It is widely acknowledged that the Chinese culture has a somewhat different perception of how business is conducted. Guanxi, the Chinese social capital term, is the most widely discussed term to describe the Chinese business world, in both China and Taiwan. It is commonly used to emphasis the difference between Chinese and "western" business culture, and the difficulties in cross-cultural business interactions. In the past two years, with the Internet change towards social web and the increasing significance of social capital in western economies, Guanxi and its applications are becoming relevant for all.
Social capital is a core concept in business, economics, organizational behavior, political science, and sociology, defined as the advantage created by a person’s location in a structure of relationships. It explains how some …

Lots of things are happening lately and I can hardly keep up. Here are some recent news and events related to Asia-Israel connections : Korea and Israel are celebrating 45 years of formal relations. Although relations went cold till early 90s, Korea and Israel pretend that never happens and have launched a full-scale campaign of “Know Korea better”. While visiting the Korean embassy a few weeks ago, I was informed that over 20 Korea related events will take place across Israel in the upcoming months. The Jerusalem Cinemateq wakes up to Asia - To mark …

I thought newspapers here will be full of Chinese New Year world coverage, but after some quick browsing of the leading local websites it’s embarrassing to admit the fact that I’ve found absolutely nothing - the world’s biggest holiday goes unnoticed in this part of the world.
But still, the Chinese embassy held an official get-together yesterday at the embassador’s residence. I wasn’t there, but Banma was kind enough to report :

We just got back from the reception at the embassador’s house in Hertzelia for the upcoming Chinese new years and the embassador gave his annual speech, especially referring to the Chinese students in the Israeli universities that are making China proud and will be bringing valuable knowledge back to China. …

Where will you be spending your Chinese new year? Hopefully, you get a chance to actually have Chinese new years in China/Taiwan.
 
Me? Being still very far away from Asia, I found out I have 3 options, which all sound great:

The Chinese loving Israelis from the "China culture and language" are meeting up. Details here.
The Chinese embassy is holding a formal Chinese new year celebration at the Chinese embassy.
The Tiawanese are having a get-together on Chinese new year for the Taiwanese staying in Israel.

Donno, a tough one. I will probably head to meet the other Israelis, and maybe drop by either the Taiwan/China office/embassy on the way there. …

We keep hearing about the Chinese Zodiac - "February 2007 marks the beginning for the year of the Pig", "you were born on the year of the Horse", "do you know the 12 animals that make up the Chinese calendar?". Up till a month ago, I didn’t know much about the Chinese calendar. I knew there were 12 animals, everybody made sure I knew what animal year I belong to, and every year I would be notified what the next year in line, but I never got to hear the cute story behind it as to why those 12 animals were chosen and why they appear in that particular order. Thanks to Avia, who brought us one of the versions of the …

In a wonderful course titled "Modern Society in Urban China" with Mr. Dror Kochan we were asked to watch two movies out of a list given which deal with urban life in China and write a short review relating to the course’s material and the issues discussed. I thought the list was so good, that I actually saw alot more than two, and so I think it’s worth posting the list and the two reviews here, should there be anybody interested in reading and maybe watching those movies. Here’s the movie list followed by me reviews of Happy Times and Beijing Bicycle :
Documentary films

China in the Red (2004) ; Director: Sue Williams ; Duration: 120 min; …