Cultural tips

The Chinese Ways of Thinking
The way Chinese people think could be described as "mediocre", "macrocosm" and "connotation".

Chinese people always try to find the middle ground. They advocate peace and do not go to extremes. When dealing with problems the Chinese are good at grasping the extent of change. However, this does not mean lack of enthusiasm or innovation; it means to seek a balanced development by mastering all kinds of complicated relations.

Chinese people think about questions from all points of view in order to seek unity and coherence. They pay special attention to the unitary harmony. They prefer to consider themselves as a member of the group instead of an individual. For instance, the Chinese put their family name first, then the given name, which emphasizes the national unity. As far as time is concerned the order would be like this: year, month, day, hour, minute, second. The order of writing an address is: nation, province, county, town, village, which emphasizes the subjective relationship between an individual and their group.

Another way Chinese people think is by using "connotations". They are accustomed to using metaphors. There are many idioms. For example, "江山易改，本性难移" (jiāng shān yì gǎi běn xìng nán yí), meaning "it's easy to change rivers and mountains but hard to change a person's nature".