Like any other foreign nationals working or touring in Namibia, Chinese also need assistance from the local Namibians who, say, agreed to an appointment and spared some time to meet with a Chinese, giving advice in operating business, etc. By Yang Ganfu Associate Prof. of Liang Yun Gang Teachers College DIFFERENT cultures are often different from each other in how much importance they attach to one function of language over the other. The Chinese cultural tradition, for example, places a very high value on the communication of subtle aspects of feeling and relationship and much lower value on the communication of information, whereas the Anglo-American cultural tradition places a higher premium on clear exposition of facts. In this sense, differing interpretative frame and contextualization conventions, to some extent, often lead to intercultural miscommunication. Belonging to High Context Culture, Chinese rely heavily on contextual information, which may include communicators’ status, age, relationship, cultural identity of communicators and communicators’ feelings towards each other; mutuality and reciprocity; trust; the business situation; the physical environment in which the business negotiation is being conducted; and the business attitudes of partners, among others. In this article, I will introduce one of the Chinese communication strategies of interpersonal rule: mutuality and reciprocity. Ancient Chinese relied heavily on agriculture. For thousands of years, they lived their lives on their plots of farming land where they ploughed and harvested their crops all year round. The nature of this agricultural work kept them on the farming land almost for their whole life, which therefore made it possible for the peasants in the vicinity to often visit each other. And this frequent visit gradually became the peasants’ rare social activity in which a host entertained the guest from tea to dinner. The reason that accounts for the existence of such social activity could be that the peasants all had the chance to pay a return visit and to invite others to tea or dinner. In Europe, however, being surrounded by the oceans, the ancient Europeans were of marine cultures that required them to frequently sail in the sea, moving from one place to another. And this nature made it impossible for them to visit and entertain each other simply because the European who had been invited by his friend today might have gone far away to other place the next day and he might have not had the chance to return the kindness he received before. The ancient styles of life by the two peoples determine and make their cultural identities: Chinese are collectivists whereas the Europeans, individualists. The farming nature of ancient Chinese could be the reason why inviting friends, relatives, foreign guests and business partners to dinner is a very, very popular activity today in China and why China has more restaurants than any country across the world. And this could also be the reason why Chinese often conduct business over dinner in a restaurant. Traditional cultural activity contributes to the Chinese interpersonal rule of mutuality and reciprocity that requires mutual benefits and reciprocity to the people who give a favour. To return a favour a Chinese receives, the Chinese quite often invites the favour-sender to go to a restaurant for dinner. If you are given a favour, you feel compelled to return that favour. Today, you ask one for assistance or help, you must repay their kindness tomorrow. This is because in China balancing the interpersonal relationship is of much importance. That is the interpersonal rule among Chinese. In this sense, mutuality and reciprocity play a pivotal role in Chinese daily life, esp. in business activities. Such values point to a negotiation style which veers towards a win-win outcome rather than a win-lose one, or what is known as the zero sum negotiation style. Generally, Chinese seek to maintain the social relationships of long term. They need to have the assurance that a foundation is laid for enriching and deepening such relationships, and mutual benefits have been reaped and that both sides are satisfied with the deal. As the results of collectivists cultures, Chinese in their business activities value and have mutual face concerns, seek a win-win business strategy and show gratitude to business partners from whom they receive a favour, such as a job offer, a loan offer, preferential policy, assistance to solve a problem, or a favour in any other form. In Namibia, I often hear some complaints from Namibian friends about the Chinese bribing the locals and from Chinese friends about the locals (bu dong ren qing) not knowing things as well. The root cause of this problematic intercultural communication lies in the lack of knowledge of each other’s cultural values. Like any other foreign nationals working or touring in Namibia, Chinese also need assistance from the local Namibians who, say, agreed to an appointment and spared some time to meet with a Chinese, giving advice in operating business, etc., who helped to complete work for a Chinese or get a Chinese out of a difficult situation or found a job for a Chinese etc.. In such cases, the Chinese will definitely give their appreciation by bringing the favour-sender a gift or inviting them to dinner. Many Namibians, for example, might have experienced such a situation when a Chinese he or she is expecting to meet for the first time brought a gift (food, tea, handmade craft, etc. can be a gift) to him or her. And after the meeting, the Chinese will almost always invite the Namibian(s) to dinner in a restaurant (often in a Chinese restaurant). This is because Chinese culture fosters a strong sense of gratitude and indebtedness as we can also see from the Chinese expressions gan en dai de (bearing a debt of gratitude for one’s kindness), gan en tu bao (feeling grateful for a kind act and planning to repay it) and ni jing wo yi chi, wo jing ni yi zhang (you honour me a foot, and I will in return honour you ten feet). The ways Chinese appreciate the favour-sender(s) for their time/effort or assistance are quite often misunderstood as bribing or corruption by some people though. A local Namibian even went as far as to say that Chinese are exporting their bribes to the world. I hope this Namibian friend will change his remarks when he reads this article. Likewise, Chinese often make wrong judgments by saying that some Namibians don’t know things. By ‘don’t know things’, Chinese mean to say some Namibians don’t know that they are supposed to appreciate the Chinese by inviting them to dinner or arranging some gifts for the Chinese who have spared some time meeting with them, giving advice on how to do business with Chinese, etc., who helped to complete work or get them out of their difficult situation or offered a job to them etc.. Years ago, a Chinese company gave an order worth millions of Namibian dollars to a local company. When the two parties first met in the office of the local company, however, the Chinese group was not even entertained to tea, not to mention a gift from the local company. Lack of sense of gratitude from this local company to the Chinese very much disappointed the Chinese company. The then project manager complained, “These people don’t know things.” The Chinese logic is simple: You were given a big order, and you should do something to appreciate the Chinese favour which can be given to anybody else and you should also demonstrate your reciprocity to the Chinese by at least entertaining them to lots of refreshments, fruits and at least inviting them to a meal, which did not happen at all. Given the paramount need to repay one’s gratitude in Chinese culture and as a very important Chinese communication strategy, the principle of mutuality and reciprocity permeates all types of interpersonal relationships and defines appropriate interpersonal behavior among Chinese. Such values are ingrained in the minds of Chinese who are aware that a reciprocation of greetings, favours (li shang wang lai) is called for in order to achieve balance in a relationship. To Chinese, reciprocity is the basic rule of being a person.