Introduction
In this I would like to explore the concept of rhythm in China in comparison to the concept of “sense of urgency” in Western cultures. What is rhythm and how does it affect our daily life? How does it differ from our sense of urgency? Pace is the speed at which we average our daily activity in the workplace and when traveling from one place to another. A sense of urgency, on the other hand, is our concept of the importance of completing a task assigned to us at a given time, particularly in the workplace. In China, the pace of life is much slower than in Western cultures in many respects and there is little sense of urgency except in the idea of making money, but not in the act of making money.
rhythm in china
Ask any Westerner in China what frustrates him the most and he’ll tell you pretty quickly the pace at which he tries to do anything from walking down the street to conducting business. In the West we attend to the notion that time is money; this concept does not seem to have a place in the daily life of Chinese businesses. Business here is done over long lunches with little progress on the actual details, just an agreement to do business at some point in the future. Walking down the street as a Westerner, you constantly have to detour from people wandering by, speed up your own pace to get to meetings you thought you had time to get to, but find yourself blocked and often forced to slow down. speed as large crowds do. he doesn’t let you get by without physically pushing people. However, my own natural English courtesy will not allow me to be rude and rush others. (Perhaps the curse of my own culture). I decided that perhaps a more formal observation was required to find out if this was simply my own perception or if there is some basis for this and what appears to me to be such a slow pace of existence.
Thinking the Hypothesis
My hypothesis is that the slow pace of life was often associated with feelings of being exploited and disappointed.
You may find this conclusion strange, but a little background explanation will help you see where my point of view is coming from. First, this is a country run by the communist state where everyone is told to share life and work for the common good and a harmonious society. This means that as a Chinese, you would have the same rights, the same opinion and the same power as your neighbor, regardless of your rank and authority. If you want an example of this, you need look no further than the streets. A car collides with a cyclist, arguments break out, who is to blame, who pays, who is going to apologize, then the police come, the arguments go from the accident to police interference, what right do they have to tell us how to resolve our argument . The police try to intervene and take an authoritative position. Then the crowd comes, watching the spectacle of the two drivers and maybe three policemen, all arguing and yelling without listening to each other. The crown then joins in, yelling advice, insults, telling the police to leave them alone. Eventually all parties leave, the police often leaving first, exasperated at getting nowhere. The crowd then disperses when the shouting fun has died down. Finally, the driver of the car and the bike leave, often without resolution. You have to witness these events to truly believe that they happen and they do happen on a daily basis.
The next element is the population, which is simply huge and with so many people constantly looking for work, it is an employers’ market and therefore workers often accept poor conditions, low wages and simple housing as the norm. So how do these workers react to such exploitation by employers? This is my hypothesis about the pace of working life. Many employees are seen in the traditional role of parent here in China, where parents tell children what they are going to do in life with little or no discussion. In the workplace, this revealing management style continues, with workers simply adapting to their early childhood experiences. They adapt to the situation as children of strict authoritarian parental rules, but now as employees subject to the boss’s whim.
In this atmosphere, what is it that motivates the worker to actually work? In direct observations of office staff, I noticed that they had all logged into a chat service while supposedly working. They spent a considerable part of the day in chat rooms talking with friends or strangers. When a boss entered the office, all of these were temporarily minimized until the boss either retired to his office or left. Many workers stayed long after the time was up, not to continue working but to continue chatting. Now some larger companies with servers have blocked all messaging services except for senior staff. However, since email is now an essential part of every business, this still allows for constant emailing to non-business contacts. In the West, of course, we acknowledge the disgruntled employee and also accept that they can sabotage the well-being of the company through malicious damage to property (breaking the photocopier on purpose), doing personal work instead of business, taking longer breaks than authorized and many others. anti-company activities, such as negative conversations with other staff members and outsiders. (Of course, in the US this can lead to deadly results with disgruntled employees using weapons to get back at an employer who may have wronged them.) In China this also happens, but with more subtlety, since what matters is the rhythm. The slow, deliberate way of working to maximize time on each task with no sense of corporate responsibility or loyalty to the company’s mission (assuming the employee knows what the mission statement is or even exists).
a sense of urgency
In the West, a sense of urgency requires workers to finish a task within specific deadlines and deadlines, but I’ve seen very little of this in China, instead it can all be done later. Recently, at a business meeting, a Chinese lawyer told me that it was an urgent requirement that they review the company’s image to improve its market share. When I asked him when he wanted the contract to start, he said no, hurry up, let’s have lunch and talk again in a few days. I did not flinch at this openly, but within my eyes I looked up to the sky. This lack of urgency is costing many Chinese companies dearly when dealing with Western businessmen, Westerners often see too much time wasted and lose faith in the deal very quickly as they feel that if this is how they negotiate then What will it be like getting them to meet deadlines and production schedules? Deals often never make it to the signing stage because the pace is too slow for Western businessmen who want to fly, close the deal and get out. In psychological terms, it’s like a type A personality (do it today) trying to do business every day with a type B personality (do it tomorrow). It just gets frustrating to continue, so many Western entrepreneurs start looking elsewhere for suppliers.
expectations are not met
Another explanation is the problem of youth expectations in China. After university, in particular, many leave to find a good job with a good career with the international employer. However, many experience deep disappointment as jobs are scarce and prospects for that golden career are slim. Often, large overseas employers bring in dedicated staff from their own country to manage operations and simply employ Chinese workers in subsidiary positions, while career jobs are held by their own nationals who come for a mandate in China only to return home. a new position after an appropriate trial period. A well-known Taiwanese company in Shanghai only has Taiwanese in management positions, and workers from mainland China often talk about their lack of real opportunities at the company because they are not from Taiwan. The level of job satisfaction in the company starts high until the new staff finds out about this situation and then job satisfaction plummets. When expectations are removed from the individual, the motivation to continue working with any sense of spirit quickly disappears and is replaced by apathy.
The pace gets slower
We now have multiple factors as to why the pace of life is slower and that China lacks a sense of urgency in its business and affairs of life. When workers feel a lack of recognition, a lack of monetary gains, promotion opportunities, and defeated life expectations, it all adds up to “why should I bother.” In all research, of course, we are generalizing that some Chinese will have a faster pace and sense of urgency, but compared to the social attitude of the majority, this is easily overlooked, as there is so much apathy in the West. in our society with crushed expectations of life and work. What is unique to Chinese culture is that you see it everywhere, the slow pace, the lack of urgency, and above all, the apathy for life in general. While most Chinese youth believe that China is moving forward, they don’t believe that anything much will change in their lifetime, as the pace of social change is not the same as the rapid change in economic growth. Westerners often confuse these two things at their expense.
live observations
In observing more than 45 Chinese companies (in four cities) and interviewing selected personnel at various levels, most commentators agreed with the general assumption of this paper. Additional comments from Chinese workers were the sense of greed in society, the lack of empathy for others, the pace of economic change was leaving the vast majority of the previous generation behind, and the cost of living was now beyond the ability of most Chinese. own property and the comforts of life. If you go to Shanghai or Beijing, you might be confused by what you see as modern, vibrant cities full of people going about their business, but like all illusions, sometimes they’re just for show, the real story lies. in the mass of Chinese. living and working in the rest of China, at that slow pace with a sense of apathy about their lives and their future.
Conclution
Like all observations, you cannot apply the findings to everyone. Some certainly by situation, character, personality and circumstance will see reality through a different frame. This document simply reflects a Western view of rhythm and a sense of urgency compared to that culture. Many Chinese readily admit to the findings here in this paper, but feel powerless to change the situation, and therefore continue to feel a sense of powerlessness in general. Many westerners would love to see their own country, culture, slow down; Take life a little easier, take the time to watch the flowers grow. However, they also see it as a dream and not a reality in fast-paced, high-urgency Western thinking. I live and work in China, I like living here but I don’t feel like adjusting to the pace or lack of urgency. I don’t want to go native so to speak. When I walk with my Chinese friends, I always stop to let them catch up with me, and I think I walk very slowly in the first place. I jokingly yell at them in Mandarin to hurry up. They just laugh and ask why I need to get everywhere so fast. Maybe I have more to do in my life and feel like wasting time is not in my own character. They think I’m weird and tell me I have the energy of a 20 year old, well maybe they’re right because I’m 52 now.
