Liu Shinan

It's important to honour promises

By Liu Shinan (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-07-05 06:02

A story told by a friend of mine who recently returned from Australia set me thinking for quite a while.

The Australian National University held a get-together for alumni in Beijing. Many of the university's Chinese alumni duly signed up for the party, but failed to show up. Nearly one-third of the seats in the banqueting hall of the Palace Hotel were empty, greatly embarrassing the Australian hosts who had paid dearly for this fancy dinner in one of Beijing's most luxurious hotels.

I can imagine how frustrated, and shocked, the Australians were. They must have felt bewildered as to how anyone could so blatantly break their promise.

I do not find it strange, however. Though it is far from a universal trait among the Chinese, failing to keep an appointment is not rare in this country.

In the above-mentioned case, those who were absent certainly did not mean to be rude, but neither were they forgetful or careless. I assume that most of them must have thought like this: "It won't matter if I do not show up, since so many others will." And most probably were not serious at all when they gave an affirmative response to the invitation. They presumably resolved that they could reserve a seat first and then decide at the last minute whether they would turn up.

They based their decision on their own convenience and showed little respect for their host. They probably did not mean to be disrespectful to their host, thinking that their absence wouldn't make that much difference. The worst part of the matter, however, is just this kind of thinking. Many of us Chinese do not regard breaking an appointment as too serious a mistake. They usually just make a call at short notice or ring afterwards to say sorry.

Westerners, however, regard this as a serious offence and extremely disrespectful to the host. In my contact with Westerners, I have found that they either explicitly reject an appointment or faithfully honour it once they promise to turn up.

I remember the widely reported case of German plane and train manufacturer Bombardier honouring its contract with Guangzhou about the delivery of 12 train carriages in December 2002. Factors beyond their control meant that the originally planned shipment could not arrive by the agreed deadline. The German company then paid US$3 million to bring the carriages to Guangzhou on cargo planes 10 times the cost of transporting them by sea.

I believe every Chinese who heard this was amazed, and moved, by the story. The huge expenses incurred by the Germans to get the carriages to Guangzhou by the agreed date demonstrated how they value their reputation of trustworthiness.

We Chinese tend to look at credibility merely from the perspective of morality. Failure to keep an appointment is not regarded as serious unless it results in grave consequences. Westerners, however, attach a far greater importance to credibility. They would not forgive the breaking of a promise simply because it does less harm than deliberate fraud. One's record of credibility may affect one's career for the rest of his/her life.

China lacks both a strong sense of credibility among its citizens and a mechanism that monitors people's record of credibility.

One of the "Eight Honours and Eight Disgraces" recently highlighted by Communist Party of China General Secretary Hu Jintao requires Party members to "take honesty and credibility as an honour while regarding the act of sacrificing principle for profit as a shame."

This represents the renewed attention we Chinese are paying to the importance of credibility.

Email: liushinan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 07/05/2006 page4)