Last Week's Guest Speaker:
Andrew Zint,"My Stint in China"
Picture Doug Worthington
- Academic at ECU and Curtin University 2008-2018, and specialist indigenous tutor at ECU and Curtin University
- Leader on the Curtin MBA China Tour in 2017 for a group of MBA students
- Spent some time as a cross-cultural consultant after completing his PhD, and was a consultant on the Browse Project Indigenous Affairs Team, engaged in the academic exchange of students from Tokyo University who attended ECU for a semester of cultural immersions, and conducted cross cultural training for a variety of organisations
- Legal Aid as an advocate between 1999-2008
Andrew's Presentation
China!
Diverse and complex country.
Greatest temperature contrast between its northern and southern borders of any country, which gives rise to a vast number of plant and animal species.
It has 50000 rivers! Earthquakes! Hurricanes!
Single defining characteristic is the size of its population.
Many ethnic groups and spoken languages.
Written language is the linguistic commonality.
China has a recorded history of approximately 5000 years and may extend further.
The history of China is significant and complex.
Main philosophical schools of thought, Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism.
GDP $14 trillion number 2 economy
PPP $27 trillion number 1 economy
2017 WIPO – overall number of filings
China 1,381,594
US 606,956
China accounts for 25% of net increase in green area from 2000-2016
One company has sponsored the planting of 100 million trees Alipay Ant Forest
In 2010 a 2400 year old pot of soup was found in Xi’an!
China has only one official time zone
Soccer may have started in China 1000BC
Beware the China expert! You can only have expertise in some small area with regard to China.
Four great inventions are paper making, compass, gunpowder, printing.
130AD Zhang Heng invented the first instrument for monitoring earthquakes and the direction of the earthquake, and China has now invented a modern form of earhtquake detection which was recently responsible for saving many lives due to the warning that was given to local people who were about to be affected by the earthquake.
China used the decimal system 2000 years ago and the first to use a zero.
New China. Old China.
Next to each other.
Multiple paradoxes.
29000km of high speed rail, accounting for 66% of worlds high speed rail network.
The simple but profound aspect of this is the rail, it requires surviving high summer temperature and freezing winter cold.
Despite being the world’s second largest and home to the most billionaires it is categorised as a developing country, which provides some special privileges.
Part of my journey is discovering martial arts.
Part of my journey is discovering the tea culture.
WeChat everyone in China does everything on this app.
和为贵
Harmony above all else.
Harmony is to be prized.
Harmony is to be valued.
The most cherished ideal in Chinese culture, and more specifically, in Confucianism.
Harmony is of paramount importance in Chinese culture to such a degree that it is viewed as the cardinal cultural value in Chinese society.
The core of the movement is to reduce social conflicts and to build balance across social classes. As Oort (1960) notes, governmental policy can have a tremendous influence on people’s attitudes. Given this consideration, the value of harmony will continue to receive increase attention in almost every aspect of Chinese social life. Under such circumstances, it is necessary for a person who wants to interact with the Chinese to acquire the essence of harmony.
As the cardinal cultural value in Chinese society, the Confucian harmony presupposes the coexistence of different things and implies a certain favorable relationship among them. In social interaction, Confucianism puts weight on “harmony but not sameness”, “harmony without mindlessly following others” and “harmonization of various kinds of people by observing rituals of propriety”, under the influence of which Chinese interpersonal relationships are characterized by emphasis on group orientation, the Doctrine of the Mean, giving or making face for others, guanxi (social connections), and reciprocity.
Lotus is a symbol of purity because it rises out of the mud.
Lotus blossoms often depicted at the throne of Buddha.