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Xiaowan Zheng
Final
Project
Interpersonal
Case
Study
Story:
Time:
Spring,
2013
Location:
The
Embassy
of
the
Peoples
Republic
of
China,
Washington
DC
People
involved:
Assistant
Mayor
of
Chengdu,
his
interpreter,
and
American
guests
Background:
Two
months
before
the
12th
Fortune
Global
Forum,
seven
government
officials
from
Chengdu
(the
Chinese
hosting
city)
paid
a
visit
to
US
and
chose
Washington
DC
as
their
last
stop.
The
group
was
arranged
to
have
a
dinner
with
more
than
fifty
distinguished
guests
from
the
town
in
The
Embassy
of
the
Peoples
Republic
of
China.
Before
the
dinner,
the
assistant
mayor
of
Chengdu
told
his
interpreter
he
wanted
to
switch
from
the
originally
assigned
dinning
table
to
another
table.
WHY?
Questions:
1.
State
the
reason
why
the
assistant
mayor
wanted
to
switch
to
another
dinning
table.
2.
State
the
reason
why
the
assistant
mayor
told
this
to
the
interpreter,
but
not
to
his
secretary.
3.
Reflect
on
the
cross-culture
communication
issues
we
covered
in
this
course,
if
you
were
the
interpreter,
what
aspect
would
you
emphasize
in
the
following
interpretation?
Analysis:
1.
There
might
be
a
few
reasons
that
the
assistant
mayor
wanted
to
switch
to
another
dinning
table.
Before
going
straight
to
the
possible
reasons,
a. First,
if
we
have
a
look
at
the
power
distance
index
of
China
(80),
it
is
much
higher
than
that
of
US
(40).
This
means
Chinese
employees
accept
and
expect
that
power
is
distributed
unequally
and
tend
to
know
their
place.
In
fact,
COMM683
Xiaowan
Zheng
within
the
group
of
seven
people
from
Chengdu
government,
only
three
high-
level
officials
names
were
listed
as
the
guests
to
the
dinner.
All
the
rest
only
came
for
the
pre
and
post-dinner
networking
session.
b. Seats
were
assigned
in
order
to
make
9-10
seats
per
table
and
6
tables
total.
There
are
more
than
50
American
guests
and
only
three
Chinese
officials,
so
these
three
Chinese
officials
were
assigned
to
three
different
tables,
as
shown
in
the
figure
below.
c.
The
assistant
mayor
was
originally
assigned
to
Table
#2.
He
told
the
interpreter
he
wanted
to
switch
to
another
table.
This
could
be
basically
due
to
the
following
reasons:
i.
In
higher
power
distance
country
(China),
older
and
senior
employees
get
respect
from
junior
employees
because
of
age
and
long
tenure
in
the
organization.
The
assistant
mayor,
who
was
the
youngest
among
three
Chinese
government
officials,
probably
felt
not
appropriate
to
sit
in
the
center
table
of
the
room.
ii. Besides
high
power
distance,
in
China,
seating
customs
play
important
roles
in
Chinese
dining
etiquette.
Normally,
the
most
senior
member
or
the
one
who
holds
the
most
powerful
position
sits
in
the
center
of
the
dinning
table
as
well
as
the
room.
As
a
result,
the
assistant
mayor
wouldnt
let
himself
sit
in
the
middle
of
the
mayor
and
the
vice
mayor.
d. Besides
the
possibility
described
in
c,
there
might
be
other
factors
involved
in
this
case.
The
associate
mayor
expected
himself
to
sit
and
have
dinner
with
Americans
who
held
the
same
rank,
social
or
political
power
as
him.
However,
the
dinner
planner
might
simply
not
notice
the
power
distance
difference
between
China
and
US
or
a
persons
rank
in
one
area
simply
does
not
match
COMM683
Xiaowan
Zheng