4 ms·

I have worked with many manufacturing companies in china. One of my vendors grew from 1 container a day to over 5 right now in thr course of 3 years. I know thi

I have worked with many manufacturing companies in china. One of my vendors grew from 1 container a day to over 5 right now in thr course of 3 years. I know this because i have seen the US port data. He is perhaps the most cutt throat person i have ever met in my life. When i read this article about Mr Ding, he reminds me of him One time i had a meeting with him at a covention. We talked about different specs for products for an 40 foot container order. As we started talking, another one of his clients who did 2xs or more business we did stopped by at the booth. I kid you not but he told me to go fuck off right then and there in mandarin. There was only one extra seat and I occupied it. He had the most dead pan serial killer eye expression i have ever seen. We were just having a nice light casual conversation in english talking about spec clarifications one second before. We still did business with him because you cant argue with the quality of goods he brought. His trade records were impeccable and spoke for themselves. I've worked with high level execs before in the states. But I have never seen someone stab me in the back right in front of me so fast before. The mentality in China on the exec level is so different.

redler 8y ago
He stabbed you in the front. If nothing else, you now accurately understand the nature of your relationship.
- heavenlyblue 8y ago
  Yeah, I mean - wouldn't the same happen in America or the UK if the stakes were high enough their respective countries? He wasn't lying and he was being incredibly direct.
  - simonh 8y ago
    Mandarin is a very direct and unsubtle language. Even between family, direct translations into English of simple requests and conversation seem very brusque on the verge of rudeness, so the threshold of expectations for politeness are at a completely different level. It's also a very status conscious culture. So to get to the point, not you wouldn't expect that in Western business culture, partly because if the bigger customer got wind of it they would think he was being an a-hole too, while in China they'd be flattered. Source - my wife is Chinese and I've been over many times.
    - redler 8y ago
      So, a sort of Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis for business?
joering2 8y ago
> We still did business with him because you cant argue with the quality of goods he brought. True but for a sec there my mind was arguing with lack of morals on your part. Since your whole post is somewhat American doing business with Chinese individual, I felt disgust how low some of us (like Obama bowing to Chinese President to almost clean the floor) will fell just to grab ONE MORE buck :(
- throwaway080383 8y ago
  Just of out of curiosity, are you American? There are slight grammatical errors in the post that don't seem to be that of a native English speaker's.
  - behringer 8y ago
    Does he have to be a native speaker to be an American?
  - BenjiWiebe 8y ago
    I agree very much. I'm a native English speaker as well and that post sounds very off and ungrammatical.
    - sjg007 8y ago
      lol...
    - Kagerjay 8y ago
      I know its off grammatically because I didn't know how to properly explain the facial expression he gave me. I have never seen it before. I was in shock. It looked like he wanted to kill me. Normally you can read someone by staring into their eyes, looking at their body language, and facial expressions. The shift between the light conversation we had before and when he told me off it was done so casually and efficiently. There was NO change in body language. Only someone who is a complete psychopath or sociopath does this. Its as if he does this often to his factory workers. But this wasn't the case when I visited his factory though. A few months later he stopped by our warehouse. I took him around town. He didn't care about any of the cool things my city had to offer or its history. All he wanted to know was insider knowledge I had about the industry as a whole. Everything was strictly only about business only. .....didn't realize grammatical comment was not at me but I expanded on it anyhow
cylinder 8y ago
Everyone has the same mentality, some have diplomatic skills and can gently brush you off without risking his relationship with you. That's not admirable what he did, not even for his own benefit.

redler 8y ago

He stabbed you in the front. If nothing else, you now accurately understand the nature of your relationship.

heavenlyblue 8y ago
Yeah, I mean - wouldn't the same happen in America or the UK if the stakes were high enough their respective countries? He wasn't lying and he was being incredibly direct.
- simonh 8y ago
  Mandarin is a very direct and unsubtle language. Even between family, direct translations into English of simple requests and conversation seem very brusque on the verge of rudeness, so the threshold of expectations for politeness are at a completely different level. It's also a very status conscious culture. So to get to the point, not you wouldn't expect that in Western business culture, partly because if the bigger customer got wind of it they would think he was being an a-hole too, while in China they'd be flattered. Source - my wife is Chinese and I've been over many times.
  - redler 8y ago
    So, a sort of Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis for business?

joering2 8y ago

> We still did business with him because you cant argue with the quality of goods he brought. True but for a sec there my mind was arguing with lack of morals on your part. Since your whole post is somewhat American doing business with Chinese individual, I felt disgust how low some of us (like Obama bowing to Chinese President to almost clean the floor) will fell just to grab ONE MORE buck :(

throwaway080383 8y ago
Just of out of curiosity, are you American? There are slight grammatical errors in the post that don't seem to be that of a native English speaker's.
- behringer 8y ago
  Does he have to be a native speaker to be an American?
- BenjiWiebe 8y ago
  I agree very much. I'm a native English speaker as well and that post sounds very off and ungrammatical.
  - sjg007 8y ago
    lol...
  - Kagerjay 8y ago
    I know its off grammatically because I didn't know how to properly explain the facial expression he gave me. I have never seen it before. I was in shock. It looked like he wanted to kill me. Normally you can read someone by staring into their eyes, looking at their body language, and facial expressions. The shift between the light conversation we had before and when he told me off it was done so casually and efficiently. There was NO change in body language. Only someone who is a complete psychopath or sociopath does this. Its as if he does this often to his factory workers. But this wasn't the case when I visited his factory though. A few months later he stopped by our warehouse. I took him around town. He didn't care about any of the cool things my city had to offer or its history. All he wanted to know was insider knowledge I had about the industry as a whole. Everything was strictly only about business only. .....didn't realize grammatical comment was not at me but I expanded on it anyhow

cylinder 8y ago

Everyone has the same mentality, some have diplomatic skills and can gently brush you off without risking his relationship with you. That's not admirable what he did, not even for his own benefit.