By Jocelyn Eikenburg

“I hired a student from a local university to do my translation…and it ended up hurting my reputation.”

This was the story I heard from a business contact I met with a couple of weeks ago. He works for a large chemical manufacturer with a presence in China, and they needed their website translated into Chinese. His choice was to hire a local student from China for the job. Once he presented the translation to his Chinese business partners, they weren’t impressed — the errors actually made him and his company look less professional in their eyes. Read the rest of “What does your Chinese translation say about your company? You may be surprised…” or post a comment

CultureFish Media will host a one-day trio of charity events designed to raise awareness and generate funds for the China Dreamblogue and its associated charities. The three events include:

1. A One in a Million Charity Golf Tournament,
2. The China Digital Media Workshop,
3. and the China Dreambash featuring international hit singer and Capitol records artist Che’nelle.

Read the rest of “China DreamBlogue Dream Bash” or post a comment >>

We introduced Greg Bissky to you in some earlier posts ( if you missed those, you can find them here: ‘Western and Chinese business-More Than 1 Way To Communicate‘ and ‘Communication in Chinese Offices‘). This time Greg talks about Chinese meetings. According to Greg, there are three times to a Chinese meeting, before the meeting, after the meeting and during the meeting. And the one time Chinese do not decide things, is during the actual meeting. Meetings are for maintaining harmony and relationships, decisions and arguments are made before and after.

Watch “Western-Chinese Business: What are Chinese Meetings for?” or post a comment >>

For most foreigners, networking with Chinese can be a little tough. Well, thanks to a question we posted on LinkedIn Answers, we’re hoping to make things a little clearer. In brief:

They’re not that different
People often get so caught up in the differences that they fail to see the similarities between Chinese and western cultures. Just be yourself and don’t worry …

Read the rest of “What the Chinese Want You to Know about Networking” or post a comment >>

By Ernie Tadla

The Bora launch was the most successful new car launch in China’s automotive history. FAW/VW couldn’t make them fast enough.

The Germans, still hurting over not getting their advertising agency, were really smarting because DMG was not following their global policy for advertising and marketing style and format. Yet, sales were phenomenal. VW hired a world-class market research Hong Kong firm to investigate the reason for the amazing launch results.

The conclusion: although DMG didn’t follow the global VW policy, the market place responded because the Chinese react to someone who markets to them the Chinese way. Read the rest of “An outstanding successful executive in North America, not in China” or post a comment