Chinese Gift Giving (Part 3)

In the last couple of articles, we talked about what and how to give; today let's talk about WHEN to give.

When giving a present, you must also determine to the best time/sequence to do so.

1. If you are giving a present to a single person, you need to do so when he/she is alone. If you give a present to a single person in a group, the others not getting anything will feel really awkward (Yes it's like grade school, if you can't bring gum for everyone in class, you shouldn't bring it at all.) . If you can't really find a time when that person is alone, asking if you can speak to them privately for a second works.

2. If you do plan to give presents to an entire group/family, the order is very important. Regardless of who you are closest to in the group, you need to give the head of the family/group a present first and then work down the hierarchy. That means you need to give the father/department head a present first, followed by the mom/manager and so on.

3. In addition, in group-giving the type of present must also match the rank of person in the group. That means the top guy/gal MUST get something better than someone at the bottom. Giving your friend at the bottom "of the chain" a Rolex watch while giving the manager a coffee cup may be nice, but you shouldn't expect to do too much business with those guys afterwards...

Finally keep in mind that Asian culture has very much an "All-or-nothing" mentality. There is no such thing as "Partial Credit." Asians as a general rule will NOT remember things that you do correctly. However THEY WILL NEVER FORGET THINGS THAT YOU SCREW UP.

.. they won't remember if you gave them a luxury item, they won't remember that it said "Made in France" ... however they WILL NEVER FORGET THAT YOU GAVE IT TO THEM IN A PLASTIC 7-11 bad ....