Making eye contact in China is a sure fire way to make enemies, not friends. The Chinese people view eye contact as a necessary tool, but not in the same way that other cultures do. In China, people make eye contact when they are angry. It is meant to challenge the other person and is a sign of disrespect. People will make direct, prolonged eye contact when they are on the defensive or if they are trying to engage in argument. This is especially true when it comes to subordinates and supervisors. It is appropriate for someone of a higher authority to make eye contact with someone who has less, but never appropriate for someone with less authority to attempt eye contact with a person who has more. If traveling in China and someone meets your gaze, it may be time to start apologizing.
For the Chinese, a lack of steady eye contact doesn’t indicate a lack of attention or respect. On the contrary, because of Chinese society’s more authoritarian nature, steady eye contact is viewed as inappropriate, especially when subordinates talk with their superiors. Eye contact is sometimes viewed as a gesture of challenge or defiance. When people get angry, they tend to maintain steady eye contact. Otherwise, they look elsewhere or appear nonchalant while talking.
Many Chinese who speak and read English learned the language in an academic setting. As a result, they’re often unaware of colloquialisms or figures of speech that we take for granted. I’ve seen “Love Canal” translated as “sex virology.” An article on negotiation skills contains the phrase “football field” when in fact the English original talks about “a level playing field.” Other American phrases such as “in terms of,” “the skinny,” “ballpark,” “sidebar” and other sports jargon will confuse the Chinese mind. Keep in mind that most Chinese people (translators or even executives) will not ask you to explain your terms because they don’t want to lose “face” themselves or put you on the spot. To avoid these pitfalls, it’s important that you have someone with experience living and working in Western countries to review your translations.
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