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

Imagine doing jail time — or worse — just because you were related to the offending party.

If you want to understand just how far collectivism goes in China, look no further than lianzuo — or collective responsibility. Throughout China’s 2,000-year feudal history — from at least 7th-century BC all the way to the turn of the 20th century — people were guilty by association. That is, if you were …

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Huge, mythical beasts with piercing eyes and gigantic, roaring mouths stand guard at many of China’s most important buildings and ancient structures. The name of these imposing creatures is “Fu Dogs” or Rui Shi (”auspicious dog” in Mandarin), also known as Imperial Guardian Lions.

Started during the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. – 220 A.D.), the tradition of placing two large statues of male and female lions near the entrance of an establishment was intended to …

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Tomorrow is the start of the Chinese New Year, also known as Spring Festival. This festival starts on the first day of the first lunar month (on the Chinese calendar) and it ends on the fifteenth day of this month. This period is traditionally full of celebrations, family visits, special foods and fireworks. It’s one of the more important Chinese festivals and everybody will take the time to celebrate, especially during the first three days of the festival.

This time is obviously not the best for arranging meetings and trying to make business deals. Also travelling within China is not recommended since many Chinese will go back to their hometown and every form of public transportation will be overloaded with families and bags full of presents and food. The best option is probably to stay where you are and try to see some of the local festivities such as fireworks and dragon dances. Read the rest of “Happy Chinese New Year” or post a comment

As you might have noticed already, we have added some new options and chapters to our redesigned Web site. One of these is the Question and Answer chapter.

When you have a China-related question which you would like to be answered by the visitors of our Web site, simply send an email and we will post it. Or, the other way around, when you know the answer to…

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