Interview of DR SHI-Xu

INTERVIEW OF DR SHI-Xu

DIRECTOR OF THE INSTITUTE OF DISCOURSE AND CULTURAL STUDIES OF ZHEJIANG UNIVERSITY

Dr SHI-Xu is the actual Director of the Institute of Discourse and Cultural Studies of Zhejiang University, China. He was visiting scholar and then did his PhD at the University of Amsterdam (1989-1996). He was also a lecturer at the National University of Singapore (1997-1999), and he was also a reader at the University of Ulster in United Kingdom (1999-2004). He wrote several books in English and in Chinese languages about discourse such as “Cultural Representations, A Cultural Approach to Discourse”, “Read the Cultural Other (editor) and Discourse as Cultural Struggle (editor)” and “Wenhua Huayu Yanjiu”. He is founding Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Multicultural Discourses (Routledge, UK) and Series Editor of Studying Multicultural Discourses (Hong Kong University Press) and serves on the editorial board of a number of premier national and international journals. Recipient of the New-Century Outstanding Researcher Fund from the Ministry of Education in china, he is Changjiang Distinguished Professor (Ministry of Education Appointment), Qiushi Distinguished Professor, Director of the Institute of Discourse and Cultural Studies, and Director of the Centre for Contemporary Chinese Discourse Studies (CCCDS) at Zhejiang University, Hangzhou (Xu, 2010).

Source:

SHI-Xu. (2010). Cultural Discourse Studies. Récupéré sur SHI-Xu: http://www.shixu.com/edetail.asp?style=7

Questions:

1.      Have you seen China changed during these last few years?

Enormously, politically, economically, socially and culturally. All for the better. But there are also new problems, which have to do development processes themselves on the one hand (pollution, corruption) and American-Western expansion and competition on the other hand (capitalism).

2.      Do you see China as a global country?

Increasingly so, but mainly in economic terms; America is still the superpower trying to contain China’s influence. China’s globalization will make the world less American and more diversified.

3.      How does the country adapt to the global world?

1.      Playing a bigger role in international affairs (changing the American rules); 2. Unifying and helping with developing countries; 3. Learning from other countries in politics, economy, science, etc.

4.      Do you think Chinese culture changed to become a more “global culture”?

Although China has changed the world, the world is also altering China. China’s influence will become bigger and more widespread.

5.      To which culture do you think China adapted the most (American, Japanese, Korean, British…)?

America has certainly the biggest influence in more bad ways than in good ways. As I said, America is the superpower and will continue to dominate over China.

6.      You lived abroad for a certain time, when you came back, did you observe some changes in the country such as the business environment, the people behavior, the culture, the tourists …?

As said above, I did see a better China, freer, more prosperous, more opportunities for everything.

7.      Do you think China is an easy place to travel in when you are from a different country? Do you think the government is trying to adapt some infrastructures to facilitate tourism?

It’s certainly a much more tourist-friendly country than even 5 years ago. Foreigners are everywhere and have a lot of opportunities as well. Travel by air and train is extremely easy nowadays.

8.      Do you think China should adapt more or should it keep its specificities to stay unique?

Both ways, opening up is the best way to consolidate yourself!

China Cultural Changes: The Rise of Generation Y

Since the cultural revolution of 1968 in China and the opening policy of Deng Xiaoping in 1978, the moral values of the Chinese society have dramatically changed and a new generation appeared. Tocqueville, a political scientist of the 19^th century said “Each generation is a new society coming to life”. This quotation perfectly applies to the Generation Y in China, which defines those born after 1980’s (Faure, 2013) and represent about 50% of the country's current working-age population. As part of the actual Chinese culture, Generation Y reflects the influence of the globalization of the country, and how the behavior of this part of the population influences the way to do business in China today and in the future. In this article, I will define what the Generation Y is, and then I will explain the particularities of this new culture growing in China.

The “one-child policy” and the economical boom in the last thirty years in China have brought to the post-80’s generation a constant period of prosperity and stability that they have only experienced. This context full of opportunities and success made the Generation Y more confident, pride and self-assured that those new changes are the right way to do things. As this new generation is coming into the actual workforce, it is also more exposed to the Western Culture, and this is influencing the traditional values of the Chinese society and the actual corporate culture (Huang, 2013). Moreover, the Generation Y is characterized by a new way of thinking, they pay a bigger attention to themselves, and they listen to what they want instead of what their parents want, or their bosses want or any authoritarian figure that used to have a crucial impact on their opinion in the past. The Generation Y being a result of the “one-child policy” they had the chance to be well-educated and intellectually stimulated at an early aged, which make them more creative and independent in the workplace than the previous generation, but on the other side, they tend to be professionally instable if the working environment is not matching their needs (creative, challenging, stimulating…), they can change of company or job more easily than in the past, which is a loss of young managers for the companies. “Generation Y don’t just want to execute orders, they want to participate in decision making” (quotation from Ning LU, China business director of InclusionINC). Consequently, companies are trying to adapt to this new generation by improving the workplace and offering more responsibilities in order to keep those employees interested as they also make companies evolve in the business place (Murphy, 2013).

When going to China, people often have the preconceived idea of a communist country with a group-oriented population, but the recent changes that China encountered had given birth to several changes in the culture, particularly noticed in the Generation Y.  An new aspect of the Chinese culture is quickly noticed when you start talking with the population, it is the general Individualism that characterizes the young people of Generation Y. They put their own needs and wants first in the workplace, as I explained earlier, but also in the daily life. Other examples of individualism can be observed while living in China such as people not paying attention to a person in need (steal, aggression…), crowd moves very frequent in order to be the first in a store, in a train…The rise of the Chinese economy in those last year made appear families where the child make a salary twenty times higher than what their parents make. This situation reconsiders the traditional family hierarchy model, and which leads to individualism. Another fact that illustrates this new trend is the increasing number of divorce in the country which indicates that people are according more importance to their individual needs and priorities (Faure, 2013).

Another aspect of the change in the Chinese culture is the money-oriented behavior. It became a major concern for the population to show external signs of wealth as part of a basic social recognition. They have an obsession with acquiring material values such as cars, apartments, luxury goods… This quest for social recognition can be analyses as a search for status, in a time where in less than 30 years the number of billionaire went from 0 to 130 in 2009 (Pierre, 2010). The rapid economic growth of the country gave to  part of the population, higher resources that they never had before, as Chinese people being short-term oriented, that could explain this tendency to spend their money in material goods in order to show-of their rapid success.

I will conclude this article by arguing that even though the young generation is changing to a more individualist behavior, the concept of family remains important for the Generation Y, and their success and gains will always be shared their kin, which is not always the case in the Western culture.

Ophélie

SOURCES:

Faure, G. O. (2013). CHINA: NEW VALUES IN A CHANGING SOCIETY. Récupéré sur China Europe International Business School (CEIBS): http://www.ceibs.edu/ase/Documents/EuroChinaForum/faure.htm

Huang, J. (2013). China's Generational Cultural Change. Récupéré sur Connect East: http://www.connecteast.net/blog/chinas-generational-cultura.html

Murphy, C. (2013, October 2). How Gen Y Is Changing Office Culture in China. Récupéré sur China Real Time: http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2013/10/02/gen-y-is-changing-office-culture-in-china/

Pierre. (2010, February 12). Les nouveaux riches de l’empire chinois. Récupéré sur Chine Croissance: http://www.chinecroissance.com/economie/les-nouveaux-riches-de-lempire-chinois.html

Ranking: countries where expatriates are the happiest

Last October, the bank HSBC published its annual study “Expat Explorer” on expatriates living conditions abroad. It ranks countries of the World according to where the expatriates are the happiest. This study is based on 4 aspects of life: the economic situation of the country, the quality of life of expatriates there, their purchasing power and educational facilities available for their children.

This study was carried out between April, 29^th and June, 11^th 2013 by YouGov, a survey and study institute. More than 7000 expatriates coming from almost 100 countries on 4 continents were interviewed.

Through this blog article, we will transmit a part of the results of this study and compare them with what we have been observing so far.

According to the study, Asia seems to be the continent where expatriates are the happiest. Indeed, Asian countries constitute, most of the time, half of the top ten destinations of each ranking. In the ranking specific to expatriates’ quality of life, ease of installation and integration, Thailand is ranked number one, China 3^rd, Singapore 6^th, followed by India and Taiwan. In those countries, expatriates seem to have a richer social life and make friends easily (compared to their home countries).

The two other aspects where Asia leads are the economic situation of the country and the purchasing power of expatriates. It has been noticed that expatriates living in Asia earn more money than expatriates in Europe, which of course has a positive impact on expatriates’ purchasing power. On the contrary, European countries are ones of the most expensive destinations for expatriates (mostly Ireland, Netherlands, Italy, UK and France). Lower wages and a higher cost of life take European countries at the bottom of the ranking.

Expat expenses ranking

Regarding the economic situation of countries, expatriates living in emerging countries or the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) are said to be very optimistic about the local economy. The top three of this ranking analyzing the potential for increased income, disposable income and the degree of satisfaction related to the economic outlook, is: Switzerland, China and Qatar. Expatriates living in those countries seem to have noticed an improvement of their financial situation after their expatriation.

So far, Asian countries lead in most of the rankings: quality of life, economic situation of the country and purchasing power; but they are not in the last one: “educational facilities available for expatriates’ children”. Except for Singapore, no Asian countries are present in the top ten. Europe leads this ranking with 4 European countries in the top ten of this study that considers childcare, health, welfare and education services.

1	Germany
2	Singapore
3	France
4	New Zealand
5	South Africa
6	Belgium
7	Australia
8	Canada
9	Spain
10	Russia

If we compare this study to the survey we’ve carried out few months ago (see the article published on August 27^th, “Foreigners’ perception of global cities”), we can notice than results are coherent. While France received a poor grade in term of accessibility of the local culture and adaptability to the local life, Seoul and Canada got good ones.

As recent posts were about the city of Paris, let’s take a deeper view on France.

France seems to attract expatriates from all ages: 32% of them have between 18 and 24 years-old, 33% between 34 and 54 years-old and 35% have more than 55 years-old. This last percentage is way more above the World average which is 21%. This shows how attractive France is for elderlies. Indeed, looking at the results, we can see that France is a destination where expatriates come to find opportunities for their career advancement. Only 28% of expatriates work full time in France which 26 points inferior to the World average.

France seems to be a better place for retirement than to work.

This kind of study is really interesting for people wanting to go work abroad. They can compare the results with what they expect from the destination they will live in. Apparently, this year, Asian countries are the most attractive for expatriates mostly because of career opportunities and high purchasing power. But we’ve heard many times that “money does not make happiness”, so for people with other priorities, others destinations will have to be considered.

References:

Le Nouvel Observateur, Challenges. 2013, Octobre 30th. Classement: les pays où les expatriés sont le plus heureux.

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