my 2cents - Living in shenzhen, 1. SPEAK UP, Many of its residence are migrants from other parts of china. So many will speak broken chinese. So dont doubt yourself that you dont understand them because heck even some of the chinese cant understand them too. 2.STREET-SMART, When youre a foreigner its slaughter time, china chinese are opportunists, they always want to make something from you. If youre going to pay for high-price stuffs then might as well ask for things that you want + more then you deserve for the price. Dont make it easy for them to make the sale. Heck the local chinese does it too, see how they haggle. Dont be afraid of it. Dont make it easy for them. 3. BE ANGRY, you see all chinese when they are in some mess they will first blame the other party no-matter if its right or wrong, the loudest will win. 4. SHOW-OFF, All about presentation, the flats on the way to lowu used to be old and dirty, if some HIGH-OFFICIAL is to drive thru that area, youll most likely see the city municipals paint the SEEABLE sides of these flats. This is exactly how chinese thinks, if youre foreigner youre RICH. We do need ask ourselves are we? Tax here goes all the way to 40% for us laowai. 5. RED TAPE, everything can be bought here from slaves to wifes. you just need the connections (Guan xì). 6. BIG HEART, Whats yours is OURS and mine is mine. If you are the un-lucky ones to find your half here in SZ, be prepared to take care of their relatives, including non-direct ones. They will not understand PRIVACY, they will be like LOCUSTS, This goes for both genders. 7. KEEP IS BLURY, Chinese are very busybody, they will ask how much you make, do you own a car, house even might ask you how much money you have in the bank. These are very normal for them to ask, dont get too SURPRISED. Its a norm. If you answer then your PRIVACY will be a PRIVATE DOMAIN, everyone within miles of where you stay will know. So the most POLITE way is to ANSWER blurish-ly, e.g. i am doing ok, can find 3 meals and a shelter over my head, etc. 8. FIRST BE A PRICK THEN A GENTLEMAN, when negotiating for a home helper, or private driver, etc. Give them warning of the penalties that will be involved. If they do screw up then its up to you heart to execute that penalty or not. 9. TAKE ADVANTAGE, if youre really a low-wai, then youre most probably get off with many things easily, because most chinese are indeed afraid to speak to you. TAKE ADVANTAGE of these to get off-the-hook for many things. Note: For those overseas chinese HUA QIAO, youll be branded as DEVIL that dont speak/read/write mandarin. Totally no advantage, so youll have to work twice as hard on anything. 10. BONDING, Not all chinese can go overseas, its easier now, but its still difficult. China chinese to know all these info about a foreign country is thru the internet. So share your beautiful country with them, tell them stories to bond. NOW once you created this Guan Xi then your life in shenzhen will be an easy know, wont it be good to have sometime to call for help when you need? actually there are more but seems like longer post = less views... so ill stop here.
Posted on: Wed, 11 Jun 2014 19:56:52 +0000
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