Comments on: Business guide full of cultural stereotypes, Chinese group says

By: blockthebox

blockthebox — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 22:21:13 +0000

Wow, only in Canada. The issue of stereotypes is probably the only thing I’ve ever disagreed with D on (while I agree that stereotypes, in an ideal world can be helpful, most people are too lazy and stupid to use them properly), but I have to say I’m kind of impressed that the government thought to fund something like this. The examples of stereotypes in this booklet seem to be, in the scheme of things, harmless and probably more of less true. Eh, pick and choose your battles, you know.

By: Dialectic

Dialectic — Sat, 31 May 2008 06:38:22 +0000

Well, I don’t think I’d go so far as to ascribe some single malicious intention to the CBC or the media in general; the thing is, people who don’t have a problem with it would generally be “regular” people, and there wouldn’t be a political organization saying “we think this is ok.” The only organized voice which would exist would be the hyper-(in my opinion)sensitive P.C. types who form things like the Chinese Canadian National Council. I think a lot of our advocate groups have been infected with this P.C. “post-modern” hyper-sensitivity, and it’s hurting the discourse by making minority/ disadvantaged groups sound like whiny retards.

By: Akrypti

Akrypti — Sat, 31 May 2008 06:20:27 +0000

This reminds me of those “Doing Business in Japan” how-to books that go at length about bowing and offering business cards and such.

What does bother me is how the news is reported. It sounds like the mainstream white publishers are defending the text for the sole purpose of helping out Asian Americans while we ungrateful little Asians are yelping and accusing them of stereotyping. I have a strong feeling that is NOT the case and there is an equally large number of Asian Americans in that community if not larger who have no problems at all with the pamphlet. Why are we again clumped together under one monolithic political opinion?

By: Dialectic

Dialectic — Fri, 30 May 2008 21:26:26 +0000

Anything that’s accurate and fact-based can only be helpful in situations like these, because it minimizes the possibility of misinterpretations of thoughts, feelnigs, motivations. It’s not so different from having a cultural guidebook for when you visit other countries. And obviously, most employers would know that the more integrated/assimilated someone is, the less they’ll act in a culturally foreign manner.

By: evil_FUX

evil_FUX — Fri, 30 May 2008 20:57:27 +0000

I still find it a bit weird that it’s all formalized in a writing because it raises issues of how many observations were made or how many were enough. But, I can kind of see how it’d be fairly beneficial to have an employer that has never employed Chinese people, use the pamphlet as their framework instead of formulating their own that may have some seriously bad ones; at least regarding work.

By: SamuraiJack

SamuraiJack — Fri, 30 May 2008 20:14:39 +0000

Yeah I read this article this morning, was going to post it in the forum later. I think it has it’s positives and negatives. The guide hopefully has some suggestions for employers to acclimate Chinese employees to Western customs to improve their professional success here. I can see some employers afraid of promoting a Chinese person in a public-facing position if they think they will exhibit these behaviours.

By: Business guide full of cultural stereotypes, Chinese group says

Business guide full of cultural stereotypes, Chinese group says — Fri, 30 May 2008 16:50:23 +0000

[...] media@politico.com (Daniel Libit) wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThis is an interesting article from CBC on a recent government-funded booklet called The Chinese Cultural Guide for Employers. The way this article presents it, I completely agree with the intention behind the pamphlet, and the content … [...]

By: jaehwan

jaehwan — Fri, 30 May 2008 16:37:22 +0000

I agree with the pamphlet and content too. It would be like saying, “Chinese generally remove their shoes before walking around their house.” Most of the stuff they mention simply acknowledges differences in culture.