Gift-Giving in Asian Cultures: Business Etiquette in East and West

Culturally Specific Gifting Behaviors

Gift Selection

Gift selection usually depends on the perception of the giver to the receiver and their relationship, as well as the purpose of gifting (Schwartz, 1967). According to the journal 42 Gifts to Your Business Partner by an American career website Indeed, gifts such as clocks, snow globes, candles, and calendars are on the list. Gifts in Western cultures are given as a souvenir without the anticipation of reciprocity in building a business relationship, focusing instead on the story behind the gift and the affection it expresses. In the context of gift-giving in Asian cultures, East Asian people tend to behave similarly to Westerners when the rule of reciprocity is not triggered. In such cases, a gift usually does not have high monetary value. This aligns with the Chinese old saying 'Travel a thousand miles to bestow a goose feather--a small gift may be a token of profound friendship.’ Schweitzer & Alexander (2015) provide an illustrative example: “Taiwanese are big on regifting, a positive activity here. For instance, a cowboy hat from Texas might be brought to a client, who then passes it on to a customer with the message that it's a genuine Texas hat, akin to one worn by a famous actor in a well-known movie.” (p. 324) Thus, East Asian people place a lot of attention on the symbolic meaning of gifts, leading to more taboos in gift selection in East Asia. Typically, a set of four objects is usually avoided in most East Asian countries, as the number ‘four’ sounds like “death.” Sending a clock as a gift is considered a curse in China, where ‘sending a clock’ phonetically resembles “sending someone to death.”

Response For Gifts

In terms of gift-receiving, more politeness strategies are applied in East Asian conventions. Schweitzer & Alexander (2015) described the social etiquette of receiving a gift in Korea. The recipient needs to decline a gift at first, and then accept it after the giver insists and return a gift as reciprocity next time. The person with higher status receives a more valuable gift than others. (p. 57) China has the same similar politeness strategy when receiving a gift from others. In addition, opening the gift without the presence of the giver is one of the polite strategies in East Asia. While in Western countries, the recipient usually opens the gift and shows appreciation in the presence of the giver.

Analysis of Cross-Cultural Gifting-Behaviors (Belk, 1976).

As discussed above, in the realm of gift-giving in Asian cultures, East Asian people and Westerners share similarities in terms of giving and receiving gifts. Such similarities reflect the universally applied obligations. There are three major obligations involved in gift-giving behavior based on examination. (Mauss and Evans-Peitchard, 1950) People send gifts in particular circumstances due to the ‘obligation to give’ which is derived from the willingness to complete moral missions, maintain social relationships, and the norm of reciprocity.

For instance, the tradition of gift-giving includes presenting gifts on friends’ birthdays as a gesture of friendship in both East Asia and North America. ‘Obligation to receive’ refers to circumstances when people must accept gifts from others, as in both cultures, refusing a gift is acknowledged as expressing hostility and hatred. However, it is usual to express polite decline a few times before accepting the gift due to the socially accepted politeness strategy in East Asia. The third norm is ‘obligation to repay’ which states the responsibility to reciprocate the gift giver by other means. Bribe behavior is based on expecting the recipient to offer benefits. (Smart, 1993). The consequence of failure to return benefits includes a reduction in the self-esteem level and social status of the receiver. Thus, gift recipients are unconsciously anxious about not being able to ‘repay’ the gift from others. (p. 37-40) The ‘obligation to repay’ is particularly significant in East Asia due to the culture attaching importance to collectivism and this will be elaborated in the next section. Different social patterns present in East Asian and Western cultures have been proved to explain the observed difference in general gifting frameworks. Individualism and Collectivism are on opposite sides to each other in the field of social psychology. Normally, East Asian countries are considered to be collectivistic countries. Collectivism assumes everyone in society is closely connected by specific social relationships, such as friends, partners, families, or co-workers. Individuals are interdependent on each other, and they are primarily responsible for social norms and collective interests. On the contrary, individualism emphasizes the uniqueness and independence of each person, where people comply with their personal interests and preferences. Individualism dominates in most countries in North America and Europe (Triandis, 2018, p. 2).

Social patterns would influence attitudes for reciprocity. Shen et.al (2011) conducted five experiments and showed that Americans are more likely to ignore reciprocity rules than East Asians when accepting gifts, reflecting different approaches to the tradition of gift-giving. However, East Asians are inclined to refuse gifts to avoid uninvited debt from people they hardly repay. American people show that personal factors provide stronger motivation for altruistic behaviors than the power of reciprocity norm (Miller & Bersoff, 1994). These findings reflect the dominance of collectivism in the mental process that makes people pay high attention to ‘obligation to repay’ in East Asia. Social behaviors trigger norms of reciprocity more frequently in East Asian society than in Western countries. The high attention to social norms in East Asia underlines the sensitivity to taboos and politeness strategies.

Conclusion

In general, the application of appropriate gifting strategies in both East Asian and Western businesses facilitates the expression of friendship and establishment of trustworthy relationships. The three obligations function as major motivations for giving and receiving gifts in both cultures. Nevertheless, the intricacies of gift-giving in Asian cultures make it a more complex process compared to the Western world. This complexity is partly due to the different degrees of individualism present in these cultures. People in individualistic countries show more caution in gift selection, gift-giving, and gift-receiving strategies, reflecting a higher demand for sustaining social harmony in East Asia than in the West. Such demand can be seen as an inheritance from Confucian ethics, which heavily influences the tradition and nuances of gift-giving in Asian cultures.

Linshan. W
Psychology Blogger,
The Shared Secrets Lab,
GiftAFeeling Inc.

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