Global gift-giving custom
We live in an environment that emphasizes "politeness". For weddings, funerals and weddings, friends should give gifts, contacts should give gifts, and people should help and give gifts. The so-called "reciprocity" and "many people don't blame". In fact, looking around the world, all countries have the custom of giving gifts for one reason or another.
Since ancient times, there have been two major gift-giving festivals in Japan, the middle of July and the end of the year. During this period, Japanese usually give gifts to their superiors, elders or people who usually take care of themselves. Gifts can be food, daily necessities or even shopping vouchers. Considering that employees will definitely spend a lot of money during these two festivals, some companies will even give a special allowance, in 2004.
For westerners, the spirit of Christmas is to show love to the people around you, so Christmas can be regarded as the most important gift-giving festival. Gifts are mostly Christmas cards filled with blessings and greetings, but small cards are everywhere.
Spring Festival is the most important traditional festival in China. Red envelopes are the most distinctive gifts for the Spring Festival. They can give young people a long life and add longevity to the elderly. In short, they mean years of peace.
Here, we can't list the gift-giving customs of all countries, but one thing is clear, that is, almost all countries have gift-giving customs, although the reasons are different.
Second, the reason for giving gifts
In daily communication, people usually express some inner feelings by giving gifts, such as congratulations, respect, friendship, love, gratitude, sympathy and mourning. In cross-cultural communication, gifts are an additional means of emotional expression, which can cross language barriers and enhance our understanding of different customs, cultures and personal feelings. For example, in order to let foreign friends know some traditional foods in China, it is better to give him a taste. For example, when he was about to leave, he gave a traditional handicraft of his own country. Maybe he will remember it as a symbol of China forever. This gift is out of love, out of courtesy, and its value is not that important. Even sending a small card can make foreign friends feel your sincere friendship.
Of course, in addition to emotional expression, reciprocity is particularly prominent in international business gifts. Reciprocity basically refers to exchange, but it is not absolute to replace money with goods. In today's commodity society, "profit" and "ceremony" are often linked, and only with "ceremony" can there be "profit", which has become a universal law of business communication. At the same time, giving gifts in business activities also plays an important role in mutual communication and establishing brand image. It is said that the secret weapon for Japanese products to successfully enter the American market is gift giving.
Generally speaking, gift-giving is an activity with a certain purpose based on love or reciprocity.
The reasons for cross-cultural gift-giving are not difficult to understand, but the difficulty lies in the operation. What gift to send, when to send it, and how to send it can best achieve the purpose of giving gifts. This is the key to giving gifts. Many gifts will involve customs and taboos. If you don't know much about these two aspects, even if you give gifts with the most sincere attitude, sometimes it won't help or even backfire.
The Art of Giving Gifts in Cross-cultural Communication
Gifts are artistic, please see the example given by Tina Deena R.Le-vine, 1982. Mr. Smith, a senior executive manager of an American company, made a special trip to Tokyo for preliminary negotiations in order to sign an important agreement with a Japanese company. Smith learned that there is a custom of giving gifts in Japan. Before he left, he bought some precious jewels from Tiffany Jewelry Company, a famous American jewelry company. After careful packaging, gift packaging is very important in Japanese gift-giving culture, and he is going to give it to the Japanese President's wife.
Smith knows that at the beginning of business negotiations with the Japanese, it is very important to know each other when they meet for the first time. So when he met with the Japanese representative, he bowed in accordance with Japanese etiquette and handed in his business card to introduce himself. This made him immediately recognized by the other side, so the talks between the two sides went smoothly. However, when the business negotiation reached the final stage-confirming the decision with the Japanese board members, the problem arose. At the beginning of the meeting, Smith gave the prepared gift to the Japanese president and asked him to give it to his wife. The atmosphere at the venue suddenly became awkward. Smith immediately realized that he might have made a big gift-giving taboo, but what did he do wrong?
The mistakes are as follows: First of all, it is inappropriate to give gifts in public. In the above scene, the gift should be given privately, but if the gift is for everyone present, it is another matter. Secondly, it is quite suspicious for business partners who meet for the first time to use expensive jewelry as a gift, especially when the recipient is not himself but his wife. Therefore, the price of gifts should be moderate, for example, a pen with company logo is enough. Finally, black and white tones are forbidden for packaging paper. In Japan, black and white are symbols of funerals.
So generally speaking, the principle of gift-giving is actually only two words-feeling, which is always guided by the feeling of the recipient. Gifts given should make the recipient happy, not embarrass him. Caution is the most basic here, but the value is not important. Let's discuss this problem below.
1. Do as the Romans do. Due to different cultural backgrounds, everyone has their own taboos about receiving and giving gifts, mainly including personal taboos and public taboos. Taboos caused by the personal factors of the recipient are called personal taboos, for example, giving a couple to a newly widowed person will violate his/her taboos; Taboos caused by social and cultural background, customs, public morals, religious beliefs or professional ethics are called public taboos. In cross-cultural communication, when we choose gifts for foreigners and foreigners, we should pay special attention to the choice of gifts that conform to their local customs and avoid taboos as much as possible, which is also a manifestation of respect for others.
First of all, we should pay attention to taboos in different countries. For example, in most parts of our country, the old people taboo the word "bell" because its pronunciation means "death" and "end", while lovers taboo the word "umbrella" because its pronunciation means "scattered" and "scattered"; In Hongkong and Taiwan Province, towels can only be used as a thank-you instrument for the families of the deceased to those who come to mourn; Japanese people don't like green and the numbers 4 and 9. They think green is unlucky.
In Japanese, 4 sounds like "death" and 9 sounds like "suffering"; In European countries, it is disrespectful to give women underwear or soap, but in the eyes of some British and American people, 13 is an unlucky number, which is common sense, Ju Zuchun, 2004.