Hey everyone, this is Stephane Fouche, from Talkways

Today, I want to share a story with you guys about Guangzhou

Guangzhouis actually one of my favorite places inChina

About a year, two years ago, a couple of my friends and I

After working, we wanted to go to a club, so we went there

And then, we are sitting in the back of the club, just drinking, and talking

And then there is this girl who comes up to us, and she hands me a microphone

I was a bit shocked

I don’t know how to sing in Chinese

I’m not sure why she’s handing me the microphone

Does she want me to go up and like talk to the crowd? I didn’t know

Before I knew it, a group of people are just pushing me towards the stage

I’m starting to get a little bit scared as they are pushing me

And then I’m on the stage

Suddenly the club just turns all dark, the music stops

I’m not sure what’s going on at that point

And then the DJ turns back on the music, the lights come back

And they started playing Michael Jackson

So here am I, on the stage, I have a microphone in my hand

Music is playing, everyone is looking at me

So, I danced

And it was quite interesting

One of my friends actually hopped on the stage, he’s Chinese

So he understands what’s happening

But I don’t know, and some random person in the crowd just screams that

We look like Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker in Rush Hour

But this kind of made me think a little bit, that episode

I’ve been to many bars inChina

For instance I went to the Mix at Sanlitun

The Propaganda, Sensation at Wudaokou

Or the Muse in Changsha

My goal has been to try to go a club at every country I’ve ever been to

Better yet, every single city

The idea is that every single place has a different feel

And it permits me to get closer to the culture that’s dominant in each place

The main difference though that I’ve noticed in East Asia is that

The clubs are less about the dancing itself, it’s more about the drinking

In Latin American countries, likeChile

What I’ve noticed is that you drink

And why do you drink? So you can dance better

Why, because you are actually drunk

This is somewhat true ofAmericawhen it comes to colleges

But inChina, in the rest of the world, it seems to be a little bit different at the same time

People around the world, they drink in order to close deals

I would say, from my personal experience

TheUSis actually one of the only countries I did not quite notice that happening

So for example, inChina, what I’ve seen is that

when two groups want to cooperate on something or trade, whatever it is

They would first have a drink, at the dinner table

And then, depending on what happens there

One person has to show their willingness

A way of showing your willingness is, how much you are willing to drink

How much you can possibly drink

Some people actually get sent to the hospital

One of my friends told me that for a business deal

His parents couldn’t make it, and they sent him

He said that he drank so much that he got sent to the hospital

I thought that he was lying

But asking other people, they told us, oh yeah, that actually did happen

If everything goes well, then they sign the deal

And the contract gets signed a week after for example

Japanis a little bit different

What people would do is that they would have a very formal meeting

And they would sign the paper first

Following that they would have a drink

Just a simple drink after signing the contract with everyone

Then the bosses would talk to each other and they would shake hands

That shaking of the hands, I call it the “second signing”

That’s the true contract

So the first contract, which is the one that been signed in front of everyone

That’s that for formalities

But the actual contract itself is again that second signing

InHaiti, it’s a hybrid of both

The first meeting, because you probably never met the person

It’s a very very formal meeting

The second meeting, you start to know a little bit more about that person

You feel comfortable

And the third meeting is a little different where

It would either be a lunch meeting or it would be at

One of the persons in the contract’s house

You would talk with each other, figure it out

And then if you are very serious about it, you would sign the contract

And then you would drink to it, as a way of celebrating

TheU.S., drinking to some extent has nothing to do with business at all

It has a little bit to do with people working in the same company

When they are drinking with each other

But between other companies, I don’t think so, from my personal experience

My personal guess would be that

Americais a newly founded country

If you compare it toChina,Japan,India, and so on

The American culture was formed at a time

When people’s standard of living was relatively higher than that of other cultures

So law enforcement in business practices

They are much more complete

Signing a contract is much more binding

What’s written in that contract, the fine print, that’s where we pay attention to

But when we go back to history of other countries

If you look back at the Chinese culture, the Japanese culture

That existed long before theUnited States

For people to during that time, it was hard to just trust someone

Someone you’ve never met

It was hard to trust the law because

There was not a system there to reinforce the law that much

So trust, became over time a very important thing to have

Which is also why East Asian countries I would say

Not East Asian countries alone, but a lot of countries

Prefer to do business with family members

And this tradition that was there a while ago was passed down

To the next generation and so on

So let’s put this in a different context

If I ask you, where do you think your first business experience will take place

Or if you have business experience, how was it?

I’m assuming for you guys, being inChina

You probably learned it from your family members

Or friends of the family who would come and so on

But for me, I learned it in an actual business

When I was working for HAS, Harvard Student Agencies as a translator

So people didn’t really care if we are friends or not

It was more about, I was working and the people were my colleagues

They were not friends in reality

So inAmerica, drinking is done for the purpose

And I would say for the only purpose of entertainment

You don’t quite mix pleasure and business, I would say

It’s almost rude to talk about business with a business partner

When you are out drinking

It also means disrespect because you are not leaving them the space to enjoy themselves

So it’s two different things mixed at the same time

So my question to you guys is, do you drink?

And if you do, do you drink for the fun of it, or do you drink for the business aspect of it?

On that note, I would like to say, Ganbei!

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