Bridging cultures - who said this was easy?

I think this is one of my more interesting articles. It is not intended to be a criticism of local life, so those of you that are local, please don't take offence. If you are local, then I hope that this article might be able to give you some insight an expat's perspective.

It is a reflection based on my own personal experience coming from the UK. It acknowledges the fact that the people and the city here, have only had 20 or so years to develop towards their own form of civilisation. It's getting there real fast, but it ain't quite there yet.

So, how easy is it to adjust to life in Shanghai? Some lao wei's (caucasians) find a willing and charming local girlfriend who can help ease them into life here. Others buy their way through, thus avoiding problems to do with chinese food and public transport.

So far the things I have found difficult to adjust to are:
- accepting that many people here do not exhibit levels of civilisation that we take for granted in the west. I try to avoid walking at all costs, but I am told that dodging airborne spittle is an issue for ladies. My taxi driver today had some sort of a cough. It required him to cough up a lot of phlem, spitting out of the car window two or three times. I have to excuse the guy, he clearly had some problems with his throat.
- mosquitos. Those from HK or Australia may find this less of a problem, but in the UK we don't really have mosquitos. Living on the ground floor, I am frequently beseiged by the buggers, and it's bringing out a hate/fear side of me that I don't often see.
- hygiene. It's hard not to touch the handrails on buses and the metro. It's also hard not to rest your arm on the arm rest built into the taxi door when you've had a hard day. Such arm rests have a distinctly never-washed look about them. Wearing a white shirt, I'm not so comfortable. I have explained to my MBA classmates that post-SARS, we really should be using a separate communal pair of chopsticks at mealtimes together, particularly as we do business trips across China each week before then assembling on weekends for class. But this is distinctly counter-culture here, as it would offend your dining guests. They do it to appease me only. In the UK, if I washed my hands before a meal it was really a gesture or habit more than anything. Here, I'm very conscious about cleaning my hands before meals.
- personal safety. It's known that the UK's rail system has a certain risk factor about it because of it's age, and difficulty in maintaining thousands of miles of track. I believe the same problem will exist in China, particularly when a one hour train journey costs less than a london bus ride. On the roads, there is a marked increase in personal risk, relative to being in Europe say. Do you know the feeling of driving around the Arc de Triomphe (sp?), a giant roundabout with no markings and cars just about everywhere? This is the feeling whenever on the roads in China. I haven't quite decided about how I will 'tour' China when I travel yet.
- cultural differences. This is less about 'civilisation', but more about cultural choices. For example, my friend Winfun has recently begun nurturing extended thumbnails. Historically, men would grow a nail extra long, usually the little finger I believe. I have to say it weirds me out, although I know in actual fact there's nothing wrong with it in principle!
- personal space. it will come as no surprise, but personal space is a long way from that even of London. Brits would often curse London as being the place where someone bumps into you but doesn't turn to apologise, but this is many times more exagerrated here.

Lastly but not least for this article, differences in thinking. I have experienced this the most in my MBA group work, and committee work. This work is important, either to contribute to our teams' success, or to help grow the success of our programme. It's in this context that at times I find that differences in thinking and approach result in conflicts of opinion between myself and others. Working through such conflicts is as time consuming as it is interesting. It is not just a matter of understanding the differences however. For both parties to really feel that they are then progressing in the right direction, requires a great deal of time and patience.

I'm lucky to have friends on the programme that are kind enough and committed enough about the programme to have the patience to struggle through such things with me.

For some, it is an opportunity to practice English with me. For others it is interesting for them to see how a western management consultant thinks and acts. For others, I really am grateful for their patience as we try to work together to reach our goals.

Looking back on such exercises, I understand two things. Firstly, I see where much of my time has gone. I complain of having no time. If a day involves a lunch and two meetings, then half of the day can be sacrificed to travelling time. The meetings themselves maybe not be that productive, because of differences in thinking. That richness / diversity of thinking, well, it takes more time and energy.

Secondly, I understand why some expats are tired from working in China. Many leave, citing that it is too frustrating, as well as having to adjust to being in a less developed city. They are brought here, because of the very fact that they have different ways of thinking. Perhaps their employers have high expectations of them. In actual fact though it is so very hard to get the basics done, either because colleagues have less experience, or because bridging the gap of background/thinking/culture can take so much longer.

To succeed here as an expat it seems, (assuming you don't hide inside a foreign consulate that is), it will require patience, tolerance, communication, and an open mind. That last one - open mind - it's so easy to gloss over. In this context I mean to be able to accept ways of doing things that contradict your own thinking. If you're particular about how the washing up is done for example, then you will find adjusting here difficult.

I am aware that being in this environment might well bring out the patience in me, and thus erode my eager forward momentum. This happened to me once before, after a particularly long stint in the UK government. I will have to keep tabs on my ability to drive forwards tenaciously towards a result, and be sure not complacently accept longer timescales out of habit, but keep pushing for improvements, bit by bit, a step at a time.