Le géopolitologue Gilles Gressani, confondateur de la revue Le Grand Continent, pose ce «paradoxe» dans le dernier ouvrage de sa revue consacré aux ennemis de l’Europe, alors que la Chine représente «la moitié de ce qui compte en géopolitique et en économie».
I can, but I do not expose my AliBaba contacts. :)
Besides, Chinese salespeople and even some engineers have the silly habit of adopting Western-sounding first names for business communication, so you don’t get a real name in casual talk.
It’s a bit like Xi Jinping naming himself Timmy Jinping for easier diplomacy. I wonder why. :D
Another silly bit… I’m from Estonia. Back a few years ago, some Chinese gal decided that advancing business relations would be well served by sending me Ramadan greetings (note the cultural dissonance in a country where a Muslim celebrating Ramadan would experience difficulties).
I happily explained to her that we don’t celebrate Ramadan here, except for very few people. What I found out: Estonia in Chinese is “Àishāníyǎ”, which strongly suggests a place with lots of sand, so she guessed I was probably Arab. The language barrier is pretty high both ways. :)
I can, but I do not expose my AliBaba contacts. :)
Besides, Chinese salespeople and even some engineers have the silly habit of adopting Western-sounding first names for business communication, so you don’t get a real name in casual talk.
It’s a bit like Xi Jinping naming himself Timmy Jinping for easier diplomacy. I wonder why. :D
Another silly bit… I’m from Estonia. Back a few years ago, some Chinese gal decided that advancing business relations would be well served by sending me Ramadan greetings (note the cultural dissonance in a country where a Muslim celebrating Ramadan would experience difficulties).
I happily explained to her that we don’t celebrate Ramadan here, except for very few people. What I found out: Estonia in Chinese is “Àishāníyǎ”, which strongly suggests a place with lots of sand, so she guessed I was probably Arab. The language barrier is pretty high both ways. :)