In times of change, what it means to be Chinese

Building on fundamentals

Bernard Dewit, chairman of the Belgian-Chinese Chamber of Commerce, said most foreign businesspeople, "having worked in China with local entrepreneurs would fully agree with the fact that their counterpart's most important quality is to be industrious and innovative".

"I also personally notice that most of the Chinese people I meet are proud of their country, which is understandable when you see the progress made in the last 40 years. Family also plays an important role in the Chinese culture and it can explain the success of family-run businesses," he said.

"The quality of being industrious and innovative has not changed fundamentally, but what has changed in these last 40 years is the fact that the government has allowed enterprises to develop and businesspeople to undertake new businesses in all kinds of sectors."

Interestingly, riding on the back of economic growth, including the drive for more consumption and improvement in living standards, the notion of the Chinese people as "frugal" has actually "diminished", Dewit said.

"On the other hand, their "main characteristics of being industrious, innovative, patriotic and family minded will not change much. We hope that China will continue with further opening up to the outside world and continue to promote economic and cultural exchanges with Europe", he said.

New Zealander Sharon Fraser, who is general manager of the Crown Plaza Chongqing Jiefangbei hotel in Chongqing, said that while she did not know much about her hosts before arriving in the country seven years ago, she had always thought that they were "very hardworking, very industrious, and very dedicated to their work".

"When I came to China, it was lovely that people were so kind, so welcoming and so helpful. They really care and are quite inquisitive about foreigners. They want to know about things we like, the food we eat and what we like to do. So it's great to share so many experiences with them," Fraser said.

Jan Willem Blankert, senior associate of the Europe Asia Analysis group and a former European Commission diplomat in Asia, said what struck him, as a European, were the words "industrious", "patriotic", "frugal" and "disciplined" that cropped up in the survey.

Those terms seemed" un-European" to him and demonstrated "a considerable difference in culture", said Blankert, who in his book China Rising: Will the West Be Able to Cope? addressed the emergence of China vis-a-vis the West, Asia and other nations.

Taylor from the University of St. Thomas said, as China's influence grows, some foreigners will also "likely see virtues such as discipline, patriotism, innovativeness, diligence, and pragmatism among Chinese people as a negative, wrongly assuming that these qualities can only have an adverse impact."

"That is a challenge for China going forward, understanding that global preeminence will likely foster cooperation and collegiality among some and resentment and skepticism among others," he said.