细节工作可以招本地人喝嘛。。

应酬是必须的。

看你更介意形式上的应酬，还是更介意工作上的成功/失败了。。

少数不喝的当然也有。

小弥留之际

只是高层也会对到高层嘛，总是免不了应酬，很怕电视剧里面那种一天到晚应酬没办法陪家人的

总之是少不了应酬

不过可以自告奋勇做司机，就有借口不喝酒。这其实相对是小事。楼主的情况是两个人一起回去，还是只是一个人去中国？如果是后者，可能发个帖“姐妹们会让老公一个人回去中国工作吗？”比较有帮助。

可能回去以后需要发帖老公每天应酬不回家，到底该不该离婚吧，哈哈

看来应酬总是难免、在哪都一样

经常飞中国的不同城市，包括上海。基本上觉得应酬是有的，喝酒劝酒的状况不严重，不用太担心。不会是不喝就做不成生意的。
但是要担心主要是文化的差异，中国人说话方式，双重意思的揣摩对于外国人是比较头疼的，。如果不能正确领会对方的意思，那要开拓市场是比较难的。

新加坡的行为方式还是比较简单直接的

The contextual definition of networking and business relationships...

“Try to stay away from alcohol, especially beer, while networking. You really don’t want to beer burp in front of a potential recruiter”, is what I was instructed back in b-school. “If you must, stick to one glass of wine the entire night.”

A few years later, I was catching up with an old friend at a rooftop bar in Shanghai and what he told me went completely against my formal education on networking matters. He told me how his company had won a certain contract in a certain part of Asia because the client liked dealing with him for his openness to enjoy karaoke and drink (possibly, even beer burp) with them. “They want to see that you’re a normal guy, enjoy wine and karaoke, and most importantly, have a vulnerable (nice) human side”, he said.

This got me thinking, is there a universally acceptable definition of networking? More importantly, I needed an answer to the important question of ‘to drink or not to drink?’!

On pondering further, I realised that, forget globally, coming up with even a pan-Asian definition is extremely difficult. However, for sheer academic/convenience purposes, if one were to attempt this, it would mean roughly dividing Asia into two parts using the longitude passing through Singapore as the line. For several geo-socio-economic reasons, I’d name the two groups: India-like, and China-like. Nonetheless, it is important to note that, even within these groups, it is difficult to generalise and there exist several differences in practice.



China-like want ‘face’ while the India-like differentiate business & social affairs

With the advent of Chinese businesses on the global forefront, the term ‘guanxi’ finds itself commonly used (and abused) in articles and business school essays that I’ve helped review. While most people in the West would believe that guanxi would simply mean ‘connection’ or ‘network’, the implication of the word is far deeper than that. Guanxi can be broken into two words, guan (关): connected, and xi (系): tied. Together, they mean: relationship. The term embodies elements of depth in relationship, societal/hierarchical order, and ability to influence — the quintessential concept of giving ‘face’ to a relationship. This is applicable not just in China but also in Korea and Japan. Here, business and social matters tend to converge.

On the other hand, having a relatively more heterogeneous cultural fabric, countries in the India-like group tend to maintain a distance between business and social affairs; the concept of ‘face’ assuming slightly lesser importance. A brief look into the colonial past of the region would also explain as to why business practices are comparatively more West-like. Although, having said that, there are several invisible lines of influence that you’d only see with time.



Both environments are difficult for ‘third-party foreigners’ to navigate

The reason I mentioned ‘third-party foreigners’ is because in Asia there is a tendency to divide foreigners into two categories: 1) foreign-educated/-dwelling returnees (and their children), and 2) ‘third-party’ foreigners who have no family ties with the country. Depending on the country group, the ease of operating for the two foreigner types differs. While returnees (and actual foreigners) have mostly been accepted in the India-like group, it is only in the recent times that the China-like group [(particularly Vietnam, and Japan (historically)] has become more open in dealing with them. A friend shared a rather interesting perspective, “In certain states, there was previously this notion that the returnees had left the country in the moment of need, post-war(s), and were now coming back to reap the benefits of a rapidly flourishing economy.”

While the boundary between the two groups is getting blurred when it comes to dealing with returnees, it goes without saying that foreigners continue to find navigating the Asian business environments a bit challenging.



Trends such as globalisation, two-way (including reverse) immigration, and the growing importance of Asian economies are expected to merge business practices further. Until then, my advice is to keep the two groups in mind when conducting business in Asia. Happy networking!!



P.S. The answer: if unsure, or if you have issues handling it, stay away from it. The folks at b-school were (almost) right.

小弥留之际

职位是新开发的，还是代替前面的。如果是新开发的职位的确有一定难度，看你老公一腔热血感觉他太年轻了，泼点冷水有益适应环境，国内工作跟坡没法比，整个规则不同。年轻时出来锻炼锻炼也好。呵呵，跟你情况类似，已经来一年多了。

我跟你的想法很像，而且这种是前人种树后人乘凉的事，现在是最辛苦的阶段，而且我们不能常驻中国，三年五载辛苦完了回来了，不划算，如果现在没有稳定工作的话去试个一年半载无所谓，可是为了这个辞掉现在的工作就太不值得了，到时候陪了夫人又折兵，所以基本上不会考虑了，除非这边的工作有什么重大变化，感谢回复