaviors, explain them. Before surveying the set of values that makes the Chinese so specific to Westerners, we have to touch upon something even less visible: Chinese perception and thinking. Intellectual processes refer to highly contrasting models between China and the West.

Westerners have developed an analytical approach to problems by segmenting issues and dealing with them as and when required. The Chinese do not operate this way. They develop a global perception, what is usually labeled as a holistic approach. As pointed out by Chen (1999), "there is no doubt that Chinese people see the world differently from Westerners for two obvious reasons: the radically different nature of the Chinese language, and the isolation in which Chinese civilization developed".

Holism distinguishes itself from Western concepts of formal logic and causal relationship or from analytical approaches such as the Cartesian method by considering the object as deeply embedded in a context, thus assessing the entire situation in order to capture and accommodate the many forces involved (Redding, 1990). "When you will have understood the whole, then you will understand the parts" as the Chinese saying goes (Faure, 1999). A typical application of the holistic approach is found in Chinese medical practice. Instead of dealing with the problem or its symptoms, the Chinese physician "considers the relationship of the different parts of the body and then adjusts the relationship through the use of multifunctional herbal remedies" (Chen,1999).

The Chinese discourse itself demonstrates what Kaplan (1966) calls the "oriental argument development". Analyzing the Anglo-Saxon way of reasoning, concludes that it develops linearly, following either an inductive process from facts to conclusion, or a deductive approach starting from a general principle that will be applied to particular cases. As opposed, the oriental way of reasoning has a "beating around the bush" structure, including a lot of digressions and slowly moves by concentric circles to the core of the subject.

This approach is consistent with the language and the writing. In Chinese, there is no alphabet. To understand the meaning of a character, one has to circle and capture the whole ideogram. One different stroke within 10 or 20 that make the character, and this character has a totally different meaning.

The Chinese approach problems the way they write an envelope, they go from the global to the specific: country first, then city, street, number, family, person itself. The structure is similar with a business card: family name comes first, then the given name. The date also expresses the same basic rationale: the year comes first, then the month, then the day.

Western culture has developed concepts in order to separate ideas from the object. To conceptualize is a way to intellectually distance oneself, to dominate reality. As underlined by Nakamura (1964), the Chinese way of thinking puts the emphasis on the perception of the concrete, leading to the non-development of abstract thought. Chinese thinking as a concrete thinking is highly consistent with the language because ideograms come from pictograms, which are simplified representations of reality.

This absence of concern for abstraction should not be interpreted as evidence of simplicity in Chinese thinking but rather be viewed as an art of "synthetic cognition" providing the Chinese with the ability to grasp the "big picture" (Lang, 1998). Thus, in negotiations, Chinese use concrete reasoning, metaphors, proverbs, stories, and traditional sayings. Metaphors are concrete expressions drawn from real life that integrate complexity by keeping a sense of the whole with its ambiguities and contradictions.

Western thinking aims at being objective, at separating facts and judgment. Chinese thinking does not operate so. It expresses a need to evaluate, judge, and take side in any situation. Every one is good or bad; behavior is correct or wrong. There is no neutral position. Chinese thinking is basically normative (Granet, 1950) and fulfils a social function which is to orient attitudes in any situation. The behavior of any foreigner working with Chinese is thus constantly evaluated. This explains the connotations that are traditionally associated to foreigners, be they critical or laudatory such as "Barbarians", "Foreign Devils" or "Foreign Guests". In the same fashion, asking someone his name does not simply consist of saying "what is your name?" but at least "what is your precious name?". The person concerned in turn will answer using a matching formula such as "the insignificant person that I am is called... ".

Western logic is based on the "non contradiction" principle. A fact is true or untrue. In China, the binary logic does not work. Things are not black or white, but black and white, yin and yang at the same time. This explains the concept of "socialist market economy" which sounds so strange in the ears of many Westerners, but does not disturb a single Chinese, as far as consistency is concerned.

In the past, the Chinese ideal was to behave as a Confucian and think as a Taoist (Chen, 1999). Yin and yang, basic component of all things composing the universe should not be viewed as opposites but as complementary. "Balance is the great schema of the cosmos" (Bond & Hwang,1995). Thus, it gives birth to a very specific rationale labeled as "associative thinking" (Faure, 1999). When Mao Zedong writes that the "law of the unity of the contraries is the basic law of nature and society" (Mao, 1965) it is not so much a principle of the Leninist-Marxist theory that is expressed by this words but the Chinese culture in deepest and most traditional aspect. Integrating contradictions allows reversibility and thus opens a wide range of possible actions under the heading of pragmatism.

These ways of framing reality have behavioral consequences in the relations among Chinese but also on the way Chinese interact with Foreigners. These behaviors refer to underlying values showing what is desirable by contrast with what is considered as negative. Among the most prominent basic values characterizing Chinese society are the following: face, indirect action, trust, and centrality.

"Integrating contradictions allows reversibility and thus opens a wide range of possible actions under the heading of pragmatism." Suddenly Witness Lee's behavior, and the apparent discrepancy between teaching and behavior, makes more sense.

Face saving, face restoration, and face giving are crucial values. The Chinese live in the eyes of the others and have a quasi-pathological preoccupation with reputation. Social judgment as a personal asset and as a family asset is considered as vital. The worst thing that can happen to the Chinese is to lose face, to feel humiliated. In this regard, the 19th century with events like the Nanjing and the Tianjin treaties and the sack of the Summer palace, explain a lot of what happened during the 19th century in terms of humiliation, national bitterness and restoration of reputation. The fact that one of the current best sellers in China is titled "China can say no" deeply expresses such a concern for the recovery of face.

"Every person has a face as every tree has a bark" as a Chinese saying tells. To lose one's credit, respectability, deference is equivalent to "losing one's eyes, nose, and mouth" (Hofstede & Bond, 1988: 8). This explains a number of situations that make the Westerners in China somehow puzzled. For instance, not showing ignorance is more important than telling the truth. Maintaining face has priority over the accuracy of the answer. In relations between foreign and Chinese enterprises, face concerns lead to references to "technical cooperation" instead of "technical assistance". A foreign businessperson has to realize that one does not sell to China, but it is China that buys.

The regulating mechanism of social behavior is the feeling of shame instilled in the mind of every Chinese. Face may not only be enhanced or lost but also "traded" by giving face to the counterpart who in turn has to reciprocate. This very specific skill has been raised to its most extreme refinements in the Chinese tradition of "face-work". By shaping a "powerful and attractive image when dealing with others" (Bond & Hwang, 1995: 225), the allocator strengthens the interaction and connection, thus increasing the probability of reciprocation from the receiver. Thus, face-work operates as a "social lubricant" (Redding & Wang, 1995: 286).

Face has also a negative value because it serves as an "invisible knife" (Fang, 1999: 150) to kill genuine feelings. Without a sharp sense of shame, China with its lose legal framework and weak sense of discipline would have been a disorganized society deprived of social cohesion. In this sense, face is a founder value of social order.

Indirect action is a tribute to Confucius, a way to preserve harmony. The whole society should be the replication of a large family. Social harmony is achieved through moral conduct, controlling emotions, avoiding conflict, even competition. Thus, in relationships things are suggested, not told straight away. In traditional China only devils move on a straight line (Faure, 1999: 202). Suggestiveness is expressed in traditional arts such as painting, poetry as well as in philosophy. Even Chinese medicine bans excessive expressions of emotions. The restriction of externalized feelings can be observed in daily activities. For instance, when people meet or leave each other, they never kiss. As the Chinese saying goes "people have emotions like trees have worms". Thus, the Confucian gentleman keeps a perfect control over himself whatever the circumstances may be. Saying "no", being negative would be perceived as a clear lack of good manners.

As most of what is conveyed is implicit, Westerners when dealing with Chinese people must develop a real talent for decoding needs and wants of the counterpart. Otherwise, they could be totally misled by polysemic signals such as the Chinese smile, which as an objective fact, may lead to opposite interpretations. A Chinese smile can be perceived as a mask of politeness, an opaque wall behind which one observes the other. It can express cooperation, or denial, joy or anger, certainty or total ignorance, trust or distrust, pleasure or embarrassment (Faure, 1999: 204).

Westerners in China tend sometimes to think that what their Chinese counterparts practice the best is the art of dodging. This is not to be seen as a trick to deceive foreigners but an immediate product of the doctrine of harmony and the face consciousness. The point is to prevent a polarization of positions that could result in a conflicting situation. Consequently divergences in interests are not openly stated, leaving a rather opaque situation in which the foreign counterparts exhaust themselves while trying to understand what is really going on. The Westerner may thus realize that the Chinese discourse is meaningful for what it does not tell.

Understanding "face", to me, is essential to understanding Chinese ideas of social harmony. It is not about right and wrong, but about going on together. Therefore TC had to bow and scrape before WL, but he won't do it before the Blendeds. The first preserved the principle of face, but the second violates it. I think the Dong situation is probably similar. WL was Dong's "father", but not the current Blendeds.

Also TC's treatment of underlings, and his expectation that they would carry that treatment back to their "localities". It is culturally sensible.

In the tough, reckless, merciless global Chinese society, there is no room for trust. Suspicious is the norm. Trust is a requirement for doing business that has to be built. Thus, any business starts with establishing a relationship. This will hopefully thwart dirty tricks and hidden agendas of all sorts. One must develop a "protective sphere" made of friends, relatives with whom business can be carried out at minimal risk. This explains the eagerness of the Chinese to develop personal networks or rely on the family, meeting thus a basic Confucian value.

The legal framework is still a weak and fuzzy framework, not always as helpful as it could be. In a way, signing a contract is a tangible proof of lack of trust. It demonstrates that the conditions for cooperation are not completely fulfilled. In China the very essence of a transaction is not legal but relational. Laws are currently viewed as made to be circumvented. This explains the car drivers' behavior in the cities, who as soon as they can, break themselves of abiding by the most basic traffic rules (Faure, 1995). This very special relation to law at least partly explains the Chinese habit of copying, counterfeiting products. In the Chinese culture, cleverness and shrewdness are viewed as superior to strength and law and understood as means to serve the revenge of the smartest on the strongest.

Another reason lies in the methods of education traditionally based on the repetition of the model offered by the masters' works. A third cause draws its source in the Chinese sense of fairness, a major driving force in Chinese behavior. For instance, in the case of famous brands, consumers view the price as too high but long for maintaining their social status. Thus, the most obvious solution is for them to buy counterfeits..

This article centered around the idea of doing business. But when you think of family, and it's focus of relations, and basis of mercantilism (doing business) it makes sense. If one's network is family, even extended family (cousins and uncles), versus purely mercantile relations, this may explain the orientation toward "trust" and "cheating" that we find inexplicable. "Us" and "them" are framed differently from the social groupings of the West, which are often less traditionally structured. Phillip and Timothy Lee were family, and Max Rappoport was not. "Glorious church life" be damned.

At the time of Qing dynasty, the world map drawn up by Matteo Ricci was regarded as absolutely unacceptable because China was not shown as the center of the world (Wong, 1963). Nowadays China is still the Middle Kingdom. The Chinese operate from concentric circles: China, center of the world; Beijing, center of China (with the whole country at Beijing time); Zhong Nan Hai (the new forbidden city where political power stays) is the heart of Beijing. The geographical and political structures completely overlap.

Centrality applies as well to cultural issues. Everything is assessed from a sino-centric point of view. The reference is China, Chinese views, Chinese needs, Chinese values, Chinese tastes, and Chinese food. While negotiating with Chinese leaders, Kissinger had to permanently deal with what he conceptualized as the "Middle Kingdom Syndrome".

Fang (1999: 26) considers that "a strong sense of cultural superiority is ingrained in the Chinese mind". The "xenophobic" Chinese view is for him obvious and starts already with "the name "China", the character of which literally translates as the "Middle Kingdom", because the Chinese always held themselves culturally in high esteem, viewing their culture and nation as lying in the center of human civilization".

The Imperial Records used to register any foreign mission to China as a tributary delegation. Nothing would escape from such a civilizing appropriation. The raw Barbarian starts to be cooked when getting close to the Chinese fireplace, source of all civilization. Thus the past strongly permeates the present and the foreigner aiming at the Chinese market is often viewed as a predator and, with the technology he brings along, as a modern tributary..

"The raw Barbarian starts to be cooked when getting close to the Chinese fireplace, source of all civilization."

So WL could tell SB "You just lost your virginity". Clash of the cultures. I won't say, "Suddenly it all makes sense to me", but really the importation of different values and expectations explains a lot.