Constructionism And Culture In Research: A Discussion

Cultural analysis of China

Discuss about the Constructionism and Culture in Research.

China is the country that is located in east of Asia. It is one of the largest Asian countries and has largest population in the world. It is the country that is associated the great history and gradual development of the country and the people over there provides the information about the cultural and technological aspects of the country.

China is the country with very impressive and interesting history behind its development. It is the country that was one of the ancient civilizations and was rules by Shang dynasty at first in 1600 to 1046 BC (Law, 2012). The society of China has progressed from five different phases or stages. The first stage was the primitive stage that which follows with slave, feudal, semi-feudal and semi colonial stage. The people’s republic of china was founded in the year of 1949 and after that the county has become socialist society. Cultural Revolution was also conducted in china in order to make the country democratic. From the late 20^th century, the country has experienced growth in different sectors and become the part of a successfully county list.

As far as the geography of China is considered, it has been analysed that the company is situated at the southeast of Asia at the coastline of Pacific Ocean. The country has the area of around 9.6 million square kilometres along with the coastline of 18000 kilometres (Liu, Liu, Wang Zhang & Wang, 2013). The country is surrounded by 14 other countries. In terms of physical features, the country includes plateaus, basins, foothills, and plains, mountains etc. the China is basically divided into four parts that are north, south, north-west and Qinghai-Tibetan areas. Because of differences in the region, the people at different paces have different lifestyle and culture. In terms of river and mountains, China is very rich as it has many rivers and around 50,000 rivers have their drainage areas in China (Ryan & Gu, 2010).

As China is the very large country and has different cultures thus the specialities of the country also has wide range. It has been analysed that the Chinese food is very famous in all over the world. Chinese food is the major speciality of the country other than its technological equipment’s. Chinese Dim sum, dumplings, Hakka noodles are some of the dishes that are very famous in all over the world. Chinese cuisine is not only loved by the people in china but the people in other countries also have Chinese cuisine restaurants (Cai, Jun & Yang, 2010). Other than noodle and dim sum, fried rice and roast duck of Beijing is also very famous. China is also famous for its antiques and silk. It is a shopping hub for the people who know how to shop.

Business culture of China

China is considered as the world’s second largest economy in terms of GDP. The economy of the country has experienced great growth in last decade. When the economic reform in China was started, the country was at ninth position in the world in terms of GDP but today it is at 2^nd place. After economic reform, the country has become the hub for manufacturer in which the secondary sector has largest share (Archer, Francis & Mau, 2010). In recent years, it has been observed that the country is also experiencing growth in the tertiary sector. As far as the economic crisis are concerned, the country has gracefully handle it and shapes the good economy by 9% growth in GDP along with low inflation and sound fiscal policies. Now, the country is looking for foreign direct investment to enhance the level of their currency that is Yuan as a global reserve currency. The country is already come in contract with currency swapping with some of the countries and continuously experiencing the strength of Yuan in the market at global level (Yang, 2010). Still the country is facing so much of complications as it is difficult to become a major reserve currency.

As far as the Chinese people are concerned, it has been analysed that there is some homogeneity of culture and characteristics that has been found in the Chinese people. The first quality that has been identified in the people of China is patience. They are very much patient in nature and this may be because of the historical viewpoints of China. But, if they are patient, they are also indifferent at the same time (Kipnis, 2011). Being indifferent is the virtue of their culture and it has been told me the parents to the kids to be indifferent. It may be because of the lack of legal protection. Being indifferent is not the natural characteristic but it develops because of the type of culture. As far as traditional Chinese values are considered, it has been analysed that Chinese people have respect for family, love, integrity, hard work but at the same time they are not very honest and found to be full of corruptions (Cohen, 2010). It has been analysed from the overall study that Chinese are the people who are very much attached with their culture and are patient in nature with hard working skills. They have imaginary and innovative minds that support them to be technologically very sound as compared to some of the other countries in Asia.

China is a very large country and the culture of the country varies with region to region. More than a billion populations in China have different ethnic groups. Some of the ethnic groups are Han Chinese, Mongols, Tibetans, Naxi, etc (Kow & Nardi, 2010). Individual that live together in a community makes their own culture. The culture of the country includes the food, style, marriage, music, morals, beliefs, religion etc.

The Chinese Communist Party is the party that rules China and is officially considered as atheist. In current times, there are five official religions in China that are followed the people living there. These five religions are Taosim, Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism and Buddhism. Other than this religion, many of the religion are considered as illegal in China (Walker, Hu & Qian, 2012). China is gradually becoming tolerant to other religion as well because of migrants of the people and the practices of globalisation most of the people from other countries are settling down at China.

Chinese is language that has been spoken by all the people or the local people living in China but this language has many variations and this variation divides the language in to seven dialects. Mandarin is the dialect that has been spoken by 71.5% of population. As far as the national official language of the country is considered, it has been analysed that Putonghua is the official language that is a type of mandarin dialect that is spoken in the capital Beijing. English is also spoken fluently by the people in China (Xian-zhong, 2013).

Chinese food is not only famous in China but is very popular in the whole world. Chinese cuisine is liked by many people and every country has exclusive Chinese restaurants (Men & Tsai, 2012). Chinese food is much known for its spiciness and schezwan is the sauce that is very famous and is used in almost all the Chinese dishes. Rice is one of the staple foods of the country and is an important part of the Chinese society.

The largest festival that has been celebrated by the whole China is spring festival. It is the festival that is celebrated between mid-January to mid-February. This suggests that the people in China are very much related to their culture and religion.

There are different elements of business culture of Chinese people. Some of the elements and aspects of culture of business in China is discussed below:

Relationship building: Relationship plays a very important role in business culture of China. It has been analysed that Guanxi is the term that has been used by Chinese people for relationship. The aim of building relationship among the business people is to develop Guanxi (Chong, Chan & Ooi, 2012. It is the term that is used for business connection is made by mutual interest. As China is the centralised state so relying on relationship is the most important way to get the things done. In China, the legal things are not at place and thus maintaining Guanaxi is required for conducting business.

Although, China is the country that own many private sector companies but the roles of date and the government in the companies cannot be neglected. In addition to it, the private firms at China need to include the state control in their function and the state interferes in the way the business is being conducted by the company (Warner, 2014) . So, if any of the international company wants to deal with the Chinese business, it is required to be aware about the political concerns related to business.

Chinese people are very formal in nature and thus their business meetings are also very formal. The business meetings start with a formal introduction from the most senior person. Business cards are the most important part of the business meetings in China. They speak in indirect way and do not soak directly. Their meaning needs to be implied. They are “WE” oriented and are receiver sensitive. As discussed that relationship and bonding is the major element of the businesses.

Cultural differences are the major aspect that needs to be considered when any of the company wants to conduct any business in another country. As far as China and Malaysia is considered, there are various differences in both the countries in terms of business culture.

The difference in the culture between Malaysia and China influences the cost of doing business in each of the country. As far as Malaysia is concerned, it has been analysed that the cost of setting up the business is higher than China for international companies (Mahmud, Amat, Rahman & Ishak, 2010). This is because the government of Malaysia provide many subsidies to local companies and not to the MNC’s. On the other hand, China is the country where negotiation is the element if doing business. Extensive consultation is required by the companies.

Malaysia is the country  where the business are hierarchical based and the managers require respect from their employees but it is the country in which business takes the decision after considering all the members of the company and not alone by the management. On the other hand, China is the country that is also based on hierarchy and most of the business in China uses the directive approach which is not the case in Malaysia (Heide, 2010). Gift giving is not the custom in Malaysia but Chinese people believes that giving gifts is the sign of building relations and bond.

Hofstede model helps in analysing the cultural dimensions of the country. As far as china is concerned, following is the 5D analysis of the country.

Power distance: It is the dimension that suggests that all the individuals are not similar in nature and thus differences have been found in the culture and the attitude of the people. It is the element that basically deals with the power distribution in the country. In case of China, it has been analysed that rank of China is 80 PDI and thus the inequality between the powers of the people is very much acceptable. It has been analysed that the subordinates and the employees at the Chinese organisations experience great power distances.

It is the element where the degree of interdependency amongst the members of the society has been measured. There are two dimension of this event. One is individualism that deals with the people who takes of themselves and their direct family members while collectivism is the culture where the people believe in group activities and support. It has been analysed that China is at the score of 20. This suggests that the interdependency of the people amongst each other is very high and the country follows the culture of collectivism (Mahmud, Amat, Rahman & Ishak, 2010). They believe in “WE” and not “I”. The people in China are very much relationship oriented.

High score on the dimension (masculine) suggest that the society believes in competitiveness and success thus observed to be very aggressive in nature. Low score in this dimension suggests that the society follows the culture of feminisms and believes in quality of life and care for others. China is the country that scores 66 in this content and thus is considered as Masculine in nature that means the society is more success driven. They are very much committed to their work and do not maintain the balance between work and life (Kow & Nardi, 2010). As the score is 66 so it is not very far from the feminine characteristics and it has been analysed that relationship is somehow matters to the people in China but works always comes first. They are very hard working and can compromise with the personal life for the sake of professional work.

This is the dimension that deals with the future uncertainty and the intensity of those uncertainties. It has been analysed that the country with low score in this context have the capability to accept the uncertainty situation and can avoid them by making adjustment. Chins score 30 in this dimension that clearly depicts hat it is the country with the society that is flexible in mature. The rule and relation formed in the country are flexible to enough to be altered at the time of requirements and according to the situations.

Long term/ short term orientation: It is the dimension that deals with the extent to which the society believes in the pragmatic future. The society that believes in working for the long term goals have high score in this content just like china. China is the country that has scored 118 in this context and this suggests that the society of this country believes in working for long term purpose.

Conclusion:

The report concludes that China is the country with very interesting history. It has been identified from the report that Chinese people are very much attached with their culture. Chinese food is one of the greatest strength of the country as it is very popular in al over the world. As far as the business environment is considered, it has been analysed that China is the place with less business setting up cost as compared to Malaysia with greater profit opportunities and thus any of the company wants to enter into international market, it should choose China over Malaysia.

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