编者按：我们常常听闻从西方国家来到中国工作的人抱怨他们所受到的文化冲击，而前往西方国家工作的中国人，又会有一番怎样的文化体验呢？

While English-language media warns about culture shocks awaiting Westerners in China, there’s very little from the opposite perspective. But for the growing number of Chinese heading west to work and study, there’s plenty they find startling.

“Chinese firms are looking abroad and making acquisitions at a terrific pace,” says Eric Thun, Peter Moores associate professor in Chinese business studies at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School. “That’s why it’s useful to understand Chinese working culture and organisational practices.”

Speaking up

Chen says office politics are simpler in Europe, partly because the hierarchy is less rigid than in China, where “the boss really is the boss and social class in the office is very obvious and important. You really should pay respect when you talk to the boss.”

As a result, he says, staff in a Chinese workplace think very carefully about how to present their views and ideas. He feels that employees in the West can share their opinions more freely.

“Too often, I’ve seen Chinese people who are smart fail to speak up. Even worse, they sometimes brood afterwards about not having been recognised. But in Western business culture, that’s not how it works,” says Desmond So, founder of Hong Kong-based East-West Institute of Applied Etiquettehe.

“We train people to be comfortable standing up for themselves and their ideas, and to graciously take credit for their successes . . . because in a Western business environment you must be willing to push yourself forward.”

Yearning for home

The newest Chinese arrivals have a very different outlook to previous generations, according to Beijing-born Sharon Jin, who moved to the US 20 years ago and is now an American citizen. As a consul with expat network Inter-nations, the 47-year-old organizes events for expats of many different nationalities, including Chinese newcomers in their 20s and 30s.

“Sometimes they tell me they miss the luxury and comfort of China,” she says. “One girl said she missed Shanghai because you have so many places to eat and the city is much cleaner than Chicago. From a material comfort point they compare the US to China and they don’t necessarily feel the US is superior. Twenty years ago it was exactly the opposite.

“Almost 100% of people of my generation who came to the States, myself included, thinking I want to get a green card and I want to stay here,” she says.

While a record number of 523,700 students left China to study elsewhere in 2015, roughly 70-80% of students abroad have been returning in recent years because of the attractive job market at home, according to the Chinese Ministry of Education.

Says Jin: “Going back to China is becoming more and more popular.”