The Promotion Of Cultural Relativism In Sino-US Business Negotiations

With China's accession into World Trade Organizations (WTO), international trade will be more and more prevalent. Since international business negotiation plays a key role in international trade, the success of enterprises will heavily depend on the success of negotiations. The reasons why the author chooses Sino-US business negotiations to study are as follows: US is the sole superpower and the largest developed country while China is the largest developing country in the world; trade between the two countries is increasing rapidly; there are striking cultural differences between the two countries and there even exists culture clash between the two countries. The study of Sino-US business negotiations in terms of culture goes with the trend of our times and thus is very practical, which is the significance of writing this thesis.There are a wide variety of factors influencing international business negotiations, such as political and legal pluralism, international economic factors, foreign governments and bureaucracies, instability, ideology and culture. Culture is critical to international business negotiations. And hence, the author studies Sino-US business negotiations from the angle of culture. Cultural relativism has aroused heated debate among scholars from all over the world. However, the author openly proposes the promotion of cultural relativism in Sino-US business negotiations, which is a marked new idea of this thesis. Moreover, the author proposes three steps to promote cultural relativism in Sino-US business negotiations in the "Conclusion" section, which is another new idea of this thesis. In addition, in the process of gathering and sorting out reference material, the author combines the material of language and culture and the material of business negotiations together, which also reflects the spirit of innovation. So many studies done by foreign and domestic scholars have been focused on cultural differences, while the systematic and comparative studies on Sino-US business negotiations in terms of culture are not enough. The thesis studies Sino-US business negotiations by comparing different values, communication approaches and thought patterns between American and Chinese negotiators. The author proposes the view of resolving cultural problems by promoting cultural relativism in Sino-US business negotiations in order to improve the communicative competence of negotiators and ensure their success in negotiations.The thesis illustrates cultural relativism in detail on the basis of explanation of basic theories of culture. Ethnocentrism is introduced in the section of Literature Review, because it is the opposite of cultural relativism. In intercultural communications, one usually evaluates the behaviors of outsiders within the context of his own culture, isolating him from other cultures. This is called ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism may bring about disbelief and hatred, even culture clash among different groups of people. It may result in the sense of superiority of people, who attempt to change the thought patterns and life styles of other people. In Sino-US business negotiations, ethnocentrism may lead to culture clash between the two sides, so they cannot trust each other and it is very difficult to achieve success in negotiations, and they even may terminate negotiations. However, as the opposite of ethnocentrism, cultural relativism has aroused heated discussion among linguists, sociologists and anthropologists. Cultural relativism means that a culture can only be understood on its own terms. This means that standards, attitudes, and beliefs from one culture should not be used in the study or description of another culture. According to this theory, in Sino-US business negotiations, a negotiator should not judge the behaviors of his counterparts from the angle of his own culture. Instead, he can only understand their behaviors within the context of their culture, and he should be tolerant of cultural differences. Within the framework of this theory, the author uses cases, s...