Have you ever considered that even the do’s and don’ts of video conferences can have cultural influences? Naturally, in any video conference you ought test your equipment beforehand, dress appropriately, and avoid multitasking during the call. However tricky questions such …
Have You Seen Netflix’s American Factory?
Netflix’s “American Factory” provides fewer laughs and more heartbreaks than the fictitious factory of Keaton’s comedy “Gung Ho”. However, the underlying cultural differences are loud and clear. Have our companies learned to work with East Asian cultures any better now …
How Closely Do You Live Next to Your Neighbor?
This 3 min video will give an overview of the most populous cities from the 1500 to now. See how the US has only briefly been in the top 10 starting from 1849, or at the video’s 1 minute 49 …
How can humor get you in trouble?
Humor is highly culturally defined and the lines of good taste are very different from one country to another, and arguably one region, one age group within that country to another. For example, the British Monty Python brand of humor …
Achoo! Part II
The days following the New Year’s Day is typically marked by visits to grandparents, extended families and friends, and business partners. This year many festivities in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan have been canceled, and even hugely popular events in …
Lunar New Year
Offices, banks, and schools are closed. Small businesses like beauty salons will be very busy up until Lunar New Year’s Eve, on January 24th, then, they will close for a week. Large restaurants and banquet facilities will remain open. If …
Ahchoo! God bless you!
How quickly is an impression made? If a “Bless you” is not said soon after a sneeze, when does that silence become awkward? In Chinese culture, there is an equivalent phrase said after a sneeze, baǐsuì, meaning “May you live …
How long can you keep saying Happy New Year?
In Chinese culture there are two opportunities to say “happy new year”: New Year’s Day as January 1st according to the Western calendar, and Chinese new year according to the lunar calendar. Although these two dates could be between 3 …
Fruit baskets and Mao’s Mangos
Did you know that Mao once gifted mangos? Well, more like Mao had regifted mangos. In an article on Atlas Obscura, a little known fruit during Mao’s China, the Mango became a political symbol. How this came to be explains …
Memories of the Air Raid Siren
One morning when my neighbor and I were having tea, the wailing siren interrupted our casual chatting. She is a Chinese woman who lived most of her life in the Philippines. After the alarm ended, she remarked, “I can’t believe …