Body Language in Your Pocket

... Body Language in Your Pocket

Travel with Mr. World Traveler to different countries and discover particularities in gestures, clothing, food, greetings. It’s all the same? Far from it!

Whether for work or for play, this book helps you to understand the Chinese better. Enjoy!

Contents

Greeting

Personal space

Clothing

Eating

Eating with Chopsticks

Gestures

Negatives

Approval

Thanks

Smiling

Symbols

Colors

Misfortune

Luck

The Right Gift

Fruits

Numbers

Unlucky Numbers

Lucky Numbers

Counting with fingers

Bibliography/List of Sources

With its 1.381 billion inhabitants, the second largest country in the world is also the most densely populated one as well. Here approximately 292 different languages and dialects are spoken over a space of 9.6 million square kilometers. About 70 % of the entire population speaks Mandarin.

Although China is considered to be an atheistic country, a mixture of different beliefs can be found here. And traditions also play a large role.

China is not only one of the most impressive countries in Asia in historical terms. Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism are manifested in the principles of religious laws and regulations.

Likewise, dynasties of hundreds of years, foreign rule by the West, and ultimately the period as a republic have left their mark. China has been gradually allowing economic, diplomatic and social access to the country now for roughly the past 20 years.

Western visitors find the society’s code of conduct, resulting from its history and culture, to be strangely exotic. The “proletarian” behaviors established in China’s communist phase became the standard and still shape social life today. This includes, for example, pushing on the street, spitting or shouting out loud.

Living in harmony with other people and “saving face” is very important in China. In order to ensure this one is silent, lies or prevaricates. Concrete and direct statements are avoided, while delicate topics are gladly circumnavigated both in speech and body language. Chinese symbolic characters are a fascinating result of this indirect communication.

In this country the individual is subordinate to the importance of the community. The values associated with this are strongly reflected in communal life and in the work process.