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Booze, Sex, and the Dark Art of Dealmaking in China (2015)

chinafile.com

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Re: Booze, Sex, and the Dark Art of Dealmaking in China (2015)

#61

Post by BadassFractal »

sn41 wrote: post #22
dogruck wrote: post #5

Americans don’t like to acknowledge that other cultures have different aaproaches to business. Why is the implication is that these practices are wrong?

Double standards like these are present in America as well. A friend complained to that a financial firm based in Georgia went through this entire rigmarole of checking his Facebook profile as a prospective employee, only to have the first group meeting in a strip club. He asked me, do they assume that they are never going to hire female employees?

I read recently that the Chinese have a term for that, something like "Western white savior" to refer to westerners who moralize about Chinese culture and act like they will show the morally primitive East the righteous way forward with their progressive views.

Re: Booze, Sex, and the Dark Art of Dealmaking in China (2015)

#62

Post by rconti »

da02 wrote: post #48
godzillabrennus wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I helped a sales focused tech company as their CTO for a few years. The sales team met at the bar for lunch and after work. Drugs were everywhere. The CFO kept a liquor cabinet in his desk drawer. There were parties all the time. Orgies were not uncommon. They ended up being acquired before they could get full on wolf on wallstreet going but it was damn near close. I drank with them but never took it any further. It’…

Why would they get acquired? They were doing good work in-between the partying?

Partying with the right people?

Re: Booze, Sex, and the Dark Art of Dealmaking in China (2015)

#63

Post by irrational »

greggman wrote: post #31

is it all that different in the USA? It's certainly the stereotype we see in movies for wall street. Not having worked there I have no first hand experience. When I ask friends that have they tell me "oh the stories I could tell" but they don't actually tell.

I don't know about other companies, but I work in global sales for an american Fortune 150 company and everyone knows that if there is even a hint of a rumor of something like the things being described here happening you will be fired faster than you can blink.

Re: Booze, Sex, and the Dark Art of Dealmaking in China (2015)

#64

Post by vostok »

steve19 wrote: post #60
Consultant32452 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I would not trust any person who cheated on their spouse either. I would be careful about that, because that group includes the likes of Martin Luther King, Jr., Stephen Hawking, Einstein, etc. Don't get me wrong, I'm inclined to feel the same way, and have ended personal relationships when I found out someone had cheated on their spouse, but some of history's greatest figures cheated on their spouse.

It doesn't mean they are bad people. Everyone makes mistakes. You can do business with someone you can't trust, just don't put yourself in a position where your life/business/career/happiness depends on them behaving.

It doesn't necessarily mean that they're bad people, but it's certainly a good indication that they're bad people at least on a personal level. Of course this is assuming that they operated in an environment with the same ethics as my own.

Re: Booze, Sex, and the Dark Art of Dealmaking in China (2015)

#65

Post by rconti »

dogruck wrote: post #5

Americans don’t like to acknowledge that other cultures have different aaproaches to business. Why is the implication is that these practices are wrong?

Well, for one, most things described here would be a violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in the US; so if not morally wrong, it's at least illegal.

Re: Booze, Sex, and the Dark Art of Dealmaking in China (2015)

#66

Post by mettamage »

PakG1 wrote: post #39

A few female entrepreneurs, however, explicitly reject the values pushed by businessmen. “One of my husband’s business friends got married just two years ago,” explained Li, in her early 40s, who co-owns a steel business with her husband, “We went to his wedding. But when we hosted an event last year, he came with a young girl who was obviously his mistress. I told my husband that if he cheats on his wife only after…

I was just skimming the comment (didn't read the article yet). But to me this feels a lot like Mad Men. In those series similar dark secrets were shared. And to me it seems to be good depiction of sexism in the 1960s in New York.

I'm just noting this since I know that I would have had much less of an image of a quote like this in your ocmment without having seen the series.

Re: Booze, Sex, and the Dark Art of Dealmaking in China (2015)

#67

Post by dsfdsfsd423423 »

mettamage wrote: post #66
PakG1 wrote: post #39

A few female entrepreneurs, however, explicitly reject the values pushed by businessmen. “One of my husband’s business friends got married just two years ago,” explained Li, in her early 40s, who co-owns a steel business with her husband, “We went to his wedding. But when we hosted an event last year, he came with a young girl who was obviously his mistress. I told my husband that if he cheats on his wife only after…

I was just skimming the comment (didn't read the article yet). But to me this feels a lot like Mad Men. In those series similar dark secrets were shared. And to me it seems to be good depiction of sexism in the 1960s in New York. I'm just noting this since I know that I would have had much less of an image of a quote like this in your ocmment without having seen the series.

Have you been around in the 1960s in New York, or how do you know it is a good depiction of sexism in the 1960s in New York?

Re: Booze, Sex, and the Dark Art of Dealmaking in China (2015)

#68

Post by [deleted] »

hackits wrote: post #35
lovich wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know a lot of Thai people and the men might be fine with this but none of their wives or girlfriends are. You don't have to accept something that you think is immoral just because it's in someone else's culture

The point I was making is you're making a moral judgement based on your upbringing to a different culture that has different cultural normal around sex and Business. In essence you're putting your moral judgement above the men you're associating with. Do you really believe their wives and girlfriends are princesses who are innocent little delicate snowflakes that need your manly protection? You're getting played my f…

[deleted]

Re: Booze, Sex, and the Dark Art of Dealmaking in China (2015)

#69

Post by Kiro »

chairmanwow wrote: post #18
pnw_hazor wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like it is SFW at a lot a places in China and SEA.

They are talking about the article itself. You wouldn’t want to click on this at work because of the picture of the naked erotic dancer featured.

Woosh.

Re: Booze, Sex, and the Dark Art of Dealmaking in China (2015)

#70

Post by Torminguar »

tetromino_ wrote: post #38
forkLding wrote: post #2

I see this as an East Asian phenomenon, I believe Koreans and Japanese do this to a certain degree as well as certain other East Asian groups. I've heard Russians do bathhouse deals as well although I could be wrong and there is also the finance sector's strip club visits with their clientele that I've heard of ( https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-12/it-s-clos... ). It seems so weird to see people have t…

Russians do bathhouse/sauna deals without sex (most of the time). In Russian culture, bathhouses/saunas are a very traditional safe place for a group of same-sex friends to socialize and get drunk together. And naturally a lot of unofficial political and business discussion happens in saunas too.

Same here in Finland, although it is mostly a joke that has some corruption undertones. But it still happens.
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