One of the most striking and instantly recognizable characteristics of Chinese travelers in Europe is their fondness of their own Zhongcan, Chinese food. Having in most cases been forced to satisfy their first appetite of the day in a hotel dining room with bread, cereals and such to them is one of the aggravations of traveling in the West.

All this is readily forgotten when lunchtime and later on dinnertime bring the opportunity to put the chopsticks to good use and dig in for a good familiar Oriental feast. Not in the kind of non-descript restaurants most Dutchmen call “de Chinees” where Indonesian and Southern Chinese-style cooking are strangely intermingled, no, fortunately we have our fair share of authentic Chinese eateries where many dishes from back home are skillfully prepared, and guests from far-flung places such as Sichuan or Heilongjiang are happy enough even to find Guangdong cuisine.

All the readers involved in this medium will surely relate to the pivotal position food along with all its connotations plays in Chinese culture. Therefore in doing business with Chinese partners the importance of the role of eating and drinking together can hardly be overestimated. When wielding their chopsticks and drinking their green tea or something stronger later on in the day the guests seem to find themselves at ease among elements of an alien culture surrounding them, while at the same time the engrained hierarchic patterns and internal group structure remain intact, and clearly distinguishable. Eating and drinking and then maybe some singing together (or even a bit of naughty entertainment) form an indispensable prelude to successfully building a close relationship, and as such an integral part of the trust and mutual confidence necessary for extending this into actually doing business.

We at Jingli Helan organize the leisure program for Chinese business delegations in the Netherlands from all walks of life in the Sino-Dutch business spectrum. Apart from arranging Mandarin-speaking tour guides for tailored tours we make it our business to make sure providing authentic food is well taken care of. The operative word here is guanxi: many of you will be familiar with this concept meaning something like personal relationship. Guanxi is what gets people a job, a home, adequate medical treatment, a chance in a trial and many more things.

It is certainly also the one thing that gets successful business done. It is built up by exchanging favors and gifts and needs to be maintained. For Dutch companies receiving business delegations what better way to return the favor of a cordial welcome in China then offering hospitality through the dinner table? We may never stop wondering how such a basic human need such as food fulfills a crucial role in the modern commercial world. Yet there may be lessons to be learnt from Orientals sitting at the dinner table together and taking the time to get to know each other before embarking on a business adventure together. Isn’t this building of mutual trust as a basis for commercial ties preferable to our Western fixation on contracts as an expression of distrust for business partners old as well as new?

The quintessential act of establishing, and reinforcing guanxi through an ancient ritual of nourishing the body and mind together may well be recognized as a cherished and beneficial influence from the East on the West in the near future.

Written by: Marc Combe
http://www.jinglihelan.nl/