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Voyaging Cross-cultural Communication through the Belt and Road Initiatives

Oct 19-2018   



By Donasius & Allen, LangRun Sharing Seminar, Peking University, October 10, 2018

Since the year 2013 when Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), many people have put their heads together to understand what type of a project it will be. Pessimists feel that the BRI may encounter challenges to achieve its full potential because of cross-cultural communication and management. In the same vein, optimists have realized the importance of globalization and believe that despite having different languages and cultural beliefs, the BRI can help different countries strive for the common vision.

To explore the potential of BRI and exchange unique perspectives on the above matter, professors, multi-international scholars, seasoned professionals and entrepreneurs met at Peking University in Beijing on 10th October 2018 to share views on the theme: Cross-cultural talents that drive success. 


The seminar was organized by LangRun Sharing, a student-run organization at Peking University National School of Development (NSD). The vision of LangRun Sharing is to bring talents from different backgrounds at NSD to develop skills and build relationships that last a lifetime.

During the seminar, in accordance with Professor John Zhuang Yang who is the Professor of Management and Co-Dean of MBA programs at Peking University National School of Development, it is important to note that multi-cultural skills are required within institutions nowadays because we are living in a global community.

Prof. Yang cited a leading Chinese tech company that wasn’t renowned in 1990s but the CEO had a vision of developing its international market exposure, not so much due to lack of global competitiveness, as it is because of relatively limited domestic market. The firm latter invested over 1 billion USD to get the employees trained by the best technology firm in the world at that time. With its increasing cross-cultural exposure and comprehensive training, the company has been expanding and now is recognized as one of the best tech giants worldwide. 

In contrast, Prof. Yang gave a comparative analysis on a multinational conglomerate that expanded its business in China. 20 years ago, the firm had a premium price of about 7-10% in the market but such premiums are lower than the market averages nowadays. Why? Because the company didn’t pay attention to the voice of China’s local management teams and was losing its market shares. 

Above examples raise some questions among scholars: What are the aspects to be considered in multi-cultural community? How can people be brought together to achieve common goals? Does language play a key role in cross-cultural management?

The idea of establishing the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development (ISSCAD) was initiated and announced by Chinese President Xi Jinping. Combining local knowledge with global vision, the ISSCAD is committed to share knowledge and experience on matters of public leadership and national development with developing countries. The seminar invited three scholars from ISSCAD: Donasius (Compliance Risk and Business Analysis, Malawi), Eddy (Chief Specialist of the Migration Service Department, Tajikistan), and Tsegay (Deputy CEO of Ethiopian Airport Enterprise, Ethiopia) to share their unique perspectives on the matter.

Eddy, who had several years of experiences in China, pointed out that his organization once sent him to China and told him to learn Mandarin immediately. If someone has good personality traits such as flexibility, passion and responsibility, he would be able to cope with cross-cultural issues in general but languages matter the most.


According to Mandy, a successful Chinese entrepreneur and CEO, her business operates primarily in Chinese FMCG sector and does not necessarily need foreigners to spice her business because hiring an expatriate might reduce operational efficiency. “Foreign speakers may study the mandarin but never be able to understand the context fully, and this creates inefficiency to a startup company”, Mandy claimed. However, innovation is the key to the long-term competency of a company or a country, and the main driving factor is diversity. Only through collaborations across culture and bringing more talents together could we provide better and innovative solutions in today’s world. 

Language is a backbone of every culture, especially in high-context countries that requires inter-personal communication-based understanding. Chinese people are trained from young age to behave in disciplines and Asians tend to be quite politically sensitive. Very few foreigners understand the "group norm" in Chinese. However, personalities play a key role because some people are 'born' cross-culturally sensitive via genes, parenting or social impacts. They don't speak fluent foreign languages but are exceptional at understanding others. So how can people with different backgrounds and mother tongues work together? 

Allen is the host of the seminar and the class president of MBA program. With his working experiences at a hedge fund in London and the largest asset management firm on Wall Street, he said that bringing different persons from various backgrounds does contribute to the overall innovative capacity but also creates disorders and chaos if there are no rules in place. The United Nations is one leading institution that brings people of diverse culture together and they behave the same. UN hires 'common language' talents, usually English, sometimes French or Mandarin, but everyone obeys the 'big rules'. In China, common language means common value, and big rules means big procedures. Rules are often set by the leaders, not the managers. Leader sets directions and tells managers what to do; managers then follow and execute. Prof. Yang then made a prominent remark that in Chinese cultural context, leaders must learn the word “LISTEN”.


Scholars agreed that it is possible for people from different cultures, races and ethnicities to speak one language and have common ground rules. According to the experiences shared by Ivan and Felix, multi-national companies or organizations have managed to bring people together from all walks of grounds by setting rules or values that encompass everyone, such as business etiquette, time management and contribution recognition. This led to belief that people are the same disregarding their cultural, political, ethnic and religious background. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is an economic framework developed to increase connectivity between China and partner countries.  It is crucial for China to achieve mutual benefit by promoting international cooperation. Countries involved in the BRI are extremely complex, and they all have different political systems, different religious beliefs and complex economic systems. Prof. Yang suggested that Chinese leaders working for BRI must be cross-culturally competent.

Prof. Yang concluded the seminar with the following tips:

1)Don't assume that one country’s success can be replicated 100% elsewhere. Cultural concepts, historical heritage, and political systems are different across nations. Learn to listen and do not draw presumptuous conclusions.  

2)To enhance cross-cultural emotional intelligence. One of the best ways is to organize small cross-cultural brainstorming meetings like LangRun Sharing seminars so that students, teachers and professionals from different countries interact with each other. Be open, honest, objective and direct when discussing complex issues.

3)Make friends. Be courteous. Listen to what others have to say. Treat people fairly. The relationships so established will be based on mutual trust and respect, and hence is likely to last.  

List of LangRun Sharing Seminar Participants: 

☆ Prof. John Zhuang Yang, Co-Dean of BiMBA at PKU NSD

☆ Lucy Liu, Head of MBA Center at PKU NSD

☆ Donasius Pathera, Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development (ISSCAD)

☆ Tsegay Beyene, Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development (ISSCAD)

☆ Eddy Khikmatullo Kudratova, Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development (ISSCAD)

☆ Mingming Zhu, Doctor of Professional Studies in Business (DPS)

☆ Mandy Ma, Class President, Mulan Academia

☆ Felix Lu, Executive MBA Class of 06

☆ Shuang Li, Event Manager, MBA Class of 17

☆ Ivan Mao, Academic Lead, MBA Class of 17

☆ Allen Chen, Class President, MBA Class of 17

The LangRun Sharing workshops will continue to be held to ensure that people of different backgrounds could share their opinions and thoughts authentically and openly.


Voyaging Cross-cultural Communication through the Belt and Road Initiatives

Oct 19-2018   



By Donasius & Allen, LangRun Sharing Seminar, Peking University, October 10, 2018

Since the year 2013 when Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), many people have put their heads together to understand what type of a project it will be. Pessimists feel that the BRI may encounter challenges to achieve its full potential because of cross-cultural communication and management. In the same vein, optimists have realized the importance of globalization and believe that despite having different languages and cultural beliefs, the BRI can help different countries strive for the common vision.

To explore the potential of BRI and exchange unique perspectives on the above matter, professors, multi-international scholars, seasoned professionals and entrepreneurs met at Peking University in Beijing on 10th October 2018 to share views on the theme: Cross-cultural talents that drive success. 


The seminar was organized by LangRun Sharing, a student-run organization at Peking University National School of Development (NSD). The vision of LangRun Sharing is to bring talents from different backgrounds at NSD to develop skills and build relationships that last a lifetime.

During the seminar, in accordance with Professor John Zhuang Yang who is the Professor of Management and Co-Dean of MBA programs at Peking University National School of Development, it is important to note that multi-cultural skills are required within institutions nowadays because we are living in a global community.

Prof. Yang cited a leading Chinese tech company that wasn’t renowned in 1990s but the CEO had a vision of developing its international market exposure, not so much due to lack of global competitiveness, as it is because of relatively limited domestic market. The firm latter invested over 1 billion USD to get the employees trained by the best technology firm in the world at that time. With its increasing cross-cultural exposure and comprehensive training, the company has been expanding and now is recognized as one of the best tech giants worldwide. 

In contrast, Prof. Yang gave a comparative analysis on a multinational conglomerate that expanded its business in China. 20 years ago, the firm had a premium price of about 7-10% in the market but such premiums are lower than the market averages nowadays. Why? Because the company didn’t pay attention to the voice of China’s local management teams and was losing its market shares. 

Above examples raise some questions among scholars: What are the aspects to be considered in multi-cultural community? How can people be brought together to achieve common goals? Does language play a key role in cross-cultural management?

The idea of establishing the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development (ISSCAD) was initiated and announced by Chinese President Xi Jinping. Combining local knowledge with global vision, the ISSCAD is committed to share knowledge and experience on matters of public leadership and national development with developing countries. The seminar invited three scholars from ISSCAD: Donasius (Compliance Risk and Business Analysis, Malawi), Eddy (Chief Specialist of the Migration Service Department, Tajikistan), and Tsegay (Deputy CEO of Ethiopian Airport Enterprise, Ethiopia) to share their unique perspectives on the matter.

Eddy, who had several years of experiences in China, pointed out that his organization once sent him to China and told him to learn Mandarin immediately. If someone has good personality traits such as flexibility, passion and responsibility, he would be able to cope with cross-cultural issues in general but languages matter the most.


According to Mandy, a successful Chinese entrepreneur and CEO, her business operates primarily in Chinese FMCG sector and does not necessarily need foreigners to spice her business because hiring an expatriate might reduce operational efficiency. “Foreign speakers may study the mandarin but never be able to understand the context fully, and this creates inefficiency to a startup company”, Mandy claimed. However, innovation is the key to the long-term competency of a company or a country, and the main driving factor is diversity. Only through collaborations across culture and bringing more talents together could we provide better and innovative solutions in today’s world. 

Language is a backbone of every culture, especially in high-context countries that requires inter-personal communication-based understanding. Chinese people are trained from young age to behave in disciplines and Asians tend to be quite politically sensitive. Very few foreigners understand the "group norm" in Chinese. However, personalities play a key role because some people are 'born' cross-culturally sensitive via genes, parenting or social impacts. They don't speak fluent foreign languages but are exceptional at understanding others. So how can people with different backgrounds and mother tongues work together? 

Allen is the host of the seminar and the class president of MBA program. With his working experiences at a hedge fund in London and the largest asset management firm on Wall Street, he said that bringing different persons from various backgrounds does contribute to the overall innovative capacity but also creates disorders and chaos if there are no rules in place. The United Nations is one leading institution that brings people of diverse culture together and they behave the same. UN hires 'common language' talents, usually English, sometimes French or Mandarin, but everyone obeys the 'big rules'. In China, common language means common value, and big rules means big procedures. Rules are often set by the leaders, not the managers. Leader sets directions and tells managers what to do; managers then follow and execute. Prof. Yang then made a prominent remark that in Chinese cultural context, leaders must learn the word “LISTEN”.


Scholars agreed that it is possible for people from different cultures, races and ethnicities to speak one language and have common ground rules. According to the experiences shared by Ivan and Felix, multi-national companies or organizations have managed to bring people together from all walks of grounds by setting rules or values that encompass everyone, such as business etiquette, time management and contribution recognition. This led to belief that people are the same disregarding their cultural, political, ethnic and religious background. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is an economic framework developed to increase connectivity between China and partner countries.  It is crucial for China to achieve mutual benefit by promoting international cooperation. Countries involved in the BRI are extremely complex, and they all have different political systems, different religious beliefs and complex economic systems. Prof. Yang suggested that Chinese leaders working for BRI must be cross-culturally competent.

Prof. Yang concluded the seminar with the following tips:

1)Don't assume that one country’s success can be replicated 100% elsewhere. Cultural concepts, historical heritage, and political systems are different across nations. Learn to listen and do not draw presumptuous conclusions.  

2)To enhance cross-cultural emotional intelligence. One of the best ways is to organize small cross-cultural brainstorming meetings like LangRun Sharing seminars so that students, teachers and professionals from different countries interact with each other. Be open, honest, objective and direct when discussing complex issues.

3)Make friends. Be courteous. Listen to what others have to say. Treat people fairly. The relationships so established will be based on mutual trust and respect, and hence is likely to last.  

List of LangRun Sharing Seminar Participants: 

☆ Prof. John Zhuang Yang, Co-Dean of BiMBA at PKU NSD

☆ Lucy Liu, Head of MBA Center at PKU NSD

☆ Donasius Pathera, Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development (ISSCAD)

☆ Tsegay Beyene, Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development (ISSCAD)

☆ Eddy Khikmatullo Kudratova, Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development (ISSCAD)

☆ Mingming Zhu, Doctor of Professional Studies in Business (DPS)

☆ Mandy Ma, Class President, Mulan Academia

☆ Felix Lu, Executive MBA Class of 06

☆ Shuang Li, Event Manager, MBA Class of 17

☆ Ivan Mao, Academic Lead, MBA Class of 17

☆ Allen Chen, Class President, MBA Class of 17

The LangRun Sharing workshops will continue to be held to ensure that people of different backgrounds could share their opinions and thoughts authentically and openly.