Submitted by Experience Not Logic Blog

A few weeks ago Dan Harris at CLB had a post on the best way to go about developing your “guanxi network,” F-ck China Culture Lessons. Give Me Anthony Bourdain With No Reservations. I totally agree with Dan’s premise that “bon vivantness” is the best way to cross cultural divides. However, and in a later post Dan briefly covers this, some knowledge and demonstration of genuine appreciation for Chinese culture will go a long ways in developing strong relationships with your coworkers and other Chinese. I’m not talking about avoiding wearing green hats or handing over business cards with two hands, though. No, no, I’m talking about The Great Sage Equaling Heaven — Sun Wukong.

I’ve been making my way through the classic novels of China, and I’ve only got A Dream of Red Mansions left on the list. About a quarter of the way through 3 Kingdoms when Liu Bei is shedding tears of appreciation for the man who fed him his wife when he couldn’t catch a wolf I realized that I could never truly understand Chinese culture. But, the stories are intriguing and the culture, like any culture, is fun to learn about. The most fun is unarguably The Journey to the West, and its protagonist, Sun Wukong. To keep things easy, I’m just gonna call him by his name from the TV show, Monkey.

Monkey has proven a gold mine in my ability to build relationships. The most important reason is that Monkey is a lot of fun to talk about and I always enjoy chatting about Monkey. I try to talk to my American friends about Monkey, but I quickly see their eyes glaze over. The second most important reason is that you’ll have a hard time finding a Chinese person that isn’t also eager to talk about Monkey. What follows is my favorite interaction involving the Great Sage.

One day the husband of one of our attorneys brought a box of peaches to the office for us. I noticed on the side that there was a monkey. Sun Wukong got into a lot of trouble in Heaven by stealing the Heavenly Peaches from the Jade Emperor’s Peach Orchard. I asked the Administrative Assistant, “So… Are there monkeys on all the boxes of peaches in China?” She replied in that tone Shanghai girls have when speaking English to Barbarians, and using words that may or may not be taught in elementary school to mean yes, “Of course.” Then she added, much more softly and with a smile, “We call him _____ [three syllables, but I recognized Handsome and Monkey], I don’t know exactly how to say….” “The Handsome Monkey King?” I offered. “Yes! Yes! Yes!” she said leaning up on her toes and waving her hands in great excitement. On a roll I kept going, “Sun Wukong? Protector of the Horses? Glorious Monkey King? The Great Sage Equaling Heaven?” “Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!”

We each took a peach for washing. I returned to the break room first, and began paring my peach with a knife. She came back with her peach in both hands biting into it. She cocked her head and stared at my peach for a half-second, straightened her neck, looked at me and said, “You eat your peach so nice… I eat my peach like… Monkey.” Much laughter ensued.